Wake County School Board Mtg Today

[TuborgP]

Originally Posted by raleighjayne

I still don't see where non-Title 1 schools have any sanctions other than amending their School Improvement Plan. And it doesn't seem that there are really any checks in place to make sure that the schools are following through. And I believe that SIPs need to be redone at least every 3 years anyway.

Another thing I am a bit confused about is why no middle or high schools are Title 1. I looked at the list of schools receiving Title 1 $ in NC and none of our middle or high schools are on there even though several of them are over the poverty threshhold. Each year most of our middle & high schools don't make AYP (that seems pretty standard across the state) but that doesn't really seem to mean anything.

As for this sentence: Yes I know I am giving fuel to the anti busing crowd but the search for the truth is just that laying the cards out as I see them regardless of the implications. This is a HUGE issue. So many people put the blinders on when it comes to things that don't match up with their beliefs or that could be used by the 'other side' in the argument. I'm with you--let's take an honest look at everything. I'm less concerned with what somebody else can use as ammunition in their arguments as I am in finding the truth of the matter. And more importantly, actually helping all of our kids achieve. So much is getting lost in the politics of it all.

As for the idea itself of manipulating AYP/NCLB, I've seen valid arguments both for and against the previous admin doing this. I don't know what I think about that, but I absolutely believe that they moved kids around to create the 'healthy schools' illusion. As long as overall school scores looked good, WCPSS was happy but unfortunately kids got lost in the shuffle.

The truth is somewhere in the middle and so is the solution. Everybody is so stuck on CMS vs Wake when it doesn't have to be either one. Like I said earlier, we all need to keep in mind that the people we are hearing from on both sides in the media represent the extremes. They have an agenda and while they might mean well they are missing the bigger picture. There's no give and take with those people and it's frustrating.

Most local districts squeeze their non title 1 low performing schools so that their parents are happy and feel good and because it would be royal chaos if some schools were allowed to fail and others got crushed. Many districts treat them all the same as far as sanctions go. Part of the push for performance based evaluations is that it puts the squeeze on all teachers and administrators. Remember NCLB via AYP measures sub group performance so if a school doesn't make AYP because a specific sub group failed that is an issue. Thus it might be said that a school district might try to maneuver higher performing affluent African American students into populations with lower achieving ones to boost sub group scores at a particular school. Has anyone ever heard or felt that happened anywhere?