 |  |  |
Sept. 16-30, 2010, News Archive
9/30/10 Break from diversity policy may have cost Wake $10.3 million magnet grant
"Wake County School Board member Kevin Hill says the board's decision to eliminate diversity from its student assignment policy may be why the U.S. Department of Education did not to award Wake a $10.3 million grant for magnet schools Thursday."
9/30/10 Feds deny Wake's magnet grant
"Their decisions have caused a nationally recognized school system to be called into question," said Yevonne Brannon, chairwoman of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, a community group that opposed the elimination of the diversity policy. "I don't think the federal government was going to hand over millions of dollars when our judgment is in question."
9/30/10 Teacher turnoff
"However, if our current school board leadership is such a group of visionary reformers, why is their focus laser-sharp on (1) dismantling the diversity policy and (2) paying off election supporters with selective reassignments?"
9/30/10 Speculating on why Wake didn't win the magnet grant
"Brannon acknowledged the $1.8 million grant that Wake received last week for the teacher merit pay program at Wilburn Elementary. But she says that program was instituted under the watch of the prior board."
9/30/10 The embarrassing spiral continues
"All one can say is "heck of a job, Ronny and Johnny!"
9/30/10 CMS board, families seek answers on changes
"Parents also are scrambling to figure out the impact on their lives - from whether to buy houses in areas where school lines may be redrawn to figuring out their next move if their child's school is closed."
9/30/10 Department Awards $100 Million in Magnet School Grants
"Magnet schools play an important role in providing public school options for parents and in diversifying public schools," Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said."
9/30/10 Wake County School Board leaders Margiotta, Tedesco state their case
"We need the public to understand this is a work in progress," Margiotta says."
9/30/10 In Louisville, a new turn in school integration
"Elementary schools in white neighborhoods here are whiter now, and those in the black neighborhoods are blacker."
9/29/10 CMS picks 12 schools for possible closure
"Twelve schools, including some of Charlotte-Mecklenburg's most popular magnets, could close next year with thousands of students reassigned under a sweeping list of recommendations the school board hopes to approve by Nov. 9."
9/29/10 CMS shakeup: Wow
"I heard from people who are about to buy homes and want to know where new boundaries will land. Parents with kids in magnets slated to change want details of what will happen to their kids."
9/29/10 GSIW receives Defenders of Justice Award
"Great Schools in Wake has worked with remarkable skill, tenacity and inclusiveness to inform the debate and promote real and positive solutions to the many challenges that confront the Wake County schools," said Chris Hill, director of the Justice Center's Education & Law Project, in the press release."
9/29/10 Complaining about making changes now in the zone boundaries
"Is the Wake County school board's student assignment committee moving too quickly to make changes to the draft assignment map?"
9/29/10 Land-use policies shape schools
"There is no magic wand to resolve the school-busing-for-diversity debate for the upcoming school year, and any near-term school board effort at neighborhood school attendance districts will tend to be similarly segregated."
9/29/10 Map shifts about 4,200 Wake students
"In addition, two powerful Republican county commissioners, of the same party of the board majority, showed only muted support for the school board in recent days, with Chairman Tony Gurley openly questioning their methods."
9/29/10 Meeker school plan gets a rise
"I never envisioned this group as one reviewing legalities of the plan," he said. "My overriding concern is that I just feel like there's such a lack of meaningful dialogue ... and we have to help find a way to get back to that."
9/28/10 Understanding the complaint filed against the Wake County schools
"For those looking to get a real grasp on the Title VI complaint filed by the NAACP and others against the Wake County school board, we have posted the complaint along with an appendix and four separate exhibits filed with it. Just click on any of the links below to view the documents."
9/28/10 Voters grill Wake commissioner candidates about school assignment policy
"Members of the Wake County Board of Commissioners turned out for a candidates' forum in Raleigh Monday night, but the No. 1 question was about another board - the one that runs Wake County's public schools."
9/28/10 Luxury of choice
"How could parents choose a house not knowing for sure where their children would attend school? Let's put the question to parents who are struggling to hang on to their homes, facing a forced relocation because they have lost their homes or living in subsidized affordable housing. Does Goldman know or care what percentage of Wake County parents have the luxury of pondering this dilemma?"
9/28/10 Voters ask candidates what they'll do about schools
"Incumbent and aspiring members of the Wake County Board of Commissioners joined the debate over Wake's public schools Monday night, with Democrats bashing the sitting school board and Republicans offering only qualified support."
9/28/10 Panel proves proposed Wake school map is 'fluid,' voting for changes
"Exactly how many areas and students wound up in different proposed zones was unclear after the meeting."
9/28/10 Improving Wake's suspension policy
"Recently the Wake County Board of Education voted to change its definition of long-term suspension and give the superintendent authority to reduce the length of mandatory long-term suspensions for individual students when mitigating factors exist."
9/28/10 Meeker wants panel to scrutinize school reassignments
"Meeker and Knightdale Mayor Russell Killen want mayors countywide to recruit citizens with educational or legal experience to meet and determine whether the preliminary assignment plan "complies with state statutory and constitutional standards," Meeker said."
9/28/10 Debate kicks off Wake's election season
"Democratic candidates vocalized their concern about the new board majority's direction more bluntly. Rao said, "We will not build an innovation economy with what we are doing on the school board." And, in regards to Wake county schools losing their accreditation, Mr. Mial said, "In the military that's what we refer to as a no-go."
9/28/10 Looking for the best assignment plan
"It is now clear after ten months on the job that the members of Gang of Five majority on the Wake County Board of Education either didn't understand how difficult it would be to develop a new student assignment plan for the largest school system in North Carolina or really didn't care as long as they dismantled the current one."
9/27/10 4,100 Students Prove ‘Small Is Better' Rule Wrong
"What makes Brockton High's story surprising is that, with 4,100 students, it is an exception to what has become received wisdom in many educational circles - that small is almost always better."
9/27/10 School plan draws fire for creating uncertainty
"People feel that the rug has been pulled from beneath them," Williams said. "They are saying, 'This is not what we voted for.'"?
9/27/10 Debating the elimination of base school assignments
"Will the issue of whether to have base schools hold up adoption of a new student assignment model for the Wake County school system?"
9/26/10 Attacking neighborhood schools and asking for forgiveness
"The comparison between Jim Crow racial segregation and the Wake County school board majority's plan for community-based schools was heavily stressed at Saturday's NAACP news conference."
9/26/10 NAACP takes Wake to feds
"The complaint, filed late Friday, is part of an effort to block the new school board majority from moving forward with assigning students under a neighborhood zone system that would replace a diversity-based plan."
9/26/10 Critical accreditation
"I watched as every school decided I needed even higher scores on other entrance exams and was ineligible for scholarships since my high school diploma "didn't count."
9/26/10 Complaining about the school board members from New Jersey
"If it was so good they would have instituted it there. They didn't. This is our school system."
9/26/10 NAACP complaint focusing on Garner and Stough reassignments
"Will the reassignment of the Garner High and Stough Elementary students be the Achilles heel for the Wake County school board majority's move to community-based schools?"
9/25/10 Federal civil rights complaint filed against Wake schools
"The complaint cites actions ranging from student reassignment changes made this year by the new board to the new assignment plan being developed to how minority students are disproportionately disciplined."
9/25/10 NAACP files complaint against Wake County schools
"The complaint asks the U.S. Justice Department and the Office of Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education to overturn an effort by a five-member majority on the Wake County Board of Education to replace a decade-old student assignment policy that included a focus on socioeconomic diversity."
9/25/10 NAACP files complaint over Wake Co. schools
"We've prayed, we've talked, we've walked, we've tried nonviolent civil disobedience," the Rev. William Barber, head of the state NAACP, told The Associated Press before a Saturday news conference to announce the complaint. "We have tried every other option."
9/25/10 Forums to air views on Wake school policies
"The direction of the Wake County school system and the elimination of the diversity-based student assignment policy will be a focus of a pair of forums next week for candidates for the county Board of Commissioners."
9/25/10 Right ‘choice'
"It is possible that the confrontation between the Wake County school board and AdvancED, a Georgia-based accrediting agency, was the result of overreaching on both sides."
9/25/10 Words, meet actions
"And she voted against a substitute motion to include student achievement as a factor in the revised Student Assignment Policy. Her actions speak louder than her words."
9/25/10 Challenge met
"A dramatic reduction in long-term suspensions, some for as long as seven or eight months, will surely improve the dismal statistics for high school graduation rates."
9/24/10 Wake schools to meet with accreditation team
"After a national organization that accredits high schools threatened to strip Wake County schools of accreditation, school district officials said Friday that they would comply with a review by the group."
9/24/10 Schools will work with AdvancED
"Facing the possible loss of accreditation of Wake County high schools next week, school board members grudgingly agreed Thursday to turn over information for a sweeping review of the district's policies."
9/24/10 State NAACP accuses school board majority of arrogance for not cooperating with AdvancED
"In a press release today, the NAACP argues the delay turning over the records requested by AdvancED shows the "delinquent, arrogant response of the Board." The NAACP urges Wake to "start working together with international educational consultants and groups who want to advance excellence in education in Wake."
9/24/10 AdvancEd questioning Wake's resistance to accreditation review
"AdvancED is apparently perplexed by why the Wake County school system is being so resistant to the special accreditation review."
9/23/10 Agency threatens to remove Wake schools' accreditation
"It's pretty serious, isn't it?" said board member Keith Sutton. "I think we need to stop playing with these folks and comply, give them what they ask for." Member Carolyn Morrison said the letter from AdvancED was "frightening," and disagreed with the board's decision to discuss the matter in closed session."
9/23/10 School board replies sharply
"In a letter responding to far-reaching questions from Advancing Excellence in Education Worldwide, orAdvancED, school board attorney Ann Majestic accused the group of stepping beyond its authority to accredit individual Wake high schools."
9/23/10 Wake schools win $1.8 million federal grant
"The Wake County school system has won a $1.8 million federal grant that will allow it to continue a pilot program offering teacher merit pay at a high-poverty North Raleigh school."
9/23/10 Bad medicine
"Why the push? Board Chairman Ron Margiotta and his sidekick, board member John Tedesco, acknowledge a goal of a new plan (thus far a model with 16 zones) in place early won't be easy. So why aren't they listening to McLaurin, who cautioned of the rush, "It's a mistake. It's got to be thoughtful and thorough."
9/23/10 Dramatic increase in Wake County's school population pinpoints prime issue
"Let's hope, as the majority proceeds implementing its "neighborhood school" philosophy, that it keeps in mind something else: a dramatic change in assignments might lead to an unforeseen need to build even more schools in some areas. (One benefit of the diversity policy was maximizing use of existing school buildings.) That could mean unpredictable costs."
9/23/10 A positive step
"The student assignment plan is too important to rush through and I encourage all Board of Education members to give Alves' approach serious consideration."
9/23/10 Organization threatens to strip Wake schools' accreditation
"A national organization that accredits high schools says it could strip Wake County schools of accreditation because of the "openly defiant" stance school district officials have taken toward a review by the group."
9/23/10 Agency Threatens to Pull Wake Schools Accreditation
"Unfortunately, the openly defiant nature of your correspondence makes engaging in the collegial process of accreditation services difficult. As I stated in our phone conversation, the Board's refusal to comply with our requests is in direct violation of the AdvancED Policies and Procedures for Accredited Schools and constitutes grounds for dropping the accreditation of the Wake County Schools."
9/23/10 Mapping de facto segregation in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
"After boasting one of the nation's most successful mandatory busing plans to desegregate the district's schools, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) has once again become increasingly segregated."
9/22/10 Wake schools question accreditation review
"Wake County school officials are accusing an accreditation agency of going beyond its authority by conducting a special review of all the major decisions made by the school board majority since December."
9/22/10 The integration report
"On September 24, 2009, with the support of Chicago Public Schools' then CEO Arne Duncan, a federal judge ended a thirty-year consent decree governing the district. 1 The shadow of the 2007 Parents Involved Supreme Court decision loomed over the judge's action, which quickly resulted in a significant policy shift for Chicago's extensive system of magnet schools. The magnet admissions process, long governed by race-conscious criteria, switched to a procedure that eliminated the consideration of race altogether, relying instead on socioeconomic indicators. This issue of TIR examines the story behind this policy change, and discusses the impact of the decision on Chicago's magnet and selective enrollment schools one year later."
9/22/10 Wake CARES urging people not to give money to the Wake Education Partnership
"Wake CARES is slamming the WEP and the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce for hiring Michael Alves to develop his own student assignment plan that factors in diversity through incorporating student achievement."
9/22/10 60,000 more students by 2020
"Wake County school board members, already grappling with overhauling the student assignment model, now also face the daunting prospect of more than $1 billion in new school construction over the next decade."
9/22/10 Partial plan on reassignment by 2011 in works
"Members of the board's minority faction, who are already upset that diversity is not part of the assignment equation, objected to the majority trying to push up completion of the plan."
9/22/10 Waiting for word on the federal magnet grant
"Supporters of the old diversity policy have repeatedly argued since December that eliminating it would cost Wake the grant money. Charlotte-Mecklenburg kept getting rejected once it stopped busing for diversity so it stopped applying."
9/22/10 Top of the Morning
"Martinez has reassured us all that we were wrong. So create all the poor schools you want Gang of Five. Pack them in there as tight as you can. It turns out it simply doesn't matter."
9/22/10 Teacher bonuses don't raise test scores, study finds
"The experiment, in Nashville public schools, calls into question a key aspect of market-driven initiatives to improve schools that have become the vogue in some education circles."
9/22/10 Kozol: Schools' test obsession robs kids of joy
"Children of the privileged are being educated to interrogate reality," Kozol said at the Council for Children's Rights annual meeting. "Children of poverty are being educated to spit up regurgitated answers."?
9/22/10 TX: Religious leaders unite against proposed SBOE resolution on Islam
"Echoing the concern of many faith-based leaders, Carroll said the resolution is indicative of the current climate of hostility and may catalyze more anxiety about Muslims in both Texas and the nation."
9/21/10 Paying teachers for student performance doesn't raise test scores in Tennessee study
"Offering middle-school math teachers bonuses up to $15,000 did not produce gains in student test scores, Vanderbilt University researchers reported Tuesday in what they said was the first scientifically rigorous test of merit pay."
9/21/10 Blog: Wake board gets a picture of what a student costs
"The Wake County Board of Education met Tuesday for an extended work session -- 2 1/2 times its previous talking meetings -- to take up a range of business that used to be handled by board committees."
9/21/10 NAACP set for legal action against schools
"National NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous will be in Raleigh on Saturday for what's being billed as a major announcement on legal action against the Wake County school system for its new student assignment policy."
9/21/10 Starting Wake's new monthly board work sessions
"In terms of meeting times, school board chairman Ron Margiotta has talked about starting the regular meetings later in the day for people who can't come now because of the afternoon start time. He's also talked about moving the meetings outside of Central Office."
9/20/10 Great Schools in Wake Coalition holding fall forum
"Not surprisingly, the GSIW forum will support the group's position that maintaining socioeconomic diversity in student assignment in Wake County's schools would be a good thing. The title of the forum, "Costs and Consequences: What's at Stake for Wake," sums up GSIW's perspective."
9/20/10 Three years after landmark court decision, Louisville still struggles with school desegregation
"But life has been anything but simple for school officials here. They have steadfastly - or stubbornly, depending on the point of view - tried to maintain integrated classrooms despite the court's command that officials not consider race when assigning children to schools."
9/20/10 Lindy Brown and Phil Matthews split on school diversity fight
"The elimination of the Wake County's socioeconomic diversity policy is the central theme in this fall's battle for control of the Wake County Board of Commissioners."
9/20/10 District 2 rivals have divergent views on Wake schools
"Brown worries that Wake middle and high schools are having their accreditation questioned, and she would like to see more attention to matters besides the assignment debate."
9/19/10 School signs to change again
"For the second time in less than a year, city workers are racing to replace more than 700 inaccurate school zone street signs rendered obsolete because of changes to Wake County's bell schedules."
9/18/10 Attacking achievement gap at its root
"And it's essential that Charlotte embrace the common ground between them as we zig and zag grasping for solutions to one of our most indelible problems: troubled kids who become failures in school, breakers of the law and a drain on our economy."
9/18/10 On the table
"But this proposal will be something new, and the board majority could build unity instead of dividing this community by appearing to be interested in no ideas except for their own."
9/18/10 Poverty disregarded
"It does not. Whether Luddy was discussing the current existence of high-poverty schools or the weak performance of poor students in our current public school configuration, his claim is both illogical and wrong."
9/18/10 Achievement first
"Your recent school coverage quotes Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta claiming an interest in student achievement. I'm not convinced."
9/17/10 "Legal strategies for challenging resegregation" on tap at NAACP-led gathering in Raleigh next Saturday (Sept. 25)
"Civil rights groups have promised to take the Wake County Board of Education to court if its new student assignment plan - still a work in progress, if progress is the right word - would result in resegregation of the school system."
9/17/10 Tedesco feels RWCA's wrath
"It feels rather impudent at this point to ask people for their perspective when you dismantled a plan that had value in the community and nationally," said Lynette Aytch, a downtown resident who had applied for a vacant seat on the school board last year."
9/17/10 Wake leaders strike back on schools
"For months, the leadership of Wake County's business and education establishment has watched with alarm as a new school board assembled a student assignment policy that could lead to high-poverty schools in Southeast Raleigh."
9/17/10 Growth was the reason
"I would like Goldman to explain what exactly she means by better kids. In addition, before she initiates one of the biggest reassignments of students in Wake County's history, she should learn a little more about the reassignments of the past, including her own. Most reassignments were the result of coping with phenomenal growth and needing to fill under-capacity or, as was the case for Goldman's node, to fill brand new schools."
9/17/10 Using academic achievement to maintain diversity in student assignment
"As noted in today's article, there's a strong correlation with lower test scores, poverty and race. Balancing achievement levels in the new plan being developed by Michael Alves would likely result in zones that are more racially and socioeconomic ally diverse than those being considered by the school board."
9/17/10 Grilling John Tedesco and Dan Coleman at the RWCA meeting
"It would be an understatement to say that Wake County school board member John Tedesco and Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association President Dan Coleman faced a largely hostile crowd Thursday night."
9/17/10 Business groups will offer plan for Wake school assignments?
"Concerned that troubled and low quality schools will be bad for business, the Wake County business community will try to soften the effects a switch to neighborhood schools could have on schools in low income areas."
9/17/10 Bulls in the china shop
"It's too bad that someone didn't remind the narrow Wake County School Board majority of Powell's wisdom last fall when they began their ideologically driven crusade."
9/17/10 National NAACP will sue Wake school board, SE Raleigh leader says
"The national NAACP will announce next Saturday that it intends to file suit against the Wake County School Board over its decision to replace its school assignment plan based on ensuring economic diversity with one that promotes neighborhood schools."
9/16/10 Garner residents pleased with new student assignment plan after years of complaints
"Williams said most of the frustration with the old system came from long bus rides, and Williams says he understands busing to some degree is necessary, but parents tell him, "We want our kids in Garner schools." The new assignment plan will decrease busing and that's a good thing according to Williams."
9/16/10 Complaints aired over ‘push poll' in Wake County commission race
"The survey began with generic questions, Edmonds said, and then used stronger language in asking whether he favored "race-based schools" or neighborhood schools, whether he was a practicing Christian and whether he could vote for a Democratic candidate for county commission who supports "publicly funded abortions."
9/16/10 Wake school wars: Alves will return, and Goldman is listening (i.e., some good news)
"The take-home from this morning's press conference on Wake school issues: First, the business community - the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and the Wake Education Partnership - is bringing Michael Alves back into the process of creating a new student assignment plan for the schools; and second, Wake school board vice chair Debra Goldman attended, welcomed Alves' return and used the word "compromise" in discussing what she hopes Alves will help to accomplish."
9/16/10 Chamber, nonprofit hire 'controlled choice' schools consultant
"Chamber officials said that Alves, an expert with 35 years of experience crafting student assignment plans, will produce an assignment plan within the next two months."
9/16/10 Wake pressured to restore counseling
"Facing a tight budget, school administrators have pushed a plan to turn Project Enlightenment's parent counseling services over to Wake County Human Services. They're arguing that, given the tight budget, the program shouldn't be serving families that can afford the counseling themselves."
