The Wake County school board's agenda for Tuesday covers a wide range of things, including student assignment, eliminating the Effectiveness Index and relocating Central Office to Cary.

During the work session that begins at 3 p.m., the board will discuss board member Kevin Hill's consensus-building approach to developing a new multi-year student assignment plan. They'll also get into a talk on the 2011-12 assignment plan, the third year of the plan adopted by the old board.

Also during the work session, the board will discuss whether to keep the process of having only one regular action meeting per month.

UPDATE

If passed, the resolution would essentially kill off the Effectiveness Index. E&R has said that the only resources put in are staff time.

Minority participation is up in pre-algebra and Algebra I this school year in Wake County middle schools but a lot of the talk today was that it's still not enough.

School officials said 61.6 percent of black middle school students who were identified as being ready to take pre-algebra or Algebra I were placed in those courses this year. The rate was 61.6 percent for Hispanic students and 58.6 percent for economically disadvantaged students using the new EVAAS selection criteria.

Previously, the SAS report indicated a majority of qualified black and Hispanic students weren’t being placed into Algebra I in middle school.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

Today's meeting of the Wake County school board economically disadvantaged student performance task force could reveal whether minority students are still getting disproportionately kept out of Algebra I.

School leaders were touting last month how there's been a 30 percent increase this year in pre-algebra and Algebra I enrollment in middle schools. But the data also indicated that 3,324 students weren't placed in those classes this year even though EVAAS indicated they were ready.

During today's ED task force meeting, staff is scheduled to present demographic data on those 3,324 students who weren't placed.

UPDATE

Click here to view meeting agenda.

Unlike their colleagues in New Hanover County, members of the Wake County school board didn't feel a need to have a separate vote this week on whether the district's policies are contributing to segregation.

At issue is new language this year that allows the state Board of Education to withhold money from the disadvantaged students supplemental fund (DSSF) to school boards whose policies "have contributed to or is contributing to increased segregation of schools on the basis of race or socioeconomic status."

School districts had a Wednesday deadline to send their DSSF plan to the state with a certification form that their policies aren't contributing to increased segregation.

The leadership of the Wake Schools Community Alliance is calling on the Wake County school board to nullify the recent student assignment directive that halted work on the zone assignment plan

In a press release today, the WSCA Steering Committee says that nullifying the resolution will "create room for healthy dialogue, compromise and consensus-building, without discarding all of the good work that has been done to date." At the same time, the group avoids taking a stance on eliminating base assignments and the zone plan as it criticizes the node system.

The WSCA acknowledges that board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman's concerns about the zone plan are "serious." The group says that the board should honor Goldman's request to be appointed to the student assignment committee.

Some clarity about the Wake County student assignment process could emerge from Tuesday's school board work session.

The agenda for Tuesday's work session includes a discussion on student assignment. School board chairman Ron Margiotta said he's hoping the discussion about the new directive that was passed last week will answer the questions that board members have about how to proceed.

In addition to talking about the directive, Margiotta said they'll also discuss the equity presentation that was made at this week's student assignment committee meeting.

The vote to scrap the community zone plan wasn't the only issue that Wake County school board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman split with her Republican colleagues on Tuesday night.

Goldman provided the swing vote against a resolution that would have halted the use of the Effectiveness Index. She said she support dropping the Effectiveness Index but objected to wording in the resolution from board member Deborah Prickett saying that EVAAS would be exclusively used.

"I wish it was worded differently because I could support it," Goldman said. "But the way it's worded I can not."

The Wake County school system's Effectiveness Index will go back under the school board's microscope at today's committee of the whole meeting.

Board members had previously agreed over the summer to continue using the Effectiveness Index after David Holdzkom, assistant superintendent for evaluation and research, contended that they didn't have enough years of data to use EVAAS to review teachers. Some board members, notably John Tedesco, disagree.

Janet Johnson, the CEO of EDSTAR, also disagrees with Holdzkom. She is no fan of the Effectiveness Index that she helped develop 17 years ago when she worked in Evaluation and Research.

The one figure that people kept repeating out of Thursday's Wake County school board economically disadvantaged student performance task force meeting was 35 percent.

As noted in today's article, 35 percent is this year's gain in Algebra I enrollment under the new EVAAS placement guidelines compared to last year's total. There was a 26 percent increase in pre-Algebra enrollment. Overall, the gain for both courses was 30 percent.

"I know this is new for a lot of principals, but I want to really thank all of you for taking on the challenges," said school board member John Tedesco, chairman of the task force at Thursday's meeting. "Because of that we saw measurable gains. You can’t dispute that. A 35 percent increase is impressive."

UPDATE

SEE END OF POST FOR THURSDAY'S POWERPOINT PRESENTATION ON MATH PLACEMENT UPDATE

Here's a quick recap of the Wake County middle school math placement update with more details to come tomorrow.

There's been a 30 percent increase this school year in enrollment in pre-algebra and Algebra I. Data presented today shows that 10,313 middle school students are taking pre-algebra  or Algebra I, an increase of 2,351 students  from last year.

School administrators credited the gains in large part on the use of the SAS EVAAS program.