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Apr. 1-15, 2011, News Archive
4/15/11 What we found-and didn't find
"While we are happy to see our research in the public square, we want to set the record straight regarding the manner in which the school system characterized our work."
4/15/11 Republican seeks school board seat
"Republican activist Heather Losurdo announced Thursday night that she'll oppose Democrat Kevin Hill, the Wake County school board District 3 incumbent, in fall election."
4/14/11 Parents rally for more CMS money
"More than 120 people rallied to demand more money for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Wednesday, even as new state projections suggested budget cuts could be less severe than Superintendent Peter Gorman feared."
4/14/11 Gorman: We botched teacher communications
"Superintendent Peter Gorman says he won't retreat from plans to see the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools develop a pay-for-performance system but admits to botching communication with teachers."
4/14/11 Wake must correct busing statistics
"The Wake County school system will have to correct a controversial report to federal investigators, after a review revealed errors in a section that tried to correlate long bus rides and poor academic performance among certain ethnic groups."
4/14/11 Wake schools corrects some data in civil rights probe
"Wake County schools officials are correcting some data about minority students and busing that was included in a report submitted in early April to federal civil-rights investigators looking into a complaint about the county's student assignment policy."
4/14/11 Wake parents encouraged to sound off on year-round schools
"Parents, students and staff at the schools are being asked to take part in an online survey on the school system's website."
4/14/11 11th graders in NC would take ACT in House bill
"North Carolina lawmakers whittling down the number of standardized tests now want to add exams they believe will serve as a better barometer for student performance in the public high schools."
4/13/11 UNC Center for Civil Rights charges racial discrimination in 2011-12 student reassignments
"That's the contention made by the UNC School of Law's Center for Civil Rights in a memo it filed last month to the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. The memo focuses on the 2011-12 moves to help buttress the arguments of racial animus made in the civil rights complaint filed by the NAACP against Wake."
4/13/11 Charter barter
"As expected, Republicans are continuing to push expansion of the charter school movement in North Carolina, a movement conducted at public expense, since charters are taxpayer-funded. And as also expected, there is heated pushback."
4/12/11 Hypocrisy and desperation and charter schools
"They want to remake public schools in North Carolina by creating an unlimited, unaccountable parallel system. That's what the charter bill approved by the House Monday begins to set up."
4/12/11 Charter schools bill passes House
"In a 71-47 vote Monday night, the House passed a Republican-backed bill to allow more charter schools across North Carolina."
4/12/11 Bill advances to expand voting of Wake schools chairman
"The partisan politics of the Wake County school board spilled over to the state legislature Monday night as the House voted mostly along party lines to support a Republican-backed bill to have the school board chairman vote on all issues."
4/12/11 Five Johnston Co. elementary schools push for new schedules
"The Academic Enhancement Calendar includes much shorter breaks than the traditional long summer, with the idea being that students are more likely to retain information when they return to school."
4/11/11 NC considering paying students for good grades
"North Carolina legislators aiming to improve education are looking at whether to pay students for coming to class and earning good grades."
4/11/11 Map may shape Wake schools' policy
"Our overwhelming concern is the lack of transparency in the process," said Betty Ellerbee, a member of the board of directors of the League of Women Voters of Wake County."
4/11/11 Better charter schools
"Foremost is the fact that a good charter school law facilitates the development of effective and equitable charter schools, while a poor charter school law does quite the opposite."
4/11/11 Wake's legal fees rising defending the end of the diversity policy
"School officials are hoping insurance will pick up $87,176.90 but Wake is rapidly reaching its insurance cap. This means the district would pick up a larger share of any new legal expenses."
4/11/11 Groups propose maps for Wake schools redistricting
"With the majority of the seats on the Wake County Board of Education up for election this year, some groups are viewing the county's upcoming redistricting as a way to shape policy."
4/11/11 53-0: A high school baseball score, a lesson in rich and poor
"Certainly, these are questions that go well beyond the question of youth sports, what with the whole debate about whether a growing income gap is good for America itself."
4/11/11 State considering paying students for good grades
"We've tried a lot of other things. Cash incentives sometimes work," he said. "We create incentives for all kinds of other activities, primarily business. But why not this?"
4/10/11 NC Republicans seeking UNC, public school balance
"As long as most people can remember, Democratic House and Senate budget-writers went to opposite corners over what they considered the suitable balance on expanding or cutting spending in the public schools and the University of North Carolina system. It appears Republicans are now doing the same thing."
4/10/11 Tata wants input on shifts
"Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata says no decision will be made on changing the schedules at up to 14 year-round schools without first getting and weighing community feedback."
4/10/11 School choice effort could remake education in N.C.
"Republican lawmakers who control the legislature aim to remake the education landscape in North Carolina with a free-market model that offers families more options, while gradually lessening the dominance of traditional public schools. Their approach leans more to the private sector and beckons entrepreneurs to the state to start new schools."
4/10/11 In the schools
"In addition, correlations (even those as unimpressive as the data presented) do not indicate a cause-effect relationship. Without error bars or statistical analysis, these data are inappropriate to present in support of any conclusion."
4/10/11 Failure formula
"As a 2009 graduate of Wake County public schools, I was dismayed to hear Superintendent Anthony Tata state that he refuses to trade student achievement for diversity, as though it were a choice. This is a false choice. Instead, a well-rounded achievement plan demands diversity."
4/10/11 A small fraction
"Because 530 students out of 140,000 (less than one-half percent) did not have a passing rate, a nationally acclaimed policy was scrapped."
4/10/11 Achievement factors
"Once again certain data-challenged members of the Wake school board are cherry-picking data for use in spurious ways in a blatant attempt to prove the validity of their segregationist and classist policy changes."
4/10/11 Misleading data
"Now one year later, they present new data in response to the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education. The new data have no control group, and reflect one moment in time. Yet The N&O places it on the front page."
4/9/11 Teacher punished for his comments
"Hoffman did not intend to single out any student or to threaten to rescind anyone's college recommendation, Wood said, but realizes his actions could have been perceived that way and takes responsibility for them."
4/9/11 Goldman didn't abuse position with child's transfer, Tata finds
"Tata said he didn't think Goldman had abused her position to get a midyear transfer for her daughter, complete with transportation, under a rarely used procedure. But Tata says the school system should have required Goldman to file paperwork and not just make a verbal request."
4/9/11 Costly dropouts
"Tough economic times undoubtedly mean tough decisions when it comes to funding K-12 education. As legislators deliberate the House version of an education budget, they should look to programs that have a proven track record of transforming dropouts into graduates, like Communities In Schools."
4/8/11 Wake to survey parents, students and staff before recommending year-round changes
"Tata stressed that no decision has been made yet on switching any of the 14 under-enrolled multi-track year-round schools to a single track. He said he won't make a recommendation before getting back the results of a survey that the principals will conduct of the parents, students and staff at those schools."
4/8/11 Tempers flare over hiking cap on charters
"What started as a move to allow more charter schools turned into a fierce debate about the future of education in the state, with House Democrats charging that a bill that won preliminary approval Thursday will destroy traditional public schools."
4/8/11 Slowed growth has Wendell school slated for calendar change
"But when the recent recession put a dent in development plans for Wendell, the student body didn't grow the way the Wake County Public School System officials anticipated."
4/8/11 Putting a Theory to Rest
"Cathie Black's resignation as New York City schools chancellor after just three months on the job suggests it may be time to set aside two prevailing biases in the education reform community: that noneducators with strong management skills should be brought in to fix the "mess" that educators have made; and that the rigor of private sector experience will inevitably trump the skills of those toiling in the public sector."
4/8/11 Classroom warning signs
"The potential dangers of this test-score obsession can be seen in Washington, D.C., where an investigation by USA Today reporters Jack Gillum and Marisol Bello found widespread irregularities in school test scores. The head of Washington public schools has requested an investigation."
4/8/11 Lawmakers OK higher class sizes for hundreds of classes
"But Democrats in the House, where the measure was debated but not voted on Thursday, said the change would erode the quality of education and ignore the will of the voters who approved the amendment in 2002 and refused to roll it back last year."
4/8/11 N.C. bill seeks fairer redistricting plan
"As the legislature begins what's expected to be another round of contentious redistricting, lawmakers have introduced a bill modeled on a process used in Iowa to take politics out of the process."
4/8/11 Twisted logic
"But the report the Wake school board filed with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, taking this data and flipping the cause and effect backward, saying that the long bus rides are causing the lower scores, is a shocking abuse of the data!"
4/8/11 GSIW and League of Women Voters holding meetings on school board redistricting
"Two groups that have been critical of the elimination of the diversity policy are also holding three open houses on redistricting of Wake County school board seats."
4/7/11 Cash Michaels not buying Wake's response to the feds
"While noting it's up to feds to see whether they'll believe the Wake County school system's latest response, Cash Michaels is making it clear he doesn't put stock into the reasons used for justifying ending the diversity policy."
4/7/11 House OK's bill to have lots of charter schools; will Perdue nix it?
"Senate Bill 8, the Republican legislation to lift the cap on the number of charter schools and see where the dust settles, won House approval this afternoon by a 69-48 vote."
4/7/11 Charter school bill goes to NC House
"A bill to expand the number of charter schools in North Carolina will go before the state House of Representatives."
4/7/11 Tea Partiers Playing a Role in Some School Board Races
"Though difficult to quantify, the same forces that swept conservative candidates into office on the congressional and state levels appear to be working their way down to some local races."
4/7/11 Stam: Some black figures see charter school movement as new civil rights movement
"Stam, who is white and sponsor of the House version of the charter school legislation, bristled at the implication that Senate Bill 8 would lead to segregation. He told Wainwright that the charter school movement has the support of several prominent African-Americans who see school choice as a way of saving black children from sub-standard education."
4/7/11 Smart structure
"I agree that critical services need to be delivered in the most cost-efficient ways and I believe the current structure of Smart Start is the most efficient way to achieve its unparalleled results for young children. The local engagement of volunteers and county leaders that are the hallmark of Smart Start doesn't happen when government money goes directly from the state to individual programs."
4/7/11 Dissecting data
"Yevonne Brannon correctly notes in that same article that other positive effects of diversity cannot be detected with these data. Still other writers correctly note the need to account for the effects of socioeconomic status."
4/7/11 An unjustified turn toward high-poverty schools
"We should keep the diversity policy, or something very much like it. High-poverty schools have been studied extensively, throughout the nation, from a variety of angles and approaches, at different levels of rigor, and the answer is clear: avoiding them is a good idea."
4/7/11 Diversity policy supporters accuse Wake of "treachery" in OCR response
"Supporters of Wake County's old school diversity policy are going on the offensive in attacking the latest response to federal investigators justifying the change made by the school board majority."
4/6/11 Wake school board accused of 'cherry-picking' data
"Members of the community accused Wake County school district leaders of "cherry-picking" data to support their contention that busing for diversity was unfair to underprivileged students during the public comment portion of the school board meeting Tuesday."
4/6/11 Skewed by Civitas
"Staff from Civitas Institute has been providing what they call "educational meetings" for legislators with this skewed data, and have also been pushing for an end to Smart Start. Civitas bills itself as a non-partisan, tax-exempt organization. Tax exemption carries along with it the prohibition from any and all lobbying activities. As such, these meetings must come to an immediate halt."
4/6/11 Michelle Rhee: Education reform huckster
"You'd think this would be good news. But like TV evangelists, education reformers peddling miracle cures often exaggerate others' sins."
4/6/11 Addressing underutilized traditional calendar and year-round schools
"Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata is recommending two vastly differently approaches to deal with under-enrolled schools."
4/6/11 Halifax Smart Start program faces chopping block
"Talk of spending cuts as state lawmakers grapple with a nearly $2.4 billion budget gap prompted the decision to shut down a Smart Start program in Halifax County."
4/6/11 NC charter school overhaul bill back in committee
?"Debate over a charter school expansion bill written by Republicans is picking up again at the North Carolina General Assembly, this time with more accommodations to opponents."
4/6/11 Gorman: New plan won't cut current teacher pay
"Current Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools teachers won't take a pay cut under a proposed performance-pay plan, Superintendent Peter Gorman said Tuesday."
4/5/11 Wake school board to review budget proposal today
"Wake County school board members and the public will have a chance today to go over a budget proposal that copes with funding cuts while still sparing teacher jobs and stating new programs."
4/5/11 Students who shine
"Good news may be in short supply among North Carolina school systems facing the budget ax. But that makes the bright spots stand out all the more - for instance, the findings from Project Bright IDEA."
4/5/11 Neil Riemann on Wake's "bad arguments" to justify ending the diversity policy
"Neil Riemann, an attorney and critic of the Wake County school board's elimination of the diversity policy, says school leaders are making "bad" and "shoddy" arguments to federal investigators to justify the district's actions."
4/5/11 Northern Wake Republican Club snubs Debra Goldman
"In a brief interview Monday, NWRC President Heather Losurdo said Goldman, the board vice chairwoman, wasn't invited to attend. Losurdo explained that the group wanted to hear from the school board members who supported moving ahead with community schools."
4/5/11 Wake school board talks Tata's budget proposal
"The Wake County Board of Education is expected to discuss Superintendent Tony Tata's proposed budget during the board's regular meeting on Tuesday night."
4/5/11 Wake might change schedules of 14 year-round schools
"Most of Wake's year-round schools operate on multiple tracks in which students are split into four groups with different schedules. Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata recommended today allowing principals at underenrolled year-round schools be given the flexibility to switch to a single track for the 2011-12 school year with all students on the same schedule."
4/4/11 Gov. Perdue and other Democrats to attend Wake school board election fundraiser
"Gov. Bev Perdue and several other Democratic Party leaders are scheduled to attend a Thursday fundraiser in Raleigh for a group that's hoping to wrest control of the Wake County school board away from the Republican majority."
4/4/11 County commissioners to vote today on taking over acquisition of new school sites
"Based on this handout, it would still be up to the school system to identify target rings for where to look for new school sites. But it would be the county that would take the lead in finding site, in consultation with school staff."
4/4/11 Tony Tata in Philadelphia Inquirer article on non-traditional superintendents
"Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata is featured in a Philadelphia Inquirer article looking at the rise of non-traditional educators as superintendents."
4/3/11 Wake school board to OCR: Diversity policy was unfair
"The Wake County Board of Education released data last week that calls the school system's former busing for diversity practice into question, alleging it failed to close the achievement gap between white and minority students and placed "unfair burdens" on poor students."
4/3/11 L.A. billionaire's money and ideas may leave mark in Wake
"The fortunes of Wake County public schools in future years could rise or fall on the educational theories and donated dollars of a California billionaire who is devoting chunks of his fortune to education reform."
4/3/11 Samuelson: Teachers may help shape pay plan if they lose ability to reject it
"N.C. Rep. Ruth Samuelson, who introduced a controversial bill to let the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board launch performance pay without teacher approval, said Saturday she believes that bill will motivate teachers to get involved in shaping a good plan."
4/2/11 Smart spenders
"There is no agency in the state of North Carolina as fiscally responsible as Smart Start. Smart Start reverted only $1,000 last year. DSS reverted $12.7 million that could have been spent on the 30,000 children on waiting lists for subsidy services in our state."
4/2/11 Logic lacking
"Since holes in the logic of Civitas writers are so easily found, I wonder why you regularly give them such a prominent platform."
4/2/11 Quality counts
"Andrew Henson of the Civitas Institute argued for more efficiency in North Carolina's early childhood education programs ("Smart Start efficiency not efficacy in question," March 29 Point of View), but it is clear that he doesn't understand what makes these programs successful."
4/1/11 Wake busing statistics in the N&O: Remember the three kinds of lies?
"That was one strange banner headline on the front page of the N&O today: "Data hint how far may tell how well bused students do." (I see they've changed the headline online.) The odd phraseology is perhaps due to the fact that the "data" discussed in the story under it, as the headline writer certainly recognized, is presented as meaning one thing about the Wake schools diversity policy when it plainly means something else entirely."
4/1/11 Wake school officials report on busing, academics
"Supporters of Wake County's former student assignment policy, which bused students to improve socioeconomic diversity across the system, are scrambling to respond to new data released this week that suggest that the diversity policy may have had a negative effect on the educations of minority students."
4/1/11 Outriders
"The boards' majority bloc claims to have had no such intent, but it promptly got to work on devising an attendance zone system under which the creation of high-poverty schools was a clear risk."
4/1/11 No student surprise
"But as the school board is well aware, the diversity policy is based on income, not race. Low-income students are more likely to be bused longer distances to avoid concentrations of low-income students in schools. So of course low-income black students are more likely to be bused longer distances than higher-income black students!"
4/1/11 The Follies
"Here is something for the folks negotiating charter school legislation to consider-a national study released this week raises serious questions about one widely acclaimed charter program."
4/1/11 Teachers group takes on Republican businessman
"The North Carolina Association of Educators has called for a boycott of stores owned by Raleigh businessman Art Pope, saying he poses a threat to the state's public schools."
4/1/11 Wake superintendent talks bus safety, teacher diversity
"During his first weekly media briefing on Friday, Wake County public schools Superintendent Tony Tata stressed the need for improved bus safety and creating more schools dedicated to science and global studies."
