Debating what the Wake school system needs

Found this mention of WCPSS in the Aug 28th edition of Education Week:

"A leading example of this comes from Wake County, N.C., which includes the city of Raleigh and its surrounding suburbs. As Gerald Grant notes in his important new book Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Schools in Raleigh, Wake County school officials made a critical decision in the early 1980s to avoid the problems associated with concentrated poverty in neighboring Durham schools and provided virtually every Raleigh school with a special theme, such as science and technology, arts and theater, or International Baccalaureate. Raleigh’s inner-city schools, which had been marked by white flight, were soon filled with economically and racially diverse student enrollments. Many of the schools had waiting lists.

To prevent the creation of enclaves of privilege, the Raleigh magnets are nonselective. And to avoid legal problems associated with using race in assigning students, the schools look for a mix of pupils who are and are not eligible for subsidized lunch. The results have been very promising. Wake County, writes Grant, “reduced the gap between rich and poor, black and white, more than any other large urban educational system in America.” The district’s results track with data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress for mathematics, which finds that low-income 4th grade students attending more-affluent schools are two years ahead of low-income students stuck in high-poverty schools."
Link: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/09/02/02kahlenberg.h29.html?tkn=OZYFj3kR2pdcL1LxHclyoZAnm%2F17C8B9KFhT

It appears the divide represented by the two articles noted is everywhere in Wake County. Yesterday on a thread about Saturdays CCCAAC forum, I commented that I would be attending. Well my friends, it appears I may have been mistaken about the willingness of the CCCAAC to hear all candidates. I was just contacted back by Mrs. Sutton and told I would not be permitted to speak in tomorrow's forum.

My call to them yesterday to notify them of the oversight and express my sincere willingness to participate was not met with appreciation. I was told that they already have a schedule and other candidates have been allotted the time. I was further told that I would not be allowed to participate.

I was then informed that they had no other problems with candidates who used the e-vite process, although as you can see from the update they did allow other candidates the opportunity to enter in the forum late. The update posting of their acceptance came after my phone calls to the CCCAAC. I encouraged them to reconsider they said “no”. I asked if, while I may not be permitted to partake in the whole forum, that maybe I could simple have an opportunity to have a 2 minute introduction of myself. I was again told “no”. So needless to say, I am extremely disappointed.

I am not one for bold remarks about others, but I can confidently say, that no other candidate in any other district has done more to serve, or been more entrenched in the needs of African American children than myself. I grew up in and out of slums, projects and gospel churches. I have an African American God-son (Ty). I have lived in the same households with African American friends and families several times in my life after various life situations.

I have dedicated my life to serving vulnerable communities. More so, for over a decade I have built countless programs, homeless shelters, prison outreach, mentoring activities and generated millions of dollars for public private partnerships for at-risk youth and tens and tens of thousands of African Americans. All of which I can confidently say will serve me with a better understanding of the needs of this community than Mr. Tart or Mrs. Truitt will ever have.

I have dedicated my life to helping our communities most vulnerable. The core centerpiece of my platform is targeted to vulnerable low-income communities. But it appears that because I have been endorsed by some they might not agree with that I am not welcome to share my views and vision on how we can better serve our most challenged children. I will avoid rampant speculation on their motives, but this is a sad day for Wake County and the children who need us the most.

I will attend tomorrow, and would welcome anyone who wishes to join me.

John Tedesco

Let's see, same house in Cary for 11 years. 2009-2010 will be our FOURTH reassignment to a different high school. That Mr. Fitzsimons is what I call a "horror!"

Do you or your "Friends of Wake County" or even Mr. Norwalk care to comment?

Status quo BoE knew they had no justification for the waste and havoc they created. Their positions have continually bought silence when oversight was necessary. Their positions afforded them crazy exemption from media scrutiny.

No more. Parents and school staff members have now woken up and have become engaged and enraged. (Plaguerized but true)

Ms. Backhouse is completely accurate. Mr. Fitzsimmon & Co. are buried in spin and inaccurate claims. Time to change WCPSS for the better.

How much is Mr. Fitzsimmons paid for his opinions? I can wager that Ms. Backhouse had to PAY - with time away from her kids - to write, edit, craft, rewrite, craft, stress over, submit, her opinion. She did a PHENOMENAL job. Thank you to her and the family that loaned her to this 'project'. 

Mr. Fizsimmons claims that what WCPSS needs "are more parents working to address the real problems and spending less energy distorting the facts "Funny, that's what WSCA represents. Its just that, with an upclose look, intimate relationship WE as parents have with schools, not from an armchair 'executive director' position - we're just not coming up with what he'd like to dream is the solution. We can TELL you, Mr. Fitzsimons what its like day to day. And WCPSS, with their random capricious changes (MYR, Early release WEd, frequent reassignments) CLEARLY do not have the same view of the world of the child and the family. It is all theory. And its dead wrong.

I'm not sure how someone can possibly use the word "alleged" as in Fitzsimons' use of "alleged horrors of school reassignment". Has he not been paying attention to the many stories of people and families detrimentally affected by school reassignment? Now, perhaps, Mr. Fitzsimons, you have another viewpoint, but please don't turn a blind eye toward those of us who have experienced problems and lifestyle changes due to reassignment ("horrors" might be a bit of an overly dramatic description but I think Mr. Fitzsimons is being a bit sarcastic in his word choice -- though on second thought I'm sure some reassignment effects could be categorized as 'horrors'.) I do know that when my family experienced reassignment (once in elementary school, and twice in high school), it had a tremendous negative impact on my family, my children, their educations, their friendships, our commuting distance, and our dedication to the school system.

And if Mr. Fitzsimons wants to compare 'as the crow flies' transportation to actual on-the-road bus transportation, I hope next time he remembers to allow time for traffic which the crow can easily fly over. I'd welcome him to come and take the morning drive to the high school from which my child recently graduated, which is on the way to RTP. A traffic nightmare.

The assignment policy (opt out from year-rounds, etc.) has also had a negative impact on my youngest child's school, as its EOG scores are some of the lowest in Western Wake County. Average and above average children are falling through the cracks, and families are leaving. Is this a goal of Wake County Schools?

The SAT scores might be higher, but another recent newspaper article pointed out that fewer students are now taking the SAT because of the economy and the need to go to something other than a four year traditional college. So that group of students that might have historically received lower scores (those not interested in four year college or those from economic hardships) are now no longer even taking the SAT, which would probably raise those overall SAT scores. My children have had good and bad teachers in Wake County schools (mostly good! most of them are not the problem), but SAT scores reflect much more than the quality of a school or a school system: they reflect the work done by SAT tutors, who are becoming more common than ever as competition for college acceptance increases; the work done in SAT preparatory courses that most students take these days; and the work of parents and the background from which the students come.

Citing research certainly can prove some points sometimes; but, most of us upset with the current situation in our Wake County schools are basing our opinions on actual experience, unfortunately. You see, research doesn't mean a whole lot when you have to pull your child out of public school because the curriculum is way behind what your older children had at the same age. Research doesn't mean a whole lot when your child starts high school one year and though in a higher grade, has to start high school again at another school and get acclimated to that school. Research doesn't mean a whole lot when we have many case studies right here among ourselves, our friends, and our neighbors.

Please, Mr. Fitzsimons, respect all of us and know that it is not 'alleged' horrors of reassignment.
And please don't assume that those of us who want a change in our schools also want to "send the schools and community back fifty years". Give us more credit than that. We believe some new policies can work for all groups of people, not just for a few.

Lastly, how can you call any of Ms. Backhouse's statements 'ridiculous" when you use blanket statements like " . . . and families in Wake County agree that the policy helps all the students and the community." ALL families? I don't think so.

typical rhetoric with NOTHING to back it up.....are they clones? Mr. Fitzsimon and his ilk? Do they all think with one brain? I see NO variations, no differences, no NEW ideas, just satisfaction with mediocrity and shuffling.....unless one has lived the WCPSS experience for more than a year, there is not real comprehension of what goes on and how badly children and families are affected.
this "Fitzsimons contends that "the people in Wake County are proud of their school system and don’t want to see it dismantled and returned to separate and unequal." " SHOULD READ "the people IN WCPSS'ADMINISTRATION are proud of their school system and don't want to see it dismantled and their fabricated awards stopped".

Still the same worn out and tired arguments. References to far-flung studies in the absence of ANY data to support the effectiveness of our own policies.

Intentional falsehoods about groups wanting to "dismantle the public schools" or "free vouchers or tax credits."

Still regurgitating the wcpss/wep (what's the difference) linear data.

And again with the Char/Meck comparison. Mr. Fiztsimmon and his fellow defenders of the status-quo continue to accuse change agents of wanting to recreate that environment here. But we are not the ones who keep bringing up Char/Meck. As long as he did, however, I will mention that they do a better job with ED and minority students than wcpss does.

When 54% of ED students graduate and the achievement gap continues to grow, I guess spin is all you have left to defend failed school policies.