Colbert on Wake County Schools Integration Plan - funny but true? (high schools, live)

[coped]

Originally Posted by baybook

I took a look through those charts and also saw that performance in all student groups was better at magnet schools.

WHen I see stats like that I wonder what are they doing right that other schools aren't doing.

It's all in self-selection. The more motivated students/parents of whatever income bracket are more likely to pursue magnet programs, so there's better performance.

[FrankTheTank2]

How hard is it to get into a magnet elementary school? My wife is prego and I noticed our elementary school is one of the worst in the system.

[baybook]

Lottery

Originally Posted by FrankTheTank2

How hard is it to get into a magnet elementary school? My wife is prego and I noticed our elementary school is one of the worst in the system.

[chuckles34]

It really depends on the magnet, Frank. Is moving an option? Catholic/Christian schools?

[ex-burgher]

You can see the lottery results from last year here:
Magnet/Student Assignment Lottery Results

Some are shoe-ins , the better ones are harder but in all of them you have a good chance.

[FrankTheTank2]

Thanks ex.

Looks like our assigned elementary school is a Title I school so if I understand the rules properly, our kids would get some priority in the lottery system to go to a magnet school.

[NCgirl]

The Colbert piece was very funny!

In CMS it depends on where you live. I'm in Steele Creek which is a diverse (economically and racially) area so by default the neighborhood schools here are going to be a lot more integrated than schools in less diverse areas.

[chuckles34]

One other thing to keep in mind is the closer in to the center of the city you go, the more diversity you're going to get even in schools that feed from the "better" neighborhoods. Maybe not so much at the elementary school level, but definitely as you move into middle school and the school feeds from a larger geographical area. And definitely at the high school level. We're experiencing this right now.

[ex-burgher]

I highly recommend the Language immersion school programs, currently Smith Language Academy - but will be Waddell Language Academy next year - same program, same teachers and students, just a different name due to a move to a much better building!

[Nuke64]

CMS may not be a true neighborhood system, but it is much more so compared to Wake. It was a shock moving here from Wake County because in Wake, most all the High Schools are considered good. They do not issue like CMS does with Myers Park and Providence where every one is trying to go to those schools. Wake will head the direciton CMS, and the quality of education will suffer.