California School District Moves to Eureka Math² California Edition, Focusing on High Expectations and Access

At the start of this school year, Jennifer Miller observed teachers in the Hollister School District deeply engaged in a professional learning session designed to prepare them to teach Eureka Math² California.

The district, located in San Benito County in the Central Coast region of California, moved to Eureka Math² at the start of the 2025-2026 school year after five years using Eureka Math in K-8. Key goals include raising the rigor of instruction while ensuring all students can access the curriculum.

Eureka Math² has Spanish-language materials for students, teachers, and families and embeds support for multilingual learners through routines that build on prior knowledge, providing students with strategic processing time, and using clear and concise language.

Rigor and accessibility

Miller said she's trying to provide teachers with more of the content-aligned professional development they've been asking for, such as the session they attended in August. A key priority is supporting educators in teaching the curriculum as it is intended and providing all students with grade-level instruction.

Miller said the district also is very focused on ensuring students with disabilities get the instruction they need. The curriculum has earned recognition for its alignment with Universal Design for Learning principles, which ensures instruction is inclusive. For example, the teacher workbook includes margin notes to help educators provide differentiated instruction. Other districts around the country have seen inclusion practices increase with Eureka Math ²and other Great Minds resources.

Centering the work around teachers

Hollister's leaders are doing something else new this year to support strong math instruction across grade bands. They're pairing K-8 teachers with high school math teachers to look at the standards together and ensure there is vertical alignment around the instruction students receive across grades. This is particularly noteworthy because the effort involves two districts, Hollister School District (a K-8 district) and neighboring San Benito County School District.

The process Hollister schools used to adopt the new math curriculum also stands out and can serve as a model for other districts. Leaders made a variety of curriculum materials available to teachers across schools districtwide, provided time for teachers to interact with them, kept an open digital district-wide Q&A, invited Great Minds to facilitate a curriculum preview meeting, held a follow-up meeting, and then asked for feedback. Eventually, teachers voted to try Eureka Math².