Some graduates got hugs with their diplomas during Wilsonville High School's commencement on Wednesday. (Jonathan House / Wilsonville Spokesman)

Math is more than just learning multiplication tables — it’s about building the foundation for understanding how the world works. 

After a successful middle school math curriculum adoption in 2023, the West Linn-Wilsonville School Board approved a new K-5 math curriculum during its Monday, June 16 meeting. 

The curriculum will first be utilized in the classroom at the beginning of the 2025-26 school year. 

The new curriculum, Reveal Math, was chosen from five different options by a volunteer panel of 51 teachers, learning and language specialists, and instructional coordinators from every district primary school. Some of these teachers even continued on the curriculum adoption work group after they’d been informed that their positions were eliminated due to budget cuts. 

An explanation of the adoption process, the rubric used and how the teachers in the work group chose Reveal Math was presented to the board by Assistant Superintendent Barb Soisson, as well as four educators from the curriculum adoption working group. 

The adoption team looked for a curriculum that would engage students in real world applications and examples, as well as a mix of digital and on-paper workbooks and worksheets. Reveal Math is also compatible with MAPS testing, which is the way the district can track student progress throughout the year and compare students and schools’ progress. 

The school board members were pleased with the process and happy to see that the team had addressed tracking assessment data. 

Curriculum adoptions happen every seven years for each subject area, so the district’s Teaching and Learning Department works on a different subject area or grade grouping in rotation every year. The curriculum is chosen from a list of Oregon Department of Education-approved programs that align with the 2021 Oregon math standards. 

Reveal Math, published by McGraw Hill, will be paired with a supplemental curriculum called ALEKS, which provides more digital resources and lessons. ALEKS can adapt lessons to a student’s skill level and many of the teachers spoke to the need for an expansive range of grade level adaptation in every classroom. 

“Comparing it with our current curriculum, I’ve taught this curriculum for 14 years now or something and I thought it was fine. I had to supplement it sometimes, but it was fine. Then I saw the new curriculums; I was all in,,” said Dylan Robertson, a math teacher at Cedaroak Park Primary School. 

To learn more about the K-5 math curriculum adoption, read the board memo here.