August 7, 2009
Test scores up, but graduation rate flat
Almost 90 percent of Wake County’s public schools made solid academic growth in 2008-2009, according to a new round of data released Thursday as part of North Carolina’s school accountability program.
The good test results were expected following the release of scores two weeks ago that are part of the federal accountability program known as No Child Left Behind. Thursday’s release, however, includes the results for individual schools.
More than 60 schools in Wake County posted passing rates of at least 80 percent, including 12 schools where passing rates exceeded 90 percent. The higher passing rates were helped this year by a state requirement that students to take the test a second time if they fell just short of passing it on the first attempt.
But the state model also measures academic growth to determine, in effect, if kids are learning a year’s worth of material in 180 school days. The growth calculations are not tied to the new retesting rule.
More than 88 percent of Wake’s schools met the academic growth goal established by the state compared to 84 percent of the schools last year. No school was considered low-performing. Click here to view passing rates and growth goals for individual schools.
The federal and state accountability programs measure progress in different ways even though both rely on the same end-of-grade and end-of-course test results. The different approaches often confuse the public, but in both cases the basic message was the same for 2008-2009: Student achievement made solid, although not spectacular, progress.
Wake County’s graduation rate, however, continued to fall flat. Using the traditional four-year graduation rate, Wake County’s graduation rate moved from 78.8 percent to 78.6 percent. More troubling, the four-year rate has declined several percentage points since 2005-2006. The state average during that time has increased several points to 71.7 percent.
The state also reports a five-year-graduation rate for school systems. That rate remained virtually unchanged in Wake County at 81.6 percent.
School board candidates drop out of two key districts
The first round of school board elections on October 6 has taken on more importance following decisions by two candidates to drop out of the race.
The changes mean only two candidates will be running for the District 7 seat of west Raleigh and Morrisville. The District 9 seat of western Wake County is also down to two candidates. With only two candidates running in each district, a winner for at least two of the four contested school board seats will be determined October 6.
The District 7 race features Deborah Prickett and Karen Simon. The race in District 9 seat is between Lois Nixon and Debra Goldman. Click on the candidate names to view their web sites.
It will be slightly more difficult for a candidate to win outright in the District 1 race in northeast Wake County. That contest features Rita Rakestraw, Chris Malone and Debbie Vair.
District 2 voters in southeast Wake County will select from five candidates: Cathy Truitt; John Tedesco; Chris Augustine; Carlene Lucas; and Horace Tart. Tart is the incumbent.
A runoff election is scheduled for November 3 if no candidate gets 50 percent of the vote on October 6.
Wake Education Partnership and local chambers of commerce will co-sponsor candidate debates in each district during September. Click here to see times and dates for each event.
In another noteworthy change involving school board members, Keith Sutton was selected to replace Rosa Gill in District 4. Gill resigned last month to take a seat in the state House vacated by Dan Blue.
Sutton, 39, is the legislative affairs program manager for the North Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. He is a past president and chief executive officer of the Triangle Urban League.
The school board has already started the process of replacing Beverly Clark, who is resigning her seat August 12. Clark represents central Raleigh.
Reassignments delayed, some crowding likely
Slower enrollment growth and the county’s inability to finance new construction means the three-year student assignment plan approved by the school board this year will be delayed at least two years in northeast Wake County.
School system leaders this week said construction at Forest Ridge High, Rolesville Middle and Walnut Creek Elementary will be delayed two years. Enrollment growth won’t stop entirely, however, so some crowding seems inevitable and modular classroom trailers are possible.
The news is likely to get a mixed reception from parents who aren’t particularly fond of reassignments or crowded schools. But the bigger concern for the district is the growth that follows next year.
Enrollment growth will be dampened this year partly by a new state law requiring kindergarten students be five years old by August 31. The old deadline was October 16 and the change means roughly 1,200 kindergarteners in Wake County will need to wait a year. But they will be back the following year – and so will a whole lot more students if the economy picks back up.
That makes school planners anxious because the recession not only delayed current building programs, it also slowed planning for new schools that take several years to complete. To some degree, the bust-boom cycle of enrollment and construction is just an inevitable part of living in a growing county such as Wake.
But when students start pouring into classrooms in 2011 and 2012 and there is nowhere to put them, it would be wrong to say it’s a surprise. The time to answer that surprise would be now, but the answer involves a whole lot of construction money. That’s not going to happen when the system is facing budget cuts in current classrooms.
Noteworthy…
… State lawmakers finally approved a 2009-2010 budget this week, which means local schools (sort of) know how much money they have to work with. The problem for the schools is that legislators ultimately could not decide exactly where to cut education funding, so they left it to the schools to figure out how to cut $225 million statewide. Job losses are likely and larger classes are certain. Specific figures aren’t available yet from local school officials.
….Wake County school officials admitted this week they were wrong in the way they handled some transfer requests for parents who choose to leave schools that did not meet federal standards under No Child Left Behind. Rather than granting a permanent transfer to another school as other systems do, Wake County made parents reapply for a transfer every year. The decisions involved only 262 parents and could be traced primarily to transportation issues. But following parents complaints and a discussion with state officials, administrators said they will no longer force parents to reapply for transfers.
…. A neighborhood school program for poor students in Guilford County featured earlier this year at an education forum in Cary appears to have come up short in the newest round of test data. Called Mission Possible, the program works to improve student achievement by attracting better teachers to high-poverty schools with incentive pay. Despite some initially encouraging results, nine of the state’s 75 low-performing schools were part of the Mission Possible program. About 30 Guilford County schools participate in the Mission Possible program. They have attracted at least $10 million in grants the past few years, according to the program’s web site.
……. Hunter Elementary teacher Carol Wooten was one of 87 science, math, and engineering teachers recently named by President Obama to receive the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Wooten is a fifth-grade teacher at Hunter Elementary magnet school.
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