It actually turns out that the Wake County Public School System is now the 16th-largest school district in the nation..

I didn't factor in that Wake's 146,687 students had also moved it ahead of the falling enrollment this year in the School District of Philadelphia. I had previously blogged about how Wake had moved ahead of Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, which has 146,497 students this year.

In the case of Philadelphia, Wake's national ranking changed because the Pennsylvania school district is losing students at a fast rate. This year, Philadelphia has 146,090 students. The district had 154,482 students in the 2010-11 school year.

The Wake County school system is now the 17th-largest school system in the country, moving ahead of Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland.
 
Figures released this month by Montgomery County show that the Washington D.C. area school system has 146.497 students for this school year, a gain of around 2,500 kids. But Wake overtook Montgomery County this fall by adding 3,398 kids for an enrollment now of 146,687 students.

In addition to moving up one slot in the national rankings, Wake also retained its position as the largest school district in North Carolina. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg system is second with 138,100 students.

Although the poor economy means Wake is no longer growing by 7,000 students  a year, the school district is still adding more than 3,000 net new students annually. School leaders say a new school construction bond referendum will be needed within the next few years.

The Wake County school system officially has 146,687 students this year, up 3,388 from the same time last year.

The figure, announced today by school officials, is based on the number of students on the 20th day of classes, which was Sept. 22 for most schools. The figure was very close to the projected total of 146.657 students.

Wake remains the largest school district in North Carolina. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system is second with 138,100 students.

Wake likely has moved up one spot, ahead of Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, to become the 17th largest school district in the nation. Montgomery County school officials won't have an official number until November, but they've recorded as many as 146,609 students this year

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.

Here's the path that's led to Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata recommending creating the new positions of deputy superintendent for school performance and chief transformation officer.

it starts with the free organizational audit done for Tata by the Broad Superintendent's Academy. While the actual report hasn't been publicly released due to employee confidentiality reasons, Robert Schiller gave a "high level overview" during Tuesday's school board work session,

In a nutshell, the audit found Wake to be lean administratively but needing someone to be the person to turn to for academic issues.

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.

Talk about the new student assignment plan being developed by Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata took up the most time at today's press conference.

Tata said the task force is looking at nine models but is still only in the concept stage. But he said within a few weeks they'll post all nine models online for public comment before he makes his official recommendation to the school board in June

“We will have the plans out there for the community to provide feedback on,” Tata said. “We want to be very transparent.”

Is the glass half full or half empty when it comes to comparing how the Wake County school system is doing academically versus other school districts?

During Tuesday's school board work session, school administrators touted how Wake is doing better overall than the state and the state's four other largest districts. But school board member John Tedesco focused more on how Wake is trailing some of those districts among some subgroups.

In addition, questions were raised whether greater funding might explain why Wake is trailing among some of the subgroups.

A new study about Montgomery County schools in Maryland could add some fuel to the fight over socioeconomic integration in Wake County schools.

As reported in the Washington Post, a study coming out today shows that low-income students in Montgomery County performed better when they attended affluent elementary schools instead of ones with higher concentrations of poverty. At 144,000 students, Montgomery County is only slightly larger than Wake County.

The study tracked the performance of 858 elementary students in public housing scattered across Montgomery from 2001 to 2007. About half the students ended up in schools where less than 20 percent of students qualified for subsidized meals. Most others went to schools where up to 60 percent of the students were poor and where the county had poured in extra money.

UPDATE

The study was done by the Century Foundation, which has been an outspoken supporter of socioeconomic diversity in school assignment. Click here to view the report.

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.