TEKS Aligned & STAAR Ready: The Excel Math Solution

Excel Math is TEKS aligned and STAAR ready. Visit our Texas Connection to see the features and benefits of Excel Math and the ways our lessons support the revised TEKS to be implemented in 2014. We are pleased, but not surprised, at how well our Excel Math materials correlate to TEKS requirements. (TEKS = Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills.)

Excel Math is correlated to the TEKS plus other State Standards. Within each grade level, we correlate the Excel Math Lessons, Stretches, Activities and Exercises to each standard. Our correlations allow you to focus on the standards or go even further, with additional concepts we provide. At the bottom of each TEKS correlation, we list additional concepts covered by Excel Math that go beyond the Texas requirements.

If you teach in a state other than Texas, visit our Excel Math CCS and State Standards page to find the group of standards for your particular state. Then click on the grade level button to see the correlation between that set of educational standards and Excel Math. These are printable PDF files that you can download and email to your colleagues.

Excel Math is an excellent tool for transitioning to the upcoming STAAR testing. Current test results will remain strong for students using Excel Math. At the same time, Excel Math will provide students with powerful support, in-depth practice, and frequent assessment for the move to STAAR.

Although Texas is now beginning to teach personal finance in elementary math classes, financial literacy has always been a part of the Excel Math lessons. Beginning in Kindergarten, students learn to identify coins, count money, and use coins to purchase items. This is a Projectable Lesson slide from our new Kindergarten Projectable Lesson CD, asking students to use their play money to count the correct change for each item shown:

Excel Math Projectable Lesson 102 Slide 1 Kindergarten

Projectable Lessons can be projected onto a white board, electronic board, screen or wall. One student can come up and point to or circle the correct change while the other students use their play money to find how much is needed to buy each item. The subsequent slides for each Projectable Lesson show the correct answers:

Excel Math Projectable Lesson 102 Slide 2 Kindergarten

These slides let the teacher and students focus on the lesson of the day together. The teacher can help the students discuss alternate ways to solve each problem (using 5 pennies instead of one nickel for the gum, for example). To learn more about our Projectable Lesson CDs for each grade level K-6, visit our website: Excelmath.com/newproduct.html. The Kindergarten Projectable is now available in Beta version for a reduced price. Call us for details: 1-866-866-7026.

Excel Math includes weekly and quarterly assessment along with a proven spiraling process and spaced repetition of concepts to prepare students for testing. Read more about student testing with Excel Math. With Excel Math, students learn higher-order thinking skills beyond state and TEKS requirements. You can use these additional concepts to provide accelerated learning for your students who are ready for more. Excel Math provides increased rigor and a proven way to increase student engagement with mathemathics—all while giving students a solid foundation of math skills. Read more and take a quick tour of Excel Math here.

If Texas is not your home state, click on the Common Core Standards or one of these states to find your correlations:
Arizona

California

Florida

Idaho

Louisiana

Michigan

New Mexico

North Carolina

Oklahoma

Texas

Utah

West Virginia

Looking for Professional Development help with the transition to STAAR testing or CCS requirements? Give us a call to schedule a few hours of training. We provide Professional Development at no cost to you—you pay only for our travel expenses from San Diego. What a deal!

The Excel Math Professional Development gives teachers instructional strategies (best practices) for effective direct instruction and tips to take full advantage of the three components of Excel Math. Plus, you will learn how to utilize the regular assessment in Excel Math for maximum instruction. Watch Bob in action here:

1. Professional Development [8:05 min]
Introduction to Excel Math 

Because Excel Math emphasizes Critical Thinking instead of fill-in-the-blank answers, the Excel Math lessons are an outstanding bridge to the new requirements of the STAAR Readiness Standards. Additionally, this in-service includes how to effectively blend Excel Math with an adopted core curriculum for maximum instruction in cases where Excel Math is used as a supplement. Generally, each session is a little under two hours in length.

If you know of additional websites and resources we should include in future posts, please leave us a comment with the information (click on the word comment below).

New to Excel Math? Learn more about how to start building confident math students with Excel Math lessons. View samples here.