The South Carolina College- and Career-Ready (SCCCR) Mathematical Process Standards demonstrate the ways in which students develop conceptual understanding of mathematical content and apply mathematical skills. As a result, the SCCCR Mathematical Process Standards should be integrated within the SCCCR Standards for Mathematics for each grade level and course. Since the process standards drive the pedagogical component of teaching and serve as the means by which students should demonstrate understanding of the content standards, the process standards must be incorporated as an integral part of overall student expectations when assessing content understanding.

Students who are college- and career-ready take a productive and confident approach to mathematics. They are able to recognize that mathematics is achievable, sensible, useful, doable, and worthwhile. They also perceive themselves as effective learners and practitioners of mathematics and understand that a consistent effort in learning mathematics is beneficial.

A mathematically literate student can:

1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.

a. Relate a problem to prior knowledge.

b. Recognize there may be multiple entry points to a problem and more than one path to a solution.

c. Analyze what is given, what is not given, what is being asked, and what strategies are needed, and make an initial attempt to solve a problem.

d. Evaluate the success of an approach to solve a problem and refine it if necessary.

2. Reason both contextually and abstractly.

a. Make sense of quantities and their relationships in mathematical and real-world situations.

b. Describe a given situation using multiple mathematical representations.

c. Translate among multiple mathematical representations and compare the meanings each representation conveys about the situation.

d. Connect the meaning of mathematical operations to the context of a given situation.

3. Use critical thinking skills to justify mathematical reasoning and critique the reasoning of others.

a. Construct and justify a solution to a problem.

b. Compare and discuss the validity of various reasoning strategies.

c. Make conjectures and explore their validity.

d. Reflect on and provide thoughtful responses to the reasoning of others.

4. Connect mathematical ideas and real-world situations through modeling.

a. Identify relevant quantities and develop a model to describe their relationships.

b. Interpret mathematical models in the context of the situation.

c. Make assumptions and estimates to simplify complicated situations.

d. Evaluate the reasonableness of a model and refine if necessary.

5. Use a variety of mathematical tools effectively and strategically.

a. Select and use appropriate tools when solving a mathematical problem.

b. Use technological tools and other external mathematical resources to explore and deepen understanding of concepts.

6. Communicate mathematically and approach mathematical situations with precision.

a. Express numerical answers with the degree of precision appropriate for the context of a situation.

b. Represent numbers in an appropriate form according to the context of the situation.

c. Use appropriate and precise mathematical language.

d. Use appropriate units, scales, and labels.

7. Identify and utilize structure and patterns.

a. Recognize complex mathematical objects as being composed of more than one simple object.

b. Recognize mathematical repetition in order to make generalizations.

c. Look for structures to interpret meaning and develop solution strategies.