What Wake County Public Schools Failed to Teach My Three Children - and it's NOT what You Think

When little Seth (now 22) started elementary school in 2004, I would have said our school district was one of the best in our state, if not the country.  By the time Luke (now 18) graduated last month, I’d say my perception had been flipped upside down.  Here’s why.

Finally, after 16 years, my three sons have completed their traditional government/public school education.  We are blessed to have lived in Wake County, NC, a district that has historically shown pretty good academic results, at least until recently, and at least by NC standards.  

Were some of my kids challenged and did they significantly advance and excel academically?  Yes, sometimes.  Were some of my kids unchallenged and passed along with grades better than they deserved?  Also yes and sometimes.  All in all, I think they each received a decent education in most of the academic fundamentals, and I largely give that credit to some of the excellent teachers they had along the way, and the above-average local schools that happened to surround our place of residence.  

With that said, if we had to do it all over again, we would have sent them to private or charter schools from middle school onwards.  One reason is that I have observed a decline in focus on academics in public schools.  And the other reason is that that academic focus has gradually being supplanted - not just supplemented - with a maniacal focus on socio-political agendas.  As a result, I believe my children dodged a steady barrage of "indoctrination bullets" that otherwise would have produced woke virtue-signaling social justice warriors on paths to lifestyles marked by self-indulgence expectations of something they didn't earn, and/or self-guilt apologies for something they didn't do.

Watching children go through the process of government education is like watching a frog boiling, but like the frog, not realizing until it is too late what the fate of the frog will be.  It starts in elementary school with a focus on rainbows and unicorns and visions of a happy utopia where everyone is above average and everyone is a winner and no one gets their feelings hurt and no one is ever really wrong.  And, lo and behold, in some ways that continues all the way through high school.  

Fortunately, my three frogs escaped the pot before being boiled alive.  They got their requisite basic education, and largely missed the indoctrination that has more than ever become the hallmark of government education, especially in “Woke” County, in EVERY SINGLE SUBJECT - including math and science.  

I am probably like many parents.  When my kids were in elementary school, the teachings were benign and harmless, though I’m not so sure that is still the case.  But for my kids, as they advanced in grades, and certainly by the time they graduated, I saw more and more red flags.  These warning signs were indicative of academic mediocrity and social and political indoctrination agendas.  There were fewer and fewer indicators about academic excellence, critical thinking, and knowledge acquisition.  Because those "things" of education were impossible for all students to achieve all the time, they took a back seat to the softer (and less academically rigorous) priorities of social engineering education (social emotional learning, circle time, identity surveys, social justice protest alignment, etc).  If not everyone can be an honors student, then perhaps no one should be.  If not everyone is gaining knowledge in school, then perhaps knowledge should not be the objective of education.  If grammar is difficult for some to master, then perhaps grammar rules are too restrictive or shouldn't be graded.  If the 7 point grading scale is too harsh, perhaps a 10 point grading scale would improve students' passing rates.  If standardized test scores are declining, then perhaps they are no good and should be eliminated.  If one school is failing, then perhaps moving students to it from a successful school will help it to not fail.  You get the picture.  Those are some macro examples of how education is evolving - or rather devolving.  The rest of this article will talk about some micro examples that hit closer to home for my three students.  

Through the first 13 years, my involvement in my children's education mainly consisted of homework help and occasionally writing teachers with questions about issues I saw.  My "skin in the game" amped up to overdrive in 2018, when I chose to deeply involve myself in the fight against a naively-selected and poorly-implemented experimental math curriculum.  I spoke at numerous school board meetings and spent countless hours researching data and sharing my findings and opinions in this blog.  My involvement was so severe and threatening, that I was actually sued by the vendor while WCPSS leaders silently sat on their hands (and probably smirked inside, having played a part in feeding info about me to this vendor).  I've said it many times before, but I would argue that the fight against this math curriculum brought parents from the left and the right together - more than any politician ever has - against a common foe: bad education.  Unfortunately, that didn't translate into votes.  Many parents refused to vote for candidates who were in favor of school choice, or who aligned with some of the observations and points of view I'm sharing here,  even if they were also against a bad math education program!

In hindsight, my deep dive into this math “curriculum” and our school system’s efforts to prop it up, exposed so much more about the behind-the-scenes machine that is running government education (into the ground, in my opinion).  Most parents never realize until it is too late what is happening in the classroom, and what their children are being taught - in addition to the basic readin’, ‘ritin’ and ‘rithmatic they are supposed to learn.

What follows are not the biased fictional recollections of a right-wing nut job.  Each and every anecdote cited here is based on content I personally witnessed over the last 16 years, either in my children's homework, notes, teacher training programs and material that was either made available or leaked to the public, teacher survey comments, public records, accounts from other parents, or as part of published pieces by progressive educationalists revered by WCPSS leadership in one way or another.  Any one of these things by themselves could be looked past as one-off cases or even a difference of opinion, but with the benefit of hindsight of the aggregate, my conclusion is that we dodged indoctrination bullets for much of the last 16 years, and I'm thankful to put that behind us.  For that reason, I am glad that the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) failed to teach my kids a few things.  

WCPSS failed to teach my children that Communism was better than Capitalism because it offered free healthcare and full employment, whereas Capitalism did not.  WCPSS also failed to teach my children that one of the problems with Capitalism was that only the best workers are rewarded, whereas, in Communism, everyone is paid fairly.  I’m really glad my kids were not paying attention that day!  WCPSS also failed to teach my children that “In a perfect world where Communism worked out, war was beyond necessary, sharing would render police useless, and money would be a thing of the past.”  

Speaking of the police, WCPSS failed to teach my children that the police - as a rule - embodied systematic behaviors of racist oppression.  Speaking of race, WCPSS failed to teach my children that they should awaken every day feeling guilty and hate themselves because they are white.  They failed to teach my children that the most important attributes of a person are their extrinsic "identity" characteristics and categories, such as color, gender, and sexual orientation, and that those attributes supersede and must be considered before and above all others.  Contrary to the Martin Luther King teachings I learned as a child in school in the 70s, WCPSS failed to teach my children to treat every person according to the color of their skin INSTEAD OF the content of their character.   

WCPSS failed to teach my children that most of the problems in the country are caused by Republicans.  WCPSS failed to teach my children that most of the problems in the country are caused by “old white guys,” such as Washington and Jefferson.  

Speaking of old white guys, or more specifically, those “lazy” European settlers, WCPSS failed to teach my children that the European settlers of America “had neither the skill nor the desire to ‘go boldly where none dared go before’.”  The new settlers encountered “no wilderness” as the Indians had the place groomed in a “parklike environment.”  Sorry, but that lesson did not sink in with my kids.  WCPSS failed to teach my kids that the main reason the colonists made the trip was for profit, and religious freedom was not a factor.  As such, WCPSS failed to diminish the importance of Thanksgiving to my kids, with teachings about the elementary school “little morality play, the first Thanksgiving” which “celebrates our ethnocentrism even more than the overly patriotic holidays like Independence Day and Memorial Day.”  Sorry, but I guess my kids still are patriotic traditionalists when it comes to all three of those holidays.

WCPSS failed to teach my children that all science is settled because in other cases, they taught that science should be ignored, and the prevailing opinion of woke citizenry and those in power trumps science.  You can’t have it both ways, WCPSS.

WCPSS failed to teach my children that the US Constitution is a living document, meaning legislation no longer comes solely from the legislature, but from the courts.  And that the rights of the individual take a back seat to the greater good and whatever is deemed as how things ought to be.

WCPSS failed to teach my children that a student walkout protesting something that happened hundreds of miles away is a welcomed exercise of free speech, while a student walkout protesting something happening in their own classrooms is not.  My kid rejected your hypocrisy lesson, WCPSS.

WCPSS failed to teach my children that Greta Thunberg is a climate scientist, George Floyd is a hero, Trump was the worst president ever, Obama was the best president ever, kneeling for the national anthem is patriotic, standing for the national anthem is racist, parents who choose charter schools are racist, the main reason parents pull their kids out of schools is because they're racist, "Zoom in a room" is the same as "in-person instruction," and 2 + 2 sometimes equals 5.  

WCPSS also failed to teach my children that “real world” math problems, cited by WCPSS as partial reasoning for selecting a certain experimental curriculum, include a “zombie invasion wiping out the population.  The number of people is diminishing fast.  Each day that goes by, 48% of the living population is lost.”  Indeed, a zombie invasion of indoctrination is wiping out the public’s collective desire to send their kids to government schools.  The number of students is diminishing fast.

Most parents either never see these red flags, or it’s too late when they see them, or they are naively “on board” with the ideologies that are red flags to me and many others who are paying attention.  There is a portion of the population who will scoff at my observations here as being merely “anti-public school.”  To discard these observations as unfounded rantings continues the willful ignorance so many in public school leadership choose to exhibit.  I am not alone in these observations.  This stuff really IS happening in public schools to YOUR children,  The pot IS boiling.  Save your frogs… or better yet, save the public school system before it destroys itself.

To some, the only problem with public education is that it needs more and more and more money.  For the rest of us, the problem with public education is everything else, and that can't be quantified in financial terms.  Instead, it can be quantified in declining academic performance, declining enrollment, and a furthering of the divide between rich and poor, and black and white.  This, despite efforts to artificially bridge those gaps with virtue-signalling programs and white-privilege training, when education itself is the greatest hope upon which we should rely.  

Alas, my kids are done with government elementary, middle, and high school.  And so am I!  Now, onto government college!

My Review of "Out on Good Behavior: Teaching math while looking over your shoulder"

"Out on Good Behavior: Teaching math while looking over your shoulder," by second-career middle-school math teacher Barry Garelick, both infuriates me and gives me hope.  This is Garelick's fourth book about his journey to becoming an effective math teacher out of his love of math, appreciation of traditional AND effective math education, and somewhat out of necessity.  I would categorize his authorship of four books, however, as a sense of duty.

This is a quick and enjoyable read that any school teacher, leader, or school board member should check out.  It has some laugh-out-loud moments as Garelick recounts some of his many memorable student anecdotes and quotes.  Garelick's writing style is enjoyable, conversational and engaging.  He has a great sense and the right mix of humor, irony, and sarcasm, which I really appreciate.  Yet, he's seriously on-point in his observations.

This book focuses on the first few years of Garelick's new career as a math teacher.  Specifically, he covers many of his experiences during the two year "parole" period right after becoming a teacher, when new teachers are observed and coached by an assigned mentor.  Garelick readily admits how he achieved (and still achieves?) the advice given to him by a fellow teacher: “Tell the administration what they want to hear, then do what is best for your students.”

The world of math education - and probably all subjects' education, but I only have delved into the domain of math - is rife with buzzwords and impressive sounding lingo.  Garelick sees right through and questions these supposed "ideas," most of which are hollow consultant-speak ruses that are more effective at selling curriculums and textbooks to naive and virtue-signalling school boards and administrators.  

As a math-loving parent with an M.S. in Computer Science and a minor in Electrical Engineering, I am no dummy when it comes to math.  Neither is Garelick, whose first career was in environmental science.  We both could see through the word salad edu-fads quoted back to us by those who influence and make decisions about our children's math education, including “growth mindset,” “grit,” “critical thinking,” “21st century skills,” “collaboration,” “creativity,” "nuance," "productive struggle," "intentionality," "instructional shifts," “open-ended questions are better than problems with one right answer,” and "disdain for teaching by telling, desks in rows, teacher at the front, and direct instruction."  And let's not forget, the dreaded "ROTE" memorization!

Garelick writes, "Younger teachers have been taught in ed school to accept as valid many of the edu-fads and buzzwords. Older teachers somewhat buy into it but have enough experience that, in the end, allows them to do things like teach at the front of the room using explicit and direct instruction and answering students’ questions directly.  I have been fortunate enough to work in schools where I’ve been given the autonomy to teach as I wish. I recognize, however, that there are teachers who are not allowed to do so and must conform to mandated practices with which they disagree and that are ineffective. It is to these teachers that this book is especially dedicated."

Garelick is not some antiquated closed-minded neanderthal opposed to new ideas.  He is a wise and passionate educator who realizes there must be substance to ideas which translates to results.  While the education industry continues to play whack-a-mole, continually changing methods and approaches to teaching in order to ostensibly "level the playing field" so that "all students are math students," Garelick knows what works and what doesn't, and has found ways to see through the nonsense, strategically "adapt" versus blindly "adopt" new concepts, but otherwise has been successful in "telling them what they want to hear" while his students go about the business of learning math. 

Back to my opening sentence about this book.  This book infuriates me because it reminds me of all the times I heard school board members and leaders in my school district parrot back talking points of math "curriculum" vendors such as Mathematics Vision Project and whack-a-mole math fad-ed prophets and peddlers, while talking down to parents legitimately questioning why their children were failing in math.  Then when challenged on their assertions made as matters-of-fact, they either quote out-of-context statistically irrelevant data, change the subject, or go silent.  Keep in mind, this is the same camp of math education "innovators" who are driving the "2+2=5" movement and the movements to remove accelerated math from middle-school.  No thank you.  This book gives me hope because there are people like Barry Garelick and the many astute math teachers in my school district who see through the buzzwords and hype, and instead do what's best for their students: teach them using what works best.

Candidates' MVP Surveys Shed Light on Election Choices

Parents, students, and some brave teachers have expressed their disdain for MVP over the past two years, while WCPSS staff and school board went through the motions of keeping the gap filled program alive.   WCPSS is more emboldened now than ever, as COVID-19 has provided a distraction and many more years of excuses for continued decline in math achievement.  Ostensibly, staff would be diligently working on the remediations consultant MGT recommended, which WCPSS previously said (to parents) were not required.  But are they working on that?  Is there a plan?  Has the existing board even asked about it?  No one knows.  

Fortunately, when all else fails, we have elections.  This year, five of the nine WCPSS school board seats have challengers.  Four lucky board members will remain in place another 2 years, unopposed. They can and will continue to do whatever it is they have been doing to drive up enrollment in charter, private, and home schools in Wake County, while patting themselves and the superintendent on the back for a job well done.   

A few months ago, I created an MVP-focused survey for school board candidates.  I offered the survey to all candidates, even those running unopposed.  I sent emails to board members and/or incumbents on June 22 and July 30.  I think I also tweeted it out once, tagging the incumbents.  Seven out of the 16 candidates completed the survey as follows:

INCUMBENTS (2 out of 9 completed)  

• Two incumbents with challengers completed the survey (D1 Heather Scott and D8 Chris Heagarty) 
• Three incumbents with challengers didn't complete the survey (D2 Monika Johnson-Hostler, D8 Lindsay Mahaffey, and D9 Bill Fletcher) 
• Two incumbents without challengers didn't complete the survey (D4 Keith Sutton, D5 Jim Martin) 
• Two incumbents without challengers wrote me and said they would complete the survey, but didn't (D3 Roxie Cash and D6 Christine Kushner)

CHALLENGERS (5 out of 7 completed)

• Five challengers completed the survey and I corresponded with all of them individually via email or chat about MVP and/or the survey before and after their survey participation (D1 Deborah Prickett, D2 Gregory Hahn, D7 Rachel Mills, D8 Steven Bergstrom, and D9 Karen Carter)
• Two challengers met with me in person to discuss MVP, but didn't complete a survey (D2 Dorian Hamilton and D9 Daniel Madding)

About the Survey

The survey consisted of four sections of 48 questions I made up.  My intent was to allow candidates to give details about their awareness of MVP and how it was used in Wake County.  I also wanted to understand what, if anything, candidates were willing to do about it.  There were ample opportunities for write-in comments.  The intent of the survey was not to solicit expert testimony or test candidates to determine how accurately they can prove their precise knowledge about MVP.  The goal was to collect opinions and sentiment.  It was not a perfect survey but it achieved my goal of quantifying which candidates would be more "friendly" to the plight of MVP students and parents wondering what the heck happened to their math education.  

The survey allowed responses from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree.  There was also a Not Sure option.  Most questions were written such that Strongly Disagree would indicate a pro-MVP position, while Strong Agree would indicate an anti-MVP position.   I created a rubric where points were awarded as follows:

• Strongly Disagree: -3
• Disagree: -2
• Neither Agree nor Disagree: -1
• Agree: +1
• Strongly Agree: +2
• Not Sure: 0

Notes and exceptions include:

• Unfortunately, some questions I wrote had negatives in them, meaning the ratings were reversed.  I adjusted for those in my calculations.  
• My assumption was that "Neither Agree nor Disagree" option meant the person knew enough but didn't have an opinion. This would be viewed less favorably than Not Sure, hence the -1 score for Neither/Nor.  
• In one single case I overrode my calculation based on a respondent's explanation that indicated a different interpretation of the question than I had intended.  
• In the case of "I was a strong math student in school," I didn't count this question in the score since it was not reflective of attitudes, positive or negative, about MVP.

I also applied a weighting to each section.  I believed that action was most important, and therefore those questions received a 3x multiplier.  General opinions about math education were also important and received a 2x multiplier.  Basic knowledge about MVP curriculum and MVP company received a 1x multiplier.   Obviously, this whole survey and rubric is subjective and some may choose to disagree with my approach.  

Note: For anyone who doesn't like my survey or rubric, please feel free to create your own survey, collect input, and score it however you believe is better.

The four sections were: 

• Awareness about MVP Curriculum in WCPSS - 15 questions, 1x weighting (what type of curriculum it is, performance results, wakemvp.com and wakemvp.blogspot.com, WCPSS shenanigans, etc.)
• Awareness about MVP as a Company - 8 questions, 1x weighting (about lawsuit, blocking parents, no contact number, etc)
• Willingness to Act - 8 questions, 3x weighting (holding WCPSS accountable, voting for/against continued MVP funding)
• General Opinions about Math Education - 17 questions, 2x weighting (does 2+2 actually equal 4 or is it 5?, teachers leading class versus students, collaboration, etc.)

After receiving 3 responses to the surveys (Heather Scott, Chris Heagarty, Karen Carter), on July 1, I posted a link to the first draft of the response details to our Facebook group Parents of MVP Math Students in WCPSS.  My hope was that this would inspire additional candidates to respond.  I received 4 more responses, and I did not finalize the input until now.  

Upon applying the rubric described above, I was able to calculate a numeric score for each candidate who responded.  The totals ranged from -22 (negative 22) to +145.  I also provided my own responses under the column "Wake MVP Parent Says..." and in many cases provided a link to at least one source supporting my opinion.  For what it's worth, I scored a 144. :-)

There were a few clusters of results among the 7 scores, and I awarded grades accordingly.  However, for the 9 candidates who did not respond, I wanted to also recognize them so as to have an overall report card.  For the two challengers who did not respond, they received a grade of INComplete.  For the remaining 7 incumbents, they received either an F or F- due to their prior body of work the past 2 years supporting MVP (F) and thwarting parents (F-).  I added my own brief comment for every candidate's grade.

Here's the Report Card:

The detailed survey responses are available (see MVP Survey Responses tab), but the summary is here:

Be sure to cast your vote on November 3.

WCPSS School Board Candidate MVP Survey

Candidates for the WCPSS School Board, whether incumbent or challenger, are strongly welcomed (and encouraged!) to complete the WCPSS School Board Candidate MVP Survey available at https://bit.ly/wcpss-candidate-mvp-survey.

Parents and voters want to know where you stand on the MVP subject and what you're prepared to do about it, if anything.  If you support it and love it and don't plan any action, PLEASE BE BRAVE and let everyone know.  Voters want honesty and transparency - not talking points and hollow rhetoric.

In fact, for candidates who do not complete this survey, our assumption will be that you fully support MVP and all the actions taken by WCPSS staff and School Board the past year and a half which are well-documented on this blog, at wakemvp.com, and parentrights.net.

Here are the questions in the survey:

• Email address 
• Your Name 
• Contact Information, Website, Social Media, etc.
• Your Awareness of MVP Curriculum in WCPSS (answer between Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree)
• MVP has been used in WCPSS middle & high school since 2017-18 school year
• MVP is based on an INTEGRATED math sequence (Math 1, 2, 3)
• MVP is not based on a SEQUENTIAL math sequence (Algebra 1 & 2, Geometry, Trig, etc)
• Evidence has been shown that math achievement has been negatively impacted with MVP
• Evidence has been shown that WCPSS staff withheld hundreds of negative teacher comments about MVP from the school board and public, while cherry-picking and editing a few positive comments as representative
• MVP does not have a textbook or online math reference content - only a series of single-use problem workbooks
• The use of MVP has resulted in an increased requirement for after-school tutoring and/or use of 3rd party math resources such as Khan and YouTube
• MVP may widen achievement gaps as parents of means are more likely to afford after-school tutors and Internet access
• WCPSS has spent over $2M related to MVP, including licensing, training, reviews, printing, etc.
• I have visited wakemvp.com and am familiar with the MVP issues documented there
• I have visited wakemvp.blogspot.com and am familiar with the MVP issues documented there
• MVP requires teachers to use discovery / inquiry based teaching methods instead of allowing teachers latitude in choosing methods that best work for their students 
• I am satisfied with the excuses and explanations the WCPSS data team has provided for every single data point indicating MVP has impacted math performance
• I believe that the data analyses provided by WCPSS staff about MVP is sometimes based on "spin" and cherry-picked data in order to maintain status quo
• I can cite concrete evidence and research (not just opinion) that shows that MVP is an effective curriculum
• Your Awareness of the MVP Company (answer between Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree)
• MVP filed lawsuit against a Wake County parent
• The lawsuit was a baseless "strategic lawsuit against public participation" (SLAPP) which sought to silence parent criticism
• WCPSS School Board did not make a public statement in support of the parent or rebuking MVP for the lawsuit
• WCPSS has continued to spend funds on MVP products and/or services since the lawsuit
• MVP is not used broadly in the school district where its headquarters are located (near American Fork, Utah)
• MVP has blocked Wake County parents on social media who have made critical or inquiring comments
• MVP's website does not provide a mailing address or phone number
• As of 6/10/20, MVP has still not provided a COVID-19 response, whereas most other curriculum vendors have
• What Actions Will You Take?
• I believe that MVP should be removed from WCPSS and replaced with a proven math curriculum
• I believe that INTEGRATED math should be abandoned and replaced with the SEQUENTIAL math sequence
• I am willing to hold the superintendent accountable if she refuses to replace MVP
• I am willing to hold the superintendent accountable if she refuses to return to SEQUENTIAL math
• I am willing to vote against funding any new spending related to MVP
• WCPSS should cut ties with any vendor who sues a parent
• Staff who are shown to have misled or lied by omission of facts when presenting to the Board or public should be strongly disciplined, which may include dismissal
• Staff who have ushered in and defended MVP in light of ample evidence against it should be replaced
• Other General Opinions about Math Education
• In the event schools are on a TRADITIONAL math sequence (Algebra, Trig, etc) I believe Algebra should not start until 9th grade
• In the event schools are on a TRADITIONAL math sequence (Algebra, Trig, etc) I believe Algebra should be offered to students as soon as they can handle it
• Schools should have HONORS classes that allow advanced students more challenges
• HONORS classes should be removed from schools
• Any student, regardless of color, should be allowed to attempt any HONORS class at the recommendation of their teacher or parent/guardian
• It's important for students to practice math problems in order for them to become proficient in math skills
• Teachers should lead the math class, not students
• If "collaboration" is the main means by which math information is imparted to students, there is a risk that students will value what they "discovered" more than what the teacher tells them
• Answers to math problems are either right or wrong
• When a student gets a math problem wrong, this is an opportunity for the teacher to help the student learn from their mistake(s) and hopefully get such problems correct in the future
• Standardized math tests (such as end of grade and end of course) should be eliminated
• Each core math course should be delivered in a year-long format
• I was a strong math student in school
• I will value and consider actual research about math educational matters before making decisions
• I will value and consider input from teachers about math educational matters before making decisions
• I will value and consider input from parents about math educational matters before making decisions
• I will not support the procurement of math curriculums which do not have an established track record of success in at least one of the top 1000 largest school districts in the country
• Any additional write-in comments about MVP or math curriculum (optional)
• Any additional write-in comments about you or your candidacy (optional)

If you have questions about this survey or anything related to this blog, please reach out to wakemvpparent@gmail.com.

Analysis of the Oct-Nov 2019 WCPSS MVP Math Curriculum Online Survey Responses

Background

Back in August, 2019, WCPSS staff and the voter-elected School Board gave parents who complained about MVP the collective middle finger when they denied parents' complaint (and subsequent appeal) about the program.  One concession WCPSS made was that they would throw another $125k of taxpayer money at the problem by commissioning an "independent" survey to look at the program and/or its implementation.  They later hired Florida-based MGT Consulting for this task.

MGT conducted their review in the October - November timeframe and that included a 9-question online parent survey which ran October 29 - November 13.  The first few hours of the survey being online was met with outcries from parents, as there were no spaces allowing write-in comments.  MGT quickly fixed that, citing what I remember to be a technical issue.

MGT's Report

The results of the review were presented to the Student Achievement Committee (and hence, the public) on December 16, 2019.  My synopsis of the report was this: MVP is great and wonderful!  In fact,  it's so great and wonderful, we only need to perform SEVEN major corrective actions to make it work! 

The presentation by MGT was quite a sales pitch, and presented all aspects of MVP in only the most positive of light.  It was as though they were given marching orders such as: We're going to keep MVP.  Please make sure your report doesn't contradict that.

Anyway, all positives were emphasized, and any negatives were glossed over and dismissed as though they were known issues already being diligently worked by the WCPSS curriculum staff.

One such area glossed over was the parent survey feedback.  MGT reported that 3125 surveys were submitted.  They boiled the survey responses down to one summary chart, which only showed the most chosen response for each of the 9 questions!  I thought the detailed report may have done the analysis more justice, but it did not.  In my opinion, this is very amateurish at best, and statistical malpractice at worst!

Public Records Request

The next day, I submitted a public records request to WCPSS.  I wanted to see the full survey responses because frankly, I believed that the feedback from as many as 3125 parents deserved more attention and consideration than it was given.

I'll spare you the details, but would you believe I had to fight quite hard to get those results, including emails and School Board speeches?  I felt WCPSS was trying to use a 3rd party to hide public records paid for (and written by) the taxpayers.  Eventually, WCPSS and MGT relented, and on April 17, 2020, I received a 207 page PDF file.  Original version of survey responses (received 4/17/20, 207 pages)

The first thing I did was search for my own input, as I had saved of copy of my own survey answers.  My input was NOT there.  I eventually determined that the survey responses sent to me was a snapshot taken at November 2, 2019 11:23 AM EDT, as noted in the file itself.  This was 11 days before the survey ended, and seemed to only reflect the input of about ~2425 of the 3125 total survey responses reported by MGT.  Seven hundred parents, including me, were not represented in this file.

I reported this to Tim Simmons at WCPSS, and he promised to follow-up.  On June 5, 2020, I received the updated file, which I am calling version 2.  Version 2 of survey responses (received 6/5/20, 292 pages)

This file is better in some ways.  It is better labeled.  It also has fewer odd characters missing, which seemed to confuse the original version.  It also addressed what appeared to be an error related to the comments for question 5, which were omitted from the original version.  One shortcoming of version 2 is that it omitted the write-in comments for question 1, which totaled about 18 pages in the original version.  I assume that is a careless oversight.  Whatever.  Any single page in either of these documents is as damning of MVP as any other.   What's another 18 pages when WCPSS has not heeded the massive volume of MVP rebuke (data, reports, surveys, walk-outs, evidence, public comment, protests) already provided them?

Update 6/22/20: WCPSS Tim Simmons provided me an addendum with the missing comments for question 1 that were omitted from the Version 2 file.  See MGT Parent Survey V2 - Q1 Comments for the additional 20 pages.

Table of Contents for Final Version

Question	Original Version   Received 4/17/20	Version 2 Received 6/5/20
How did you first learn about the MVP Math Curriculum?	Labelled as Q2 Pages 1 - 31	Labelled as Q1 Pages 1 - 9
Answers to “Other (please specify)	Labelled as Q2_4_TEXT Pages 1 - 12	Pages 1 - 9
Write-in comments	Labelled as Q14 Pages 13 - 31	OMITTED but provided in Addendum
What is the difference between the MVP math curriculum and the previous math curriculum?	Labelled as Q3 Pages 32 - 65	Labelled as Q2 Pages 10 - 62
Which statement best describes the level of rigor / challenge provided by the MVP math curriculum?	Labelled as Q5 Pages 66 - 100	Labelled as Q3 Pages 63 - 112
Which statement best describes your experience with the WCPSS mathematics resources website?	Labelled as Q7 Pages 101 - 124	Labelled as Q4 Pages 112 - 140
Which statement best represents your child's experience with the MVP math curriculum?	Labelled as Q8 Pages 125 - 126 Write-in comments OMITTED An error code is shown:  “WIDGET_ERROR.MISCONFIGURED”	Labelled as Q5 Pages 140 - 185
Which statement best describes your child's performance on math assessments since the implementation of MVP Math Curriculum?	Labelled as Q9 Pages 127 - 145	Labelled as Q6 Pages 185 - 211
I have received updates, resources or other communication from my child's teacher about the MVP math curriculum.	Labelled as Q10 Pages 146 - 159	Labelled as Q7 Pages 212 - 230
Since the MVP math curriculum was implemented in my child's school, I have had to spend more time helping them at home.	Labelled as Q11 Pages 160 - 185	Labelled as Q8 Pages 231 - 261
Since the MVP math curriculum was implemented in my child's school, my child has spent more time working on math assignments/homework.	Labelled as Q12 Pages 186 - 207	Labelled as Q9 Pages 262 - 292

After I read a good bit of the document, I saw a trend.  There were many superlatives which seemed to characterize parents' ire towards MVP.  I decided to make my own graph showing the frequency of such words and word forms.

I believe this bar chart to be much more informative about the parent surveys than the chart MGT produced.

Summary of Select Superlatives

Note 6/22/20: This chart is based on the Version 2 file and does NOT include the words found in the addendum provided on 6/22/20.

I hope this report was informative.  Please be sure to vote this November.  All School Board seats are on the ballot and most of them need to be replaced.

Surviving a SLAPP Lawsuit: Advice for Education Activists

RECAP

It’s been about a year since I first created this blog and wrote “Myers-Briggs and Why MVP Doesn't Work at Scale.”  I started this blog with that article because there was simply too much in my head I wanted to communicate and I didn’t think Facebook was conducive for laying out my case in what I thought was a well presented argument outlining my reasoning.  Little did I know then that my words would eventually be cited in a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) against me, courtesy of Utah-based Mathematics Vision Project (MVP), the math curriculum vendor which provides resources and professional development to my school district (Wake County Public School System, NC), one of the top 15 largest districts in the USA.

As my readers may know, I countersued, and weeks later MVP and I reached a joint settlement as summarized in a statement which is available at this link. As in the case of most civil settlements, neither party is allowed to talk about elements of the case.  

For my efforts, I am left with a $44k legal bill because Utah doesn’t have a decent anti-SLAPP law, and I didn’t have an umbrella policy on my homeowners’ insurance to cover such situations.  My supporters have contributed generously to various fundraisers, and now we are in the homestretch of retiring this debt.  If you want to help, the GoFundMe is here.   

                                                                                     

Disclaimer: I am neither an attorney nor an insurance advisor.  Seek professional advice if you want specifics about what I have written here.

WHAT IS SLAPP?

Without talking directly about my particular lawsuit, I would like to share some advice with the many fellow parents and educators who are using social media or the public square (ie. school board meetings) to fight for the educational futures of students everywhere.  

In the event you are being effective in your critique, you too may become a target of a SLAPP lawsuit.  According to Wikipedia, these are “lawsuits that are intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition.” 

According to Columbia Journalism Review, “The plaintiff typically is not trying to remedy a quantifiable economic loss; rather, he is trying to retaliate or send a message, at whatever cost and whether or not he wins.”  The point of a SLAPP suit is not to win, but to cause you aggravation to the point you SHUT UP.

The California Anti-SLAPP Project writes, “SLAPPs are ‘camouflaged’ as ordinary civil lawsuits,” often citing legal wrongs such as defamation, libel, slander, interference with contract or economic advantage.

THERE'S INSURANCE FOR THAT!

BEFORE you find yourself in such a situation, I suggest you add a rider to your homeowner's insurance which covers lawsuits due to accusations of libel, slander, etc.  This will provide legal support in the event you are sued by an entity backed by plenty of financial resources (for example, such as a university, government school system, or a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation beneficiary such as OpenUp Resources, which partners with MVP).  The cost of this insurance may be less than $50 per year, which is a fraction of what defending a SLAPP lawsuit might be. For example, Allstate has a personal umbrella policy, the likes of which is a must-have for bloggers and other social media activists.

BEST PRACTICES FOR SOCIAL MEDIA CRITIQUE

While free speech privileges are broad, it’s helpful to be able to defend what you write or say in a public forum using appropriate argument, logic, and context.  If you can do that, then your lawyer’s defense of you in the legal forum, if required, will be much easier.  The article “Blogs Can Get Insurance Clients ‘SLAPP’ed!” talks about “Blog Risk Management” and lists out many questions related to mitigating risk in your social media writings.  Again, the point of a SLAPP suit is not necessarily to win, but to silence opposition.  So even if you are 100% right and have data to back it up, you still may become a target if your critique and arguments are being effective.  

I personally do my best to exercise common sense and integrity when writing in blogs or social media.  I recommend you do the same.  This includes:

• Document your sources and your interpretations for the data you use.  Even if you are wrong or make a mistake, by explaining your logic you are helping your case.
• Likewise, if you are stating an opinion, label it as such if it’s not intuitively obvious.  
• Exercise care when using words which may have legal definitions, such as corrupt, extortion, lie, falsify, deceive, murder, robbery, etc.  
• Avoid using extreme qualifiers like ALL, ALWAYS, NONE, NEVER.  Instead use SOME, SOMETIMES, MANY, USUALLY, OFTEN, etc., as appropriate.  Again, this is common sense writing practice.
• Avoid inflammatory rhetoric and language which could be construed as offensive.  You want your arguments to be fact-based, not emotion-based.
• When using parody or satire as part of your speech, label it as such if it’s not completely obvious.  A SLAPP-happy attorney might claim your humor intended to convey truth, even if most people would know otherwise.  
• Establish your privilege as having a right to your opinion about what you’re saying or writing.  (Example, “As a parent who has witnessed….  I believe… “)

CONCLUSION

At the end of the day, the First Amendment reigns supreme.  The standard is very high to prove libel and slander.  So unless you are intentionally crafting patently false statements about the subject of your critique, you should generally be safe from the worst case scenario, which would be to be sued - AND LOSE.  

However, the best case scenario in a SLAPP suit is not too good either.  Having a suit dismissed can still leave the defendant with a huge legal bill.  So in some regard the plaintiff has scored a victory, but usually at the expense of “public relations” erosion.  In “If You Can't Say Something Nice, Get Insurance”, a spokesperson at online review site Yelp says,  "Courts have consistently ruled that consumers have the right to share their truthful experiences. As a result, businesses that choose to sue their customers to silence them, rather than address their comments, rarely prevail and often bring additional unwanted attention to the original criticism."

In the area in which I am an activist - education - the opposition runs in vicious circles and has dollars backing them.  They are often driven by ideology, and may find it more effective to file a SLAPP lawsuit to silence criticism from an individual, versus engaging in debate using publicly available data and peer-reviewed research.   

According to the counterclaim documents my attorney filed (which are a matter of public record in Utah):

“This case is about a company attempting to use the judicial process to punish a parent who dared to voice reasonable concerns that the company’s educational program was not beneficial to his child and other similarly situated children. Instead of addressing such concerns in a productive dialogue, the company is seeking to silence them outright. But it is a parent’s obligation, right, and privilege to take action and, in this case, speak publicly to government officials and institutions and to other interested parents about matters of such important public concern as the well-being and proper education of children. Moreover, the Supreme Court has time and again emphasized that commentary like the statements at issue here—issues of public importance—’occupies the highest rung of the hierarchy of First Amendment values, and is entitled to special protection.’”

That feels all good and such, but it would be much better to avoid it all together.  But don’t do that by sitting on the sidelines and remaining silent.  Speak up for what you believe in!  And do it with integrity, accuracy, and boldness!  (And get that insurance umbrella policy!)

Good luck to you, fellow education warriors! 

Learn more about SLAPP at Protect the Protest.

And if you want a very funny (but totally inappropriate) take on SLAPP (including a song!), watch SLAPP Suits: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO).  Warning: Language.

Public Records Indicate WCPSS Staff Didn't Reveal the Whole Story About MVP at November 2018 Student Achievement Committee

THIS IS A VERY LONG AND DETAILED POST because it contains verifiable evidence.  If you want a 10-minute video synopsis:  WCPSS Staff Didn't Reveal the Whole Story About MVP at November 2018 Student Achievement Committee

Will WCPSS Superintendent and Senior Staff Ever Be Held Accountable by the Board of Education?

At the November 2018 Student Achievement Committee (SAC) meeting, senior staff employees of the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) provided an update to the Board of Education (BoE) and therefore, also to the public.  The update was about several new curriculums WCPSS staff were in the process of rolling out, including the OpenUp Resources (aka OUR, Math 6-8), Mathematics Vision Project (aka MVP, Math 1,2,3) and English Language Education (aka EL, Grades 3-8).

As I understand it, the purpose of the SAC is ostensibly to inform the BoE (and the public) about how decisions being made by WCPSS staff are working (ie. achievement) for students.

While I'm sure the roles and responsibilities of the BoE are defined in an official policy somewhere, in layman's terms, I understand that, at a minimum, the BoE has the responsibility of assuring that:

1. the superintendent is doing his/her job in leading the WCPSS organization in providing sound education to ALL the students in the district, and 
2. funds provided by taxpayers are being managed and spent appropriately.  

Therefore, the BoE is fully within its right (and responsibility) to thoroughly question WCPSS implementation decisions, progress, status, and effectiveness.  And the staff and superintendent SHOULD BE REQUIRED to be truthful and transparent and thorough when presenting such information.  THAT IS HOW IT IS SUPPOSED TO WORK. Doing so otherwise degrades BoE and public trust when contradictions are discovered.  Any goodwill that would otherwise lead to patience and support during challenges is eroded.  And worse, these misleading actions can potentially be harmful to students.  That is because a lack of accountability leads to a lack of awareness, a lack of input, a lack of representation, and a lack of improvement, and pouring good money after bad.  It is my opinion that purposefully omitting negative news from such a presentation should be grounds for dismissal, or at a minimum, punishment (not an award as was recently given to one of the involved staff).  That's how it works in the business world. 

How can our BoE provide OVERSIGHT and ACCOUNTABILITY and FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY when they do not have all the facts?  They can't.

Unfortunately, in Wake County, NC, the only decisions, progress, status, and effectiveness presented by WCPSS staff to the BoE (and the public) are the ones the staff wants them to hear about - and those are the sugar coated positive ones.  

Our Board of Education is being played for fools by the WCPSS superintendent and senior staff - and it continues to this day, despite the many warnings from other parents and me.

It's worth noting the chain of command in the public school ecosystem:

• The BoE is elected by the public (ie. parents / taxpayers / citizens) and is therefore accountable to them.
• The superintendent is accountable to the BoE (hiring, firing, appraising, etc)
• And the staff is accountable to the superintendent  (hiring, firing, appraising, etc)

Therefore, in my eyes, WCPSS staff is ultimately accountable to the parents / taxpayers / citizens.  That's the transitive property in action!

I have laid all this basic information out lest the WCPSS superintendent or staff or the BoE forget who they ultimately work for, and that is ME and YOU.

The purpose of this blog post is to expose how egregiously our elected school Board (and public) was duped by WCPSS senior staff at the November 19, 2018 SAC meeting.  Why does this matter since the meeting was over a year ago?  Because in many cases, these are the same people who said parent complaints were "few" and "isolated" while public records requests exposed emails which showed otherwise.  These are the same people who ran the curriculum review committee denying parent complaints about MVP.  These are the same people who neglected to provide updates to the very same cherry-picked data set for the November 2018 SAC when the 2019 achievement results declined - SIGNIFICANTLY.  These are the same people (with degrees in Education and/or Psychology - NOT MATH or STATISTICS or a STEM field) who provided at least 6 excuses to media about why WCPSS performance data for 2019 is not worth fretting over.  And these are the same people who handled MGT as they performed their independent review which concluded WCPSS should stay the course with MVP.  (MGT report available at wakemvp.com)

But now there is KARMA.  Ironically, MGT also inadvertently provided a solid rebuke of MVP.  Because, in their effort to save face for not sharing the thousands of comments submitted by parent survey-takers, MGT stated that 7 major changes are needed to make MVP palatable in WCPSS.  One parent described it as "adding a curriculum to a curriculum."  In fact, MGT reached the same conclusions that teachers reached in 2017-2018 and parents in 2019: There are significant issues with MVP in WCPSS.  Teachers named the issues.  Parents named the issues.  And now, finally, MGT has named the issues.

These issues, as documented by comments first surfaced by scores of experienced teachers in 2017-18, were completely omitted from the November 2018 SAC meeting.  So the problems in Year 1 of MVP surfaced by teachers were ignored.  Likewise, the Board members who were echoing their own concerns and feedback from parents at that meeting were ignored.  The problems in Year 2 of MVP confirmed by parents were ignored.  And now we're halfway through Year 3 of MVP, with a punch-list of the same issues - this time documented by MGT!

So again, why does this matter?  Because, as I and other parents have said numerous times in the past year, parents have significant issues trusting the WCPSS superintendent and her staff.  And the BoE should be equally skeptical.  Here is the evidence.  Behold...

Background

MVP Math 1 in WCPSS was rolled out beginning Fall 2017.  In November 2018, teachers and students were well into Year 2 of Math 1, and Year 1 of Math 2 and 3 (in over 50% of schools for Math 3).

At the subject SAC meeting November 19, 2018, Staff leaders Dr. Denise Tillery and Michelle Tucker presented the MVP portion of the meeting.

Present at the meeting were:

• Voting Members
• Ms. Roxie Cash, Board Member
• Mr. Bill Fletcher, Board Member & Committee Member
• Ms. Monika Johnson-Hostler, Board Member
• Ms. Christine Kushner, Board Member & Committee Member
• Dr. Jim Martin, Chair
• Mr. Keith Sutton, Vice Chair & Committee Chair
• Lindsay Mahaffey, Committee Vice Chair
• Non-Voting Members
• Edward McFarland, chief Academic Advancement Officer
• Ms. Cathy Moore, Superintendent & Staff Representative

Source Charts: SAC MTG_ 11_19_18_ ACADEMICS_ NEW CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION_150427rzveurzn0kbroev4bkk5liix.pdf

Audio: MP3 (137mb)
Transcript: Google Doc

The first 22 minutes of the meeting seems to cover the general notions behind both OpenUp and MVP and discovery / investigatives type math.  Then there is an 8 minute video about OpenUp (which is cut short by 2 minutes) and that ends around he 30 minute mark.  The ensuing discussion seems to continue the thread of discovery math in general, as the points discussed apply to MVP just as much as OpenUp. Around the 48 minute mark, the focus is on the MVP charts exclusively until 53:44 when the topic switches to EL.

Here are the relevant charts about MVP.  There is one data chart and two charts with teacher comments.

Here are the MVP-related meeting minutes for the November 2018 SAC as published by WCPSS:
(highlighting is mine)

III. NEW CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION

• Began with an overview of the new curriculum in Math and Literacy.
• Grades 6 to 8 are using Open Up resources, align to the NC Standards.
• Resources are available for teachers in books and online.
• Curriculums provide additional resources for parents and can be found on school websites.
• Schools are encouraged to have Parent Nights, so parents can be provided resources.
• Facilitative practices will focus on conceptual understanding, engage students and help to explain the “why”.
• The long-term goal is to have academic gains for all students – high growth.
• The new curriculums allow flexibility with regard to teacher practice and student learning experience.
• Math 1, 2, 3 are implementing.
• Sonia Dupree, 9-12 Math Senior Administrator, explained that we are in the process of talking with DPI on rollout of revising the Math 4 standards.
• The feedback from teachers and students is positive, they like and understand MVP.

Do all those highlights sound true?

• Were additional resources provided?  No.  Not until the curriculum review committee recommended a website in the summer of 2019.   Is that enough?  No.
• Did schools have parent nights?  No.  In fact, perpetual school board member Bill Fletcher was "very concerned" about Green Hope having one.
  
  
• Are there gains for all students?  No.  Declines - based on 2019 data.  And we're losing ground to state, AND achievement gaps are widening!  See 2019 Citizen’s Report on NC DPI Data for WCPSS
• Are teachers allowed flexibility?  Some were.  Some weren't.  Some disobeyed. Some obeyed. Many were threatened.  MVP certainly hasn't "equalized" the teaching experience as was stated when the prior "curriculum" was deemed irregular, and inconsistently applied.
• Was all feedback from teachers and students positive?  No way.  See below.

Let's Talk About the Two Comment Charts First

Here is the transcription of the audio where the comment charts are mentioned:

Michelle Tucker (52:49)   "So just to end with the feedback, just to give you some quotes from teachers as a result of the training and surveys that they have taken to the end of their professional learning as they've had time over the course of the year to implement the new resource last year, and then both math two and three teachers this year. So just bolded some things of words like to stick out to you that students are flourishing, we're seeing an increase in independent thinking. They're making connections now between courses to students who actually participated in math 1 last year now in math 2 the teachers can really see those kind of connections with that focus on conceptual knowledge being able to explore problems through multiple representations. So the feedback that we're hearing from teachers and students is very exciting. We just know we need to continue to support parents in the community and understand the change that we're experiencing."

My questions were these:

1. Were those comments as shown on the chart in quotation marks actually captured in teacher surveys anywhere?
2. Were there any other (perhaps negative) comments that were omitted?

On 12/17/2019, I received a response to a public records request seeking all the teacher survey feedback about MVP training and implementation.  All 23 of the files received are posted here, but below I will only discuss a few of them in order to establish that there was a significant amount of negative feedback which WCPSS senior staff omitted from the November 2018 SAC meeting.  This is a LIE OF OMISSION, in my viewpoint, and someone should be held accountable.  

And before I begin discussing the negatives, I want to also note that I did not find any of the TEN positive comments cited on the SAC charts within the 23 files. I searched for several of the comments chosen at random, but quit searching after not finding any of the ones for which I searched. An inquiry about this sent to WCPSS Communications Leader Tim Simmons on 12/17/19 has not been answered as of 1/7/2020. So I am not sure if the positive comments were actual quotes, or paraphrased (aka wordsmithed) based on some of the actual positive quotes, or just made up based on the standard MVP talking points. Does it matter?  Yes - it does.   The charts shown at the SAC meeting included 10 positive comments, displayed with quotation marks.  That means that someone either said or wrote exactly what was in the quotes.  But I cannot find ANY of them in the public records.

I selected a few of the survey responses which were captured soon before the November 2018 SAC meeting. There is NO EXCUSE for omitting comments in the August - November timeframe from a November 19 meeting.  NO. EXCUSE.

And by the way, these are not generic whining comments like "I don't like MVP."  They are specific detailed issues and feedback, which teachers identified with the expectation that their comments would be addressed with tangible actions.  Not ignored, only to be surfaced by parents and a $125k consultant in the following year.

Source: M2 Day 3_ MVP Training (Responses) - Form Responses 1

Training Date: August 8, 2018

• What support do you feel that you need to successfully implement MVP into your Math 2 classroom?  
• need an extra planning period daily to be most thoroughly prepared to teach with MVP materials (to complete problems in advance, to review teacher notes, to check student work)

Training Date: September 10 & 12, 2018

• What would have made Day 3 even better?  
• I would like the teacher notes to have things like examples from these trainings for helping us know what to bring out during specifically the first task or two of the units.  
• Moving slower. It went a little too fast and I was still trying to process task while people were discussing.
• How to modify the process for really low level students
• Some of the stuff didn’t seem to cover the NC math 2 standards.

• What support do you feel that you need to successfully implement MVP into your Math 2 classroom?  
• I can work through the tasks myself but I have a hard time bringing out all that they want us to bring out.
• more days... too much material to fit into a standard semester in High School
• Supplemental practice worksheets with answer keys
• More classroom supplies, maybe a little bit more time for a unit. Also noticed that when tasks are skipped from their units it’s hard to make connections for students.
• Examples
• More time to learn
• Books and supplemental resources
• more supplemental videos for students
• The developing tasks are where I feel the most uncomfortable. They are the ones that stress me out. Also, the pacing guide provided isn't great. Being told spend six days on a unit without a suggested idea of what to cover on each day makes long term planning difficult.
• What to do when you fall behind?
• I need to have a better timeline and a better idea of what we really need them to understand. For example, the depth we are going into some of this seems much deeper than our students will get. If they do not get deep enough, will they get what we need them to get by the end.
• Complete teacher's support material would help me effectively implement MVP math 2.
• More helpful test bank and additional resources for extra practice for struggling students and additional practice for the high achievers.

• Additional Comments
• I enjoy this curriculum. However, I am very concerned with time. I feel like I am flying in the classroom. My students are getting frustrated because they feel like we are flying too.

Training Date: September 27, 2018

• What support do you feel that you need to successfully implement MVP into your Math 2 classroom? 
• provide more supplemental notes including warm up and homework
• Support for students that are not at grade level.
• Extra practice, gauging the lessons to allow for time in class to do practice after the tasks

• Additional Comments
• Identifying quadratic patterns is a math 1 standard. We have so many other quadratic related standards to cover in math 2 so we don’t have Time to cover this for an entire unit. A lot of the MVP math 2 stuff is not aligned to NC math 2

Source: M2 Day 4_  MVP Training (Responses) - Form Responses 1.pdf
Training Date: November 5-8, 2018

• What would have made Day 4 even better? 
• Questions and concerns regarding some material in Math 2 and our final exam as well as standards were not answered to the group
• Honestly, I don’t find these trainings helpful. The focus of these 2 modules is not even a big component of what is on their NCFE.
• A transparent conversation about how we as teachers can understand the benefits of the change in curriculum.
• more implementation on delivery than the math itself- we know the math we need help on extra resources and delivery
• Not spending 2 hours on one task that the students have to do in 1.5 hours

• Additional Comments
• I like MVP but I feel unprepared to teach the rest of this semester
• Not differentiated for students who struggle in math.
• Personally, I’ve liked all module books used for Math 2 thus far. However starting with Unit 6, I do not think the modules are very good. Units 6-9 skim the surface but don’t allow students to do the problems they will see on the NCFE. I also wish MVP gave us more review material for the students to study for their tests.
• MVP needs more than four days and needed to be done well before the expected year of implementation- practice is needed at this and parents are not ok with us practicing with their child's math 2 year
• Frustrating that it took 2 hours to do a task that is supposed to be completed in 1 block.

Source: Fall 2018 MVP Math Professional Learning Training Survey

Hundreds of comments from this teacher survey were submitted in October - November 2018, prior to the SAC meeting.  Here are some select charts and comments from that survey that you didn't hear WCPSS staff talk about.  Ever. 

In Q8, it looks like teachers are pretty evenly split between "Definitely" and "Somewhat" when it comes to how well MVP provides scaffolds and extensions for Academically and Intellectually Gifted (AIG) students.  However, English Language Learners, over 50% answered "Not at All."  NO BUENO!  Struggling students: You better hope your teacher supplements because over 40% of them don't think MVP provides resources to help you.

Q9 asks about time management and whether teachers have enough of it to differentiate instructions with these news MVP resources.  Looks like almost 57% either disagree or strongly disagree that they will.  Certainly block scheduling exasperates this problem in Wake County.

"Time isn't the main thing.  It's the only thing."
   -- Miles Davis

Q13 is a sad commentary on what MVP has done to teachers' perspectives on using their own creativity and flexibility when teaching.  Imagine if in your own job you were like the 62% of these teachers who felt they are handcuffed in how they prepare and plan their lessons.

And now, for the write-in comments:

I have color coded these as follows:

• green: comment is mostly positive
• red: comment is mostly negative
• orange: comment has some positive + negative
• black: comment is neutral

Note: typos have been left as-is.

I strongly recommend you read every one of these comments in their entirety.  Especially the red ones because WCPSS has already told us about the few green ones which they extrapolated to represent ALL teachers in the November 2018 SAC.  These comments are a damning rebuke of MVP from the stakeholders who know it the best - teachers.

Additionally, these quotes are being packaged into individual graphics and are available on the public Facebook page: Actual WCPSS Math Teacher Feedback about MVP

Q14 Do you have any comments, questions, or concerns about the new curriculum implementation?

# RESPONSES DATE

1 no 11/20/2018 11:58 PM

2 My concern is that the curriculum does not fully align with the Math I standards and seems better

suited for a middle school student taking the course.

11/19/2018 1:00 PM

3 Though I can see what the program is meant to do, and support it, as someone who is special ed I

have a hard time following the curriculum myself when I push into classrooms. The students that I

work with seem to be more confused than before. They need a lot of extra attention and time to

keep them focused during the lesson.

11/19/2018 12:38 PM

4 There just isn't enough time to cover everything. I feel like the students have a better

understanding of how math works but with little time in class after the lessons to work on the

ready/set/gos, the students will have trouble on a standardized test, which is how they are

assessed by the state. I love MVP, but a multiple choice standardized test does not fit MVP at all.

11/19/2018 6:06 AM

5 I work at Phillips High and we serve a population of students that are academically behind. The

tasks are really good for them and give them an opportunity to approach a problem in their own

way, which makes them feel more comfortable. We do have to supplement with more specific

skills practice (i.e. IXL, activities), but we use the tasks as they have been designed. I'm a big fan!

11/18/2018 11:57 PM
6 The new curriculum is a great tool, but I don't believe that it a primary source to support students

for the NC Math 1 EOC

11/18/2018 11:20 PM

7 MVP Curriculum needs more resources for ESL students. 11/18/2018 5:46 PM

8 Great material, but directive from county that we must follow exactly deters teachers from

differentiating. MUST be more flexible on county level

11/17/2018 11:26 AM

9 The new curriculum is not at the level of the non honors students. Many of the units in Math 3 are

messy and jumbled and don’t align correctly. Non honors students struggle to reach this level.

There is too much curriculum and does not allow teachers time to reteach and review concepts as

needed to meet the needs of their students.

11/16/2018 11:16 PM

10 What about the struggling learners? 11/16/2018 11:08 PM

11 Math 1 seems to be more aligned with the NC standards than Math 2. In discussions with High

School teachers, there seems to be more supplementing with other resources in Math 2 than

Math 1.

11/16/2018 9:34 PM

12 My students have struggled the entire semester with the MVP materials. They are not aligned with

the Math 1 EOC. There is not enough practice. The students will not participate nor do they want

to interact with each other. ELL kids cannot read the materials. I also have a really hard time with

classes sitting at almost 30. I have a lot of kids failing. It is frustrating and I feel like I can't do

anything else because we do not have time. I also do not like the order and the first unit is

TERRIBLE.

11/16/2018 9:33 PM

13 none 11/6/2018 8:45 PM

14 I will me teaching an ICR section of Math II in the Spring, possibly. 11/6/2018 7:03 PM

15 There is no space/time for me to help my struggling students. It's expected that they master the

topics in 1.5 hrs and thats it. No revisit. Even going over the homework, I won't have time for my

students to do the lesson for that day. We either need less material or more time for academic

classes.

11/6/2018 6:54 PM

16 8th graders are not prepared for Math 1, Plus classes are not able to fully cover what is needed to

in 3 years condensed into 2 years. Only a fraction of students should be in Math 1

11/6/2018 5:13 PM

17 I am very concerned regarding the reading level required. I am also concerned over the order of

the curriculum. In addition, while I do very much like some tasks, I think many of them are beyond

the scope of our curriculum and not enough are focused on the actual topics that students need to

be successful in higher math. Being reprimanded for "not teaching MVP to fidelity" means, by

default, that teachers are given NO choice in what we feel is best for our students. What happened

to PBL?

11/6/2018 4:18 PM

18 I believe the new curriculum forces one teaching style (the investigative approach), and it needs to

be supplemented. From now on, please allow at least a couple of years of training prior to the

implementation of a new curriculum. It's not that the entire MVP is not effective. Effective teachers

use the investigative approach as "one" approach to teaching/learning. Forcing teachers to

exclusively teach with that approach diminishes expertise and creates anxiety within the

classroom. If you know there are students who need direct and explicit instruction will you not

provide it? Last but not least, I believe that students definitely need to develop perseverance and

grit and I see tremendous value in that approach, however my concern is two fold. I want to grow

students as well as teachers! Providing adequate training for teachers, common sense

organization of topics, NOT restricting to one teaching/learning style, and faith that teachers will do

what is best for students is what is necessary to grow teachers and students.

11/6/2018 4:10 PM

19 The curriculum is not built for struggling learners or students who do not have foundational skills.

It's written on a level that does not meet the needs of students with learning disabilities

11/6/2018 3:40 PM

20 My 7th grade students are lacking in 7th and 8th grade math skills and the MVP workbook is

entirely over their heads.

11/4/2018 7:28 PM

21 Just want more practice problems like the EOC. 11/1/2018 8:02 PM

22 Most special educators did not participate in the roll out training. It's a change in philosophy that

needs to come from participation in the training to support students through intervention.

10/31/2018 5:11 PM

23 I am still seeking out ways to provide enrichment opportunities as an AIG teacher. 10/31/2018 4:03 AM

24 no 10/31/2018 1:59 AM

25 Thank you for all you've done to implement the new curriculum. 10/30/2018 10:39 PM

26 My students posted great growth with the new curriculum. I have no concerns. 10/30/2018 9:20 PM

27 I love a lot of the activities in the MVP books. However, it is the same thing every day. Teaching

Math 1 on the block all I have time for is the book. My students are sick of opening the book to a

new paragraph problem to work. I used to do matching activities, mobile activities, to mix it up and

keep the students engaged, so they were not always doing the same thing. My daughter is in math

1 this year and I have heard the same complaint from her. Also, I teach quite a few low and ESL

kids and the book overwhelms them. It is a struggle to get them to try. With these students MVP on

a block is a big struggle and it is getting harder to keep them motivated as the semester

progresses. I have a large portion of my class that had four math teachers their 8th grade year and

are really struggling. I can not find the time to remediate as I move through the course because I

am tied to the book. I would like some flexibility to meet the needs of my students.

10/30/2018 7:48 PM

28 The pacing is too fast for ELL and EC students. 10/30/2018 6:34 PM

29 I personally did not think that this curriculum nor the money spent on it was necessary. It actually

constricted me, because I had to teach out of the "normal" order that I would choose to teach.

10/30/2018 5:21 PM

30 I have only attended the training. I do not teach Math 2 until the Spring 2019. 10/30/2018 4:31 PM

31 The new curriculum was rolled out without it being finished. It seems that no one looked at the

packets to decide the order of them. Why are we doing geometry in the first two units and then not

again until unit 7. Also the geometry units seem out of order. Unit 1, unit 7 then unit 2 makes a lot

more sense. There is not enough practice in the packets which causes teachers to have to spend

more time, and more paper print things out. Test and quizzes are not testing the lessons well. By

giving us this curriculum you have given us even more work to do instead of less.

10/30/2018 3:30 PM

32 NO 10/30/2018 3:10 PM

33 Freshmen are not skill ready to collaborate and as an ICR teacher I think this is a skill that has to

be taught and trained. They do not do well with collaboration.

10/30/2018 3:03 PM

34 It is unrealistic to expect teachers to be able to work through all new material and plan to

incorporate skills-based assignments without knowing the complete sequence of the MVP material.

Teachers do not have time to adequately prepare to teach all of the concepts in a course while

learning how to teach with MVP and figure out the concepts that are missing/hidden somewhere

else/randomly appear and expect students to succeed. There is little to no room for technology,

topics that are not in our standards are addressed in multiple workbooks, answer keys have

incorrect answers, and the trainings are useless!!

10/29/2018 10:21 PM

35 Good discovery lessons, but not enough practice on basic skills. I had to teach honors students

how to multiply fractions and solve for a variable. It's frustrating that I can't push them forward for

having to re-teach basic concepts in which they should be confident as high schoolers. I feel like

I'm having to "connect a lot of dots" for them.

10/29/2018 10:05 PM

36 -There is no review guide (for tests) included the curriculum. -The quizzes are too short. -Students

are expected to remember material from previous math courses with little to no review before

jumping into new content. -Need more practice of new content. 1-2 problems is not enough for

them. This is new material, and they need to show they can do it in various representations.

10/29/2018 7:16 PM

37 It is often unclear how the activities relate to the standards and what the students are supposed to

be learning. There is little guidance or examples for the students. The problems do not give

adequate practice. Some of the learning/collaboration activities are good, but overall it is difficult to

adequately address the standards and give students sufficient instruction and practice.

10/23/2018 5:43 PM

38 One concern is that the activities take longer than a day to complete on several occasions. 10/23/2018 4:38 PM

39 Math 1 needs to be a mandatory year long course for high school students. With a year long

course, students have the opportunity to practices skill sets on the "off" day of the tasks...and not

rush right back into a new task. Question 13 asks can we be creative and flexible with preparing

the lesson? Aren't we suppose to follow the teacher notes? So that's not a valid question.

However, I love the teacher notes! I do follow most of it.

10/23/2018 2:10 PM

40 Love it! 10/23/2018 2:05 PM

41 Based on the students that I have worked with from other schools they seem to struggle with the

connections in the Math 2 and Math 3 curriculums

10/23/2018 2:04 PM

42 The SETs sometimes lack context. The GOs are too all over the place. The READYs should be

placed more strategically. Some Tasks are far stretches to connections.

10/23/2018 1:48 PM

43 The lack of flexibility may come from the directions received at training. We are told not to deviate from the lessons, trust the material. Some teachers are adhering to that specifically and not

changing to meet needs. On the other hand, at a recent training we were 'given permission' to

adjust. As a more seasoned teacher I feel confident to do what needs to be done to meet the

needs of students in my classroom but that is not the consistent message being delivered.

10/23/2018 1:31 PM

44 Not enough practice within the task and homework too many mistakes in the materials choppy, not

cohesive

10/23/2018 1:13 PM

45 I have issues with the answer keys. I was thrown Math 1 last minute and while I have the

mathematical ability, there are SO many mistakes in the teacher answers that I'm worried that I

am not teaching some of the details correctly. I'm spending extra time looking up proper answers

and notation- something some teachers won't' be. It is ridiculous that there are so many mistakes

into year 2 that were caught last year.

10/23/2018 12:56 PM

46 I have found that so far the resources are fairly appropriate for my honors level students. For my

lower level students though most of the resources are not usable. It is inappropriate to ignore

differentiation needs. There are also countless mistakes in the resources and there is still quite a

bit of misalignment with what our standards say.

10/23/2018 12:33 PM

47 I do not have any comments or questions at the time. 10/23/2018 10:38 AM

48 My primary concern for Math 3 from the first 2 units I have done is the depth and practice students are getting. Are they prepared for honors Precalculus? Previous year curriculum had absolute value equations and inequalities, composite functions, operations on functions. Are they missing now? Parents are showing frustrations when the lessons are student driven. They have the fear that the answers are not completely accurate or not complete. Are teachers expected to

supplement additional resources for honors classes?

10/23/2018 1:05 AM

49 I was very frustrated last year due to trying to implement the curriculum as instructed but not

having enough time to do so. I was unable to get to the last unit and as a result my scores were

lower than they should have been. I am working hard to make adjustments this year to insure that I

am able to expose my students to all 9 units.

10/23/2018 12:46 AM

50 no 10/22/2018 11:52 PM

51 We have had to add some additional scaffolding resources/activities at times to help struggling

students.

10/22/2018 11:39 PM

52 No 10/22/2018 11:27 PM

53 We did not have time to adequately prepare. We were never trained on any algebra strands in our

standards. Much of the content is for different courses because the Common Core Standards for

which this was written and the NC Standards do not align. Time and care was not taken to

adequately match the tasks to our standards. We were not given an overview of all the units in the

training. We spent lots of time doing tasks (which is fine to a point), but we never got a view of the

whole scope and sequence of the course, which is desperately needed to be able to do long-range

planning. I am also concerned about the lack of technology/dynamic applications.

10/22/2018 11:07 PM

54 The workbooks and training can be monotonous. While the spiraling and level of questioning in

MVP is good, I believe teachers were more creative in their activities prior to this.

10/22/2018 10:33 PM

55 Not until very recently have my students really valued the tasks in the curriculum (ie completing

the square tasks with the tiles).

10/22/2018 10:28 PM

56 The MVP materials appear to be a supplement resource to a more comprehensive book which we

do not have. The MVP assumes the students have full and complete mastery of all topics taught in

Math I and Math II and does not give any information whatsoever about previously learned

material. Furthermore the book gives absolutely no objectives, essential questions, agenda but it is

merely a bunch of loosely compiled investigations which may or may not help students gain

knowledge of the global standards in Math III.

10/22/2018 9:19 PM

57 I think the new curriculum implementation is great! The preparation pace is exhausting for a

semester long class.

10/22/2018 9:18 PM

58 Exclusively using one workbook for the course would never give us the best of the best that is out

there amongst other sources. It should be a source not the source.

10/22/2018 8:44 PM

59 The modules have many errors, typos, ect. 10/22/2018 7:58 PM

60 Testing in relation to MVP curriculum.Full integration of MVP is a time consuming process; will this be taken into consideration for testing? What if students are not gaining a better understanding

through MVP? Statistics about how effective this program is will go a long way with both parents

and teachers. Multiple mistakes in the booklet. Should have someone go through and correct

before printing. Overall, I enjoy MVP and what it is trying to do. Something are not how I would

have taught, but overall it is a curriculum that is pushing students to think for themselves instead of

just feeding them information.

10/22/2018 7:38 PM

61 I remain concerned that teachers are not utilizing the design of the program to strongly encourage

students to learn as they go. I believe that the program has perfect compatibility with our IB focus.

10/22/2018 7:35 PM

62 I do not like the MVP curriculum. I believe it needs a lot of supplementing and should not be the

sole curriculum for teacher to go by. I think it's good to supplement with what I already have as that

has worked in the past EOC wise with my students.

10/22/2018 7:33 PM

63 The resources are premised around a 45-minute per day, 180 day per year school calendar.

Stepping into block challenging presents one challenge. Trying to manage the lessons across an

A/B schedule in 90 minute blocks really makes the structure of the curriculum less obvious. The

video resources, question banks and reflection sheets are nice to have as a support but when I

look at the Unit by Unit Standards overview, we are assessing 15 discrete standards per

assessment. The quizzes dial this down some, but when you look at which standard is covered

within which lesson, there is little rhyme or reason to why a lesson may cover a particular

standard. Some standards are covered 2 or 3 times, others only once. The challenge of using the

pre-designed quizzes and tests also means that students only receive a grade every other week in

some cases. Having the flexibility to assess more frequently for a grade within units and lessons is

critical to students having feedback and allowing their grade to address both achievement and

growth. In general, the variety of calendars that MVP is being implemented within seems too

varied considering how faithful we have been asked to be with implementation.

10/22/2018 7:13 PM

64 In implementing both core plus and MVP with fidelity, I find that it does not allow for the same

interaction with math (experiments, and data collection as MVP). The content however is more

rigorous.

10/22/2018 7:12 PM

65 I would love to see there be a separate setting for high school vs. middle school because the

amount of days to cover a certain unit is different.

10/22/2018 7:05 PM

66 MVP is not good for math 1A and B student or for students with disabilities. 10/22/2018 7:02 PM

67 The curriculum needs to be proof read there are mistakes in every lesson - as in the problems

provided do not work out.

10/22/2018 4:00 PM

68 The curriculum makes me feel rushed in the implementation. I feel like I have no time to

differentiate or intervene when the students are struggling. A lot of the tasks are good, but some

feel contrived. There is not enough practice of the skills within the curriculum.

10/22/2018 3:23 PM

69 I used the MVP last year. Not sure if this year's materials are any different. So far, it appears the

answer is no. I am disappointed to see that many of the suggestions we made to the county about

"improving the materials (typos, spacing, content that is not required) was NOT fixed. That is

frustrating.

10/22/2018 2:07 PM

70 I have concerns regarding how well it is aligned with the NCSCOS. MVP is not designed around

the standards, but rather there are unfulfilled attempts at making the standards fit to the

curriculum. The design is off - the MVP curriculum is covering topics that are not represented in

the states end of course assessments / standard course of study

10/21/2018 5:39 PM

71 The district has dropped the ball with MVP. There are holes and gaps everywhere in the

curriculum. We, the teachers, are finding all the mistakes or holes. This curriculum supposedly has

been in the county's hands for years. The district (Sonja and Anna) should be finding the holes,

filling them and providing feedback for us. They have not been helpful, give vague answers, and

say they are focusing on other items when we ask questions about MVP Math 2. A county outline,

suggested pace, missing items/standards, etc. should have been made and given to teachers this

summer. The teachers are doing all the work with no help from the district. Utah does not teach

math in the same order as we do in North Carolina. If you have had the curriculum for years, why

didn't the county prepare and fix the problems? Teachers, especially math teachers, are leaving

the profession more and more. This doesn't help. I feel like I am a first year teacher again (year

10), working through this material. I have to make changes and supplement in every unit. This is

less than ideal and it makes it hard to be a good teacher when we are working so hard to change a

curriculum that is meant to be "good to go."

10/19/2018 2:31 PM

72 No. I just think that there are some minor details that the curriculum throws in to quizzes and tests

that are never covered in any previous curriculum that teachers have to be prepared for and

supplement instruction to cover these.

10/19/2018 2:06 PM

73 It appears Wake County has grabbed up yet another new curriculum... In my opinion, this

curriculum does not provide enough instruction for students to learn the material. I've had to

supplement instruction and the students and parents are thanking me for not just doing it the MVP

way. I think this curriculum style may fail our students but I hope I am wrong. The lack of

instruction(just a launch) concerns me the most. The prerequisite skills students come to me with

is a concern since those are needed to complete assignments in the Ready and Go. I'm

concerned about the overall math curriculum,not just as a teacher, but as a parent of a Wake

County student.

10/18/2018 12:36 PM

74 I think as this curriculum gets integrated into higher level math courses there will need to be a lot

more supplemental materials to challenge those upper level students. I think that this is a great

resource for the lower level students to give them something concrete to build upon.

10/18/2018 12:24 PM

75 I previously used Core Plus and had very high success reaching ALL of my students. I feel that

curriculum did a better job in all aspects of teaching.

10/18/2018 12:04 PM

76 NA 10/17/2018 9:49 PM

77 You can't follow the lessons as planned for the upper classes because they didn't have the

previous class in MVP. There are topics in MVP that were not in CCSS.

10/17/2018 6:59 PM

78 I have been told that I have to follow MVP as given and cannot teach any of own lessons that I

have developed over my 13 year career as an educator nor make any modifications. I have a very

hard time dealing with that for the fact that I have put a lot of work into my materials that I use in

my classroom. This curriculum is wonderful with regards to the students working together to

discover the math (which I have always been a proponent for). My personal opinion is that MVP is

great as is Core Plus, but modifications need to be allowed for as with any curriculum. As an

educator who comprehends the importance of differentiating and modifying lessons to meet the

needs of specific classes, this curriculum does not help me do that. There are no structured warmups,

lesson summaries, or enough practice for some of my students. There also seems to be a lot

of extra material in the curriculum that leaves us strapped for time to finish what the students need

in Math 2. I personally feel that lessons should incorporate tactile components or math labs where

students are physically "doing" the discovering. There isn't any of that in MVP. If we keep using the

MVP curriculum, I feel that we should have flexibility with regards to some of the lessons if we feel

that the activities we present would help our students. We shouldn't punish some teachers who go

above and beyond by limiting our creative ability. Just my opinion and I'm sure you can guess who

I am :)

10/17/2018 2:21 PM

79 seems most math teachers are not too excited about new system 10/17/2018 12:18 PM

80 The rigor and expectation have been severely lowered from the previous year. Math 2 10/17/2018 11:27 AM

81 No 10/17/2018 4:09 AM

82 Too much to cover within the scope of a year, the formatting of the workbook is not always ideal,

very concerned about students with low literacy skills. I felt the time in training could have been

used more effectively - instead of just discussing a few sections from the workbook, discuss best

strategies within MVP of introducing and reinforcing material (for the most part, I think MVP does

this really well) and how to differentiate the material.

10/17/2018 2:43 AM

83 They are aligned to the national Common Core standards. Not aligned to the NC Common Core.

Not enough practice. Poorly edited. Problems that require the shape to be a square in order to

discover properties... The shape given is a rectangle. A circle and center are provided to learn

more properties, except the center of the circle is marked incorrectly. No room to show work.

Students are supposed to show diagrams, but have 1/4 inch of space. Some principals chose to

implement MVP 3 early, so those students had not taken MVP 1 or 2... No one listened to teachers

and department chairs when we said not to select this resource. That is what MVP is. Just a

resource. It is not a curriculum. It is not a quality text. It has some good ideas that you could use to

add to your lesson. Who in their right mind would select materials that are not aligned to our

standards. Who in their right mind would adopt and implement a resource that isn’t aligned without

aligning it first? Teachers have spent years staying after hours to develop common core materials

that are actually aligned to the state standards, and now we are being forced to use materials that

are not aligned. Has anyone looked at the constructions unit that is supposed to teach students

how to do Geometric Proofs? Are you kidding me with this one? Suddenly they are supposed to

know the reflexive property and that vertical angles are congruent, simply because you gave them

a proof to do? We are supposed to do flow proofs. See any of those? Nope. A proof reason listed

as a rotation? Not a real thing. 1 or 2 questions to separate Honors and Academic in an entire

unit? Sometimes no difference. They still get honors credit. These materials only further the

students lack of algebraic computational skills which makes Pre-Calculus even harder. Sure we all

enjoy doing the few problems that make the kids think or discover. We were instructed at training

not to give the students the answers, because they would stop working and wait for you to give

them the answers. Then we were told that if it is taking too long you have to help them along with

the answers. There is not enough time in an academic class in a semester setting to do all of the

tasks. Tasks that take 1 day in an honors class can take 3 days in an academic class. So, do you

want them to learn or finish the books? Do you want them to think and collaborate, or wait for the

answers? All in all these resources were poorly evaluated, poorly investigated, poorly aligned, and

poorly implemented. It is shameful to use the kids as guinea pigs to find out what isn’t aligned,

what is too hard, what topics should be moved from one math level to the other. This should have

all been done ahead of time. At the very least, these should have been piloted at volunteer

schools. Clearly these resources were not vetted or we wouldn’t have people scrambling to fix all

the problems. As both a parent and an educator, I find the laissez-faire approach to your fiduciary

responsibility to the students of WCPSS unacceptable.

10/17/2018 2:19 AM

84 My main concern right now is pacing. When you teach a concept using learning tasks, sometimes

students connect with it and master the learning objective and sometimes not. When they don't it

takes more time to teach it. The curriculum the way we adopted it, has more activities/lessons

than days in the school year. That needs to change. The pacing needs to be condensed. It is

unrealistic.

10/16/2018 10:45 PM

85 I strongly believe that this curriculum better serves the honors students at our school. The

academic level students become frustrated with a lot of the tasks. As a teacher, I am frustrated

most days because there is never enough time to get ahead and plan the next unit because we

are always trying to learn each task. Our parents expect unit calendars and we are having trouble

anticipating what the pacing will look like. There are many days where I feel as though my

students think I have no idea what I'm doing!

10/16/2018 10:34 PM

86 I like it better my second year after having taught it last year. 10/16/2018 9:23 PM

87 concern: not enough practice for newly learned skills. My students leave a "solidify" activity not

feeling "solidly grounded" in the skill covered. Besides just math, my students have many other

subjects that are vying for time and energy (projects, sports, papers, clubs, family activities, etc.).

To see a newly learned skill later (like two or more units later) is not enough reinforcement or

practice of the skill to insure a student's confidence in their own ability with the subject matter. I

feel like I need to supplement the workbooks that my students use.

10/16/2018 8:40 PM

88 There are many gaps in the curriculum for students who take it in 8th grade. The 7th grade Math

Plus curriculum leaves lots of topics uncovered and there is no time allotted in the sequence of the

units to teach students those concepts.

10/16/2018 7:33 PM

89 I am not happy with the MVP program at all! I have a very diverse population of students and I find this method very difficult to implement particularly to a very large group of very diverse primarily low level students

10/16/2018 6:36 PM

90 None 10/16/2018 6:23 PM

91 I feel that it is difficult for our EL students to fully understand and master. 10/16/2018 6:19 PM

92 The lessons and the Ready Set Go problems do not line up at all. I could use a lesson in the book

to teach completing the square, and the homework asks about slopes of lines...

10/16/2018 6:13 PM

93 I wish that all teachers were buying in to the new materials instead of feeling the need to do major

adjustments (adding material), because they want to revert to lecture and drill from years ago.

10/16/2018 5:32 PM

94 MVP is great for high achieving students and terrible for low performing students who are below

grade level.

10/16/2018 4:51 PM

95 Some of our staff has struggled with filling in the gaps for kids using only the materials provided. 10/16/2018 4:31 PM

96 The tasks are very complex and are not something students tend to be able to do alone. They

need a lot of help through them which takes most of class. The assessments don't match the tasks

as much as I would hope, they also seem to be either right or wrong which isn't a true judge of

student understanding.

10/16/2018 3:41 PM

97 I think the MVP materials are very high quality and I mostly enjoy using them. I am frustrated by

the loss of creativity for me as an instructional leader. If I have lessons/materials that are better for

my students on a given topic, shouldn't I use those instead?

10/16/2018 3:17 PM

98 There is not enough practice items to match with each lesson. 10/16/2018 3:06 PM

99 Mistakes in the booklets are common Not enough practice No warm ups/start to lesson Not

enough room in booklets to work out problems Students don't have the opportunity to get up and

walk around or have fun with the math I understand the purpose of the curriculum, however, I don't

think it was completely well thought out for every state's needs. This program should have been

piloted by several teachers of all levels and all scores on NC Finals before implementing to the

entire staff. Why did we not draw on the expertise of current staff to help create a "booklet" for

each class. There are many good teachers with great student growth scores to draw on.

10/16/2018 3:00 PM

100 I am very concerned with how the MVP curriculum for Math 2 does NOT line up with the NC

standards. We spent a lot of time doing constructions and talking about Quadrilaterals, which is

Math 3. Also Module 1 assumes students had not seen Quads in Math 1. Not sure how valuable

the Module is to our students. Would have loved to have done it in Math I.

10/16/2018 2:16 PM

101 I think the Math 3 curriculum has too much. I seriously doubt I will finish it before the EOC. 10/16/2018 2:14 PM

102 Thank you for implementing this. Please give this one time to work and make teachers invest in it. Some teachers and students will take a bit of time to get used to it so please don't change it in a

couple years.

10/16/2018 1:59 PM

103 When only using this curriculum, how can we be creative and flexible when planning and

preparing?

10/16/2018 1:53 PM

104 -concerned that there is much material for Math 2 that is not being covered in the MVP modules

and material that is in the modules that is Math 3 standards rather than ours -need a better more

thorough pacing guide then the amount of days per unit

10/16/2018 1:42 PM

105 none 10/16/2018 1:38 PM

106 All be the delivery can be different, if we have a "script" as such we must follow you have deprived the educator of actually educating in their unique and different fashion. I feel this is a good

resource but it should not be a mandated curriculum. I do feel task based learning is beneficial

and I do believe there are some good tasks provided; however this style does not work for every

learner. Just as no set style of delivery works for every child, pigeon-holing the students to "have

to learn through task- base", has done the same exact thing that we claim MVP is fixing- it isn't. It

is making them all learn through task-base. Again this is a beneficial recourse for those who do

learn well this way. This should be used at the teachers discretion.

10/16/2018 1:34 PM

107 How can we be creative and flexible when we need to get through the booklet? 10/16/2018 1:26 PM

108 Ideally the materials would be used in a year long course, not a semester long one. There is not

enough time to cover all of the modules, reviews for assessments, and give the required

assessments. It would be nice to be able to have time to cover all of these things, as well as have

extension days of some lessons to help students better understand the material.

10/16/2018 1:22 PM

109 I do not think there is enough time built in for struggling learners. I also think the students are

bored and more engaging activities should be added to the lesson. It is hard to create my own

because I try to keep up with the pace of the curriculum.

10/16/2018 1:21 PM

110 Teachers have been told that they have to use MVP. It is taking away the freedom as an educator

to use other resources and decide what is best for our students. The practice provided in the

books is not enough. There is no differentiation in the books between honors and academic levels.

10/16/2018 1:14 PM

111 I feel I will have better feedback after teaching it a full year. 10/16/2018 1:07 PM

112 Assessments - we have been given one form of each assessment. Typically we need 2 different

forms for each class and then need to be able to adjust for each school year. Canvas is a mini

solution except that we don't have enough computers for each student to use in class during

assessments. Some of the performance tasks are inadequate as well.

10/16/2018 12:30 PM

113 The material jump around too much from topic to topic, there is not enough practice for kids to

achieve mastery. The wording of the material and the connections that are expected to be made

are geared toward students who already have a high conceptual knowledge of the material. For

students on an academic track, who barely passed the year before and struggle with motivation,

this material leaves them in the dust, making it even more difficult to motivate them when they are

not having success. Even the trainers at the workshops acknowledged that most kids were not

successful with these tasks, and acknowledged that a class could spend an entire class period on

one task and still not come to a solution.

10/16/2018 12:30 PM

114 The students are getting very bored with the style of the lessons. I have no time to help students

that are struggling or adding in my own resources where it is necessary. Several of my students

are falling behind, but the pacing does not allow me to properly help them. Students are constantly

staying in their seats when research shows that students should be moving around and interacting

with the material. I could be creating a much more dynamic learning experience with my own

curriculum.

10/16/2018 12:28 PM

115 The MVP curriculum is a mind shift for many teachers. It is difficult to teach if you are not used to being the facilitator to learning. I believe that more training needs to be done to encourage this

mindset shift in teachers over training on the content. The training was a waste of time for me as I

already teach this way, and working through the modules wasn't helpful. Teachers are stuggling to

use this curriculum with students that are below grade level. Accommodations need to be made for

these students. WCPSS is not equipped to make the accommodations necessary for these

students to be successful. On level students are struggling with how to conceptualize and have

academic conversations about math, students that are 2 or more grade levels below cannot

effectively access this curriculum.

10/16/2018 12:14 PM

116 This resource is amazing! Hands down the best Math I resource I have ever used. 10/16/2018 12:10 PM

117 These books are AWFUL!!!!! The students that I have don't think past their nose, and they do not

find it engaging or helpful. I enjoyed the workshops, but I care about my learning. These books

take away any freedom that I had in the classroom. I do not enjoy them!

10/16/2018 11:43 AM

118 The students do not like the workbooks 10/16/2018 11:33 AM

119 I believe that the MVP materials would be great as it was originally advertised - as a RESOURCE. But for every day mandated use, I believe it has numerous shortcomings.

10/16/2018 11:20 AM

120 This curriculum is very difficult to implement in a yearlong math 1 class in high school. These

students already have a bad relationship with math and reading. This curriculum adds a lot of

reading to the math class while also making the math content more difficult for them to

understand. Even at the honors level there is not enough focus on algebraic skills. I also teach

pre-calculus and I see these students struggling in this class if they have not had enough practice

with algebra skills.

10/16/2018 10:59 AM

121 I like the MVP materials but I still have to supplement parts of the curriculum in order to foster a

higher level of understanding with my students.

10/16/2018 2:54 AM

122 Based on what I have seen, I am unsure if this curriculum is appropriate for our students and is

the "future" of math instruction. I feel like students do not get the basic foundation. I guess,

however, that will not be determined until the first round of students get all the way through this

curriculum and into higher level math courses. I also know that many schools and teachers

supplement this material with the "old" method to ensure students know the material they will be

tested on for the EOC and NCFE.

10/16/2018 12:58 AM

123 In my 22 years of teaching, this is the BEST most ENGAGING way I've every taught! I have taught MVP Math I for two years in 3 different semesters and it continues to grow my students. I get

better and better at implementing it each time! I'm excited about implementing Math II and Math III.

My advice to any teacher who complains about it, is TRUST the process. Your students WILL grow

and improve with each task and each module!

10/16/2018 12:45 AM

124 The idea is nice and I can see it working well with upper level students. I do not think that it is

conducive to the way lower level students learn and become proficient in a thought process or

skill. I do see how the curriculum spirals, but I am finding that it is difficult for the students to make

the necessary connections.

10/16/2018 12:18 AM

125 We were told the new curriculum resource would be adapted to meet the NC standards and it has

not. To give specific examples: WCPSS Unit 7 - MVP 5.3 - medians, angle bisectors, etc are not in

the NCCM2 standards, yet it is in the curriuculum. Also, the NCM2 standard NC.M2.G-CO.9 in

particular "Use congruent triangles to justify why the bisector of an angle is equidistant from the

sides of the angle" is not found anywhere in the MVP materials. I understand we can supplement

and edit, but we are told not to skip and it would not be wise to, however, it is our job to teach the

NCM2 standards and I expect my county leaders to provide me with a curriuculum that does such.

The quadratics units are poorly designed and written, with module numbers jumping. In particular,

wcpss Unit 5 has task numbers that jump. This makes it seem thrown together. There are more

examples of things in the MVP documents that are not NCM2 standards, and there are other

standards not covered. But I am not sure I have the time here to finish covering it all.

10/15/2018 11:32 PM

126 The curriculum is fantastic for AG students and self-motivated students. True honors level

students do particularly well. Academic students are struggling with this material. The curriculum

does not teach them at their true academic level. As long as Wake County allows “open

enrollment” at the high school level, this curriculum will not meet the academic needs of low level

or true grade level students.

10/15/2018 11:15 PM

127 No. 10/15/2018 10:55 PM

128 I have several concerns. First of all, there is no "honors" level materials so my colleagues and I

have had to adapt these materials to our honors course. This has taken hours and hours of our

time. The assessments that are posted online are multiple choice and matching questions, which

are low level. Our school is focusing on authentic assessments and we are using these as

examples of what NOT to use... so we have to create all new assessments. And the materials from

Utah are not accurately aligned to the NC standards. There are gaps in the students' knowledge

so we've had to fill in as we go, which cuts into the time we have to do the tasks in the MVP

materials. It was almost impossible for us to develop long range plans for this because of the fact

that you have to actually DO the tasks to figure out which objectives are presented and there are

not enough days in the semester to get it all in.

10/15/2018 10:29 PM

129 Implementation of the new Math 3 materials/curriculum has been frustrating. Some of the student resources for units were just made available for Units 3 - 10 today (10/15). My students started Unit 3 in September and are currently in the middle of Unit 4 so it was a little late to help support my students through these units. Many of the books have typos which is frustrating to me as the teacher, the students, and to parents. I make the students aware of these as we go through

modules. The pacing given to us by the county hasn't been on target so we have had to adjust as

we venture through the course (we won't be able to cover all the content between learning MVP

pacing and the hurricanes). In my academic course I believe that some of the tasks need a lot of

front loading so that students will be successful. My LEP students struggle because they can't

read the tasks much less understand what is going on. Some of the homework sets (Ready, Set,

Go-s) have students learning in the middle of it...I do like this but it is hard for the LEP students

and my lower level readers in general. My students haven't been exposed to MVP Math 1 and

Math 2 so being thrown into the MVP style as a junior or a senior in high school is frustrating to

them. They are used to a traditional format and switching this up 2/3 of the way through the cycle

hasn't been beneficial to some students. I thoroughly believe that MVP could be a great

resource...yes resource not curriculum. As an experienced educator I feel that teachers should be

able to weave these tasks into their course as necessary. These tasks take a lot of time if they are

done correctly thus with the time constraints of 18 weeks and amount of content our course

teaching the MVP way everyday is not possible. Students and teachers would enjoy the

experience more if teachers could be their authentic selves versus the scripted robot that MVP

makes us out to be. I love some of the tasks in MVP but not all of them we should be able to pick

and choose as we go. The assessments are also not reflective of what NC tests have been in the

past so I fear that they may not align with the new EOC. Another issue we are having is editing the

tests is often hard because they are PDFs files...not user friendly. Again, MVP is great with content

but it should be a resource for us not our defined teaching style. Teachers are losing their

authentic selves with a program like this.

10/15/2018 10:29 PM

130 Better layout in the workbook to allow for students to write answers (i.e. Unit 2.1,2.2 really needs a graph for students to fill out verses blank space). Due to the nature of the curriculum, it is pretty hard for ESL students because there are not enough visual supports for non-English users. The

WCPSS teacher notes are GREAT, some of the suggested activities would be nice if a worksheet

was already made for a supplement in case it was needed.

10/15/2018 10:06 PM

131 I really like MVP. My only concern is that there are certain types of EOC Questions that are not

addressed within the curriculum (sometimes just not enough- like exponential decay and

compound interest). But after teaching MVP Math 1 last year, I am more aware of where and how I

need to extend this resource to better cover the EOC (state test).

10/15/2018 9:37 PM

132 I love it! 10/15/2018 9:29 PM

133 The sequence of lessons is sometimes confusing to me. Also, there is so much text and context

and I wish there were more supports for ELL students.

10/15/2018 8:50 PM

134 None 10/15/2018 8:43 PM

135 Not enough practice time to master skills. More tasks than days in semester. MVP does not fit in a semester.

10/15/2018 8:36 PM

136 Very limited creativity, teacher is just a babysitter and have to provide ALOT of supplemental

notes. There is no focus on skills needed, and very limited to know exactly where students are

without giving quizzes! Students arent mature enough to handle "learning through experience"

10/15/2018 8:34 PM

137 69 lessons + 9 performance tasks + 9 tests -- there is not enough time in the semester to cover all

of this material. After asking what we can "skip", we have been told to teach as far as we can and

skip the ending. This will not help the next level teacher as the students will not have what they

were supposed to have coming in. There is no time to slow down when students are struggling.

There is not enough time in a class period to finish an entire lesson. Students are not completing

their part outside of class leaving them lost when they get in class the next day. Students who

struggled before are struggling even more with this material as our classes are not designed like

they are in Utah. Honors (higher level), regular (mid level), and foundations (low level) students

are split so there are not students of differing levels in the room for peer to peer sharing. Although I

love the material, it is not very accessible for our EL students or our students who struggle with

reading comprehension. 10/15/2018 8:32 PM

138 The way the MVP 2 and MVP curriculum is paced, review and remediation are not built into the

curriculum. For example, take a high school student who has a year of the MVP 1 curriculum, but

their next math class isn't until the Spring semester of the following year. The student may need a

review of math concepts, but the way the MVP 2 and MVP 3 curriculum is paced, reviews are not

possible.

10/15/2018 8:10 PM

139 In theory, it is a great idea. 10/15/2018 8:00 PM

140 Not convinced that the material covers everything necessary for the NCFE. Too much

supplementing required. Would not be in favor of renewing MVP's contract.

10/15/2018 7:55 PM

141 If you're a teacher reading this and you've ever gotten a test, quiz, or activity a colleague created

that they clearly hadn't worked out themselves, you know how stressful and frustrating it feels to

receive a half-baked resource. That's how MVP Math 2 feels. There are a lot of teachers in

WCPSS who seem to absolutely hate MVP and all things associated. I am not in that bunch. A lot

of activities are really wonderful, like teaching completing the square with actual squares. Proofs

have gone better than they ever have before. That being said, it is obvious that the curriculum was

rolled out too early. This isn't my deduction. This has actually been alluded to by the leaders at the

training sessions. Honestly, the homework is awful. It sometimes does not lend itself to what was

taught that day during class, or even recently. Often, prior knowledge is required for student

learning, but when irrelevant prior knowledge is thrown into the homework, it throws the focus of

my academic level students. Additionally, the planning and pacing of the content is absurd at

times. For example, Unit 3 focuses on identifying quadratic functions and comparing them to

exponential and linear functions. This is a great exploration for a day or two--not an entire unit!

This comes at the price of taking time away from more advanced skills. And don't even get me

started on the mess that is Unit 5. Ultimately, my frustration comes from the way MVP has been

implemented. MVP, like any other curriculum, has good things and bad things. I would love to have

the autonomy as an experienced teacher to use the good and supplement the bad. WCPSS

teachers know what students need in their respective areas of this very diverse county better than

anyone. However, I have been told that if someone comes in my classroom and doesn't see MVP

material being used exclusively, I can get in trouble. I resent MVP being used as a stick to beat

teachers with. I don't know if this was said to scare teachers who don't intend to try MVP at all, but

I wish I wasn't being punished for the choices of teachers who refuse to buy in. Finally, what's with

training us while we are already teaching the course? What was the harm in waiting a year to

really perfect things? This urgency came at the expense of teacher comfort and, more importantly,

student learning. In summary, I am stressed, restricted, and unimpressed by the MVP curriculum

implementation.

10/15/2018 7:52 PM

142 The new curriculum is very well put together, however when a student is low in reading then this is not the best way for them to do math.

10/15/2018 7:50 PM

143 The materials do not match the NC Standards for Math 1, 2 and 3. MVP is a great resource IF

used correctly. The materials are intended to be used from start to finish. You CANNOT rearrange

how the units are to be completed. Some of the units in MVP Math 2 are in the NC Math 3

curriculum. Some of the units in NC Math 1 units are in MVP math 2...what a mess.

10/15/2018 7:50 PM

144 I like the curriculum and its pedagogical approach. It is a shock to the students, especially honors

students because they are so accustomed to computing a correct answer based on a given

algorithm. We need resources for students who are struggling. For instance, I think there comes a

point in the struggle where a student may need to simply complete some drill sheets.

10/15/2018 7:48 PM

145 Would really like a pacing guide for A/B day schools. Also, more testing resources, multiple

versions, etc.

10/15/2018 7:43 PM

146 I feel that many of my students are not willing to go for it and utilize this material, and I am doing my best to implement it in the way that it was intended.

10/15/2018 7:35 PM

147 Nothing was wrong with the curriculum before MVP. MVP for low math level students is not

working effectively.

10/15/2018 7:35 PM

148 I do not see the purpose of some of these lessons. It is unclear how it relates to material that we

are teaching later. Most of Unit 2 seems unnecessary for the rest of the course. I have completed

Unit 3 and I still do not see how completing that material helps out with anything for the rest of the

course.

10/15/2018 7:32 PM

149 I think that the tasks overall are okay but the Ready, Set, Go's do not provide adequate practice

on topics and are at a level that is not accessible to my level of students.

10/15/2018 7:30 PM

150 The pacing of modules should be changed. Students need to learn first solving equations to use in

other modules

10/15/2018 7:29 PM

151 There isn't any time provided for differentiation for lower level students. I teach mainly inclusion

students, which means some have an IEP and some are just very low. Kids are not used to having

this thrown at them. They are used to being taught. I think we must scaffold so much and chunk all

the information, which wasn't the attention of the original curriculum. This curriculum is great for

higher level students. I had the impression I shouldn't supplement anything else, but my students

need the extra practice/support. There isn't enough of that in the curriculum itself. I also think

some of sort notes/wrap up should have been integrated after every learning cycle so students

would have concrete things to review. It is very word heavy, which I know the exam does have. But

maybe chunking it in a different manner would have been helpful instead of everything so bam at

one time.

10/15/2018 7:28 PM

152 This is the worst curriculum I have seen in over 20 years. 10/15/2018 7:25 PM

There were 3 other comment type questions and I'm not going to paste the comments here, as the purpose of this blog post is to show what was missing from the SAC meeting, and I have spent hours on this already.  Both Q15 and Q16 contained many short positive comments as the nature of the questions were soliciting positive comments.  Q17 responses continued the trend of more negative comments than positive. 

• Q15 What benefits or opportunities do you see for students in this new curriculum?
• Q16 What do you see as celebrations in implementing the new curriculum?
• Q17 What do you perceive to be your biggest challenges in implementing the new curriculum?

Here is MY summary of the general themes that I believe any reasonable person would have concluded from reading the comments above:

1. A few teachers like MVP 
2. Many teachers think MVP has some good tasks in it, but think it should be a supplement (or should be supplemented) not the main or stand-alone curriculum
3. Lack of class time is a key issue (semester vs year long, does not fit in a semester, etc.)
4. Differentiation is an issue.  This was identified by many with respect to struggling learners and EL students, and some with respect to Honors students, while some teachers thought it was best geared FOR Honors students.
5. Many mistakes and errors in the materials
6. Doesn't align to NC standards
7. Teachers aren't allowed to supplement (but some do it anyway)
8. Feelings of being restricted in creativity and flexibility
9. Not enough practice or homework problems
10. Materials don't align to assessments 

The only one of these points covered in the November 2018 SAC was #1.  And all 10 comments are ones that other parents and I have been reciting to the BoE since February 2018!

Now, Let's Look at the Cherry-Picked Data Chart

This chart has been thoroughly discussed in my video series: 2019 Citizen’s Report on NC DPI Data for WCPSS.  Let me summarize the "trust" issue by sharing with you the email contents I sent to Michelle Tucker October 31, 2019:

Ms. Tucker, I have a question for you I'm hoping you can answer.  At the Nov 2018 SAC meeting, your name was listed on this set of charts. 

 (I showed screen shot of the charts above)

Since this chart had very little in the way of explanation, I submitted a public records request to understand more about it.   When that response was received from Dr. Tillery in late March, I learned and the numbers used to calculate the 2 figures, and that this data represents high school only. 

Recently, Brad McMillen presented this data to the BoE: 

And he explained this was GLP for middle and high schools. I have since received some additional information which gives this MS+HS data for CCR, and to one decimal place for the GLP. 

The resulting table for both data sets is this:

As you are well aware, the 1.5% and 1.9% improvement numbers were cited repeatedly by WCPSS (and indirectly by MVP) when talking about the first year of MVP "success" in WCPSS.  While there is not a big difference in the numbers 1.5, 1.9, 0.8 and 1.0, the observation I have is that the HS-only numbers (1.5 and 1.9) were indeed better than the MS+HS numbers (0.8 and 1.0).  

My question to you is: Since your name was on that November 2018 presentation, do you know why WCPSS chose high school data for a "Year 1 MVP" readout instead of the more comprehensive MS+HS view?  (I have asked this to Brad and he does not know) 

And if you don't know, then the question goes to Tim Simmons: Can you please find out the answer to this question? 

Thank you,
Blain Dillard

Her response on 11/19/2019 was this:

Hello Mr. Dillard,
If memory serves me correctly, our conversation during that meeting was focused on implementation of MVP in high school. Using the data that was available at the time and the focus of the conversation, we chose to only include high school scores.
Thanks, ~Michelle
Michelle TuckerDirector K-12 MathematicsWake County Public Schoolsmtucker@wcpss.net(919) 533-7020

My response on 11/20/2019 was this:

Ms. Tucker, Are you sure you want to use that answer?

The performance data for 2017-18 for all grades was made available to the public Oct 3, 2018.  So how can you say that WCPSS didn't have all the data for your 11/19/2018 presentation?
This link: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/accountability/reporting/
This file...

...contains this data-stamp:

Additionally, I checked the charts used at that meeting.  This chart....

was followed soon by the chart in question, which as we all know, was not labelled.

Also, the meeting minutes mention nothing about it being only about high school, though they are pretty sparse in general.

Additionally, the chart continued to be used well beyond November 2018 and was never updated nor any caveats provided that it was only high school data until I asked for that in a public records request in March. 

Are you willing to testify under oath that the data used was for high school only because that was the focus of the meeting and that was the only data available?  I can also ask the others in attendance at that SAC meeting to see if they remember anything.

Sorry to be a pain but this little chart has had big implications to me and other parents.  So we're just trying to get the facts straight. 

Thanks,
Blain Dillard 

As of January 1, 2020, I never received a response to that.  

That is when I sought - and obtained - the audio for that meeting.

Here is the transcription of the audio where the data chart is discussed:

Michelle Tucker (48:17)   "So as a reminder, we implemented Math 1 one last year, both middle school and high school. This year, we are rolling out math two. And then math three is on a voluntary basis. So we have 16, high schools and middle schools who are rolling now who volunteer to roll out MVP in Math three. We know as Sherri talked about with the research behind implementation science that we generally don't see, in fact, we actually see a dip, usually in student achievement for the first two to three years when you implement a new curriculum. So we can't say that the new rollout last year actually caused these results. But we do hope that there's some correlation there that we see. So we had some small gains there in grade level proficiency and college and career ready scores for our EOCs for Math one."

So in summary... 

• The data shown at the November 2018 SAC was high school only.
• This data was cited REPEATEDLY throughout 2019 by WCPSS and even appeared in an MVP social media post (See Why My MVP Golf Score Improved, and other Exaggerations)
• This data was slightly better than the data that would have also included middle schools.  
• Both sets of data were available to the public on October 3, 2018 (6+ weeks before the SAC).
• Michelle Tucker's explanation claimed the focus of MVP at the SAC was high school only, yet the charts, meeting audio and transcript, and meeting minutes contradict that explanation.  
• In fact, she specifically talks about middle and high school when introducing the MVP charts.

So, while there is not a huge difference in the numbers shown and the numbers that were available and should have been shown, this SEEMS to have been an attempt to paint a more positive picture to the BoE and public than was reality.

Conclusion

I have summarized the findings in each section already, so if I hope I don't need to elaborate much further.  The bottom line is that WCPSS senior staff severely misinformed the Board (and the public) at the November 2018 SAC.  By not revealing any of the ample bad news or feedback about MVP, they maintained / increased the grip of MVP's hold in WCPSS and the resolve of the Board to continue to fund MVP and defend staff and the Curriculum Review Committee, without the benefit of all the facts.  This November 2018 SAC set the stage for what has continued and what will continue until there is a change in leadership from the Board to the Superintendent to the middle management senior staff who is fooling them all - BUT NOT ME AND OTHER PARENTS - on a daily basis.


Here's a link to a 10 minute video I made for the school board summarizing this blog post.
WCPSS Staff Didn't Reveal the Whole Story About MVP at November 2018 Student Achievement Committee

UPDATE January 28, 2020

Your homework: Reconcile the information above ^^^ with this excerpt from the WCPSS Employee Handbook (page 14):