2020 CAS - Mathematics Standards Summary of Changes

Colorado state law requires a review and revision of the Colorado Academic Standards every six years with the first review to be completed by July 2018. Stronger alignment of learning expectations within and across grades had been the primary focus of the review and revision process. This includes additions, deletions, revisions and reorganizations of the standards. Listed below is a summary of the substantive revisions of the Mathematics Standards. 

Notable Changes to All Content Area Standards:

The review committees changed the structure of the standards across all content areas as follows:

• Changed the Prepared Graduate Competencies section of the standards document to Prepared Graduate Statements to reduce confusion with competency-based learning systems of instruction and assessment practices.
• Changed 21st Century Skills and Readiness Competencies to Academic Context and Connections. The sections within the Academic Context and Connections continue to focus on essential skills and relevant connections to the Grade Level Expectations.
• Revised preschool standards to align the expectations with Colorado’s Early Learning and Development Guidelines and the latest revision of the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework.

Revisions to All Grades

• Reorganized the structure of the Grade Level Expectations (GLEs) and the Evidence Outcomes (EOs). In general, high-level EOs from the 2009/2010 standards became GLEs in the 2020 standards, which resulted in a greater number of GLEs, each with fewer EOs more focused around a single mathematical skill or idea. Multi-part EOs and EOs with footnotes found in the 2009/2010 standards were combined to make a more cohesive, easier to follow document.
• Gave greater prominence to the Standards for Mathematical Practice. In the 2009/2010 standards, the SMPs appeared as simple statements under the subheading Nature of Mathematics. In the 2020 standards, the SMPs appear as Prepared Graduate Statements and have GLE-specific descriptions under the subheading Colorado Essential Skills and Mathematical Practices.
• Revised Inquiry Questions for improved focus on the depth of understanding expected for the mathematical ideas described by a GLE.
• Created Coherence Connections to increase the visibility of within- and across-grade connections in the standards. GLEs are labeled as "major," "supporting," or "additional" work of each grade, and the ideas of each GLE are connected to similar and complementary ideas in the current grade, as well as in prior and future grades.
• Simplified the categories of the standards to Number and Quantity; Algebra and Functions; Data, Statistics, and Probability; and Geometry, and reorganized GLEs and EOs so that each category is represented from preschool through high school. The 2009/2010 standards did not recognize GLEs and EOs as early algebra until fourth grade, or as work with data until first grade. GLEs and EOs related to measurement were organized under Data, Statistics, and Probability.
• Moved all EOs specific to Personal Financial Literacy (PFL) to the social studies standard of economics. There remain in mathematics a number of GLEs that expect students to understand money, as well as opportunities for teachers to use money and finance as a context when learning mathematics (e.g., rates, percentages, linear and exponential growth).

Revision to High School

• Included GLEs and EOs that describe advanced high school content, indicated with a (+) symbol. These (+) GLEs and EOs include the standards found similarly labeled in the Common Core State Standards, as well as a number of other GLEs and EOs that were previously expected of all students.