Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata came out with a three-point message at his State of the Schools address on Thursday.

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, Tata talked enthusiastically about the gains that Wake made on state exams. But he warned that the results could drop as Wake and the rest of the state switches to the new common core curriculum and tests this school year.

The third prong of Tata's speech was the need "to make a compelling case" for the passage of a school bond issue in 2013.

Former Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta is being praised for showing "what conservatives accomplished for Wake schools" in the latest issue of Civitas Review.

The magazine article published by the conservative Civitas Institute praises Margiotta and the former Republican school board majority for various accomplishments in their two-year tenure. The list includes raising the graduation rate, passing the new choice-based student assignment plan, increasing minority placement in Algebra I, lowering student suspensions and not laying off teachers.

"Liberals and their allies like to stereotype conservatives as penny-pinchers who don’t care about students," writes Civitas President Francis DeLuca, the author of the article. "But Ron Margiotta and his conservative allies showed how false that image is."

Is it a conspiracy or coincidence that the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights is spending a lot of its time investigating various complaints filed against the Wake County school system?

As noted in today's article, OCR has used its discretion to launch investigations of three complaints against Wake in the past two years. The scope of the investigations means OCR is looking at how students are assigned, how they’re suspended, what athletics opportunities they’re provided and whether they’re getting important notices in Spanish.

Depending on your point of view, they're welcome probes or a case of the feds butting in too much into Wake County's business.

The Wake County school system is now facing another potential civil rights investigation.

This complaint filed today by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Advocates for Children’s Services charges that Wake is violating the civil rights of Hispanic families by not providing them adequate translation services.

The complaint asks the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to require Wake to make changes, such as providing documents about suspensions and special education services in Spanish to limited English proficient parnets.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST FOR WAKE'S STATEMENT

Various liberal groups that supported the old socioeconomic diversity policy are hoping to keep the now-defunct YWCA of the Greater Triangle's work alive when it comes to "education justice" in the Wake County school system.

The N.C. Justice Center is hosting a "Wake County Education Justice Organizing Meeting" on Saturday. Topics will include discussion of the impact of the new student assignment plan and a review of "latest inequity data using 2011-12 achievement data and discipline data."

According to this handout, they'll talk about carrying on the YWCA's education programs like Study Circles and the Wake Help initiative. They'll also discuss supporting this summer's Wake Youth Organizing Institute, which is "training, supporting, and developing the next generation of activists, organizers, and social change leaders in North Carolina."   

The summer program trains young people how "to stop racism & school re-segregation, challenge the school to prison pipeline, and make schools safe for LBGTQ youth." The first institute in 2010 led to the creation of N.C. HEAT.

The Wake County school system is now facing the threat of another federal civil rights complaint.

In this letter sent today to Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata, the Southern Poverty Law Center and Advocates for Children’s Services charge that the school system is violating the civil rights of students with Spanish-speaking parents by only sending them important notices in English. The letter cites examples of three limited English proficient parents not getting information in Spanish about their children’s long-term suspension notices and special-education services.

The groups contend that failure to provide the parents of these Hispanic students the information in their primary language violates Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act. The groups charge that Wake “has a clear legal duty” to provide documents on suspensions and special education in Spanish to Spanish-speaking parents.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST FOR WAKE'S RESPONSE

The Wake County school system didn't come out looking too well in new data released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.

The data from the 2009-10 school year indicated that Wake's white students accounted for 57 percent of the population and received 25 percent of suspensions, while blacks make up 24 percent of the student body and received 57 percent of suspensions. It's been noted in several media reports, including this article in The Christian Science Monitor.

It was one example of how the feds say that minority students across America face harsher discipline, have less access to rigorous high school curricula and are more often taught by lower-paid and less experienced teachers.

The crime rate, suspension rate and high school dropout rate all improved this past school year in the Wake County school system.

New figures released by the state today show that Wake's dropout rate decreased from 3.53 percent in 2009-10 to 3.25 percent in 2010-11. Wake had 1,386 dropouts, down from 1,689 in the 2007-08 school year.

The report notes that Wake had among the largest 3-year dropout rate decreases among the 115 school districts.

N.C. HEAT says the recent election results show that "the people of Wake County spoke loud and clear that the political nature of the Wake County Board of Education would no longer be tolerated."

In a press release Monday, the liberal youth advocacy group says that to move Wake County forward the new school board majority should work "to create schools that are diverse in nature and allow for all students to learn and grow from such diversity."

The group says "the following actions are essential to creating equitable education for all students:

Can you imagine Wake County school board member Kevin Hill as a hippie?

That's the approach in this new campaign mailer sent late last week by Civitas Action that works on the theme that Hill supports failed policies of the past. The group photoshopped an image of Hill wearing a tie-dyed T-shirt and making a peace symbol. It also shows a drawing of a VW bus.

"Just like shag carpet and leisure suits, Kevin Hill's policies were bad, and belong in the past," says the mailer from the conservative advocacy group.