Frequently Asked Questions


TMP FAQs


What is the TMP?

The Transition Mathematics Project (TMP) is designed to help students successfully progress from high school math to college-level math. TMP identified the math skills and knowledge high school graduates need to, meet minimum admission requirements, avoid remediation upon enrolling in college, and complete college-level work.

Who is involved?

The standards were developed by teachers and faculty from high schools, community and technical colleges, and universities working together. The project is coordinated by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC), the Council of Presidents (COP), and the Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB), with SBCTC serving as the lead agency.

What are the standards?

Final College Readiness Standards were released in March, 2006. These standards are competency-based statements about what a student needs to know and be able to do in order to successfully transition to entry-level college coursework in math or other studies requiring an understanding of math. “College” means any postsecondary-level education.

Where can I find the standards?   http://www.transitionmathproject.org/standards/index.asp

How is TMP working to align with Washington state’s learning requirements developed for the state public K-12 system?

In Phase I, TMP workgroups used the structure and content of the grade 9/10 Grade Level Expectations (GLEs) to build the TMP College Readiness Standards (CRS). These CRS were then used to develop Grade Level Expectations for grades 11 and 12 designed to clarify for high school teachers the transition from the grade 9/10 GLEs to the College Readiness Standards. With a major revision of the K-12 system’s standards underway, TMP Phase II has conducted a comparative analysis between the College Readiness Standards and the most current draft of the new state high school standards. The result was that teachers and faculty saw significant coherence between the sets of standards. Once the state standards are finalized, TMP will conduct a second review and offer recommendations for changes related to any significant differences identified.

How are national and international standards taken into account? 

As one of its first steps, the Transition Math Project reviewed existing national and international standards work, primarily Achieve’s American Diploma Project, the Standards for Success project, and Oregon’s PASS project.  TMP also used resource experts from Achieve and around the country to help examine the connection between the TMP standards and various national and international standards (including TIMSS and PISA). 

What impact has the project had?

Final standards were released in March 2006 and as of December 2007 over 18,000 copies have been distributed statewide. Work is underway to implement those standards now, starting with work in fifteen local partnerships around the state focused on outreach materials, curricula and teaching strategies. These partnerships include faculty and administrators from 25 higher education institutions (two- and four-year), 64 school districts, two Educational Service Districts (ESDs), and other regional consortia. The impact so far is the increased attention TMP has brought to clear college readiness expectations in math and the need for closer collaboration among high school math teachers
and college math faculty.

Ultimately, its impact will be improved preparation for college-level work, evidenced by the lessening of the need for remedial math and placement into higher level math-related coursework in college. Those results are still several years out as new curricula are designed, put into place, and completed by students who then graduate from high school with increased skills.

To download a PDF format of the FAQs Click here>>

TMP Project Timeline - Phase I (2004 - 2005) - click here>>

TMP Project Timeline - Phase II (2006 - 2009) - click here>>

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