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If this passes, Wake County is back to bussing to balance diversity. This takes the pressure off the school board to actually do something to improve academic outcomes for low-performing students.
If this passes, Wake County is back to bussing to balance diversity. This takes the pressure off the school board to actually do something to improve academic outcomes for low-performing students.
Smoke and mirrors. Improving academics for these students has proven extremely difficult. Throwing money at these schools has proven ineffective (have a look at Abbott Districts). Success has been seen where education was addressed at a community level. Bussing kids to other communities is counter-productive, regardless of what the feel-good crowd believes.
Excuse my ignorance, are schools based on address with this plan or is that now out the window?
I don't think it's out the window. And just remember that the plan for the upcoming year, 2013-2014 (which went back to address based assignments) was put in place by the same exact board who is coming up with the new, new plan for 2014-2015. So I have to imagine they will keep the address based assignments which were put back in place for 2013 after the choice plan. They are just going to try and improve on those (which are actually exactly the same maps as 2011-2012 with a few tweaks due to the opening of some new schools). So, even though it's the fourth plan in four years and i TOTALLY agree that all this uncertainty is frustrating and obnoxious, it's not as bad in reality as it sounds. If you look at it, we had:
1. 2011-2012 address based assignments
2. 2012-2013 choice plan- no school tied to an address
3. 2013-2014 back to same maps as #1
4. 2014-2015 probably same maps as #1 and #3 with some tweaks
Before anyone accuses me of defending this crazy school board and all the different plans, please know that I'm not a fan of all this change and uncertainty every year either. People want to know where their kids will go (myself included believe me). But I also realize that the vast majority of kids have actually stayed in the same exact school all 4 of these years. I know that for the kids and families it does affect, it can be devastating, but again, most kids have not moved. And from what I've read so far, they will continue the grandfathering again next year. So, I'm mostly speaking to newcomers who think Wake County kids go to different schools every single year based on threads like this. Sure, the plans change a lot, but for the most part, kids have stayed where they started for several years now.
Smoke and mirrors. Improving academics for these students has proven extremely difficult. Throwing money at these schools has proven ineffective (have a look at Abbott Districts). Success has been seen where education was addressed at a community level. Bussing kids to other communities is counter-productive, regardless of what the feel-good crowd believes.
So, we just forget about them entirely or something?
I realize that not all kids who are bused go from below grade level to Rhodes scholar, but I think there are more who benefit than don't. And I'm not just talking grades and SAT scores. Suggesting we force people to "stay on their side of town" reeks of "separate, but equal."
That won't fly in the South.
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So, we just forget about them entirely or something?
I realize that not all kids who are bused go from below grade level to Rhodes scholar, but I think there are more who benefit than don't. And I'm not just talking grades and SAT scores. Suggesting we force people to "stay on their side of town" reeks of "separate, but equal."
So, we just forget about them entirely or something?
I realize that not all kids who are bused go from below grade level to Rhodes scholar, but I think there are more who benefit than don't. And I'm not just talking grades and SAT scores.
Shuffling students from low-income neighborhoods to higher-income neighborhoods is a great way to forget about them. Since their test scores and graduation rates are hidden amidst their more affluent classmates, no need for the school district to make any further effort to address their unique needs.
After school programs, for example. Low-income students benefit from after school programs that offer homework help and cultural activities. In several cities, Catholic nuns partner with AmeriCorps and college work-study programs to run terrific after school programs. Studies show that the reading and math scores of these kids improve. Some make two or three years worth of progress in a year.
When students are shuffled off to assorted schools about town, they ride the bus home and watch TV or get involved in who knows what all in the neighborhood while their more affluent classmates are in involved in after school activities like chess club, dance classes, music lessons, etc. Cost and transportation make it difficult for bused kids to become involved in their schools after school activities..
Study after study points out that engaging parents in their children's education is a key factor for successful students. Parent-teacher conferences, school performances and carnivals, science fairs, volunteering in the classroom and on field trips, haunted houses, school dances, PTA, fundraisers... How does this work when one's children attend a school a half hour away? How does this work when the you think the teachers and other parents look down on you, on your family's cultural values?
All students benefit from being exposed to a wide range of possibilities for their lives. Hard to measure how busing helps here. But let's stick with what can be measured--grades, reading and math test scores, SAT scores, high school graduation rates. Is there evidence to show that the students who are bused do better than the ones who stay behind in their neighborhood schools?
I am not a Tea Partier, far from it. And I understand why busing was needed to rescue students from failing inner city schools. If there was solid evidence that busing improved outcomes for low-income students now, I'd be all over it.
Wake County has been busing students since the 70's. Surely, there is data to indicate that students who are bused are doing better than those who are left behind. But I've asked and Googled and have found no evidence that it does. I've seen several articles that there is a widening performance gap between low and higher income students. Access to technology may be a key factor here. Not sure.
We have an obligation to see that all our children receive the education they need to be successful in the world. We can't just dump a kid off at a different school and call 'er good.
Shuffling students from low-income neighborhoods to higher-income neighborhoods is a great way to forget about them. Since their test scores and graduation rates are hidden amidst their more affluent classmates, no need for the school district to make any further effort to address their unique needs.
After school programs, for example. Low-income students benefit from after school programs that offer homework help and cultural activities. In several cities, Catholic nuns partner with AmeriCorps and college work-study programs to run terrific after school programs. Studies show that the reading and math scores of these kids improve. Some make two or three years worth of progress in a year.
When students are shuffled off to assorted schools about town, they ride the bus home and watch TV or get involved in who knows what all in the neighborhood while their more affluent classmates are in involved in after school activities like chess club, dance classes, music lessons, etc. Cost and transportation make it difficult for bused kids to become involved in their schools after school activities..
Study after study points out that engaging parents in their children's education is a key factor for successful students. Parent-teacher conferences, school performances and carnivals, science fairs, volunteering in the classroom and on field trips, haunted houses, school dances, PTA, fundraisers... How does this work when one's children attend a school a half hour away? How does this work when the you think the teachers and other parents look down on you, on your family's cultural values?
All students benefit from being exposed to a wide range of possibilities for their lives. Hard to measure how busing helps here. But let's stick with what can be measured--grades, reading and math test scores, SAT scores, high school graduation rates. Is there evidence to show that the students who are bused do better than the ones who stay behind in their neighborhood schools?
I am not a Tea Partier, far from it. And I understand why busing was needed to rescue students from failing inner city schools. If there was solid evidence that busing improved outcomes for low-income students now, I'd be all over it.
Wake County has been busing students since the 70's. Surely, there is data to indicate that students who are bused are doing better than those who are left behind. But I've asked and Googled and have found no evidence that it does. I've seen several articles that there is a widening performance gap between low and higher income students. Access to technology may be a key factor here. Not sure.
We have an obligation to see that all our children receive the education they need to be successful in the world. We can't just dump a kid off at a different school and call 'er good.
And I'm suggesting that scores don't tell the whole story anyway.
I think that on paper? Neighborhood schools sound great!
In reality, you'd have to allot more to schools in poorer neighborhoods and count on parents from wealthier neighborhoods to donate money to achieve the desired effect in equal materials ALONE. And in equally-qualified teaching staff? You'd have to pay large incentive bonuses to get teachers to choose a neighborhood school in a low-income district with more struggling kids because it would be a far more demanding job.
Where's that money coming from?
I've already heard that people who can afford to funnel more cash into their kids' schools don't want West Cary schools getting less dollars than South Raleigh schools but that is EXACTLY what would need to happen to make all schools academically equal.
Socially equal? You'd never have that in all schools if you went neighborhood. Whether that's good or bad, I cannot say. Seems unfair to me. Kids can't help being poor.
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Of course, kids can't help being poor. But is it fair to rig the system so they stay that way?
Poor kids rarely have the access to computers and the internet that middle-income kids do. One of the things that we could do is is ensure that any school that has over say 35% FNR have computer labs (with low cost laptops perhaps) that are open until say 10 pm and on weekends. Maybe partner with a Boys & Girls Club or ? to do this.
The magnet school business also sounds like a great idea. Science and math magnet schools that have additional equipment, specialized teachers, smaller class size. Music and art magnet schools have been quite successful, or so I hear.
After school programs with AmeriCorps and work-study students to help with homework and projects.
Summer school to help students catch up to grade level in reading and math.
I think you underestimate teachers. I think many, especially the younger ones, would sign up in a heatrbeat to teach in innovative schools that made a real difference in children's lives. Wake County could partner with Teach for America whose mission is to "eliminate educational inequity by enlisting high-achieving recent college graduates and professionals to teach" for at least two years in low-income communities throughout the United States.
Wealthier neighborhoods have been subsidizing the education of kids from poorer neighborhoods since forever and I suspect they will continue to do so.
Just to be clear, I am all in favor of diverse student bodies. I think everybody benefits. Draw the boundaries, create magnet schools that attract students, integrate low income housing into middle income areas, whatever.
What I don't think is working is busing kids to achieve diversity and then naively believing that the academic success (or lack thereof) problem is solved.
Which one of us knows this area better? Me, or you?
Preston Village isn't a good representation of the entirety of Wake County.
I'm just being a realist here. Nobody wants neighborhood schools ala Long Island.
Unless their neighborhood happens to be right beside the wealthiest schools in the district, of course.
I do not personally agree with busing kids across town against their will, but balancing them within small regions is logical.
Not quite sure how knowing the area changes the fact that there is no proof that busing improves performance.
If your contention is that exposing kids from low income areas to kids from higher income areas will broaden their horizons, then there must be historical data proving this theory.
FWIW, I grew up in a low income, urban environment. I know what it's like to be dirt poor. Guilt trips and cries os isolationism are not going to produce the results for kids from low income families. As has been stated earlier, it's the local community and families that will impact these children's future.
We are not going to agree on this one Meh and typing on an IPad is difficult, so, I am done.
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