—And What To Do About It

By MacKenzie Blaase

A strong math curriculum is more than a textbook or a pacing guide; it’s a roadmap for helping students think critically, solve problems, and see relevance in what they learn. But too often, math programs stay static while the world around them changes. If your curriculum isn’t evolving, it may be holding students back.

Here are eight signs it’s time to revisit and refresh your math curriculum, plus steps you can take to make meaningful updates that support STEM readiness and deeper learning.

1. Real-World Relevance Is Hard to Find

If your lessons don’t connect to students’ lives or future careers, engagement and motivation suffer. Today’s learners need to see how math applies to technology, data, design, and decision-making.

What to Do: Integrate STEM-focused projects that highlight real problems, like analyzing environmental data or exploring algorithms in social media.

✅ TeachEngineering

✅ STEM Teaching Tools

2. It’s Been Years Since the Last Review

Curriculum should be a living document, not a time capsule. If your pacing guide looks the same as it did five years ago, it’s probably not meeting current standards, technologies, or workforce expectations.

What to Do: Establish a regular cycle for curriculum review, ideally every 3–5 years, with input from teachers, specialists, and community partners.

✅ Achieve the Core Curriculum Review Tools

3. Your Resources Still Rely on Drill-and-Kill

Worksheets and repetitive practice can build fluency, but if that’s all your curriculum offers, it’s not building understanding or creativity.

What to Do: Balance procedural practice with conceptual exploration. Use tasks that ask students to explain reasoning, justify solutions, and reflect on mistakes.

✅ Illustrative Mathematics Tasks

✅ Open Middle Problems

4. There’s Little Room for Student Voice or Choice

If students are passive recipients of content, they’re less likely to retain it. Rigid lessons that don’t allow for multiple pathways or inquiry can stifle learning.

What to Do: Build in opportunities for open-ended problems, peer discussion, and student-selected projects.

✅ Project-Based Learning Math Units – PBLWorks

✅ Citizen Math

5. You’re Not Seeing Equity in Outcomes

If achievement gaps persist year after year, it’s not just about instruction, it’s about access. Curricula that ignore cultural relevance or assume prior knowledge may unintentionally exclude students.

What to Do: Audit your curriculum for representation, language, and accessibility.

✅ Equity-Centered Math Education Resources – TODOS

✅ Toolkit for Culturally Responsive Teaching – Learning for Justice

6. Technology Is an Afterthought

If tech use in your curriculum is limited to calculators or online quizzes, you’re missing out. Students need to engage with data tools, simulations, and coding environments to prepare for future STEM pathways.

What to Do: Use technology to visualize concepts and analyze real data, not just to check answers.

✅ Desmos Graphing Calculator & Classroom

✅ PhET Interactive Simulations

✅ CODAP – Common Online Data Analysis Platform

✅ GeoGebra

7. Math Standards Feel Fragmented or Misaligned

When lessons jump from topic to topic without coherence, students struggle to make connections. Misalignment between grade levels or subject areas also creates gaps and redundancies.

What to Do: Map standards across grade bands and content areas.

✅ Coherence Map – Achieve the Core

8. Teachers Are Supplementing... Constantly

If educators feel they have to “fix” or supplement the curriculum every day, that’s a red flag. The core materials should be high-quality and adaptable, not a scavenger hunt for better lessons.

What to Do: Involve teachers in selecting or designing curriculum and vet resources that align with your goals.

✅ EdReports – Reviews of Instructional Materials

✅ OER Commons: Math Collections

Conclusion: A Math Refresh Is a Growth Opportunity

Refreshing your math curriculum isn’t about throwing everything out. It’s about evolving to meet the needs of today’s learners—and tomorrow’s workforce. By identifying weak spots and focusing on relevance, equity, and integration, schools can build programs that empower every student to thrive in math.

Looking for Support?

We’re here to help your school or district rethink curriculum with confidence—reach out to learn more about consulting, training, and curriculum planning services.