The Los Angeles Times is revisiting the Wake County school diversity fight with a Sunday article that talks about the "turmoil" that has been brought about by ending the diversity policy.

In today's article, which is relatively short on data but heavy on quotes from speakers at the Cary High reassignment public hearing, it's stated that "Wake County has become a test of diversity policies nationwide."

The LA Times had also written about the controversy last March after the school board's vote on the community schools directive.

Growth and Planning is doing things differently when it comes to notifying Wake County families about student reassignment.

Laura Evans, senior director of growth and planning, said notices are going out to all the families in the nodes included in the staff recommended 2011-12 reassignment plan. Notices will also be sent to families in the nodes that were originally in the plan approved in 2009 but who are not in the new plan.

Wake had gotten out of the practice of sending notification letters to parents letting them know their children faced reassignment.

A Sunday Los Angeles Times article is challenging some popular conceptions about which teachers are effective and where they work.

The newspaper analyzed student records in the Los Angeles Unified School System to perform a value-added analysis of teacher effectiveness. The newspaper's plan to post online a database of the results of 6,000 elementary school teachers has produced an uproar, including a mass boycott from the teacher's union.

Findings included:

Retired Wake County Assistant Superintendent Chuck Dulaney argued Monday night that student assignment can be an effective tool for helping academic achievement.

Dulaney, the first speaker at the Great Schools in Wake Coalition's back-to-schools forum, said that using student assignment to balance schools can provide students the opportunities and support they need to succeed. Along the way, he said the distance that students travel to school is less important than what's at the school they attend

"Student assignment has a lot to do with opportunity," said Dulaney, who oversaw student assignment until he retired March 1. "The mixture of students in schools have a lot to do with the opportunities in those schools."

The Great Schools in Wake Coalition will be holding back-to-school forums "to give parents the critical information they need to advocate for their students in the coming school year."

In a press release Tuesday, GSIW said the first forum will be held Aug. 16 at 7 p.m. at the YWCA of the Greater Triangle, 554 East Hargett Street, Raleigh. The focus of that forum will be student assignment, educational rights and legal rights.

Wake County school board member Debra Goldman talks about what motivated her to run and what she thinks about life in a post-socioeconomic diversity district on today's edition of "The Story."

On "The Story," locally produced by WUNC and heard on National Public Radio stations across the country, Goldman argues that the use of socioeconomic diversity was failing the students. She points to the 54.2 percent graduation rate for low-income students.

Goldman gives an emphatic "no" when asked if she fears something will be lost by dropping the use of socioeconomic diversity. She's putting a lot of faith in the continued use of the magnet program to promote balance.

The Great Schools in Wake Coalition is going is heading into western Wake and Garner for its next series of neighborhood forums.

In a press release Friday, GSIW announced a Thursday forum at Pleasant Grove Church in Cary and a May 27 forum at Poplar Springs Christian Church near Garner. Members of the new board majority did well in both Cary and Garner in last fall's election.

GSIW chairwoman Yevonne Brannon said they're holding these new forums because the group is "flooded with questions" from the public about the future of the district.

Today marks the last business day in awhile that Wake County will have an assistant superintendent for growth and planning.

The dire budget means there are no plans to fill Asst. Supt. Chuck Dulaney's position after his retirement becomes effective Monday. Instead, Growth and Planning will be realigned.

Laura Evans, the most senior of the senior directors in Growth and Planning, will largely take over Dulaney's duties without getting the job title.

Wednesday's Wake County school board policy committee discussion had a lot of emotion and some colorful statements.

As noted in today's article, the committee rejected proposed student assignment policy changes that would eliminate all references to diversity in favor of making neighborhood schools a priority. The action came after a good deal of discussion on the role of diversity in student assignment.

It culminated in committee chairwoman Debra Goldman getting applause from the crowd, which had several members of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, after she didn't second the motion to recommend the changes.

Here's more hand-wringing from critics of the new Wake County school board majority about the resignation of Supt. Del Burns.

In an online column today in the Independent, Bob Geary says Burns' resignation makes it official that Wake County is in crisis. He links it with Asst. Supt. Chuck Dulaney's retirement at the end of the month to say that "the schools staff is rudderless in the storm."