Wake's high school graduation rate has dropped more than what was previously reported.

The state released this month revised graduation rates for individual school districts. In Wake, the overall 4-year graduation rate is 78.4 percent. It had been reported at 78.6 percent in August.

The graduation rate also dropped since August for several Wake groups, including low-income students.

Both school systems in Orange County were honored Monday for having high graduation rates.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and Orange County Schools received recognition at a state ceremony held by the Department of Public Instruction in Raleigh. State Superintendent June Atkinson and former govenor Jim Hunt presented the honors.

North Carolina's overall graduation rate is 71.7 percent. At Chapel Hill-Carrboro, the overall rate for their student cohort was 86.7 percent; in Orange County Schools, the rate was 81.4 percent for the class of 2009.

The student cohort rate tracks the progress of all students who enter districts in the ninth grade.

Since there's been so much talk about graduation rates this campaign, you guys might be interested in this event today.

The state honored the school districts and high schools with the top graduation rates. Wake didn't make the district list but Green Hope High School did make the list for best rates for schools with 500 or more students.

During the campaign, the school board candidates who lost focused on Wake's high overall graduation rate. The candidates who won focused on the low graduation rate for low-income students.

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."

The Wake Schools Community Alliance has weighed in with campaign mailers for all for its endorsed school board candidates.

Each mailer mentions that only 54 percent of Wake's low-income students are graduating from high school and that the district didn't make Adequate Yearly progress under No Child Left Behind in 2008-09. (Wake is one of the state's 60 districts that are in school improvement status for not meeting NCLB for at least two years in a row.)

But most of the mailers also mention material specific to that individual district.

Deborah Prickett and Karen Simon pretty much took 180s from each other during this morning's District 7 Wake school board candidate forum.

Prickett repeatedly found ways to mention her support for neighborhood schools as a way to promote stability and improve academic performance. LIke the other WSCA-backed candidates, Prickett repeatedly pointed to Wake's 54.6 percent graduation rate for low-income students to attack the diversity policy.

"There is overwhelming evidence that the diversity policy isn’t working in Wake," Prickett said. "Too many poor and minority students are not graduating."

Did the Wake Education Partnership cross the line in its latest newsletter and inappropriately influence the school board elections?

As noted in today's article, that's alleged in the complaint filed late Friday with the state Board of Elections by Joe Ciulla. He alleges that the statements in the Partnership's newsletter, In Context, violate the group's non-profit status.

"It's far beyond their place to make false statements in support of their candidates," Ciulla said

District 2 school board candidate John Tedesco has fired back at opponent Cathy Truitt for her recent attack ads accusing him of being a pawn of Ron Margiotta and Western Wake.

In a wide-ranging interview in this week's Garner Citizen, Tedesco called Truitt "divisive" and a "hypocrite." He claims that Truitt, should she be elected, will become "marginalized and ineffective" because of the ads.

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.

An out-of-work special education teacher wants to fill the Wake school board District 6 vacancy.

Etta Wilson filed her application today to seek the position created by Beverley Clark's resignation from the school board. Wilson was most recently a special education teacher at Southeast Raleigh High School until June.

Wilson said she had resigned her job there in hopes of working at an elementary school or a middle school but hasn't been picked up yet. She's like a lot of other teachers who are hoping to get hired after the 10th day of traditional-calendar schools.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST