FAQs

The Carnegie Math Pathways course solutions were created and continue to be improved upon by educators for educators and use evidence-based curriculum and pedagogy to engage students in rich learning experiences. They are taught using a unique approach that promotes active, collaborative learning around real-life situations and incorporates embedded social-emotional supports that positively affect student success.

In fall 2020, we are releasing the entire suite of CMP courses online using our adaptive learning platform. Whether you are seeking support for immediate transition of your course to distance learning or are exploring options for future terms, our online courseware provides you with much needed flexibility and is proven to deliver lasting and effective results.

Created from the 10-years of research and experience behind our in-person courses, the fully online offerings provide rich supports to you as faculty to facilitate active, collaborative learning in the online space. Critically important for distance learning, all of our courses have built in social-emotional supports that help students gain a sense of belonging in the course and support their persistence as they work through rigorous math problems individually and in small group collaborations. Visit our fully online solutions page to learn more.

To help all students succeed in math and reach their college and career goals, we offer our curriculum at the lowest possible cost to students. Our  students access is just $59 per course. Print-based materials are available for an additional fee.

Different institutions have taken different approaches. Some have revamped their math offerings to include a set of streamlined math pathways (such as ones for statistics, quantitative reasoning, calculus, and career technical education), while others offer a mix of pathways and non-pathways courses.

Carnegie Math Pathways curriculum is designed to strengthen language learning, and students are asked to engage in rich contextual content and express their thinking and reasoning. To help students be successful with these tasks, the Pathways lessons have been carefully designed to follow specific language and literacy design principles that ensure scaffolded supports for students and provide guidance for faculty.

Built into the Quantway and Statway curricula and instructional approach are a series of social-emotional routines and interventions that are known as Productive Persistence. Designed to help improve student engagement, learning, and ultimately, success,the activities focus on developing a growth mindset, creating a sense of belonging, and helping students build confidence and implement effective strategies to persist in the course.

Quantway is a set of quantitative reasoning course options designed to promote success in mathematics and to develop quantitatively literate students. Quantway includes a set of 1-2 term offerings that are designed to meet a range of developmental and college-level student needs.

Quantway is a great math option for students in non-STEM fields who benefit from quantitative reasoning for their other courses and for their career path. The Quantway Pathway or Quantway College with Corequisite courses provide developmental math supports throughout the curriculum and are recommended for students that place 2-3 levels below college-level math.

Quantway College with Corequisite is designed as a one-term, college-level quantitative reasoning course with targeted supports for students who need them. The course model consists of Quantway College with a corresponding corequisite component that develops quantitative reasoning and algebraic thinking and reasoning skills.

Quantway was designed as a quantitative reasoning pathway for students in non-STEM majors. Should students in this pathway need or desire to take pre-calculus courses, we have designed a set of open source Bridge materials that provide students with the algebraic reasoning skills they need to transition into college-level algebra and/or transfer to a STEM field. These, along with our full sample curriculum materials, are available on our Explorer Site, which you can sign up for here.

Statway is a suite of statistical reasoning courses that are designed to teach mathematics skills that are essential for a growing number of occupations and are needed for decision-making under conditions of uncertainty. Statway includes a set of 1-2 term offerings that are designed to meet a range of developmental and college-level student needs.

Statway College with Corequisite is designed as a one-term, college-level statistics course for all students. It consists of the one-term, college-level statistics course (Statway College) with a corresponding corequisite component aimed at developing students’ statistical and algebraic reasoning skills in support of the learning outcomes of the college-level statistics course.

Statway was designed for non-STEM students who benefit from statistical reasoning skills in their field of study and for their career path. The Statway Pathway or Statway College with Corequisite courses provide developmental math supports throughout the curriculum and are recommended for students who place 2-3 levels below college-level math.

Statway was designed as a statistical reasoning pathway for students in non-STEM majors. Should students in this pathway need or desire to take pre-calculus courses, we have designed a set of open source Bridge materials that provide students with the algebraic reasoning skills they need to transition into college-level algebra and/or transfer to a STEM field. These, along with our full sample curriculum materials, are available on our Explorer Site, which you can sign up for here.

Different colleges approach this differently. Generally, institutions work hard to set student expectations appropriately and to ensure a cohort approach. That is, they ensure at registration that students recognize they will be required to complete the second term in order to earn college-level credit. They ensure the second term is offered by the same instructor and at the same time period as the first term. A number of institutions have opted instead to offer a single-term accelerated Pathway, and these institutions have generally achieved even higher student outcomes than with the two-term sequence.

Online courses have the potential to dramatically increase student access to education opportunities, but to date, research shows that traditional online courses have not resulted in strong outcomes compared to in-person classes. Nevertheless, a large and growing number of students, including entry-level mathematics students, are choosing to enroll in fully-online courses. Recognizing both the student demand and the shortcomings of current online models, the Carnegie Math Pathways envisioned designing a better online course solution that could offer quality instruction and learning as well as ensure success rates similar or better than our in-person courses.

The result is a thoughtfully designed online model that combines an adaptive learning platform and video conferencing to provide individual and group learning opportunities and provide meaningful data feedback to instructors. It has been our network’s mission to empower all students to reach their college and career goals, and we believe our new online offerings can help us get there.

Educators benefit from an enhanced online instructional experience through which they are able to meaningfully engage students in an active and collaborative learning process, monitor student progress and engagement, and receive quality data and course feedback they can act upon to support students’ mindsets, sense of belonging, and study habits.

Students benefit from group collaboration sessions to work through problems collaboratively as well as independent practice opportunities that are adapted to support individual student needs. Along with the content feedback provided to students by the instructors and the online platform throughout the course, the online experience also embeds social-emotional support surveys and messaging to encourage productive student engagement and persistence.

Yes. The courses have been developed to provide educators with much-needed flexibility. We leave it up to you to decide how you would like to use our courseware but have seen several Pathways-implementing institutions looking to create hybrid versions of our course solutions. A common hybrid course format uses the online platform for individual pre- and post-class assignments and utilizes the collaboration sessions as in-class work. More information about how these courses can be used in person is available in our certification course.

This course model includes video components, but they are not video lectures. Video in this model is used as an instructional tool to provide students feedback highlighting common trends and challenges in understanding and help guide students in grasping the content. The fully online Pathways experience is designed to encourage students to first work individually and in groups to productively struggle with and try to make sense of the mathematics or statistics concepts. The instructor can see individual pre- and post-collaboration exercise scores and group collaboration work and intervene to offer support when necessary. Student group collaboration work is reviewed by the instructor, who then provides video-based feedback to both the group and the entire class based on specific successes and struggles identified by the instructor.

Yes, the instructor can review all of the video recordings generated by the individual groups. Each collaboration session has an associated instructor guide which lays out the collaboration objectives, main mathematical ideas, and question answers, so the instructor has a resource to support them in their evaluation of and development of feedback for the group collaborations, and can prepare students for what is coming up in future collaborations.

Over the first few weeks of the course, we recommend that instructors try to pop in to student group collaboration sessions to provide guidance and make sure everything is going okay. Working in a group and scheduling collaboration sessions requires a high degree of student agency, and we see that initially many students can be hesitant to take control. For this reason, it is useful for the instructor to engage with groups in the first few weeks of the course to ensure groups are functioning and any non-participation is a one-off rather than an effort to disengage from the course. Joining for just the first 5-10 minutes may be all that is necessary to ensure the group members are comfortable with the technology and working through the content.

Faculty who piloted these courses found this to be a critical way to observe the group work and to support students over the early parts of the course. As student groups bond and become more comfortable with the expectations of the collaboration sessions, it is less necessary for the instructor to be prepared to join student group collaborations, unless upon request.

Initially, instructors can use a polling tool, like a survey or whenisgood.com, to determine when students are typically available during the week to meet online. Once these initial groups are established and begin to work through collaborations together, bonds can form quickly, and members are hesitant to want to switch groups. If need be, however, group members can easily switch groups, permanently or temporarily. This process can be controlled by the instructor.

According to faculty who piloted these courses, they found group sizes of 3-5 students to be most ideal.

To learn more about the Carnegie Math Pathways offerings, sign up to gain access to our Explorer Site, which provides access to our sample curriculum, learning objectives, and our demo online course.

Yes. The Carnegie Math Pathways program offers a unique approach to learning mathematics and engages math faculty in new ways of teaching. Participation in one of our multiple training opportunities is required to help familiarize you with our distinct pedagogy, platform, and faculty resources, and to prepare you for a successful launch.

To support faculty and their busy schedules, we offer a wide variety of training ranging from individual, self-paced courses to online group seminars led by experienced Carnegie Math Pathways Faculty Mentors. Sign up to start exploring further.

Getting started is as easy as completing three simple steps.

First, sign up to access our sample curriculum and try out our platform. By signing up you’ll gain access to our explorer portal which houses our entire suite of in-person sample curriculum and the virtual courses’ demo units to help you get a feel for the class experience and curriculum.

Second, complete our online Certification Course, which is designed to familiarize you with the online platform and help you create and launch your courses.

Third, start teaching!