Wake County Schools Chief Academic Officer Donna Hargens is sticking by her position that decisions about using diversity in student assignment are a school board issue.
As noted in an article that will appear in Thursday's Louisville Courier-Journal, Hargens said that decisions about using a diversity-based assignment policy are “public value choices” best left to “the board's governance role.” It's the same stance she took as Wake's interim superintendent.
“She's like Switzerland — she's neutral,” said former Wake County PTA Council President Liza Weidle in the article. “But she's had an incredible impact.”
That neutrality could be an issue in her bid to become the new superintendent of Jefferson County Schools in Kentucky. That school system is mulling what direction to take on student assignment as it continues to use a diversity-based approach.
Hargens, one of the two finalists for the job, is in Louisville now meeting with the community.
Raoul Cunningham, president of the Louisville branch of the NAACP, questioned in the article whether Hargens would provide sufficient leadership on the issue of diversity, saying she “tip-toed around” the issue when the two talked.
“It's terrible. We couldn't pin her down,” he said.
But also in the article, several education leaders, principals, parents, school board members and former superintendents praised Hargens' role as an academic leader in Wake.
"She's widely admired — I think she's one of the most outstanding curricular people in large districts in the country,” said Fenwick English, a University of North Carolina professor of education leadership, in the article.
Hargens is credited with spearheading efforts to better evaluate educational programs, smooth transitions between grade levels and shrink achievement gaps.
The article calls Hargens a force behind the district's innovative online curriculum site, where teachers can access lesson plans, materials and videos. It gets more than 1,000 hits a day.
She has also pushed teachers to do ongoing assessments of student progress to more quickly fill learning deficits. And she enacted “professional learning teams,” requiring teachers to collaborate regularly on lessons and student progress.
UPDATE
The Courier-Journal is reporting online today that the Louisville chapter of the NAACP is calling on the Jefferson County school board to reopen the superintendent search. The NAACP says they're not satisfied with the responses from both finalists about desegregation issues.
Comments
Being Smart
Fri, 06/10/2011 - 07:23 — openmindIsn't Ms. Hargens just being smart right now. I am sure she is giving more direct answers in her interviews to the people that are actually making the decisions. When being quoted by a newspaper, or speaking with someone from one side of the equation (president of NAACP), you are going to be careful what you say if you don't have the job yet. Come on now people, look at what our politicians do when they are seeking an office, provide the public with the answers they want to hear. Ms. Hargens does not want to rock the boat at this point, so she is giving answers that won't sway either side. Let's see what happens if and when she gets the job. Best of luck to her.
Dr. Hargens seems to have....
Thu, 06/09/2011 - 14:40 — bpuli9999achieved a lot - without being responsible for anything! That truly is a great job to have - wonder why she wants to leave?
1. Hiding of the achievement gap (reported in SAS report) - yet was not held accountable for it.
2. Wake has a larger achievement gap between low-income and non-low-income students than other school districts in NC. Yet we have someone in this article praising her on this issue?
3. WCPSS students are scoring consistently around the 60th state percentile in 3-8 math and has remained flat the last 3 years. That's an achievement?
Good observation.
Thu, 06/09/2011 - 21:44 — HJ2ss2Good observation.
C-Mapp was one of the
Wed, 06/08/2011 - 22:43 — duvalC-Mapp was one of the resources that Hargens presented to the faculty and continued to remind us on an ongoing and timely manner to refer to as the year went on.
Something as new as C-Mapp needs to be brought up frequently until it becomes the go to place as a resource. While there are still a lot of bugs to work out regarding content I could not complain about the message sent from her on learning and using this new resource and the sharing of information that it provides.
Leave Her Alone
Wed, 06/08/2011 - 21:08 — MissVUnless the N&O is going to follow former Superintendent Del Burns on all of his job interviews, it would be fairer to let Mrs. Hargens have some peace in her pursuits. Bottom line is that she did what Burns refused to do: followed instructions from the School Board.