Dec. 18, 2008

Reassignment plan heads to school board

Wake County school board members will start 2009 with public hearings on a new three-year reassignment plan expected to affect more than 25,000 students. A summary of the plan was presented to the board this week by the district planning department.

While the district’s diversity goals get much of the attention during reassignments, the vast majority of the moves are triggered by enrollment growth. The district hopes to open 10 new schools by 2011-2012 and each opening has a ripple effect on area neighborhoods.

Wake schools added about 3,700 students this year, a relatively modest amount after five consecutive years of enrollment increases topping 5,000 new students a year. The district has about 138,000 students total.

The public hearings by the school board in January will differ from the recent public meetings held by staff.  In a departure from past years, the staff made a point of seeking input. About 1,500 people participated in community meetings and more than 4,000 comments were left on the district’s web site. The feedback generated hundreds of changes before the final draft was presented this week.

Board members who present the plan in January will not engage in such give and take. As in past years, they are there only to take comments, some of which could be incorporated into the final plan, which is scheduled for approval in early February.

Upon further review…..

Rarely can a school board make one decision in isolation of another. When it tries, the resulting conflict often becomes another problem – except it’s bigger the next time around. The fate of the International Baccalaureate magnet program at Broughton High School is a good example.

Wake school board members spent almost three hours last week struggling to find a compromise involving the popular IB program. That’s much longer than the board spent on the topic when it decided roughly two months ago to keep and expand the program.

The decision to expand Broughton’s IB program seemed like an easy one at the time. It is popular and successful. Students, parents and especially teachers wanted to see it grow stronger. And it had plenty of backing.

But a few weeks later, parents realized roughly 600 students would need to be reassigned over the next three years to expand the IB magnet program. Some of those families lobbied just as hard to move the program out, which left board members wishing they had asked more questions earlier this fall.

In the end, the board voted 5-4 to phase out Broughton’s IB program over the next five years. Students cried, teachers publicly ridiculed the board’s decision and victorious parents politely slipped out of the building before celebrating.
 
Stripped of emotion, the decision was logical. Broughton’s academic standing isn’t likely to be hurt, reassigning fewer Broughton students reduces the moves at other schools, and Millbrook High -- where a new IB program will be phased in – could use the draw of a magnet.

But the decision could not be stripped of emotion. Instead, it was also a painful lesson. Rarely can a school board make one decision in isolation of another. 

The ripple effect of removing the IB magnet program at Broughton High School (center) touches several schools directly. With fewer students leaving Broughton, more students at Sanderson and Leesville high schools to the north will stay put. In addition, students along the Route 70 corridor will move to Broughton, reducing crowding to the west at Panther Creek High.

Click here for interactive Google map

International comparisons

The conventional wisdom about U.S. students is they rank near the bottom of most international comparisons. That’s not true, according to the results for the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. They do, however, have a long way to go before they reach the top.

The results of the exam, given every four years to students in grades four and eight, show the average U.S. score exceeds the international average in math and science.  Math scores have steadily increased since the test was first given in 1995. Science results have remained flat.

But the gap between U.S. students and those in top performing countries -- especially Asian students in countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore and China – is significant. U.S. students scored better than many students in eastern and western Europe as well as other developing nations.

Comparisons such as those offered by TIMSS are likely to get more attention in the future as districts such as Wake focus on graduating all students with globally-competitive skills. One particularly encouraging result of the 2007 exams singled out the work of Massachusetts and Minnesota, where students were specifically sampled. Both states developed more rigorous standards and curriculum in recent years and both easily outscored the U.S. average, suggesting rapid progress is possible. Click here for report.

Scores and rankings of selected countries:

4th grade math             8th grade math             4th grade science                8th grade science

Hong Kong (1)                 Chinese Taipei (1)           Singapore (1)                      Singapore (1)       
Singapore (2)                    Korea (2)                       Chinese Taipei (2)               Chinese Taipei (2)              
Chinese Taipei (3)             Singapore (3)                  Hong Kong (3)                    Japan (3)              
Japan (4)                           Hong Kong (4)                Japan (4)                            Korea (4)
U.S. (11)                           U.S. (9)                          U.S. (8)                               U.S. (11)

Noteworthy

….The State Supreme Court heard arguments this week on whether the school board has the right to require some students to attend year-round schools. The attorney for parents argued state law protects summer vacations as a property right. The district’s ability to carry out its proposed three-year assignment plan depends on winning the court decision.

…..The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards recently announced the certification of 197 teachers in Wake County this year. Wake has the second-largest number of certified teachers in the nation with 1,487. The national board program is designed to improve teaching by using a rigorous certification process.

…The school district has released a school-by-school list of budget cuts affecting supplies as well as a summary on its website. The district made $11.2 million in cuts due to declining state and local revenues. State and local officials have said more cuts are possible in 2009.

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