A Look at the Development of Ratios, Rates, and Proportionality

One of the most significant features of Curriculum Focal Points for Prekindergarten through Grade 8 Mathematics: A Quest for Coherence is that the document highlights the coherent development across the grades of important ideas and the connections among these ideas. In this month's Focal Points article, we will take a look at one of the most important ideas in middle school mathematics: proportionality. The ability to recognize, understand, and work with ratios, rates, and proportional relationships is crucial to future success in algebra. When students are able to describe situations involving constant rates of change and discuss how two quantities are related proportionally, they will be prepared to understand linear functions. This understanding is a critical building block to the study of topics found in secondary mathematics.