Sep 15, 2025

The 3 “Must-Haves” for High-Quality Math Materials: Mapping, Monitoring, and Making Connections

Written by

ELSF Staff

States and districts are at a pivotal moment.

They recognize the importance of prioritizing instructional materials that explicitly integrate language development with math content. At the same time, education leaders know that adopting quality materials and supporting their effective implementation are not merely educational best practices; they are fundamental necessities for fostering true equity and academic success among multilingual learners. High-quality instructional materials can make teachers' jobs easier with built-in ways to get students at all levels excited and engaged.

However, according to a new nationwide Gallup poll, while education leaders recognize the value of high-quality instructional materials, they struggle to define them, let alone identify or adopt them.

The next step?

Educators and education leaders must understand what to look for in prospective materials. We've synthesized the latest research and have identified three essential features that any math curriculum needs to ensure it is truly responsive to all students, especially multilingual learners (MLLs).

Three Essential Features for High-Quality Instructional Math Materials: Mapping, Monitoring, Making Connections

All high-quality math materials should include the following key product features:

1. Mapping Math and Language Development‍

Teacher materials should map what math concepts, math practices, AND disciplinary language students need in order to engage with curriculum and grade-level content. This includes:

How language forms and functions are introduced and connected to progressively develop math concepts, practices, and language over time. The connections should be made to the content and between the forms and features of language over the course of the unit
Addressing of all 4 modes of communication: speaking, listening, reading, writing
Scaffolds, examples, and guidance for expectations of how disciplinary language is developed in a coherent manner across the curriculum.

Here’s an example of how when teachers combine content and language goals in a lesson, students can build a deeper understanding of rational number operations. They start by exploring ideas with visuals, then describe patterns in everyday language, and gradually move toward using precise math terms like 'additive identity' and 'absolute value.' This approach supports both math learning and language development — especially for multilingual learners.

Language mapping supports teachers in understanding the forms and functions of math language that should be explicitly taught and developed over time. This type of language map helps ensure that teachers have an at-a-glance view of the unit and course’s language progression — an essential teaching tool when considering the many lengthy documents that teachers navigate to support high-quality curriculum implementation.

2. Monitoring Math and Language Development‍

Teacher materials should provide guidance on assessing and providing language-related, just-in-time feedback (aligned to lesson-level language goals). This will help teachers advance the disciplinary language —including specialized math vocabulary, text structures, discourse styles, and modes of inquiry — that students need to engage with the math content they are learning.

Assessment items (formative and summative) should meet all of the following criteria:

Elicit disciplinary language alongside descriptions, illustrations, and examples of quality work (incorporating both speaking and writing and addressing form and function)
Contain clear success criteria for teachers and students
Provide teacher guidance (look fors/listen fors; if…then…) for using formative assessment data to provide feedback, opportunities for revision, and next steps based on current language in use.

3. Making Connections through Student Collaboration and Conversation.
Instructional materials should include strategically planned prompts or tasks in a unit that allow students to build and refine their mathematical ideas and language through clarifying, justifying, and borrowing language/ideas from their peers. Embedded student-to-student interactions provide ample opportunities for student development of language and content through sustained peer interaction.

In order to support academic discourse that advances student math and language learning, materials should include

Multiple modes of activities and prompts (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) to deepen students’ mathematical understanding and to develop disciplinary language
Conversation prompts and routines that enable students to interact with the math language and to develop, refine, and deepen their discipline-specific language and content understanding through sustained discourse.

The key features outlined above form the foundation of MLL-responsive, high-quality, effective math materials. Embedding these must-have features in math instructional materials will deepen the learning of math content and practices.

By integrating these crucial features into adoption criteria and RFPs, districts can go beyond simply “accommodating” MLLs. Instead, they can make informed decisions that lead to the adoption of stronger math materials. The selection and implementation of high-quality math materials is capable of transforming instructional practices and shifting towards more equitable opportunities for MLLs to learn math.

When districts thoughtfully adopt curricula with these features, teachers gain powerful tools to support MLLs in becoming powerful mathematicians. With the right guidance and support, students can develop mathematical knowledge to access and communicate about (analyze, justify, critique, argue, explain, etc.) their own and others’ mathematical thinking. With the right guidance and curriculum supports, teachers can help multilingual learners build math knowledge, strengthen skills, and confidently explain their reasoning.

This approach will be instrumental in closing long-standing opportunity gaps that have historically marginalized multilingual students in math. Every student will benefit, but especially culturally and linguistically diverse students.

Educators already know the potential of high-quality math materials to serve as a catalyst for change for their students. The recent Gallup poll confirms that. What they need is the knowledge to clearly define quality and recognize it when they see it. Identifying a strong math curriculum shouldn’t be a mystery reserved for a few experts. It should be shared, common knowledge.

At a high level, every educator should understand the basics of the three must-haves: Mapping, Monitoring, and Making Connections. With that foundation, it provides teachers a chance to use their time, energy, and creativity to bring lessons to life and inspire every child to learn, grow, and succeed. After all, isn’t that what all educators truly want for our students?

High-quality instructional materials are within reach, but only if leaders know what to look for and how to advocate for them. To help you take the next step, explore our Making the Case Toolkit, designed to equip districts and states with the language and resources to prioritize multilingual learners in curriculum adoption.

And don’t miss our upcoming webinar on September 23rd, “3 Math Product Features Every California Leader Must Look For to Support Multilingual Learners.” This session will dive deeper into how to apply these must-have features during adoption and implementation. Register here to secure your spot.

‍

Renae Skarin has almost 30 years of experience working with English learner and minoritized populations through research, advocacy, and program development and implementation with educators nationwide and abroad. She currently serves as the Senior Advisor for Content at the English Learners Success Forum (ELSF) where she leads its research efforts to identify strategies and develop resources for improving education policies and practices with regard to high quality instructional materials for multilingual learners.

Celine Liu (she/ella/她) is the Multilingual Learner Instructional Specialist, Mathematics at ELSF. She leads the delivery of ELSF math content services, helping our clients solve problems in the design and implementation of high-quality instructional materials and strong instructional systems that lead to higher-quality outcomes for multilingual learners.

The mission of the English Learners Success Forum (ELSF) is to collaborate with field-leading researchers, district leaders, teachers, content creators, and education funders to improve the supply and accessibility of high-quality K-12 mainstream instructional materials that address the linguistic and cultural needs of ELs while building smart demand to reach educators at scale – all with the goal of providing ELs full access to grade-level content and quality learning. Unlike most efforts that aim to improve EL learning outcomes, ELSF focuses exclusively on ensuring that full-year core instructional materials guide teachers in addressing these students’ varying needs.