CPM’s nonprofit commitment includes supporting research on problem-based mathematics learning and professional learning design.
Learn how doctoral students, classroom teachers and teacher educators and their students can access research support.
Contact a CPM researcher to learn more.
CPM is built upon Three Pillars of Collaboration, Problem-Based Learning, and Mixed Spaced Practice
CPM Educational Program results in meaningful mathematics learning for students and supports teachers to implement high quality instruction aligned with Common Core math content and practice standards.
CPM provides research briefs that synthesize current scholarship on various topics in mathematics education. Research briefs aim to connect parents, teachers, and administrators with research about mathematics education.
Complimentary access to renewable 18-month licenses for mathematics teacher educators, their students, and researchers
CPM Educational Program offers funding opportunities for research that advances the field of mathematics education. Funding opportunities include dissertation fellowship awards for doctoral students as well as exploratory and extensive research educators.
The best ideas come from teachers.
CPM’s Teacher Research Corps strives to support teachers in their efforts to make classrooms a better place to learn and a more enjoyable place to teach.
As a mission-driven organization CPM is interested in promoting ambitious, equitable instruction in mathematics education. The intention of the CPM University Support Program is to provide a resource to support academic teacher preparation coursework and research. By providing this complimentary, no-strings-attached resource we hope to contribute to middle and secondary teacher education and professional development. In particular, we believe these Teacher Edition eBook materials may be useful for math methods courses and student teaching. CPM also ensures that teacher education students have access to the Teacher Edition eBook licenses for 18 months, so that they can continue to explore and use the materials once their course has ended.
CPM’s 6-12 materials help bridge the gap between the IDEALS of teacher education courses and the REALITIES encountered in classrooms.
Complimentary access to renewable 18-month licenses for:
As a mission-driven organization CPM is interested in promoting ambitious, equitable instruction in mathematics education. The intention of the CPM University Support Program is to provide a resource to support academic teacher preparation coursework and research. By providing this complimentary, no-strings-attached resource we hope to contribute to middle and secondary teacher education and professional development. In particular, we believe these Teacher Edition eBook materials may be useful for math methods courses and student teaching. CPM also ensures that teacher education students have access to the Teacher Edition eBook licenses for 18 months, so that they can continue to explore and use the materials once their course has ended.
You will receive your licenses the Friday after you fill out the form, or, if you fill out the form well in advance of the academic term you will need the eBooks, then you will receive the eBook licenses closer to when the academic term begins.
*New in Inspiring Connections
*New in Inspiring Connections
CPM funds research that serves the wider mathematics education community by contributing to the field’s understanding of how to improve mathematics teaching and learning in grades 6-12 in the United States, namely through the development of theory and the improvement of practice. Awards support research that build theory, develop methodological tools, and establish knowledge around important educational questions that can inform mathematics education in areas such as curriculum design, teacher education and professional learning, and ecological features that support teacher or student learning.
“CPM funds three levels of educational research that will contribute to improving mathematics teaching and learning in grades 6-12 in the United States: dissertation, exploratory, and extensive.”
Dissertation applicants must be students enrolled full-time in doctoral programs who are in good academic standing and will advance to candidacy before the award year(s) begin. Exploratory and Extensive applicants must be educational researchers with doctoral degrees in mathematics education (or a related field) employed by either a university or research organization.
Proposed research must come from a single Research Institution in the United States, have a single Principal Investigator (PI), and can have up to two co-PIs. The Research Institution can contract with other research institutions (for example, if one of the co-PIs works at a different institution). However, CPM will communicate with and fund the primary institution as the institute responsible for the study.
All PIs and co-PIs on projects funded by CPM must be certified for research on human subjects, and, if awarded funding, receive and furnish evidence for IRB approval prior to starting the research.
The Dissertation grant is awarded every year, the Exploratory Grant is awarded every 1-2 years, and the Extensive Grant is awarded every 3-5 years.
Applications should be submitted in pdf form by the deadline using the “Submit a Proposal” button located above this section or the link below. Late proposals will not be accepted. Please send questions to research@cpm.org.
TEMPLATE: Please use this template for your proposal: CPM RFP Template_Force Copy
All proposals are reviewed by a highly qualified team of scholars with a wide range of expertise on student and teacher learning. Our reviewers come from a wide array of institutions, including but not limited to CPM Educational Program, Denver University, NC State, Purdue University, UC Berkeley, University of Delaware, and Vanderbilt University.
CPM reserves the right not to select an awardee if the proposals received are of insufficient quality or are not of interest to CPM, or if circumstances affecting CPM make it against CPM’s best interests to fund research.
Priyanka Agarwal
University of California, Irvine
Contact: priyanka@uci.edu OR pagarwal39@wisc.edu
2018 Awardee
San Diego State University and University of California, San Diego
Contact: lwynn@csustan.edu
2018 Awardee
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Contact: lmales2@unl.edu
2017 Awardee
University of Rochester
Contact: jchoppin@warner.rochester.edu
2017 Awardee
Co-PI Dr. Julie A. Bianchini
University of California, Santa Barbara, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education
Contact: sroberts@education.ucsb.edu
2018 Awardee
CPM was born with two Eisenhower grants between 1989 and 1995 when a group of 30 math teachers in and around Sacramento, CA came together in a grassroots effort to change the way mathematics courses were taught. Today, CPM’s diversely qualified team is still guided by some of the original teachers who helped research, write, field-test, and revise the first versions of the curriculum. Holding true to its roots, CPM still believes the best ideas come from teachers. For this reason, CPM hosts the Teacher Research Corps to support teachers to innovate their teaching and share what they learn with the CPM community and mathematics educators more broadly.
CPM’s Teacher Research Corps is a powerful form of teacher-driven professional learning that CPM funds as part of its mission to recognize and foster teacher expertise and leadership in mathematics education. Is TRC a good fit for you or for teachers you support? The answer might be yes if:
The goal for CPM’s TRC is straightforward — help more students learn more math by investigating problems of practice experienced by CPM teachers.
TRC has investigated diverse problems of practice related to dismantling systemic inequities perpetuated by traditional mathematics instruction, supporting student learning and ownership through self-assessment, facilitating equitable student voice, increasing mathematical discourse, and leveraging students’ authentic problem-solving approaches through math talks, to name a few.
Do not let the idea of doing “research” scare you: teachers who join TRC come back year after year and report it as some of the best professional learning they have ever participated in. Maybe this is because TRC is teacher-driven professional learning: teachers reflect on their classroom practice and articulate challenges they are facing. They find like-minded colleagues in TRC who are interested in investigating those challenges together. They meet monthly with their team and with the TRC Leadership Team. Everyone in TRC works collaboratively to troubleshoot challenges and document progress.
Since 2014, dozens of studies conducted by teachers in CPM’s Teacher Research Corps (TRC) have resulted in improvements in how CPM supports teachers to enact its curriculum. In TRC, CPM teachers work with colleagues from around the US to identify, define, and pursue problems of practice that matter to them in their classrooms. Aligned with its grassroots beginnings, the success of CPM’s teacher research has prompted CPM to continue to trust and build on the intellectual effort and wisdom of teachers.
Since its inception in 2014, TRC has worked with over 125 teachers, 46% of whom have returned for at least two years. Some ways that teacher researchers share their findings include creating research reports, conference presentations (including but not limited to CPM’s annual Teacher Conference), publishing in professional journals, writing newsletter articles for CPM, posting on the TRC blog https://imath.us, and talking with their local colleagues. The reports below highlight recent teaching innovations produced by CPM’s teacher researchers.
Math Confidence & Attitudes – in progress
CPM Educational Program is committed to doing what is best for student learning and teacher leadership. For this reason, since its inception in 1989, CPM has drawn on mathematics education research to inform the design of its curriculum and professional learning. CPM has updated its original research base reports, which outline the research informing the design of CPM: one in 2006, 2013, and 2024. These research base documents reflect the shifting foci in mathematics education research. New research has continued to validate and add nuance to CPM’s Three Pillars of Collaboration, Problem-Based Learning, and Mixed Spaced Practice. CPM’s Three Pillars have driven the development of CPM curricula, and each year the importance of these pillars is better understood as researchers continue to investigate their influence on mathematics learning.
2024: Students participate more fully in mathematics when they jointly construct mathematical ideas with their peers in inclusive classroom environments.
CPM’s 2024 Research Base Introduction
2024 Collaborative Learning Executive Summary
2024 Collaborative Learning Full Report
2013: Students learn ideas more deeply when they discuss ideas with classmates.
CPM’s 2013 Research Base Executive Summary
CPM’s 2013 Research Base Full Report
CPM’s 2013 Cooperative (Collaborative) Learning Excerpt
2006: Initial learning of a concept is best supported by discussions within cooperative learning groups guided by a knowledgeable teacher.
2024: Students develop conceptual understanding and ownership of mathematical ideas when they are meaningfully involved in mathematical decision-making.
CPM’s 2024 Research Base Introduction
2024 Problem-Based Learning Executive Summary
2024 Problem-Based Learning Full Report
2013: Students learn ideas more usefully for other arenas when they learn by attacking problems-ideally from the real world.
CPM’s 2013 Research Base Executive Summary
CPM’s 2013 Research Base Full Report
CPM’s 2013 Problem-Based Learning Excerpt
2006: Integration of knowledge is best supported by engagement of the learner with a wide array of problems around a core idea.
2024: Students become increasingly proficient at identifying problem types and selecting appropriate strategies as they experience mathematical problems mixed within and spaced across assignments, lessons, chapters, and courses.
CPM’s 2024 Research Base Introduction
2024 Mixed, Space Practice Executive Summary
2024 Mixed, Space Practice Full Report
2013: Students learn ideas more permanently when they are required to engage and re-engage with ideas for months or even years.
CPM’s 2013 Research Base Executive Summary
CPM’s 2013 Research Base Full Report
CPM’s 2023 Mixed, Space Practice Excerpt
2006: Long-term retention and transfer of knowledge is best supported by spaced practice or spiraling.
The soundness of CPM’s research-based design has been affirmed in external reviews. In 1999, the US Department of Education selected CPM as one of the top twelve reform-based mathematics curricula (source). Five mandatory criteria were used to evaluate the texts: engage students in mathematical inquiry, focus on mathematical content, be appropriate for high school students, use information technology for inquiry teaching and learning, and be supported by research.
CPM continues to be recognized as an exemplary curriculum. In 2013-2014, the California State Board of Education (CA BOE, 2013-2014) reviewed CPM with its curriculum alignment tool, which is similar to the Instructional Materials Evaluation Tool — a rigorous Common Core-aligned curriculum evaluation tool2 developed by one of the principal authors of the CCSSM standards (Jason Zimba, Achievethecore.org). The review investigated CPM’s middle grades courses and Core Connections Algebra for (1) mathematical alignment with the standards, (2) program organization, (3) assessment, (4) universal access, (5) instructional planning, and (6) teacher support. This review resulted in CA’s adoption of CPM for grades 6-8 and Algebra, which then led many local school districts to conduct independent reviews using their own criteria. Some of these reviews expanded beyond the materials reviewed by the CA BOE, including Geometry, Algebra 2, and Integrated I, II, and III.
Finally, CPM’s middle school series (Core Connections 1-3) and both high school pathways (Traditional and Integrated) have been reviewed by EdReports. Both high school pathways received the highest rating of meets expectations. The Core Connections middle school series received good reviews.3 According to EdReports,
“The [Traditional and Integrated high school] materials attend to the full intent of the mathematical content standards and also attend fully to the modeling process when applied to the modeling standards. The materials also meet the expectations for rigor and the Mathematical Practices as they reflect the balances in the Standards and help students meet the Standards’ rigorous expectations and meaningfully connect the Standards for Mathematical Content and the Standards for Mathematical Practice.” (Source for Integrated and Traditional high school series, see more Independent Reviews from EdReports and others as linked on CPM’s website.)
Due to CPM’s performance on independent reviews and strong reputation for supporting standards-based instruction, CPM was solicited by scholars at universities across the US to collaborate on the 2020 Gates Foundation Grand Challenge for Algebra 1, Balancing the Equation.
The results shared below provide a holistic picture of the outcomes of using CPM.
CPM provides research briefs that synthesize current scholarship on relevant topics in mathematics education. Research briefs aim to connect parents, teachers, and administrators with research about mathematics education.
In the current moment with crisis discourses of “learning loss” and “falling behind,” many teachers are navigating felt tensions between meeting students where they are and maintaining the rigor of their curriculum.
Executive Summary – Designing Mathematics Instruction in the Wake of Crisis (PDF)
How can we support students with learning and intellectual disabilities to experience productive struggle during collaborative problem-solving on cognitively-demanding tasks?
Collaborative and cooperative classrooms have different cultures: the former shaped by practices of inquiry and argumentation and the latter by practices of strategy sharing and reporting.
Beyond Cooperation: Building Collaborative Classroom Cultures to Increase Engagement and Rigor (PDF)
CPM’s three-part lesson structure is geared towards supporting students to have agency in and take ownership of their learning. This is quite different from other three-part lesson structures such as the gradual release method of I Do / You Do / We Do.
It’s not I Do – We Do – You Do: Understanding the How and Why of CPM’s Three-Part Lessons (PDF)
The Annenberg Institute at Brown University has research briefs focusing on recovery from COVID-19, with overarching topics of student learning, school climate, supporting all students, teachers and leaders, and finances and operations.
The Answer Lab at the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education has research briefs focusing on persistent questions of education.
2.3.4
Defining Concavity
4.4.1
Characteristics of Polynomial Functions
5.2.6
Semi-Log Plots
5 Closure
Closure How Can I Apply It? Activity 3
9.3.1
Transition States
9.3.2
Future and Past States
10.3.1
The Parametrization of Functions, Conics, and Their Inverses
10.3.2
Vector-Valued Functions
11.1.5
Rate of Change of Polar Functions
This professional learning is designed for teachers as they begin their implementation of CPM. This series contains multiple components and is grounded in multiple active experiences delivered over the first year. This learning experience will encourage teachers to adjust their instructional practices, expand their content knowledge, and challenge their beliefs about teaching and learning. Teachers and leaders will gain first-hand experience with CPM with emphasis on what they will be teaching. Throughout this series educators will experience the mathematics, consider instructional practices, and learn about the classroom environment necessary for a successful implementation of CPM curriculum resources.
Page 2 of the Professional Learning Progression (PDF) describes all of the components of this learning event and the additional support available. Teachers new to a course, but have previously attended Foundations for Implementation, can choose to engage in the course Content Modules in the Professional Learning Portal rather than attending the entire series of learning events again.
