Considering how much supporters of the diversity policy made Charlotte-Meckkenburg schools a boogeyman during the school board campaign, the new board members arguably are having the last laugh now.

As noted in today's article, the new 2009 state report cards show that Charlotte's black and low-income students are outperforming their peers in Wake on state EOG and EOC exams.

"We're not saying that Charlotte is the right way, but the fact that they're doing better than us shows how poorly we've been doing," said new school board member John Tedesco in the article.

The new N.C. School Report Cards are out with 2008-09 school year data.

Since these report cards have been used in the past to compare Wake and Charlotte-Mecklenburg, let's revisit the issue again. Wake gets less money and does better overall than CMS, but CMS does better among several subgroups.

Let's start with test results.

CORRECTED CMS OVERALL PASSING RATE ON BOTH EOGS. 

Is it just a "technical disagreement" how Wake and SAS assess the performance of low-income students?

As noted in today's article, the SAS report is adding fuel to the school board races. One thing that has drawn a lot of attention is SAS questioning the way Wake normalizes the performance of low-income students when assessing school performance.

Asst. Supt. David Holdzkom said Wake isn't alone in making adjustments for low-income students. He called it a "technical disagreement" between Wake and SAS, which doesn't make that adjustment.

Voters heading into Tuesday's Wake County school board elections are getting wildly differing messages on the academic quality of the school system.

As noted in today's article, supporters of the diversity policy tout Wake's overall academic success while critics focus on the performance of the low-income students. A new SAS report that examines Wake's achievement gap could bolster the arguments of the critics of the diversity policy.

Here's the background:

The Wake Education Partnership isn't backing down from commenting on the issues in the school board races.

A little less than two weeks after a complaint was filed against the WEP, the group revisited the board races today in this week's In Context e-newsletter. This edition addresses remarks made by candidates about Wake's graduation rate, the size of Wake's bureaucracy and the achievement gap.

The Partnership addresses the complaint by saying "the newsletter will continue to cover current school topics in an effort to provide a fuller understanding of education issues."

We hope you liked the weekend feature on fixing the achievement gap. (Be sure to click on 'Related Content' on the right to see the responses).

Durham Public Schools released its first ever "State of the System" performance report earlier this month at a committee meeting. The school board adopted a policy in April to create a summary of the system's work in meeting target goals like testing, attendance, graduation and teacher satisfaction.

"There's a lot to celebrate," said superintendent Carl Harris at the committee meeting. "Another good thing about this report is that we recognize that there is much work to be done."

Out of 15 goals this year, the district met or exceeded seven: test scores for third, fifth and eighth graders, percent of schools meeting federal adequate yearly progress goals, percentage of students considered academically and intellectually gifted and vocational test performance.

The district missed six goals. Overall test score composites, graduation rates and Advanced Placement participation increased between 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 but the district did not meet their self-imposed goal. Attendance, SAT scores, and teacher working conditions survey results declined between the two school years.

The data from two other measures, a survey from parents and a survey from students, had not yet been released.
The report will be reviewed by the board again at its Sept. 24 meeting.

Other highlights:

• Achievement gaps between white and black students and between white and Hispanic students shrunk over the last year even as all groups increased proficiency in math and
  reading exams in grades 3-8
• A teacher working conditions survey, which measures leadership, professional development, time and having a sense of empowerment, saw a slight decline. On a scale of 1-5, the survey average dropped from 3.34 to 3.30
• Suspensions dropped in middle school but rose in high school
• In grades 3-8, the highest overall score was in grade 5 math, which had 71 percent of students proficient on end-of-grade exams.
• Fewer than half of third and eighth-graders read at grade level

Wake's success at narrowing the racial achievement gap on the SAT is mixed.

Wake's Hispanic students have made noticeable strides. But the district's black students are doing worse on the SAT than they were 12 years ago.

Wake's white students scored 1,072 on the SAT in 1996 — 168 points better than the black students. In 2008, white students scored 1,108 — 222 points better than their black classmates.

We can now officially say that the 95 percent goal is dead.

School administrators will present test results this afternoon showing Wake is well short of having 95 percent of students in grades 3-12 passing state tests by 2008. The result was expected but now it's final.

We don't have school-by-school results yet. But we do have districtwide data.

On a less controversial note this morning, the school system is encouraging parents to attend a conference on closing the achievement gap.

Karen Mapp, one of the authors of "Beyond the Bake Sale: The Essential Guide to Family-School Partnerships" is the headlined speaker at the event.  The Making Powerful Connections To Eliminate the Achievement Gap conference will be held Aug. 13 at the McKimmon Center at N.C. State.

Also at the conference, Wake County educators will discuss elementary school mathematics, taking part in effective parent-teacher conferences and navigating the school system.

There is limited space available. Registration is on a “first come, first serve” basis. A waiting list will be established. If you have questions, call Ann Rollins 854-2644.