Wake is standardizing its school curriculum. Some teachers feel ‘straight jacketed.’
Changes in how Wake County teaches language arts and math have some teachers feeling restricted in how they work with their students.
School leaders say they’re standardizing materials used in reading and math courses, ensuring all schools are using the same resources for the first time in nearly a decade. On Monday school board members said the district needs to correct the misperception that teachers can no longer use other materials as well.
School board Chairman Jim Martin said some teachers are feeling “straightjacketed” by the new curriculum.
“There’s something that’s not communicating well and some people are feeling straitjacketed when that’s not all at what I’m hearing,” Martin told school administrators at Monday’s student achievement committee meeting. “That’s not coming from the board table. That’s not coming from you.”
Administrators agreed they’re trying not to limit what teachers can use. But they also said some standardization is needed after the recession of the late 2000s cut state textbook funding and sent teachers searching on their own for new materials. An audit found a wide variety of different materials were being used in Wake.
“They were going out and picking things that they felt were appropriate for their students,” Superintendent Cathy Moore said. “It was providing not only an inconsistent landscape for our kids all across the district, but one that we could not guarantee as viably being standards aligned and rigorous and what our kids needed.”
Moore said the district has used what limited dollars it has for a multi-year plan to update the language arts and math curriculum. It hasn’t gone without controversy as some parents have complained the new high school math materials are leaving many children behind.
For this fall, Wake will roll out a new curriculum in second-grade language arts that will include a greater use of phonics using the Letterland program. Wake will also use material from EL Education, the group it picked for its K-8 reading materials.
Starting in January 2020, most Wake high schools will use a new English 1 curriculum. A new English 2 curriculum will be rolled out for the 2020-21 school year.
School officials said the goal is to provide a standard curriculum across schools while still providing flexibility. For instance, English 1 and English 2 teachers will use the same set of required reading materials but can still offer different supplemental material to students.
Moore said having a “guaranteed viable curriculum” means “what’s expected of any students regardless of where they are has some consistency of expectation and support across the district.”
Wake will have its own teachers write the English 1 and 2 curriculum in part because EL Education doesn’t cover high school. Some school board members expressed concerns about how the public feels about Wake developing the material in-house.
“I worry that our parents are going to be a little uneasy to hear that we’re adopting a curriculum that is written by Wake County teachers,” school board member Heather Scott said. “I’m just being honest about the feedback that I get.”
After the meeting Scott clarified that she has confidence in the ability of the teachers to write the curriculum.
Drew Cook, Wake’s assistant superintendent for academics, said that it will be written by a group of experienced teachers.
“It’s an awesome responsibility that we don’t take lightly,” Cook said.
This story was originally published February 25, 2019 at 7:21 PM.
