Teachers at 30 Wake schools will get math coaching, under new contract
The Wake County Board of Education will spend nearly $1 million this school year on instructional coaches in math for 15 high schools and 15 middle schools, with the goal of improving math instruction throughout the school year.
The school board on Tuesday approved a $937,901.25 contract with the National Training Network for math coaching. The school system will announce the schools that will receive the coaching at a later time. The district has more than 70 middle schools and high schools.
The district piloted the coaching program in four schools in the spring, with positive feedback, said Drew Cook, assistant superintendent for academics.
It’s part of the district’s effort to hire more contractors for learning interventions, Cook said.
District test scores, along with test scores among students nationwide, have declined since the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools to in-person learning for months in 2020 and 2021. The results of this spring’s test scores, which could indicate learning gains, won’t be released for another month.
The school board also approved another academic intervention Tuesday night. The board voted to spend $485,796.93 this year toward training more tutors for the WakeTogether High Impact Tutoring program. The program provides regular tutoring sessions in reading to individual students or groups of no more than three students in 30 elementary schools. It started in 2022.
The district hopes to eventually make the program become permanent, with a sustainable funding source, Cook said. The school system also works with the YMCA and the Helps Education Fund to provide the tutoring.
