Research

Research Findings on CMP

A substantial number of research studies have been conducted since the release of CMP1 in 1996.

The growing body of published work includes evaluation, efficacy, student reasoning, classroom discourse, and teacher knowledge.

• Compared to their peers using conventional middle school mathematics curricula, students in CMP classrooms achieve greater conceptual gains that require mathematical modeling, mathematical reasoning, and/or careful articulation of mathematical thinking. These gains on a variety of learning measures also show that students do as well or better on procedural skills (Ben-Chaim, Fey, Fitzgerald, Benedetto, & Miller, 1998; Cai, Moyer, Hwang, Nie, & Garger, 2012; Cain, 2002; Conklin, Grant, Rickard, & Rivette, 2006; Eddy, Berry, Aquirre, Wahlstrand, Ruitman, & Majajan, 2008; Reys, Reys, Lapan, Holliday, & Wasman, 2003).
• The effects on student learning performance typically improves more after
  multiple years of using CMP within schools (Bray, 2005; O’Clair, 2005; Reys et al., 2003; Tarr, Reys, Reys, Chavez, Shih, & Osterlind, 2008).
• The advantages in conceptual understanding and problem-solving persist as
  students enter high school. CMP students performed better than or as well as
  non-CMP students on a variety of learning measures (Cai, 2014).
• In a longitudinal study in a large urban area that followed CMP and Non-CMP
  middle school students through high school found that significantly greater
  percentages of CMP students than non-CMP students maintained a positive
  attitude toward mathematics (Moyer, Robison, & Cai, 2018).
• The evidence on successful implementation of problem-centered curricula like
  CMP points to the need for consistent and sustained professional development
  and collaboration between teachers and administrators in a variety of forms (Heck, Banilower, Weiss, & Rosenberg, 2008). When students learned from CMP teachers with less teaching experience but who attended more professional development and team planning as promoted by CMP, students had higher mathematics scores (O’Clair, 2005).