Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


Illinois District Adds Digital Math Curriculum for Middle Schoolers

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 08/03/15

An Illinois school district intends to adopt a new digital math curriculum for some of its middle school students. Mundelein School District 75 has signed a contract with Discovery Education to use its Math Techbook in grades 6-8.

The $36,000 budget includes a six-year subscription to Techbook, as well as professional development and salaries for teachers for summer curriculum development. Currently, said Dan Swartz, the district's director of teaching and learning, the plan is to roll out the digital math content to about 400 students. He noted that adoption won't include students in algebra 1 or geometry "at this point."

Techbook was chosen after a year-long review of the service by members of the district's department of middle school math and school administrators. The adoption coincides with the launch of a 1-to-1 program that will distribute Chromebooks to the middle schoolers at the beginning of the school year. The program was also chosen, Swartz explained, because it aligns with a new Bridges in Mathematics program from the Math Learning Center put in place for grades K-5.

The goal, he told the district's school board, "is to increase the percentage of eighth graders to complete algebra with a path of taking calculus by the end of high school."

Math Techbook follows an inquiry-based pattern — discover, practice, apply — that incorporates the use of standards-aligned content, interactives, videos, digital tools, games and math tools such as a whiteboard, graphing calculator and matrix solver. Technology-enhanced items and formative assessments are integrated throughout the program, and both teachers and students have access to dashboards that display student progress from the two perspectives.

The district's teachers also have access to the Discovery Educator Network , a community of educators who gather through social channels, virtual conferences and in-person events.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • circuit patterns

    Anthropic Intros Lower-Cost Claude Sonnet 5

    Anthropic has launched Claude Sonnet 5, positioning the model as its most autonomous mid-tier offering to date and a lower-cost alternative to its flagship Opus 4.8 system. The company said the model can plan multi-step tasks, operate tools such as browsers and terminals, and complete agentic work at a level that previously required larger and more expensive models.

  • children sitting on white chairs, holding up colorful speech bubbles

    Why Title III Is Lacking in Today's Multilingual, Technology-Enhanced Classrooms

    When Congress strengthened Title III in the early 2000s, the focus was helping students acquire English and access academic content. That goal remains important, but the classrooms of 2026 look very different from those of 2001.

  • Human Hand Assembling Digital Data Blocks

    Report: AI Impact Relies on Strong Data Foundation

    High-impact AI implementations are more likely to treat data architecture, governance, and operationalization as strategic requirements, according to the 2026 Blueprint report from TDWI.

  • business woman and stress with burnout, busy and multitasking

    K–12 Technology Leaders Are Doing Too Much: 3 Ways to Reclaim Strategic Focus

    Technology directors touch nearly everything that happens in a school system. Here are three strategies these IT leaders can use to navigate their many duties without losing strategic focus, influence, or sustainability.