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It's funny. Last night's actions violate a number of the "Required Actions" outlined by AdvancEd Special Review Team in order for WCPSS to maintain accreditation status.
Is WCPSS in danger of losing accreditation?
Will community activists protest for the good of our students?
Will Steven Colbert run a segment on Communism in Wake County?
Or is this all acceptable now based on political party in power?
I'm very glad to hear they will go back to making sure every address has a base school and looking at other changes to this new plan. It just doesn't make sense not to!
I don't have a problem with an address having a base school so long as a student is guaranteed a spot in that school once he's in it. The problem in the past was that students were frequently reassigned, sometimes multiple times in the span of a few years. The corollary to allowing new, magnet or private school students to transfer back to their address based school is that some of the students in that base school have to be transferred out to make room for them.
I'm very glad to hear they will go back to making sure every address has a base school and looking at other changes to this new plan. It just doesn't make sense not to!
The other day I looked at the pdf that was posted in here a week or two ago that broke down how many kids were enrolled in each school, how many were waitlisted, and how many open seats there were. One of the things that really confused me were the number of schools that had kids on the waitlist, but then said there were open seats available at the school. Why in the world would that be the case?
Quote:
Republican board member John Tedesco joined a party-line vote early in the meeting against taking up the directive, while objecting to what he said was its hasty introduction.
However, he conceded implicitly that the action resembled the GOP-led board’s wholesale changes in the assignment policy when they took office in 2009.
Hmm yes, kind of hard to complain when people are following your own playbook
The other day I looked at the pdf that was posted in here a week or two ago that broke down how many kids were enrolled in each school, how many were waitlisted, and how many open seats there were. One of the things that really confused me were the number of schools that had kids on the waitlist, but then said there were open seats available at the school. Why in the world would that be the case?
I asked the same question. They were still working through the waitlists when those numbers were released.
As for JT's quote. I agree it's the same kind of action that he and the Reps took in 2009. But his words were: "Learn from my mistakes." He's absolutely right. Those actions were the Reps' downfall. The previous diversity policy assignment was not popular. 2 polls showed that, both of which were conducted by groups that were highly supportive of the old plan. People wanted change and that's why the Reps were elected in 2009. But they went about it the wrong way and it caused upheaval. Unfortunately I think that's the path we're headed down again. It's just too much turmoil.
Fix the issues with this choice plan and let's continue to monitor and adjust it as needed. I'd like us to actually get back to focusing on education not assignment.
It's funny. Last night's actions violate a number of the "Required Actions" outlined by AdvancEd Special Review Team in order for WCPSS to maintain accreditation status.
Is WCPSS in danger of losing accreditation?
Or is this all acceptable now based on political party in power?
This is a very good question. I was interviewed as part of a group invited to participate in the AdvancEd investigation. They kept stressing over and over how concerned they were by the 5-4 split votes and how unhealthy it was for a system to operate that way.
My guess is they won't say a thing about this now because the 5-4 split is in the right direction this time.
What on earth does a 5-4 board vote have to do with the quality of education being delivered in high school classrooms. This so-called accredidation process seems to have little to with accrediting the quality of education.
I don't have a problem with an address having a base school so long as a student is guaranteed a spot in that school once he's in it. The problem in the past was that students were frequently reassigned, sometimes multiple times in the span of a few years. The corollary to allowing new, magnet or private school students to transfer back to their address based school is that some of the students in that base school have to be transferred out to make room for them.
While I get that some students may get reassigned from year to year depending upon the population growth, that's just a part of the system. Meaning that base schools are there for students within a region/zone, so those living in the outer parts of the region/zone face that risk of reassignment while those in the middle don't. This would negate that whole premise of living a couple miles from a school but being assigned to a school 5-10 miles away from home due to a lottery. That's the only fair way to approach this, the choice should be in where you live not where you want your kid to go to school. I'm pretty sure that's how the school zoning worked for me when I was a kid (in CA and FL). My two cents (although I'm not too up on the previous/present system to begin with )
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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Are there parts of Wake County that are really that bad/poor that having neighborhood school boundaries would result in drastically uneven schools? I don't understand why they can't just have school boundaries and be done with it.
I came from a county school district (Fairfax County, VA) that was larger than Wake's and a bit wealthier, but there were "rich" sections and "poor" sections of the county which I'm guessing Wake has, too. Some schools (in the rich areas) have a better reputation than others (those in the poorer areas), and each year there is some kind of boundary study in order to even out schools with losing populations and to deal with the influx of newcomers. A very small percentage of people are redistricted each year.
And while I don't believe for a second that they don't gerrymander the boundaries to "even" things out a bit, the state of the districting of the schools is so much more stable than Wake's. Each and every address has a neighborhood school assigned to it, and that's it. That's the school you go to. There is some flexibility with magnet programs, IB, foreign immersion, etc. But that is it - none of this school choice or if my school is full I cannot go there.
I don't understand why Wake cannot operate the same way. It's not perfect, but it's got to be better than a constant state of chaos and uncertainty.
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