Comprehensive School Mathematics Program
The Comprehensive School Mathematics Program, also known as CSMP, was elementary, K-6, math program in the United States of America. It was developed between 1972 and 1984 by the Central Eastern Midwestern Regional Laboratory (CEMRL). In 1984 it was taken over by the McREL (Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning) Institute's Comprehensive School Reform program, who supported the program until 2003. In 1984 it was implemented in 150 school districts in 42 states and about 55,000 students.
It was designed to teach mathematics as a problem solving activity rather than just teaching arithmetic skills. The program was highly structured using the spiral scheme of program development. It introduced many basic concepts such as fractions earlier than normal but was criticised for lack of emphasis given to calculation. New content in probability and geometry was introduced. There was a range of supporting material including story books with mathematical problems. One character in these books was Eli the Elephant, a pachyderm with a bag of magic peanuts — some representing positive integers, some negative.
One device used throughout the program was a mini-computer. This was a 2 by 2 grid of squares, the squares represented the numbers 1, 2, 4, and 8. Checkers could be placed on the grid to represent different numbers in a similar fashion to the way the binary numeral system is used to represent numbers in a computer.
The program received extensive evaluation, with over 50 studies. These studies showed broadly similar results for non CSMP students in computation, concepts and applications. However there was a marked improvement when assessed according to the The Mathematics Applied to Novel Situations (MANS) tests which were introduced to measure students ability for problem solving in novel situations.
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