After criticism of Wake math program, parents will be asked about student experiences
Wake County parents are being asked to take part in an online survey about their children’s experiences with the school district’s controversial high school math curriculum.
The Wake County school system hired MGT Consulting Group to do an independent, third-party evaluation of the MVP Math Curriculum that has sparked complaints from some parents. As part of the review, MGT is asking parents of students enrolled in Math 1, 2 and 3 to fill out an online survey about the curriculum.
The survey will close at 5 p.m. on Nov. 8. Parents can go to wcpss.net/Page/41278 to learn about the survey, including a link to participate.
Since the 2017-18 school year, Wake has used materials from the Utah-based Mathematics Vision Project to teach high school-level math based on Common Core standards. Instead of hearing a lecture and memorizing formulas, the focus has shifted to students working in groups to solve problems while teachers act as facilitators.
Critics say the format doesn’t teach the materials, resulting in students coming out of the class struggling to understand what they would have mastered from a more traditional math course. They say it has forced families to pay for private tutors to help their children learn the material.
Critics have held school walkouts and protests and spoken at school board meetings. They’ve also launched an aggressive social media campaign to try to get Wake to abandon MVP Math.
MVP filed a lawsuit against a Cary parent leading the opposition to the program, prompting him to countersue. Both parties announced Tuesday they had agreed to dismiss the lawsuits.
MVP changes
The school board voted Aug. 6 to uphold a recommendation from a district review committee to continue using MVP. The district is making changes this school year that it says will improve how the classes are taught.
As part of the changes, MGT was hired to review how MVP is being used. In addition to the survey, MGT says it will visit nine middle and 14 high schools, interview teachers and administrators and hold focus groups with students and parents.
The survey asks parents questions about how MVP is different from previous math programs; how rigorous MVP is; and whether MVP is helping their children or leaving them frustrated.
The survey went live Tuesday morning with some parents complaining on Twitter about not being able to provide comments. School officials said the comment option was inadvertently not turned on, but is working now.
This story was originally published October 30, 2019 at 2:28 PM with the headline "After criticism of Wake math program, parents will be asked about student experiences."
