Curriculum Topic Study CURRICULUM TOPIC STUDY

A Systematic Approach to Utilizing National Standards and Cognitive Research


Curriculum Topic Study
Mathematic CTS Study Guides

To download a complete listing and page number references of the CTS guides, please click on one of the options below (note: for those who have the CTS book, you may find this version easier to use than the listing on pages ix-x):

Mathematics CTS Guide Listing Online
Mathematics CTS Guide Listing (.doc)
Mathematics CTS Guide Listing (.pdf)
Fractions Guide (correct version)

The centerpiece tool of Curriculum Topic Study is the CTS study guide. There are 92 CTS study guides of various grain sizes, from specific to broad, representing a comprehensive range of content and process-based mathematics topics. Specific topics may be subsumed within broader topics. Selecting the grain size of a CTS topic study guide depends on your purpose. For example, if your purpose is to focus on triangles, then you might choose the CTS guide, Triangles. If your purpose is to focus on different classes of polygons, including triangles, then you might choose Two Dimensional Shapes. A broader purpose might address characteristic properties and relationships among two and three dimensional shapes. In this case, you might choose Geometric Relationships. It is up to the CTS user to determine how broad or specific you want your topic study to be.

The 92 CTS topics are organized in 7 categories, 5 of the categories representing the content standards of the national standards, 1 category representing the problem solving and process standards, and 1 category representing topics that cross several content standards. The CTS study guides within a particular category reflect the purpose of the study. For example, if your purpose is to examine curricular content related to properties of addition and subtraction, you would select the Properties of Operations guide in the category Numbers and Operations.
The 7 categories used for organizing the Mathematics CTS guides are:
  • Numbers and Operations
  • Algebra
  • Geometry
  • Measurement
  • Data Analysis
  • Integrated Topics
  • Problem Solving and Processes
Mathematics CTS Study guides


CTS topics can also be combined to form a broad study of a content standard. For example, if you want to study a broad content standard or subject area such as Geometric Measurement, there is no CTS guide for Geometric Measurement. However, a careful examination of the guides in the Geometry and Measurement Categories show that a combination of Geometric Shapes, Angle Measurement, and Perimeter, Area, and Volume can collectively address the subject area of Geometric Measurement.


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Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance
Nastional Science Foundation Curriculum Topic Study is supported with funding from the National Science Foundation Teacher Professional Continuum (tpc) Program Award #0353315. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance