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WRAL has a nifty tool to compare NC School systems on several different dimensions. As one might expect, the top performing system as measured by SAT scores is the Chapel Hill-Carrboro system that covers the greater UNC community. While their scores are impressive compared against the state average, it might be even more impressive that Wake County (the state's largest school system) ranks 3rd in the state across a much, much larger and diverse cross section of students. SAT scores, graduation rates, teacher turnover: Compare NC school systems by the numbers :: WRAL.com
...it might be even more impressive that Wake County (the state's largest school system) ranks 3rd in the state across a much, much larger and diverse cross section of students.
Can you compare the diversity using WRAL's tool? I didn't see a way to. CHCCS schools are pretty diverse, and much more so than some individual WCPSS schools because CHCCS still buses on economic diversity. As a whole I'd guess that Wake County, being the gigantic system it is, has more economic diversity, but I don't know the numbers. CHCCS high schools all have about 20-28% free and reduced lunch, which is one way of looking at that data. You can look it up at the Annie E Casey Foundation or GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community . The CHCCS district has 26.4% free and reduced lunch, WCPSS has 38.6%, Durham Public Schools has 63.6%, Mecklenburg has 54%, Northhampton Co Schools has 98%.
Can you compare the diversity using WRAL's tool? I didn't see a way to. CHCCS schools are pretty diverse, and much more so than some individual WCPSS schools because CHCCS still buses on economic diversity. As a whole I'd guess that Wake County, being the gigantic system it is, has more economic diversity, but I don't know the numbers. CHCCS high schools all have about 20-28% free and reduced lunch, which is one way of looking at that data. You can look it up at the Annie E Casey Foundation or GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community . The CHCCS district has 26.4% free and reduced lunch, WCPSS has 38.6%, Durham Public Schools has 63.6%, Mecklenburg has 54%, Northhampton Co Schools has 98%.
I do not believe that you can dissect the data in the WRAL tool.
That said, do you really believe that busing students into a strong base of university community students can ever really be considered as diverse as a countywide system in a county of over a million people?
I suppose that one could look at the data regarding graduation rate and college enrollment and make some observations. For example, despite the SAT scores, all systems are still losing students prior to their scheduled graduations and a percentage doesn't enroll in college at all. These people aren't likely to be even taking the SAT in the first place.
As for free lunch qualification, even that probably has some nuances depending on the family. For example, a grad or doctoral student with kids in a university environment may have kids that qualify for free or reduced lunch. This could be true for any community that has a significant university presence.
That said, do you really believe that busing students into a strong base of university community students can ever really be considered as diverse as a countywide system in a county of over a million people?
No, I said that I thought WCPSS as a whole had more diversity than CHCCS. But certain individual schools in Wake Co are less diverse than any school in CHCCS. CHCCS buses to even it out, so that there's not one "good" (aka wealthy school) and one poor school. A school like Green Hope High or Panther Creek has less economic diversity than Chapel Hill High or East or Carrboro. While a school elsewhere in WCPSS might have a very high free and reduced lunch rate. Wake Co has more highs and lows and CHCCS does its best to make it even across the board. They don't succeed at every level — there are some elementary schools that have more disparity, but the high schools are all within a few percentage points of each other.
I was surprised to see how relatively wealthy WCPSS was as a system, almost 20 percentage points fewer free and reduced lunch kids than Charlotte-Mecklenberg. WCPSS is closer to CHCCS than it is to Char/Meck in free and reduced lunch percentage.
No, I said that I thought WCPSS as a whole had more diversity than CHCCS. But certain individual schools in Wake Co are less diverse than any school in CHCCS. CHCCS buses to even it out, so that there's not one "good" (aka wealthy school) and one poor school. A school like Green Hope High or Panther Creek has less economic diversity than Chapel Hill High or East or Carrboro. While a school elsewhere in WCPSS might have a very high free and reduced lunch rate. Wake Co has more highs and lows and CHCCS does its best to make it even across the board. They don't succeed at every level — there are some elementary schools that have more disparity, but the high schools are all within a few percentage points of each other.
I was surprised to see how relatively wealthy WCPSS was as a system, almost 20 percentage points fewer free and reduced lunch kids than Charlotte-Mecklenberg. WCPSS is closer to CHCCS than it is to Char/Meck in free and reduced lunch percentage.
Clearly the sample size and variety of high schools in a county like Wake or Mecklenburg is going to be much larger than a partial county system in a much smaller county.
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