What is The Proficiency Project?

The Proficiency Project is an instructional framework designed to help teachers implement problem-based math curricula more successfully, especially in classrooms where many students are below grade level.

The framework strengthens three areas that struggling learners need most:

• Procedural fluency and fact automaticity

• Explicit, well-structured instruction of new skills

• Practice structures that close skill gaps while maintaining access to grade-level content

The goal is simple: help more students successfully participate in rigorous math tasks.

No. The Proficiency Project is designed to support and strengthen implementation of Illustrative Mathematics, not replace it.

Illustrative Mathematics provides rich tasks, conceptual development, and strong mathematical progressions. However, many classrooms include students who enter lessons with significant skill gaps.

The Proficiency Project adds structures that help those students access the curriculum, including:

• Fluency routines that build automaticity

• Explicit modeling of procedures

• Structured scaffolds before independent work

• Systems for identifying and addressing misconceptions

These additions allow teachers to preserve the integrity of IM while ensuring more students can participate successfully.

No. Explicit instruction and problem-based learning serve different purposes within the same lesson.

Problem-based learning allows students to explore ideas and reason about mathematics.

Explicit instruction ensures students clearly understand key concepts, vocabulary, and procedures.

Without clear explanations and modeling, many students struggle to participate meaningfully in problem solving.

Effective classrooms use both approaches:

• Explicit instruction to build clarity and reduce confusion

• Problem-based tasks to deepen understanding and reasoning

No. Explicit instruction is not long lectures or scripted teaching.

It simply means that when a new skill or concept is introduced, the teacher clearly explains and models the mathematics before expecting students to apply it independently.

Effective explicit instruction includes:

• Clear explanations

• Worked examples

• Guided practice

• Opportunities for students to think and respond

Students remain actively engaged throughout the process.

Scaffolds help students bridge the gap between what they know and what they are expected to learn.

Many students in upper elementary classrooms are several grade levels behind in foundational skills. Without support structures, they often experience repeated failure.

Strategic scaffolds allow students to:

• Access grade-level problems

• Build confidence

• Develop independence over time

Scaffolds are temporary supports that gradually fade as proficiency develops.

Examples of scaffolds include:

• Skill organizers

• Worked examples

• Visual models

• Structured guided practice

Working memory is the part of the brain that temporarily holds and processes information while students are solving problems.

Working memory has very limited capacity. When a task requires students to juggle too many unfamiliar steps at once, the brain becomes overloaded.

When working memory overload occurs, students may:

• Lose track of steps

• Make frequent errors

• Give up on the task

Instruction that includes clear modeling, examples, and structured practice reduces unnecessary cognitive load so students can focus on the mathematics itself.

Long-term memory is where knowledge and skills are stored permanently.

When facts, procedures, and mathematical relationships are stored in long-term memory, students can retrieve them quickly without thinking through every step.

This allows them to:

• Solve problems more efficiently

• Focus on reasoning instead of basic calculations

• Participate more fully in complex tasks

The Proficiency Project prioritizes routines that strengthen long-term memory, such as:

• Retrieval practice

• Spaced review

• Fluency development

Conceptual understanding and procedural fluency work together.

Without fluency, students spend so much mental effort on basic calculations that they struggle to engage in deeper reasoning.

Procedural fluency allows students to:

• Recognize patterns

• Compare strategies

• Justify solutions

• Engage in mathematical discussions

Fluency supports conceptual thinking—it does not replace it.

No. The framework benefits all learners.

Students who are already proficient move more efficiently through lessons and deepen their reasoning during problem-solving tasks.

Students with unfinished learning gain the support structures they need to participate in grade-level mathematics.

The goal is not remediation, it is to build access.

The goal is the opposite.

The Proficiency Project provides clear routines and instructional structures so teachers can:

• Plan lessons more efficiently

• Address skill gaps proactively

• Spend less time reteaching concepts later

Over time, this leads to smoother lessons and stronger student outcomes.