Everyone Should Weigh in on Student Assignment

Two “Courses of Actions” for student assignment have been posted to the Wake County Public Schools web site.  According to Superintendent Tony Tata, the Courses of Action are 65-70 percent complete.  Upon closer scrutiny though, they are far less complete.  Only tentative elementary school assignments are available, and there are many more unanswered questions regarding assignment based on avoiding the creation of high concentrations of low performing students.

Yet, we are being asked to provide community feedback in order to ensure that the Student Assignment task force is on the right track so a final plan can be developed. 

According to the Wake County Public Schools web site:

"Blue" Course of Action

The Blue Course of Action is a community-based choice model with access to a full set of magnet schools. It redefines "base schools" from just a year-round and a traditional option to a broader list of four to six schools. It guarantees an "achievement choice" school for all students, while providing more elasticity to accommodate continuing enrollment growth.

"Green" Course of Action
The Green Course of Action seeks to build on current parent satisfaction by making improvements in several identified problem areas: more calendar consistency, streamlined and more consistent policies and practices, and balanced student achievement. The plan would revise criteria and policy regarding reassignment, transfers and grandfathering to provide a more stable learning environment.

In the Blue Course of Action description it states, “Studies in the United States have found that when schools must compete with each other for students because parents have more choices, that student achievement is slightly higher (Belfield & Levin, 2002). A controlled choice plan, because it leverages this concept and allows families to select from a number of available schools, should therefore be at least neutral and perhaps slightly advantageous in terms of overall student achievement."

However, other research argues exactly the opposite: that public school education is just the sort of thing that does NOT respond well to competitive, market-based approaches.  Market-based approaches work well for improving the quality of consumer goods, like cars or computers, but not for public education, which is supposed to provide EVERYONE with a quality education.  There shouldn't be winner and loser schools, or winner and loser students.

Whether you have children or grandchildren in the Wake County Public School System or not, please make the time to review the materials available.  Think about questions, such as:

• How well will each plan serve us in the future?  Will they accommodate growth?
• Is there a strong schools option for everyone? 
• How does each Course of Action address student achievement?
• Are we maximizing the use of educational funding to create a strong public school system that is vital to our local economy?

The online comment period will be active until Sunday, June 12 at 11:59 p.m.
   
"Suggestions on improvement will be reviewed, adjustments will be made as necessary, and then we'll take our final recommendation to the Board of Education in mid-June," Tata said. "This is the beginning of the next phase of the process."  

Don't abdicate your responsibility to weigh in on the current versions of the two Course of Actions!

Patty Williams is the coordinator for Great Schools in Wake, a coalition of WakeUp Wake County.

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See: Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education, Basic Books, 2010; and, Martha Minow, “Confronting the Seduction of Choice: Law, Education, and American Pluralism,” Yale Law Journal, January 2011.
 

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