Wake schools learned ‘hard lessons’ about picking curriculum. Here’s what will change.
Wake County is promising a more transparent process for picking curriculum following the contentious aftermath over recent math and reading programs.
Some parents, teachers and students were vocal in their criticism of math and reading curricula that changed how both subjects were taught. During a presentation Tuesday, school administrators said they’ve learned lessons about increasing communication and giving more planning and adjustment time when selecting a new curriculum.
“This ultimately helps us select a curriculum that most people will agree to when it’s time to implement, even when it’s something different,” Superintendent Robert Taylor told the school board.
In North Carolina, the State Board of Education adopts the standards that should be taught in each subject. But it’s up to individual school districts and charter schools to pick the curriculum to teach those standards.
Over the next few years, Wake will have to decide on what curriculum resources to use for science, healthful living, world languages, language arts and math.
Changing how math and reading are taught in Wake
In 2017, Wake County began the switch from using traditional textbook publishers in favor of “open educational resources.” Before that, the curricula had widely varied in individual Wake schools.
Wake uses EL Education for elementary and middle school language arts. The curriculum brought changes, such as more culturally diverse books and students spending more time in groups discussing what they’ve read.
Group work is also a major part of the math programs from Open Up Resources in middle school and the Mathematics Vision Project (MVP) in high school. MVP Math is also used in middle schools by students who are taking high school-level math classes.
Instead of hearing a lecture and memorizing formulas, the focus shifted to students working in groups to solve problems while teachers acted as facilitators. The programs use the concept of “productive struggle,” in which students learn through increasingly challenging problems.
Some parents complained that the new math curriculum has left their students behind, forcing their children to use tutors or take less-challenging classes.
Lessons learned from past curriculum adoptions
Drew Cook, assistant superintendent for academics, told the board they had learned some “hard lessons” from past curriculum adoptions.
“We do want to ensure that we’re focused on increasing communication upfront and a timeline with a long runway,” Cook said.
A 2022 report of district teachers found a vocal minority were not happy with how the math and language arts programs were launched.
Cook said they need to give extended planning and preparation time for teachers and an adequate adjustment period for students and staff.
“In some cases that might even mean training and sharing information well in advance of any curriculum resources or materials landing in the hands of a teacher so they’ve got time to work through them, learn, access before they are actually expected to Implement them fully in classrooms every single day,” Cook said.
Another area that administrators want to do a better job of is long-term budgeting for new curriculum resources.
“Curriculum is very expensive no matter how large or small the district,” Taylor, the superintendent, said.
Increase communication with families, teachers
A repeated message given to the school board on Tuesday is the need to increase communication with families and teachers when selecting a new curriculum.
“We want to involve more and more educators in the process from the very beginning,’ said Stacey Wilson-Norman, chief of academic advancement.
Wake will expand the curriculum committee to ensure representation from all schools impacted.
Wake also wants to increase parent and student involvement. This includes having the public attend “roadshow reviews” where people can meet vendors whose products have been selected as the final choices by the curriculum committee.
“We want to make sure that people are engaged at the right time, knowing that there are going to be those that disagree,” Taylor said. “But we know that when people disagree and they haven’t had a chance to voice an opinion, that’s when it creates problems.”
This story was originally published January 23, 2025 at 5:45 AM with the headline "Wake schools learned ‘hard lessons’ about picking curriculum. Here’s what will change.."
