Connected Mathematics Project

The Connected Mathematics Project (CMP) curriculum is a research-based, problem-centered mathematics program developed through four major design, field-test, and evaluation cycles: CMP1, CMP2, CMP3, and CMP4. Across each iteration, the curriculum has been refined to strengthen coherence, support student learning, and respond to evolving standards and classroom needs. CMP units are designed to promote deep understanding of important mathematical ideas by engaging students in rich problems that require reasoning, representation, communication, and justification. Through sustained problem solving, students build conceptual understanding alongside procedural fluency and learn to see mathematics as a connected system of ideas. The most recent edition, CMP4, extends this approach with innovative features, including a new STEM Problem format that integrates mathematics with science, technology, and engineering contexts, emphasizing modeling, data analysis, and real-world applications.

The professional learning component of the Connected Mathematics Project (CMP) has been a cornerstone of its work and has been supported by numerous National Science Foundation (NSF) grants focused on improving mathematics teaching and learning. These initiatives have led to the development of robust professional learning resources, coaching models, and collaborative learning experiences that help educators implement CMP’s problem-centered curriculum with integrity. A central principle of CMP’s professional learning is that teachers should experience a problem-based mathematics curriculum as learners themselves and then reflect on and analyze the embedded mathematics and the effective teaching strategies used during that experience. This approach is embodied in the ongoing CMP Institutes, offered in both virtual and face-to-face formats, where teachers engage in mathematical problem solving, examine instructional practices, and build capacity to support deep student understanding, reasoning, and discourse in their own classrooms.

The research activities of the Connected Mathematics Project (CMP) are integral to advancing understanding of how students learn mathematics and how high-quality instruction can be enacted and sustained. CMP’s research has been supported by a series of National Science Foundation (NSF) grants as well as studies funded through Michigan State University’s CMP royalty funds. These investigations have examined student reasoning, teacher decision-making, classroom discourse, equity in participation, and the impact of curriculum and professional learning on learning outcomes. Connected Mathematics is the most researched curriculum in the history of mathematics education with over 550 published research and evaluation studies. These studies document positive outcomes for students using CMP, including gains in conceptual understanding, problem solving, and reasoning, as well as increased engagement in communicating mathematical thinking.

Most recently, CMP researchers have secured NSF support to develop a digital collaborative platform that embeds CMP4 units, enabling interactive, technology-enhanced learning experiences and real-time analytics. This work explores the use of artificial intelligence to track and support student development of proportional reasoning—a foundational mathematical concept—by analyzing patterns in student solutions and interactions. Collectively, CMP’s research contributes both practical insights for improving instruction and theoretical advances in mathematics education.

The Connected Mathematics Project (CMP) emerged from a shared vision about teaching and learning held by the late William Fitzgerald, Glenda Lappan, University Distinguished Professor Emeritus, and Elizabeth Difanis Phillips, Senior Academic Specialist at Michigan State University. Drawing on their experiences as former high school teachers, the group was concerned that many incoming MSU students—despite years of mathematics coursework—were being placed into remedial classes. Supported by multiple National Science Foundation (NSF) grants, they worked with middle and high school teachers to rethink what and how mathematics was taught and learned. Using their experience with several years of professional learning and grounded in the belief that humans are natural problem solvers and that mathematics develops through problem solving, CMP set out to design a contextual, problem-based curriculum for the middle grades. For more than 40 years, across four research, design, and implementation cycles, CMP has pursued a single overarching goal:

The overarching goal of CMP is to help students and teachers develop mathematical knowledge, understanding and skill along with an awareness of and appreciation for the rich connections among mathematical strands and between mathematics and other disciplines. The curriculum development has been guided by our single mathematical standard.

All students should be able to reason and communicate proficiently in mathematics. They should have knowledge of and skill in the use of the vocabulary, forms of representation, materials, tools, techniques, and intellectual methods of the discipline of mathematics. This knowledge should include the ability to define and solve problems with reason, insight, inventiveness, and technical proficiency. https://connectedmath.msu.edu/about/philosophy-1.aspx

Early NSF-funded work led to the Middle Grades Mathematics Project (MGMP), five innovative instructional units designed to move classrooms beyond “show and practice” toward reasoning, problem solving, and proof. The success of MGMP contributed to the development of the NCTM Curriculum and Evaluation Standards (1989) and positioned CMP to develop the first NSF-funded mathematics curriculum following the standards’ release. Connected Mathematics 1 and 2 were supported by NSF grants, while Connected Mathematics 3 and 4 were funded through CMP royalty funds at MSU, continuing the project’s long-standing commitment to improving mathematics teaching and learning. Each edition builds on the Launch-Explore-Summarize instructional model that was developed for the MGMP units and introduces new features such as the CMP4’ STEM Problem Format.

For more information on the history of CMP visit:

https://connectedmath.msu.edu/about/index.aspx 

https://www.educationaldesigner.org/ed/volume1/issue3/article11/index.htm

 

The MSU royalties from Connected Mathematics are dedicated to support mathematics science education activities at MSU. This includes several endowed Lappan-Phillips endowed professorships; the mathematics colloquium series in the Department of Mathematics and PRIME; several PRIME doctoral fellowships; several current PhD doctoral assistantships; and ongoing operations of CMP design and development activities.

Elizabeth Difanis Phillips, CMP Author and Senior Academic Specialist in Program in Mathematics Education and Department of Mathematics

Alden J. “AJ” Edson, Research Associate Professor of Mathematics Education (PRIME) and CMP4 Author

Yvonne Slanger-Grant, Academic Specialist in the Program in Mathematics Education (PRIME) and CMP4 Author 

Taren Going, Post-Doctoral Research Associate 

Elizabeth "Billie" Lozen, Consortium Coordinator

Chris Waston, Communications Specialist 

Ashley Fabry, Graduate Assistant

Emma Craig, Graphic Artist and Professional Aide

Sunyoung Park, Post-Doctoral Research Associate 

Sasha Rudow, Graduate Assistant 

Ahmad Wachidul Kohar, Graduate Assistant

Samantha Wald, Graduate Assistant

Fletcher Wasnich, Undergraduate Assistant