May 21, 2009
           

Wake County tops urban school systems   

Wake County’s public high school students are more likely to graduate, enroll in college and succeed academically than any other urban district in the state, according to a new report released by Queens University of Charlotte.

The study by the Public Education Research Institute was designed to examine college intentions and performance of students attending public high schools in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system.

The study used data collected by the University of North Carolina system to compare Charlotte’s performance to Durham, Forsyth, Guilford and Wake counties. Students from Wake County outperformed the other districts in all categories from college intentions to graduation rates.

Aside from Wake’s ranking, the study was notable because it was published by the same organization that reported little difference between Wake and Charlotte when it came to test scores of poor and middle-class students in grades three through eight. The study was done in response to news stories about the academic benefits of school diversity.

But that report, released in February, did not look at high school performance and did not address school expectations. The new student directly tackles both issues.

“It appears, as a whole, the expectation for students in Wake County to pursue a 4-year degree is higher than it is for CMS students,” the report states. It also points out that Wake graduates about 700 more high school seniors than Charlotte even though the two systems have roughly the same total student enrollment.

The report measured the performance of students who applied to UNC system schools for the school year beginning in the fall of 2006.

Deeper cuts possible

Wake County school leaders are beginning to think the 5 percent budget cut they anticipated from the state might be too optimistic. If they are correct, the school district would need to shed hundreds of positions inside and outside of classrooms.

During a joint meeting of the school board and county commissioners Wednesday, Superintendent Del Burns and County Manager David Cooke agreed that the biggest risk to their 2009-2010 budget plans is rapidly deteriorating revenue projections at the state level.

The projected state budget gap for next has grown by more than $1 billion – to $4.6 billion – since Burns first proposed his “austere” 2009-2010 budget recommendations in March. Back then, the district told principals to expect no more than 95 percent of regular allocations with plans to add positions if the economy improved.

But a revenue shortfall of $4.6 billion at the state level would represent roughly 20 percent of the state’s overall budget. At those levels, education can’t escape significant cuts because the state spends more than half its budget on public schools, community colleges and the UNC system.

Burns told commissioners that a 5 percent cut would eliminate about 800 school system positions “and you can extrapolate the effect of larger cuts from there.”

But until lawmakers decide what categories of school spending will be reduced, the system doesn’t know what positions are most in jeopardy. The school board signaled its first strategy for dealing with the uncertainty this week when it agreed to start hiring teachers on temporary contracts beginning July 1.

Cooke is recommending the county provide the schools with $313.5 million in operating money next year. That’s less than the $316.8 million the school board requested and less than the county allocated schools last year. But it’s not a bad deal compared to cuts of 10 percent in other county agencies.

Cooke said his staff is predicting modest improvements in the economy during the next fiscal year, even though there are few indicators at the moment suggesting the end of the recession is near.

One school system: two different views

  Two recent forums held to discuss the direction of Wake County’s public schools drew decidedly different crowds last week in Cary and Raleigh.

The first forum, sponsored by the town of Cary, was titled “Climate for Student Success” and featured national speaker and author Elaine McEwan, who spoke about the traits of highly effective schools.
 
McEwan was followed by Amy Holcombe, who oversees a program in Guilford County called Mission Possible. The program is designed to attract quality teachers to high-poverty schools with up to $10,000 in incentive pay.

The forum in the town hall council chambers drew about 70 people including school administrators, elected officials and parents. The research presented by McEwan and  Holcombe did not address issues involving neighborhood schools or year-round school calendars.

But several parents, including representatives of groups that are critical of the district’s diversity policy, asked about the topics. At that point, both speakers said they personally preferred traditional school calendars and neighborhood schools, although they did not research the topic themselves.

The following night, about 125 people gathered at the McKimmon Center in Raleigh for a forum hosted by WakeUP Wake County and several other groups titled “Achieving Educational Excellence in Times of Challenge and Change.”

That forum clearly attracted some stalwart supporters of the district’s diversity policy, even though the agenda was focused mostly on the current economic crisis and the need to begin establishing world-class standards for Wake’s public schools.

Speakers at both forums were hopeful the gatherings would generate more discussion among people with conflicting views. But given the distinctly different tenor of the events, that could be a challenge.

Noteworthy…

…Author and educator Gerald Grant will speak at 7:30 pm tonight at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh about his book “Hope and Despair in the American City: Why there are no bad schools in Raleigh.” Grant strongly believes Wake County’s success is a result of its approach to school diversity. A review of the book can be found here.

… Wake County will receive $46.7 million in federal stimulus money in the coming year with almost all of it set aside for programs that deal directly with poor students and those enrolled in special education. Under the current plans, the system will use the money to greatly expand pre-kindergarten programs, math coaches for teachers, early screening of students with disabilities, and technology.

…Wake County received its answer this week about whether it could meet the state requirements for school furloughs by cutting one day from the instructional calendar. In short, the answer from Bill Harrison, CEO of the State Board of Education, goes like this: “No.” You can read the memo here. It won’t take long.

.... Combs Elementary School teacher René Herrick is the 2009 Wake County Teacher of the Year. Herrick has been teaching for five years, the last three at Combs Elementary. She is working on National Board certification. She will become an ex-officio member of Wake Education Partnership’s Board of Directors.

Wake Education Partnership is a 501(c)(3) non-profit created in 1983 to support public schools, in part by educating the community on current school issues. Most of its financial support comes from local business. Send comments to Tim Simmons, VP Communications, at  tsimmons@wakeedpartnership.org