Secondary Math

FCPS Secondary Mathematics

Vision of Mathematics

Mathematics is important. All children must learn to think mathematically, and they must think mathematically to learn.

Mathematics describes the world in terms of size and shape and allows us to appreciate the beauty of its patterns. It has facilitated the development of science, technology, engineering, business, and government.

The Frederick County Public School System educates its students to value, understand, and use mathematics at school and in their world.

Students enjoy learning and doing math. They are confident in their ability to learn and apply math. Students are actively involved in developing their own understanding of math. They are able to demonstrate their understanding.

Teachers are students of mathematics. They possess the confidence and knowledge to facilitate math learning. Teachers demonstrate an enthusiasm for mathematics. Teachers think about students’ thinking in math in order to provide an environment that offers every child opportunities to grow mathematically.

The school and the community value math education. Together they support curriculum and instruction that offer students opportunities to learn mathematics concepts and procedures with understanding.

Common Core Mathematics

Mathematics Standards

Frederick County Public Schools utilizes a standards-based curriculum for all mathematics courses.  Known as the Maryland College and Career Ready Standards, the Maryland State Board of Education adopted these standards by unanimous vote in June 2010.  

Standards define what students should understand and be able to do in their study of mathematics. Asking a student to understand something also means asking a teacher to assess whether the student has understood it. But what does mathematical understanding look like? One way for teachers to assess student understanding is to ask the student to justify, in a way that is appropriate to the student’s mathematical maturity, why a particular mathematical statement is true or where a mathematical rule comes from.

Mathematical understanding and procedural skill are equally important, and both are assessable when students engage in the eight Mathematical Practices list below:

1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
4. Model with mathematics.
5. Use appropriate tools strategically.
6. Attend to precision.
7. Look for and make use of structure.
8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.