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The Troup County School System could soon have a new math curriculum for its kindergarten through eighth-grade students.

The new curriculum is called Ready Math and has a proposed cost of $474,774.30. The platform comes with both digital and print materials. TCSS Superintendent Brian Shumate is also recommending that the TCSS Board of Education approve $118,500 for professional development for all teachers.

Shumate said this curriculum would allow for coherent instruction in math throughout the entire school district.

“I want to ensure that a student in any of our elementary schools, regardless of the grade, is getting a similar experience, no matter school they are in,” he said. “I can’t say that right at the moment because we have a lot of different things going on.”

Based on materials provided by the school district, Ready Classroom Mathematics is an evidence-based, rigorous curriculum that is aligned to the Georgia Standards of Excellence.

Another portion of the curriculum includes iReady, which is an assessment for students.

Assistant Superintendent Penny Johnson said the assessment would be given multiple times during the year, and it determines students comprehension level and what remediation materials are needed to master the content. 

If the new curriculum is approved, Johnson said the content could be rolled out to math teachers immediately. She said this software would have been useful during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

“It would have been very helpful to us as we entered into this new learning environment if we had it prior to this,” Johnson said.

Currently, the school system is using Eureka Math in elementary schools and a combination of Open Resources and Envision Math in middle schools.

“Eureka is a very different method of instruction, and although it’s high quality, we’ve realized that we have some transition issues as students move from fifth grade and the sixth grade,” Johnson said. “This K-8 program creates vertical alignment so that our students will receive a coherent method of instruction in math that’s aligned to the Georgia State Standards.”

TCSS teachers and administrators chose the new curriculum after they were sent materials from Envision, Eureka and Ready Classroom.

Documents from the school system said the educators had several weeks to go through the materials and discuss them with colleagues. 

In consensus meetings, the documents say Ready Classroom was overwhelmingly chosen as the curriculum to move forward.