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Mrs. Steel--that is wrong. I believe that most middle school offer band, but not all offer orchestra. For instance, Wakefield middle offers both, but part of my sub is assigned to Durant, which only offers band.
Durant also doesn't offer ANY foreign language, while Wakefield offers both French and Spanish. So it depends on which middle school you are at, but like I said I would imagine that most, if not all offer band.
Is there any correlation between the elementary and middle schools that offer these electives and the high schools they feed into being "the best" in the state/region/county? And if these schools are not allowed to offer "electives" then one would think if students are only allowed to take Math, English, History,Science and PE then there would be better scores in those categories (PE not included but kids would be in better shape) since there would be more of a focus on those classes. Maybe I am thinking way to into this and obviously I don't have the full story but based off of what this thread shows Orange County and Johnston County seem to actually have the better school systems of the three for educational diversity and not handcuffing schools financially. You would think that a county would rather overspend on it's kids educations.
This is why we left that particular middle school and went to a charter school where everyone takes a foreign language. It's not even an elective, but part of their curriculum.
Is there any correlation between the elementary and middle schools that offer these electives and the high schools they feed into being "the best" in the state/region/county? And if these schools are not allowed to offer "electives" then one would think if students are only allowed to take Math, English, History,Science and PE then there would be better scores in those categories (PE not included but kids would be in better shape) since there would be more of a focus on those classes. Maybe I am thinking way to into this and obviously I don't have the full story but based off of what this thread shows Orange County and Johnston County seem to actually have the better school systems of the three for educational diversity and not handcuffing schools financially. You would think that a county would rather overspend on it's kids educations.
Based on the concentric zone theory of urban growth you would think that to be true over the near term future (5-10) years. I understand why you are saying that. Urban growth can challenge schools from the center out. That has happened else where. The Baltimore/Washington area is a perfect example of. The Maryland side of DC is very different then the Virginia side. Virginia build very expensive housing on the other side of the river.
I grew up in Fairfax County schools. We had recorder from 2nd or 3rd grade on, and they had orchestra from 4th to 6th grade and band for 5th and 6th grade. Our elementary schools went to 6th grade.
Mrs. Steel--that is wrong. I believe that most middle school offer band, but not all offer orchestra. For instance, Wakefield middle offers both, but part of my sub is assigned to Durant, which only offers band.
Durant also doesn't offer ANY foreign language, while Wakefield offers both French and Spanish. So it depends on which middle school you are at, but like I said I would imagine that most, if not all offer band.
Raleighjayne, you have put my issues with WCPSS in a nutshell! The affluent school has a great curriculum, the other schools? Not so much.
So, lots of blather about countywide equity for all the kids but it is just not true.
This thing about schools getting so many allotments of "specials" teachers from NC state seems interesting. Can a school choose literacy and other remedial specialists over "enrichment" specialists like music and foreign language teachers? If so, it seems like the push with NCLB, would favor the remedial specials over the more traditional specials? It would create choices of wheter to hire a reading specialist to help 50 kids and eliminating foreign language instruction for 400 students. I wonder if part of the extra school tax in Chapel Hill goes to pay for additional "specials" teachers. (For instance, there is one science teacher in each elementary school.) I also wonder if NC state has some minimum "specials" teachers requirement for each school level.
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Concetric Zone
