Frequently Asked Questions

---

We are delighted that you have an interest. We start by scheduling an assessment to see how best we can serve your family.

Yes! Check out our tutoring page. Tutoring may or may not require starting with an assessment; often families know specific gaps or areas of math that they want help with and we can immediately assist. If necessary we can schedule an assessment to build a detailed plan that can include tutoring and/or classes.

For all of our math classes, except competition math, we require an assessment to understand how we can best serve your child. Sometimes we can waive the requirement, such as if one of our teachers is already familiar with the child's math abilities or if the child has used curricula we use and can readily demonstrate mastery.

For students who are being tutored but not enrolling in a class, an assessment can be helpful to guide what needs to be covered in tutoring but isn't required. No assessment is required for our language arts or programming classes; if your child doesn't fit into the grade range for these classes, please contact us to see if we can include your child in them.

Assessments typically last two hours. We engage your children to see what they like about math and then do some informal math exploration. We administer a written test to see which of our classes and/or private tutoring might best serve them and show parents and children the materials that we use. The assessment allows us to generate a detailed written report with suggestions of how we can work together. We aim for the assessments to be fun and educational for the students and for parents to leave feeling confident that we can serve their family's needs.

Not only can they, but we ask that they do. We like our assessments to be fully transparent so that parents can see what we see in the student work and so that some of what we share they can, as they wish, reinforce with their children after the session.

Absolutely! Check out our tutoring page.

We draw students for our in-person classes from east of Raleigh through Winston-Salem. We might be able to help arrange carpooling. We can assign a tutor to take your child through the class material virtually. Starting in spring 2026 we also offer hybrid classrooms that support students who can't or prefer not to travel to the classroom.

Our founder and lead teacher also works for Art of Problem Solving (AoPS) and we use their curricula (plus additional content we have developed). We highly recommend AoPS, whether in-person academies (including the local Morrisville, NC one) or their virtual or online school.

Our classes have scope and sequence that generally are supersets of state standards. Upon joining, families receive documentation about mappings of the standards and classes.

Most of our classes meet once a week for two hours and we follow a 36-week academic schedule. In fall 2025 we launched a level 1 math class and our first language arts class; level 1 meets for 75 minutes and this language arts class meets for one hour for ten weeks.

We use the canvas course management system. We post content of each class on canvas so that students can review lessons or, in case of absence, can see what they have missed. Joining in hybrid online mode is also possible.

We use Instructure's learning management system (LMS) called "canvas". An LMS allows us to organize our course content. Parents or students can access it from a computer or phone to review content we have taught, see what homework is assigned, and submit homework. We also use canvas to communicate messages about the school or of topics of interest, such as math opportunities, writing competitions, or ideas that parents can use with their children. 

Mathematics Institute uses Instructure's Free-for-Teacher canvas. We would happily pay a reasonable amount for using canvas but the company provides a free version meant for smaller schools and learning centers because for this size their entry cost is prohibitive (it is not published but we have heard it is around $10,000 just to get started).

In May 2026 Instructure suffered a security breach and immediately suspended Free-for-Teacher accounts. They are developing a new product that we should be able to export our lessons into and use but only say that the delivery date is expected to be fall 2026.

Our plan is to use our existing exported canvas material till the new system is available. That means that lessons, well-developed over the past few years, will continue but won't be able to be updated as we think of new material. Homework will continue to be assigned but until our platform is established, we likely won't have homework submitted. Hopefully all will return to normal soon; our expectation is that we'll have to continue with our exported read-only lessons till perhaps mid- or late- September, but are dependent on Instructure. We have considered moving to other platforms like Moodle and Google Classroom, but feel that canvas is the best fit for our school.

There are many educational enrichment programs available and we are happy that you are considering ours. We want what's best for students and don't hesitate to recommend competitive programs as appropriate. Some of what we feel makes us special include that we use fun and proven curricula with a "low floor" (easy to start) and "high ceiling" (challenging problems that can be explored for deeper understanding). We try to engender a closeness of belonging; here are some examples:

• We happily engage families with additional help, recommend resources, and work with them to make sure that their children thrive in our classes and tutoring.
• Our teachers and tutors enjoy both their subject area and sharing their knowledge.
• At around the start of classes each August we have a dinner party kickoff to the school year.
• In mid-December we have a white elephant gift exchange holiday party.
• Upon suggestion of a parent, starting in summer 2024 we organize playdates (get togethers for older students) at area parks over the summers, providing fruit and/or other snacks. 

We want students who want to be there. Many of them are surprised when a 2-hour class is over and often remark at how much fun they had and how quickly the time has gone by. We use our assessments to try to ensure that there is a good fit, but, in spite of the process, if things don't work out for any reason, including change of availability, we offer a prorated refund allowing for some nonrefundable costs of supplies.

You can see and read about our teachers and teaching assistants on our teacher page. All of our math teachers have advanced degrees in math or related fields. All of our language arts teachers have Ph.D.s in English.

All of our math tutors are carefully chosen both for their deep understanding of math and for their ability to teach. Most are college or upper class high school students, but we also have a few other categories of tutors including senior college professors moving toward retirement who want to teach children and retirees from mathematical careers.

We work with teaching assistants to tutor and help grade classwork. If you or somebody you know has expertise in math (or language arts), has a track record of excellent teaching or tutoring, and wants to work with us, please contact us!

All of our classes meet in Chapel Hill, NC with a virtual option. We meet close to Whole Foods Market and the Chapel Hill Public Library off of Franklin Street and near 15/501. We also offer tutoring in-person and virtually.

We offer very reasonable tuition rates which are payable in three installments, one upon registration, another by December, and the final by March. We have our own scholarship program for families in need which enrolled parents can optionally contribute toward.

In addition, Education Student Accounts (ESA+) scholarship funds help North Carolina families pay for  education and services for children with disabilities. Mathematics Institute of the Triangle is an enrolled provider for the ESA+ scholarship and is  approved to accept ESA+ scholarship funds. For more information on the ESA+ scholarship, visit: https://k12.ncseaa.edu.