The Wake County school system didn't come out looking too well in new data released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.

The data from the 2009-10 school year indicated that Wake's white students accounted for 57 percent of the population and received 25 percent of suspensions, while blacks make up 24 percent of the student body and received 57 percent of suspensions. It's been noted in several media reports, including this article in The Christian Science Monitor.

It was one example of how the feds say that minority students across America face harsher discipline, have less access to rigorous high school curricula and are more often taught by lower-paid and less experienced teachers.

Was U.S. Education Arne Duncan trying to influence voters to back Wake County school board member Kevin Hill in the runoff election?

As noted in today's article by Jane Stancill, Duncan called the Oct. 11 election results "very positive" and said he's watching the runoff "very closely." He also said the elections "maybe an opportunity to move in a more positive direction."

The fact that Duncan promoted results that could lead to Democrats regaining the board majority prompted Republican board vice chairman John Tedesco to say that the secretary's visit to Raleigh was no coincidence.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is calling the recent Wake County school board election results that could put Democrats back in control "very positive" and saying he's "very, very closely" watching the runoff election.

Duncan was in Raleigh today to tout President Barack Obama's jobs bill. While at a press conference at Wake Tech, Duncan was asked about Wake's newly adopted student assignment plan.

"I don't know the details of the plan," Duncan said. "I do know that there was a recent school board election in Wake County. It was very positive. I know, I think there's one more seat up in a runoff and it's something I'm watching very, very closely.

Is it a sign of bias that federal civil rights investigators looking into Wake County's elimination of the diversity policy are holding Wednesday's community meeting at Martin Street Baptist Church?

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, the feds asked the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, one of the complainants, to find them a location. The site chosen by SCSJ has been one of the centers of opposition to ending the diversity policy.

“The Office of Civil Rights wanted to have a communitywide meeting,” said Anita Earls, SCSJ executive director. “They gave us the date and time and asked us to find a venue. The purpose is for them to listen to the experiences and the concerns of the community.”

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta is trumpeting the latest data being used to justify to federal investigators the elimination of the diversity policy.

In an interview Wednesday on the Bill LuMaye show on WPTF, Margiotta said "our staff has produced numbers and has produced results that show that the system we used in the past did not work." He says it shows the board is now focused on improving achievement for all students.

When Margiotta said the data in the OCR response letter was complied by staff, LuMaye said that means it was done by "those who may not be on board with the new policy." Margiotta agreed.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST FOR LINKS TO CHARTS COMPARING WAKE'S PERFORMANCE WITH THE STATE AND CHARLOTTE OVER TIME

Wake County school officials are publicly questioning their ability to get a fair review from civil rights investigators based on U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan's public criticism in the district's elimination of the diversity policy.

As noted in today's article, Wake's response letter to investigators from the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights notes the January letter to the editor that Duncan wrote to the Washington Post. In that letter Duncan wrote that "it is troubling to see North Carolina's Wake County School Board taking steps to reverse a long-standing policy to promote racial diversity in its schools."

"Setting aside the fact that the policy in question was intended to promote SES diversity, not racial diversity, the Board is concerned that Secretary Duncan has expressed an opinion about the the merits of the case pending against it, raising serious and legitimate concerns about the integrity of the current investigation," according to Wake's response.

The Wake County Democratic Party is looking ahead to this fall's school board elections while noting Wednesday's anniversary of the move away from the old diversity policy.

In a press release Wednesday, the Wake Democrats said that day was "the first anniversary of the Wake County School Board's historic vote to take this community down a path toward high poverty and high cost schools."  It was on March 23, 2010 that the school board majority passed the community-schools directive.

Much of the press release focuses on the release last week of the AdvancED report, which the Democrats say "validates" the critics of the GOP board majority. The release also notes how the school board has been panned by former President Bill Clinton, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and television satirist Stephen Colbert.

Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata is challenging former President Bill Clinton to visit the area to see for himself what's happening in the school district instead of just criticizing from afar.

Clinton had chastised Wake for abandoning the diversity policy in a speech Saturday. Tata was indignant about the remarks as he spoke with reporters during a break at today's school board retreat.

"It was a cheap shot against a great school district," Tata said of Clinton's remarks.

Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata did a national media appearance this weekend that is about as far away from Fox News as you can get.

Tata was interviewed on National Public Radio's "Weekend Edition Sunday" to talk about the school diversity fight in Wake. This is probably less annoying to critics of Tata who had railed against the appearances he had made on Fox News before he started in Wake.

During the interview, Tata defended the school board's elimination of the diversity policy while saying that the school system won't resegregate.

The Washington Post has published Kathleen Brennan's sharply worded response to both this month's front-page article and to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan's letter to the editor criticizing the Wake County school board.

In a letter to the editor today in The Post, Brennan, a co-founder of Wake CARES, complains that the Jan. 12 article "reflected preconceived notions about the situation in Wake County." She argues the reality is the diversity policy "created nontraditional calendar assignments, widespread parental discontent and great instability, with over 60,000 students reassigned over 10 years."

While the diversity policy influenced some of the assignments, supporters of the policy will counter that it's growth that played the larger factor in reassignment.

UPDATE

Link added for Brennan's letter.

Kathleen Brennan is amplifying on her letter to the editor with this Tuesday night post on the Wake CARES website.