EdNC. Essential education news. Important stories. Your voice.

Search ednc.org

$1 million statewide math instructional partnership launches in three NC districts

Share this story

Our republishing policy

EdNC is a nonprofit, online, daily, independent newspaper. All of EdNC’s content is open source and free to republish. Please use the following guidelines when republishing our content.
  • Our content must be republished in full. If your organization uses a paywall, the content must be provided in full for free.
  • Credit our team by including both the author name and EdNC.org in the byline. Example: Alex Granados, EdNC.org.
  • If republishing the story online, please provide a link to EdNC.org or a link to the original article in either the byline or credit line.
  • The original headline of the article must be used. Allowable edits to the content of the piece include changes to meet your publication’s style guide and references to dates (i.e. this week changed to last week). Other edits must be approved by emailing Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected].
  • Photos and other multimedia elements (audio, video, etc.) may not be republished without prior permission. Please email Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected] if you are interested in sharing a multimedia element.
  • If you republish a story, please let us know by emailing Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected].
Please email Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected] if you have any questions. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Canonical tag

Please include the following canonical tag in the <head> of the republished story.

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.ednc.org/1-million-statewide-math-instructional-partnership-launches-in-three-nc-districts/">

HTML content

This includes the title, byline, content, and tracking pixel required for republishing this story.

Copy & paste HTML
This story is tagged:
Courtesy of the Modern Classrooms Project

The Innovation Project (TIP) and Modern Classrooms Project (MCP) have launched the first cohort of their statewide partnership, which aims to “accelerate student-centered learning aligned with high-quality math curriculum in North Carolina.” According to a recent press release, three districts will participate in MCP’s two-year Math Mentorship Program: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS), Rowan-Salisbury Schools, and Lexington City Schools.

TIP is “collaborative of forward thinking public education leaders,” the release says, which supports innovation in workforce systems and personalized learning across North Carolina. MCP is a “nationally-recognized nonprofit pioneering blended, self-paced, mastery-based instructional models” that has committed $1 million to support their partnership with TIP school districts.

Read more about innovation in NC education

The superintendent of Rowan-Salisbury Schools, Dr. Kelly Withers, described how the program can help prevent burnout among teachers. The program is designed to provide “differentiated learning,” she said in the release, meeting students where they are while giving educators the support they need to build a rigorous curriculum.

According to survey data from MCP, which is pictured in the graph below, teachers felt that their curriculum improved after receiving the training resources.

Screenshot of survey of 285 educators from the Modern Classrooms Project’s website.

The first year of the two-year program will be fully funded, the press release says, and the second year will be 50% funded. Together, the three selected districts are home to over 160,000 students.

CMS serves more than 143,000 students, and the district plans to implement the program across 16 middles schools, per the release. Rowan-Salisbury Schools will use the program with their “math educators across grades 6-8, including accelerated courses,” beginning in summer 2026. Lexington City Schools began their partnership in January 2026 at Lexington Middle School, according to the release, but they will “expand educator participation” during this upcoming school year.

“North Carolina educators have always been at the forefront of what’s possible in the classroom,” said MCP CEO and Co-Founder Kareem Farah. “These three districts are showing the country what it looks like when a great curriculum is paired with great teaching — and what happens when we trust teachers with the right support to meet every student’s needs.”

Sign up for the EdDaily to start each weekday with the top education news.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Camp CMS

Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s summer program, Camp CMS, was one of the first phases of implementation, allowing CMS educators to interact with MCP’s mastery-based instruction model for math curriculum. The press release says more than 130 math educators across 16 CMS middle schools received two day’s of training from MCP before the camp welcomed students. The educators also had “direct, on-site support” from MCP and their math specialists.

CMS teacher with Math Mastery Checks. Courtesy of the Innovation Project

“Math is foundational, and every Charlotte-Mecklenburg student deserves a classroom where they get the time, the support, and the rigor to truly understand it,” said Dr. Melissa Balknight, CMS deputy superintendent. “Camp CMS support from the Modern Classrooms Project will give our middle school educators a runway to launch this model together — in shared classrooms, with shared coaching, before the first day of school.”

Moving forward

Once the programs launch in each district, the release says the partnership will support the schools by providing “monthly coaching calls for all educators, on-site classroom observations, math instructional leadership support, and cross-district engagements” throughout the 2026-27 school year.

More cohort districts will launch during the following school year. The press release says “districts in both cohorts will receive two years of initial support to
ensure they can scale up and sustain effective math instruction.”

“Every North Carolina student deserves rigorous math instruction that builds confidence, deep understanding, and a pathway to future opportunity,” said TIP CEO Dr. Sharon Contreras. “This partnership gives teachers the support to meet students where they are while helping every learner master the mathematics they need to thrive.”