So how good is the Wake County school system?

That's the focus of the package in today's paper, which looks at how Wake fares against some other districts it's long compared itself with. Some maintain that Wake is one of the best districts in the nation while others say that's an over the top statement.

"Wake is one of the best school systems in the nation," said Yevonne Brannon, chairwoman of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition. "We had a few hiccups a few years ago but we’re on the way back. We’ve got a strong school board and a very capable staff."

The Great Schools in Wake Coalition is questioning why the Wake County school system isn't trumpeting the fact that it has the third-highest graduation rate among the nation's largest school districts.

In an article Tuesday on the New Raleigh website, GSIW Program Coordinator Patty Williams touts the recent Education Week report as being "good news about our Wake County public schools." But she also says "we’re just wondering why the school district isn’t sharing it."

Information about the recent report doesn't appear to exist on Wake's website. I also don't recall anyone but the public speakers mentioning it at this month's school board meetings.

Wake County has the third highest graduation rate among the nation's largest school districts, according to a report today in Education Week.

In its annual Diploma Counts report, Wake County's graduation rate of 78.2 percent for the Class of 2008 placed it ahead of most of the nation's 50 largest school districts. Only Montgomery County in Maryland at 85.7 percent and Fairfax County in Virginia at 85.1 percent came in higher than Wake.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, the only other North Carolina school system on the list, was ranked 30th with a 61.2 percent graduation rate.

It seems as if Wake County school board members can't get into a discussion nowadays without mentioning socioeconomic diversity.

During today's policy committee meeting, Laura Evans, senior director for growth and planning, proposed eliminating wording in the student transfer policy that says "transfer requests that contribute to...greater socioeconomic...diversity may be approved."

The change is in line with the elimination of the SES references to the student assignment policy that the board is scheduled to give final approval to on Tuesday.

Taxpayers won't be footing the bill for four Wake County school board members to attend this week's Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce trip to the Greater D.C. area.

Chamber VP Drew Moretz said that the group wanted school board members to attend the trip so much that they're picking up all the costs. School board members Debra Goldman, Anne McLaurin, Deborah Prickett and John Tedesco are attending.

But taxpayers may foot the nearly $2,000 cost to send four county commissioners on the trip.

CORRECTION/UPDATE

The chamber says that McLaurin paid for the trip herself.

Parrish said Gurley has reimbursed the county for his share of the trip.

Schools will be in the spotlight in a pair of inter-city trips over the next two weeks.

This week, the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Chamber will host visitors from the Richmond area in Virginia. Next week, four Wake County school board members are part of a chamber-sponsored trip to the Greater D.C. area.

During next week's trip, the Raleigh group will visit Fairfax County Public Schools in northern Virginia, whose assignment system had been cited as a model that Wake can use for its community-based schools.

How attractive will it be for applicants to want to replace Wake County Schools Superintendent Del Burns?

As the 18th-largest school district in the nation with a pretty hefty salary likely to be offered, you'd think there would be lot of interest in working in Wake County. But as noted in today's article, that might not be the case.

“If a superintendent knows he’ll work with a split [school] board and with the economy the way it is, it would tend to give people pause,” said Daniel Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, in the article.

Supporters of the diversity policy are mobilizing for Tuesday's Wake County school board meeting, citing graduation statistics and a desire to keep up the pressure on the board majority.

"Two of the school board minority have asked us to keep coming; the new majority wants us to fade away so they can quietly segregate our schools," according to an e-mail message being circulated among diversity policy supporters. "Inside sources indicate that they want to move fast, and are hoping for a lull in the public's attention. . . ."

In e-mail messages, Wake's graduation rate is favorably compared with those of urban districts that don't have diversity policies. For instance, they cite how Wake's 78.4 percent graduation rate is much higher than the rates in places such as Dallas, Detroit and Houston.

There was a time when Wake used to compare itself against districts in other states on its SAT report.

But 2005 was the last year Wake compared itself to places such as Fairfax County (VA) and Fulton County (GA). Since then, including the latest report, Wake has only compared itself to other large districts in North Carolina.

Wake looked pretty good against the out-of-state comparison group in 2005. In 2008, Wake still holds its own against most of the districts.