Professional Development

EMPower™ Plus, and the original EMPower™ series, counters expectations of math class as a place for silent work to solve problems with one right answer. Learning with EMPower is different from the experience many of us had in traditional math classrooms. The differences are noticeable. The emphasis is on making sense of mathematics. Students think critically about the level of precision needed for different situations.

• Students gain flexibility, fluency, and accuracy.
• Students make and examine generalizations to support their understanding of the structure of number and operations.
• Students apply their number sense to explore everyday, algebraic, and geometric applications.
• Classrooms are learning communities, where participants share strategies, justify their reasoning, and interact with each other’s ideas.
• The teaching experience is different. Teachers question and prompt generalizations. They uncover budding understandings and build from prior knowledge. This role is supported by many elements of the Teacher Book, an essential component of the EMPower program.

EMPower Plus follows the research on the development of mathematical thinking to nurture mathematics learning. In addition, it aligns with updated emphases in new standards and high school equivalency tests.

EMPower Plus is now available for purchase — the updated and enhanced versions of three titles (Using Benchmarks, Split It Up, and Everyday Number Sense) in the original EMPower series. EMPower Plus titles, as well as the original series, align with Career and College Readiness Standards for Adult Education.