A magazine read by school administrators across the country is reporting on the Wake County school diversity fight.

An article in the September issue of District Administration notes how "arrests and federal reviews bring attention to Wake County." The magazine is read by school administrators who might consider applying for the superintendent's opening in Wake.

“Controlled choice will open doors to new opportunities in how we provide equity in our schools and open our doors to new areas of innovation,” said school board member John Tedesco in the article.

The Wake County school board will have to weigh the pros and cons of going with a small number of large community assignment zones or a large number of small zones.

As noted in today's article, a large number of zones such as those modeled on high school base attendance and high school transportation districts would result in wide racial and economic disparities. A smaller number of geographically large zones would be more diverse but have longer bus rides.

Near the end of the post is a spreadsheet that shows an N&O analysis of the demographics of all four zone maps samples. Plus, it shows where each individual node would be in the four sample maps.

You're not alone if you've got questions about how the new community zone model might work in Wake County.

Some tentative answers can be found in today's Q&A article. Keep in mind that the big caveat is that the plan is still being developed and things could change.

For instance, school board member John Tedesco said he's envisioning providing transportation for all grandfathered students when the new model goes into effect. This would include families whose current schools are way outside their new zone, such as Southeast Raleigh families who want to stay at a North Raleigh school.

CORRECTED THIRD PARAGRAPH TO SAY PROVIDING TRANSPORTATION FOR ALL GRANDFATHERED STUDENTS

There seems to be a disconnect when both sides of the Wake County school diversity fight talk about controlled choice.

As noted in today's article, supporters of the old diversity policy talk about controlled choice as a vehicle for balancing school enrollments. But members of the new school board majority are viewing controlled choice as a way to provide parental choice and stability while dealing with growth.

Using a controlled choice model to balance individual school enrollments is not something that the board majority is talking about. They say they'll draw up zones that recognize the "natural diversity" of the county, but that's about as far as they'll go.

Education consultant Michael Alves will meet at 3:30 p.m. with the state NAACP to explain how the controlled choice model could be used in Wake County.

In a media advisory this afternoon, the NAACP said it "will explore how "'controlled choice' might improve the nationally acclaimed socio-economic diversity student assignment plan." The Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, has been skeptical of using it in Wake.

Alves is a proponent of using controlled choice to promote diversity, which is why critics of the new board majority have been so receptive to the idea. Supporters of the board majority also like controlled choice but aren't pushing the diversity element as much as Alves.

UPDATE

SEE END OF POST FOR OPENING STATEMENT THAT NAACP RELEASED ABOUT TODAY'S MEETING WITH ALVES

Are Wake County parents ready to do away with the idea of having a specific school assigned to their address?

As noted in today's article, it's looking more likely that the student assignment committee will recommend a controlled-choice/cluster plan. Instead of one elementary school being assigned to a specific address, parents would pick from several schools in their zone or from countywide magnet schools with Wake using a computer program to assign the seats.

“You can’t have every child going to their neighborhood school or else you’d have schools over capacity and schools under capacity,” said school board member John Tedesco, chair of the student assignment committee. “But we can provide them four or five logical choices they can choose from.”

Here's a quick recap of today's Wake County student assignment committee meeting.

The committee told staff to keep working on four sample maps presented today. Click here for the online story to view the maps.

Staff had presented a fifth map based on dividing the county by zip codes but was told to drop it because it was too messy.

The state NAACP will hold a press conference today in which the 19 people arrested at last week's Wake County school board meeting will speak out about why they used civil disobedience.

In a media advisory sent Monday night, the NAACP said the people who were arrested will "object to the selective detention of Rev. Dr. William Barber and Rev. Nancy Petty," who were arrested for violating a school district trespass notice.

They'll also "protest the rough handling and momentary arrest of school board member Keith Sutton by the police, even though he was attempting to calm the situation." Sutton wasn't among the 19 people arrested but he has demanded an apology for the way he was treated by Raleigh police.

UPDATE

Wake has sent trespassing notices to the people arrested at last week's meeting. They're barred from school board meetings unless they provide written assurance that they're not going to disrupt the proceedings.

Controlled choice and at least a rough map of what the new community assignment zones could look like will be on today's Wake County student assignment committee agenda.

Today's meeting will include what's being billed as a "review of various geographic assignment area possibilities." Much of the talk will likely revolve around maps of potential zones being presented by staff.

Growth & Planning were asked by the committee to use as a starting point the high school feeder patterns. From there, they'd see what middle schools feed into the high schools and what elementary schools feed into those middle schools.

The Wake Education Partnership and the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce are bringing to Raleigh an education consultant who has specialized in drawing up student assignment plans using controlled choice to achieve diversity.

In a media advisory today, the WEP and the Chamber said that Michael Alves will visit with local business leaders and elected officials later this month. John Tedesco, chairman of the school board's student assignment committee, has offered Alves the opportunity to speak at the July 27 committee meeting.

Alves was mentioned in the WEP's April Topic Review on how Wake could still achieve some level of balance in its new community-based student assignment model.