Here's a condensed recap of today's press conference held by Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata.

Tata reported that both the overall rate of incidents of school crime and of violent crime in particular had dropped. There were 41 reported violent incidents this past school year, compared to 99 the prior year.

“Make no mistake,” Tata. “It’s my belief that one violent crime incident is one too many but we’re moving in the right direction here.”

It looks like the Wake County school system saw some overall academic gains this past school year under the state's ABCs of Public Education accountability program.

New results released at today's State Board of Education meeting show that 95 percent of Wake's schools met or exceeded growth expectations, up from 89 percent last year. Wake had 70.3 percent of schools, or 114, showing high growth and 24.7 percent of schools, or 40, showing expected growth.

Wake also had 17 Honor Schools of Excellence/Schools of Excellence, up from 14 last year. Wake also had 79 Schools of Distinction, up from 63 last year.

It's time to find out today how students in Wake County and the rest of North Carolina fared on state exams this past year.

At 10 a.m., the 2010-11 ABCs of Public Education results will be released at the state Board of Education meeting. What could make the results of more interest this year is that it comes out months before what should be a heated school board election here in Wake.

Tune back to the blog at 10 a.m. for a report on how Wake fared.

State education officials have announced today that new 2010 school report cards are online now.

The report cards allow you to look up a wide range of data on both individual schools and school districts. Among other things, you've got data on test scores, finances, crime and safety and teacher licensure and experience.

In recent years, the release of the report cards has also resulted in comparisons between the Wake County and Charlotte-Mecklenburg school systems.

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.

Is the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system now better academically than the Wake County school system?

As noted in today's article, Charlotte-Mecklenburg's black, Hispanic and low-income students are outperforming their peers in Wake on state tests. Plus, Charlotte's white kids are doing as well as their Wake peers.

Overall, Wake has higher scores. But that's attributable to Charlotte having more black, Hispanic and low-income kids, whose scores are still lower than their white counterparts.

Academic performance went up both in the Wake County school system and public schools statewide this past school year.

New ABCs of Public Education test data released this morning shows that 146 of 158 Wake schools, or 92 percent, met or exceeded state growth standards. That compares to 138 of 155 schools, 89 percent the prior year. (I'm excluding Longview because it has no ABCs status.)

Wake also had 14 Honor Schools or Excellence or Schools of Excellence, meaning schools had passing rates of at least 90 percent and met growth goals. That's up from 12 schools last year.

We'll find out in detail this morning how well schools did in Wake County and statewide this past school year.

During today's state Board of Education meeting, the 2009-10 ABC of Public Education report will be released. Based on last week's Locke Foundation analysis of a leaked copy of the report, test scores have gone up both in Wake and statewide.

Expect both sides of the school diversity fight in Wake to spin today's results.

John Hood is accusing opponents of the Wake County school board majority of making up facts to stir up liberal support in political elections.

In a column today, Hood, president of the conservative John Locke Foundation, writes that "the obstructionists will seek to use the Wake busing case as a means of mobilizing liberal donors and voters for the 2010 election cycle." He writes that "such a use doesn’t require that their various allegations bear any relationship to reality."

Hood proceeds to give his own version of a frequently asked questions list.

Using the latest test data, the conservative John Locke Foundation is challenging the argument that the diversity policy is giving an extra boost to Wake County's academic performance.

In a press release today, Terry Stoops, education policy analyst for the Locke Foundation, says the data shows that Wake's academic gains this year lagged behind those of the state's other urban districts. Diversity policy supporters have been trumpeting test gains to argue that the school board majority shouldn't have discarded the policy.

Stoops uses the previously released preliminary No Child Left Behind data. But Stoops said his analysis is also based on an a leaked copy of the state ABCs of Public Education test results.