According to WCPSS’ FAQs about MVP, released March 1, 2019, the process to find a new high school curriculum began in the Fall of 2016 with a Request for Proposal (RFP) sent out to publishers and Open Educational Resources (OERs) to submit their curricula to WCPSS for review.
Interestingly enough, there was a Triangle High Five High School Math Summit at Green Hope High School July 15, 2015, which included Mathematics Vision Project (MVP) presentations.
The MVP class was described as follows:
Learn about how a task-based curriculum such as the Mathematics Vision Project (MVP) can engage students in rigorous problem solving activities, but also support skill and procedural fluency development. Get hands-on practice for facilitating the classroom discussion of a learning task. Learn how you can sequence tasks to support student learning using the Comprehensive Mathematics Instruction (CMI) framework. Let us show you how these pieces work together to support all of the many instructional demands placed on teachers. Watch student engagement sky-rocket!
The presenters were Beth Neill (Mary Elizabeth Neill) and Mary Rogers, both teachers for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. They also both had a side job as facilitators for MVP. Here is their PowerPoint presentation:
Some other presenters and attendees at this 2015 Math Summit were: Anna Jackson, WCPSS; Sonia Dupree, WCPSS; LuAnn Malik, CHCCS.
Two years later, Mary Elizabeth Neil and Mary Rogers appeared as MVP Facilitators on an attachment signed on June 14, 2017 in the Professional Development Contract between WCPSS and MVP.
When Travis Lemon was presenting MVP Math to WCPSS earlier in 2017, he mentioned having two Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools’ (CHCCS) teachers with him and asked those in attendance to be sure to visit them that evening (as seen in the slide below). Were those two CHCCS’ teachers Mary Elizabeth Neill and Mary Rogers? It is not known if the two CHCSS teachers present were there as paid or volunteer endorsers.
When Travis Lemon was presenting MVP Math to WCPSS earlier in 2017, he mentioned having two Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools’ (CHCCS) teachers with him and asked those in attendance to be sure to visit them that evening (as seen in the slide below). Were those two CHCCS’ teachers Mary Elizabeth Neill and Mary Rogers? It is not known if the two CHCSS teachers present were there as paid or volunteer endorsers.
Lemon also shared a graphic that showed significant College and Career Ready proficiency gains on the Mathematics 1 End of Course exam in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro City School District after their first year of MVP implementation; however, scores used for the pre-implementation year were incorrect, which inflated the improvement. Similarly, multi-year data for CHCC shows that the relative improvement in proficiency was no better than for (pre-MVP) WCPSS over the same span and less than relative improvement in NC statewide.
A folder with the various WCPSS MVP Purchase Orders and Contracts is available for further examination.
Triangle High Five, SAS, and The News and Observer
Let’s look closer at the Triangle High Five Initiative and how this relates to WCPSS’ plan to implement MVP Math in Wake County. It is described as a regional consortium of five public school districts in the Research Triangle area (Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, Durham, Johnston, Orange and Wake County Public Schools). Five Triangle businesses, including SAS and the News and Observer, contributed $500k to start the Triangle High Five Initiative which was established to improve student outcomes and graduation rates.
Analytics Magazine noted that “SAS is a founder of the Triangle High Five Algebra Readiness Initiative, which helps mathematics teachers identify and engage in highly effective instructional practices as they address the disparities in mathematics achievement related to race and income.”
When looking at the 2015 Board of Directors some familiar names stand out: James Merrill, WCPSS Superintendent; Dale Burns, who was the Orange County Superintendent, but previously and later he was the Superintendent at WCPSS; Thomas Forcella, CHCCS Superintendent;
Additionally, there’s the Triangle High Five Math Collaborative, which includes Sonia Dupree, WCPSS; Michelle Tucker, WCPSS; Christina Zukowski, WCPSS; Drew Cook, WCPSS; LuAnn Malik, CHCCS.
Triangle High Five Math Happenings and Events
In April 2015, The Triangle High Five Math Collaborative wrote this letter to the Academic Review Standards Commision asking them to keep common core and integrated math:
https://www.ednc.org/2015/04/20/triangle-high-five-a-letter-to-the-academic-review-standards-commission/
In July 2015, the Triangle High Five Math Initiative held a Math Summit at Green Hope High School. https://trianglehighfivehighschoolm2015a.sched.com/. Two CHCSS teachers and MVP facilitators (Beth Neill and Mary Rogers) taught the class “Teach Like an MVP."
In August 2016, the Triangle High Five Math Collaborative held a Math Summit at the SAS World Headquarters: https://www.sas.com/en_us/events/16q1/math-summit-2016/district-contacts.html. CHCSS teachers and MVP facilitators (Beth Neill and Mary Rogers) taught the class “Week of Inspirational Math.” http://www.sas.com/images/email/c27977/secondary/MS_SEC_121_MRogersBNeil_WeekofInspirationalMath.compressed.pdf
In August 2017, The Triangle High Five Math Initiative held a math summit at NC State. Robert Q. Berry delivered the keynote address over two sessions. He was the president-elect of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and associate professor in the University of Virginia Curry School of Education. His research focuses on equity issues in mathematics education, with a particular emphasis on the experiences of African American boys in school mathematics.https://ced.ncsu.edu/event/nc-state-triangle-region-high-five-math-summit-2017/ and https://ced.ncsu.edu/academics/professional-education/professional-development/ (professional development credit).
In September 2018, NC State held an Equity Day to “raise awareness of equity issues and motivate students to be socially active.” On the CHCSS website, there is an article about how The Triangle High Five Math Initiative has been dissolved but their “collective commitment to student success endures.” Cathy Moore, the current WCPSS Superintendent, was in attendance. https://www.chccs.org/site/Default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=4&PageID=1&ViewID=6446ee88-d30c-497e-9316-3f8874b3e108&FlexDataID=16865
Summary
CHCCS administrators were key players in influencing WCPSS’ decision to use MVP Math as the countywide math curriculum. To date, they still work together to write some of the MVP workbooks used in WCPSS math classes. All of these folks were vital in the curriculum decision making process. They were all part of a group that was making presentations about MVP Math a year before WCPSS began the process of finding a new math curriculum.
We were unable to find that any other publishers were invited to work with WCPSS ahead of the high school math curriculum selection process. In February 2017, the Wake County school system held community input sessions to get feedback on whether to implement McGraw-Hill Education’s “Core-Plus Mathematics” series or the Mathematics Vision Project MVP online materials. “We have confidence that all of the resources that you will be exposed today have very high standards,” said Brian Kingsley, assistant superintendent for academics, in a video being played at the input sessions. “There were several people who weren’t invited tonight because they didn’t meet the bar that this group of people that you are about to meet with did.” https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/wake-ed-blog/article134281324.html
The Triangle High Five Initiative appears to have dissolved in 2018. The link to the 2018 Triangle High Five NC State Summit is “not found.” Additionally, their twitter page, @TriHi5, hasn’t been active since 2017. Their website appears to be deleted. Did it dissolve because they were successful in their quest to keep Common Core and integrated math, address the disparities in mathematics achievement related to race and income, and ensure MVP Math was implemented in WCPSS and other districts?
The News and Observer contributed money to the Triangle High Five Initiative. Did this influence their coverage of MVP Math issues? The News and Observer has provided minimal coverage, reporting only the news that the public already sees. They have not investigated the MVP Math issues thoroughly and have not interviewed many of the parents speaking out against MVP Math or the students walking out to protest MVP and the right to a sound math education.
Timeline
2004 - Five Triangle businesses, including SAS and the News and Observer, contributed $500k to start the Triangle High Five Initiative which was initially established to improve student outcomes and graduation rates, and address the disparities in mathematics achievement related to race and income.
August 2014 - Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools implemented MVP Math.
April 2015 - Triangle High Five wrote a letter to the Academic Review Standards Commission asking to keep common core and integrated math.
July 2015 - Triangle High Five held a High School Math Summit at Green Hope High School. Two CHCSS teachers and MVP facilitators (Beth Neill and Mary Rogers) taught the class “Teach Like an MVP.”
Fall 2016 - RFP sent to publishers and OERs to submit their curricula to WCPSS for review.
February 2017 - Travis Lemon gave an MVP presentation to WCPSS and in the slides stated “Take the opportunity to visit with two Chapel Hill Math teachers while your are exploring the MVP materials. They are here tonight!”
February 2017 - WCPSS held Community Input Sessions at Sanderson, Rolesville, SE Raleigh, and Enloe for MVP Math and Core-Plus curriculums. No sessions were held in the western part of the county.
May 2017 - Brian Kingsley presented MVP Math to the BOE at a work session.
June 2017 - MVP Math contract was approved at a WCPSS board meeting.
June 2017 - Beth Neill and Mary Rogers were listed as MVP Facilitators on a Professional Development Contract between WCPSS and MVP (specifically Travis Lemon signed).
August 2017 - Triangle High Five held a High School Math Summit at NC State with NCTM president elect.
August 2017 - Additional PD funds approved by WCPSS BOE.
August 2017 - WCPSS rolls out MVP curriculum for Math 1 countywide.
June 2018 - Multiple MVP Math contracts approved by WCPSS BOE.
August 2018 - WCPSS rolls out MVP curriculum for Math 2 and Math 3 (optional this year) countywide.
May 2019 - WCPSS and CHCSS collaborate on MVP Math workbooks used in Wake County.
Guest Author: Sandy Joiner
No comments:
Post a Comment