I'm going to do separate posts, probably one per day, about the three finalists for Wake County schools superintendent.

Today's article has an overview of all three finalists. I'm going to start first with Dana Bedden, superintendent of the Irving Independent School District in Texas, as he's the least known locally.

Bedden was also the lone finalist willing to talk Wednesday. He called close to deadline so I was only able to put a fraction of what he said in the print article. Consider this the bonus coverage.

The average SAT score dropped this year in the Wake County school system, mirroring drops that took place statewide and nationally.

New results released today show that the average score for Wake County students this year was 1,063 for the math and critical reading sections. That compares to 1,066 last year. Wake has the fourth-highest average SAT score of any district in the state.

North Carolina's average SAT score dropped four points from 1,001 to 997. The U.S average dropped one point to 1,010.

The Wake County Republican Party is trumpeting in this new radio campaign ad the school system's high average SAT score and improving graduation rate to say the school board majority has been a "spectacular success."

It's part of a theme being used by members of the Wake County school board majority and their supporters heading into the election next week. The Wake County Democratic Party is objecting, such as in this blog post last week from former Deputy State Schools Superintendent J.B. Buxton accusing the Republicans of taking credit for efforts begun by prior boards.

Here's the text for the radio ad:

The Wake County Republican Party is taking a blame the media strategy to energize their base for the upcoming school board elections.

In this week's issue of the Elephant Express, Wake GOP Chairwoman Susan Bryant contends today that the news media is being "dishonest" in not covering the school board's accomplishments. For instance, she contends that a recent article didn't report that Wake County's average SAT scores are above the national average because "the N&O simply wasn't about to print anything that might reflect positively on the job the Wake County School Board was doing."

That story focused on how the state was doing on the SAT. It didn't mention Wake's performance or that of any area district. It also didn't mention that Chapel Hill-Carrboro has an even high score.

Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta is promoting the message that he's "moving Wake County schools forward" in this new campaign mailer.

In the mailer, Margiotta points to "a record of accomplishments," citing "no teacher layoffs," "neighborhood schools," "school choice and stability," "student achievement" and the record amount of scholarship money earned by the Class of 2011.

"As chairman of the Wake County School Board, Ron Margiotta has taken bold steps to improve the way we educate our children," says the mailer.

The new round of SAT results will be released at 11 a.m. today.

You'll see how the Class of 2011 fared nationally, statewide and in Wake. The SAT is still the primary college entrance exam used in North Carolina.

As with just about everything else this year, it could become a campaign issue.

UPDATE

Click here for Wake's press release.

The average SAT score for the Wake County school system dropped this year.

Looking at just the math and critical reading sections, Wake's average score dropped from 1,073 in 2009 to 1,069 this year. If you also add in the writing section, the combined score dropped from 1,583 to 1,574.

Since scores fluctuate from year to year, school officially generally suggest looking at the results over time. Since 2000, Wake's average score has gone up slightly from 1,061.

The Greet Schools in Wake Coalition is warning that passage of the revised student assignment policy by the Wake County school board will turn the district into Charlotte.

In a press release today, GSIW focuses on the increase in the number of high poverty schools in Charlotte-Mecklenburg since the district abandoned busing for diversity. The group points to Wake having a higher graduation rate, higher average SAT score and fewer lower performing schools under the state's ABCs standard than compared to CMS.

But is GSIW ignoring areas where CMS outperforms Wake?

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

The Wake vs. Charlotte question is coming up again following the release of the latest SAT results.

As noted in Sunday's Charlotte Observer, there's a big achievement and graduation gap between Charlotte's high-poverty schools and its more affluent ones. The graduation rate for black CMS students has been dropping.

The article also notes that Charlotte's black and low-income students are below the state graduation rate for those categories. But those same groups in Guilford, Wake and districts surrounding Charlotte generally topped state averages.

Why are fewer students in the Wake school system taking the SAT than before?

As noted in today's article, school officials think it's the recession causing fewer students to go to a four-year college where an SAT score would be needed.

Asst. Supt. David Holdzkom said the district's survey of seniors found more are now saying they plan to attend a community college, join the military or go directly into the workforce.