How worried should the Wake County school system be about how the new student assignment plan is impacting the magnet schools?

As noted in today's article, the Democratic board members expressed concern Tuesday about the sharp decline in magnet applications. They also raised concerns that not enough academically identified students got accepted into Carnage and Ligon middle schools, which operate the AG Basics magnet theme.

“It seems to me that demand for magnets has gone down by half,” said new Democratic school board member Christine Kushner in remarks to staff members. “I’m concerned about that decline. I hope it’s something you are paying attention to.”

How much of an impact would going to express busing only for Wake County magnet schools have on the program?

As noted in today's article, Superintendent Tony Tata and school board vice chairman John Tedesco don't think the potential change would have too much of an impact. Tata pointed to the recent online test drive in which more than 70 percent of participants said only having express busing wouldn't discourage them from attending magnet schools.

Tedesco pointed to how the magnet school program still turns away a few thousand students each year. Even if fewer applications come in, he said he doesn't expect the use of express busing will cause them to have fewer applicants than seats.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

Wake County school board candidate Donna Williams probably isn't going to win over Enloe High School supporters based on her talk of spreading programs around.

Williams hit the local conservative radio talk show circuit this week starting as a guest co-host Tuesday on The Morning Show on WRDU. She touched on Enloe during an interview Wednesday on The Rick and Donna Martinez Show on WPTF, where she also said it's not a case of the school system needing more money to raise achievement.

"I believe we need a more fair and equitable balance in our schools," Williams said on WPTF. "I'll give you an example. Enloe High School right now has 142 magnet programs in that one school. And then we have a lot of schools in this county that have zero. I just think we need to take a look at that and if we balanced it out a lot better, it would then affect and help all of our children."

UPDATE I will now be back on Wednesday.

The message coming from Thursday's Wake County school board economically disadvantaged student performance task force meeting is to accept nothing less than 100 percent placement of qualified middle school students in Algebra I.

As noted in today's article, staff said that 85.2 percent of eighth graders projected by EVAAS to be ready to take Algebra I have already been placed for the 2011-12 school year, up from 61.1 percent last year.

Central Office will work with the middle schools to get that placement rate as close as they can to 100 percent before traditional-calendar schools start next week.

Groups hoping to unseat the Republican majority on the Wake County school board appear to have a substantial early fundraising advantage.

As noted in today's article, the five Democratic school board candidates and the Wake Citizens for Good Government PAC have reported raising more than $85,000 so far. That doesn't include the donations that the Wake County Democratic Party plans to raise as part of its coordinated campaign.

The biggest donors so far are John and Ann Campbell, who've given at least $40,000. That's $32,000 to four school board candidates and $8,000 to Wake Citizens for Good Government.

The trend of more Wake County families getting into magnet schools since the end of the old diversity policy is continuing.

School officials say 4,720 out of 8,476 applicants, or 55.7 percent, were accepted into magnet schools for the 2011-12 school year. Last year, 4,450 out of 8,732 applicants were accepted, or 51 percent.

A small part of this year's increase can be attributed to the opening of the new Wake NC State STEM Early College. But that's only 56 kids.

A discussion Thursday about how to help improve the performance of African American male students turned into yet another fight over school diversity in Wake County.

School board member Keith Sutton gave a presentation during Thursday's ED task force meeting highlighting the racial achievement and graduation rate gaps between black and white students. Click here and here to see what was handed out.

The ensuing Q&A turned into a discussion of the elimination of the diversity policy, with some shouting and heated words.

School board members Chris Malone and John Tedesco are trying put the blame on vice chairwoman Debra Goldman and the Democrats for the consequences of killing the zone plan.

As noted in today's article, Malone and Tedesco say the Southeast Raleigh moves proposed Tuesday are only logical given the Oct. 5 vote killing the zone plan. What's left they say now is implementing moves for next year based on proximity from the new assignment policy.

"We're going to turn the system into a true neighborhood system," Malone said. "By taking away the zones, they took away a lot of flexibility."

The forum Thursday at Lacy Elementary School's PTA meeting produced more than a few highlights.

You had, as previously noted, school board members Ron Margiotta and Deborah Prickett objecting to the use of student achievement in the Alves plan. You had a somewhat modified version of the presentation on the Alves plan from what was given last week to the Garner Chamber of Commerce.

You had Dana Cope questioning Tim Simmons about the Alves plan and objecting to board member Carolyn Morrison's vote this year against returning the Lacy nodes from Stough Elementary.

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