You can probably add Ann Denlinger, president of the Wake Education Partnership, to the list of people who will be invited to speak at a meeting of the county commissioners.
The request is coming from Commissioner Joe Bryan, who was impressed by a presentation Denlinger made at a Tuesday forum sponsored by the Knightdale 100, a new grassroots group that wants to improve education in Eastern Wake.
Denlinger noted how Knightdale High had 11 Advanced Placement courses while Enloe High had 28 of them. Denlinger told the crowd about the need to offer more AP classes.
Denlinger also presented statistics showing that Knightdale High has both a lower percentage of students taking the SAT and a lower average SAT score than the district.
Bryan said he's asked Tony Gurley, chairman of the board of commissioners, to put Denlinger's presentation on the agenda of the next joint meeting of the commissioners and school board.
The commissioners have been getting progressively more interested in hearing speakers discuss education issues.
Commissioner Stan Norwalk wants to bring in Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and a strong supporter of Wake's diversity policy.
Gurley had brought in William Sanders from the SAS Institute to present the EVAAS report.
Many thanks to Eastern Wake News reporter Denise Sherman for her information about Tuesday's meeting.
Comments
Sorry ... I love numbers and
Fri, 01/29/2010 - 20:31 — user12345Sorry ... I love numbers and I am always trying to understand what they are trying to say ... I was interested in how many kids took the test compared to how many took the class. Overall 67% of the kids who took the class took the test. There appears to be three tier - Enloe and Green Hope students have high participation and East Wake, Garner and Knightdale had low participation ... I wonder if this is cyclical ... kids don't take the test so the schools don't offer the classes? Another question is do students at say Garner not take the AP test because they can not afford them or because they don't feel prepared (e.g Could Garner be stuck with the poor AP teachers?) Finally, if student have to pay for the tests could it be Wake's elevated results are due to natural selection as poor kids opt out compared to other areas where the fee is covered by the school system and all students are tested?
So...
Fri, 01/29/2010 - 22:09 — Bob_SconceIt would be interesting to look at the total number of kids in the school -- this gives some idea of the number of students eligible to take AP classes. You may actually have a better chance of taking AP classes at asmall school that offers only 6 AP classes v. one that offers 20.
"It would be interesting to
Mon, 02/01/2010 - 14:53 — user12345"It would be interesting to look at the total number of kids in the school -- this gives some idea of the number of students eligible to take AP classes. "
Bob You made me do it ... I added Fairfax, VA and their competition Montgomery, MD ... Every school would need to be an "Enloe" to compete at their level. I could not tell who pays for the test and who does not but I did see where in some places you don't get AP weighted credit unless you pass the AP test which forces participation. Finally, Fairfax offers AP course in summer school and online.
...http://www.fcps.edu/DIS/gt/pdfs/ap/AP%20Courses%202009-10.pdf
My first pass on all this
Sat, 01/30/2010 - 16:57 — user12345My first pass on all this would be to have EVERY school offer the 19 AP course most schools are offering above and pay for the exams like other system. I am guessing there will be three sections of 30 kids for each course at GH and 1 section of 15 kids at Garner ... so be it ... the 15 kids at Garner can get similar shoot at the top colleges ... also, making sure every kid takes the final test will show the effectiveness of each school's AP offerings and teachers ... note, AP course are one way poor kids can trim a little off college expenses.
You seem to have serious
Sun, 01/31/2010 - 01:22 — jenmanYou seem to have serious envy of Green Hope, but a friend of mine who works at another high school has an interesting take on GH. It is a business. They are very interested in making sure that they have a high number of kids taking AP courses, that they have high scores on AP courses, that their kids have high GPAs, that they have a high number of kids getting into UNC, etc. But they don't take as much interest in developing the students themselves. Its all about the 'scores' and not the students themselves. I'd much rather that my kids gain skills and interests that will last them lifetime, no matter what career or circumstance they find themselves in. Of course GPAs and SAT scores matter, but there is so much more to life than that.
I'm certainly not saying that I'd be happy with the academics that Knightdale, Garner, or East Wake have to offer, but Green Hope is not the be all and end all.
how in the heck is user
Sun, 01/31/2010 - 22:18 — carson79how in the heck is user using GH as an example in his points "envious"? Coming from YOU that is a laugh a minute - you seem to envy much much more than user and I think it's hilarious that you saw fit to mention this against him as if made any difference at all!
Excellent insight ... I
Sun, 01/31/2010 - 11:53 — user12345Excellent insight ... I don't know what to say ... is running a HS like a business good or bad? If it was, the school would want to eliminate any low performers (e.g. F&Rs') from the pool since they are high resource / low return in business lingo ... I am guessing for some here that philosophy is exactly what they want - high GPA, most AP tests, high UNC acceptance ... does not sound bad ... but it is strange that some schools would have such a different approach than others ... also, note I just use GHHS because it has the School of Excellence stamp and competes with RCHS and shows up on national school lists ... if there was another school with all those commendations, I would use them as an example ...
Personally, I have no desire
Mon, 02/01/2010 - 14:36 — jenmanPersonally, I have no desire for my kids to go to Green Hope. I mean, if that was our assigned school its not like I would fight to get out of it. But being at that kind of school is just not something I aspire to. Some people do and that's ok. But for me, running a HS like a business is bad. I'm much more interested in developing my children as people than as 'products'. Obviously you have to focus on that somewhat to get into a good school, but I don't want my children to have such a limited focus. Or for the teachers and staff guiding them to have such a limited focus.
I'm a liberal arts university grad--can you tell? :-)
"Obviously you have to focus
Mon, 02/01/2010 - 14:52 — user12345"Obviously you have to focus on that somewhat to get into a good school, but I don't want my children to have such a limited focus. "
I just want to give my kids the same opportunity as every other kid in the county ... ... whether my kids take opportunity is up to them ... the fact that they are limited in how much they can learn, progress, and the college they can attend by the fact they go to a school with a high number of F&R kids is sad and frustrating.
I just want to give my kids
Mon, 02/01/2010 - 15:13 — jenmanI just want to give my kids the same opportunity as every other kid in
the county ... ... whether my kids take opportunity is up to them ...
the fact that they are limited in how much they can learn, progress,
and the college they can attend by the fact they go to a school with a
high number of F&R kids is sad and frustrating.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I agree with you 100%. Have you checked out Knightdale 100? Seems like a good group for you to join if you live out that way.
Couldn't resist
Sun, 01/31/2010 - 10:26 — louiselee44"Green" with envy? I am so sorry - just couldn't resist that one :^)
Thanks for posting the link,
Fri, 01/29/2010 - 23:21 — ApexterThanks for posting the link, user. It was very informative.
The numbers that jumped out at me the most, though, were the ones from East Wake. You had them totalled as one school, but, as far as I know, it genuinely is 4 separate schools and there can be no crossover.
Based on the numbers shown below for the individual schools, it appears that the small school approach there can be really harmful to kids who hope to take AP classes. I would be especially troubled if my kid wasn't allowed into the school that I had asked for at that site.
East Wake Health Sci.* - 5 74 64 37 24
East Wake Int. Tech.* - 0 0 0 16 11
East Wake Arts/Educ.* - 3 51 43 22 13
East Wake Engineering* - 1 35 35 12 10
Exactly what I was
Sat, 01/30/2010 - 11:10 — jenmanExactly what I was thinking. There's no way I would ever move to the base area for East Wake. Its even worse than Knightdale in terms of opportunities.
oh wow you finally said
Sun, 01/31/2010 - 22:20 — carson79oh wow you finally said it!!
So you have the right to demand certain "opportunities" from schools and would not MOVE to East Wake but YOU believe you have the right to subject other parents to this??? When they are not organizing or voting for the changes you are pushing for? How do you sleep at night lady?
Of course I am exaggerating but seriously you basically said that you would not move to a "bad" school but then you say we should not worry about having "good" and "bad" schools!
I have never said that we
Mon, 02/01/2010 - 14:21 — jenmanI have never said that we shouldn't worry about having 'good' and 'bad' schools. I've said that in their quest for 'healthy' schools, WCPSS has ignored students, particularly low income and minority students.
I have no idea where you're getting some of your other accusations from. How do I sleep at night? Very well. I speak up for what I think is right, even if I'm not negatively affected by the original problem and even if I will be negatively affected by a change that is better for everybody else.
I advocate for all students to have access to equitable opportunities. Just because I wouldn't move to East Wake's attendance zone certainly doesn't mean that I think I "have the right to subject other parents to this". I don't know where you get this stuff.
Are you stalking jenman,
Sun, 01/31/2010 - 22:35 — ApexterAre you stalking jenman, waiting for her to say something that you can twist around?
The shortage of AP courses is entirely a construct of WCPSS policies. They have subdivided the school into four separate schools with different content areas. In the process, they have pretty much made it impossible for there to be the critical mass to offer AP courses.
One logical alternative would be to allow some interconnection of the campuses to allow cooperation on certain courses. I would think that an English class in the Health Sciences school would equate with one in the Engineering technology one. Instead, the policy of making four separate very small high schools has effectively crippled the students there from being able to get AP classes.
It's not the East Wake population that has created this shortcoming (which, admittedly, may not be seen as a shortcoming by all families, but is a huge one to others.)
The utilization rate is 104
Fri, 01/29/2010 - 22:02 — red_balloonThe utilization rate is 104 students per AP course offered at Enloe. There is a steep drop to the next one: Green Hope with 71 students per AP course. Excluding the EDs, 40% of the (NED) population take AP tests at Enloe. At GH, it is 25%. That's quite a gap and brings into sharp focus the magnet vs non-magnet anomalies. Also, given the magnet resources being pumped into Enloe, I wonder why less than half of Enloe NEDs take AP tests.
Continuing with the assumption that APs are predominantly taken by NEDs, in the purple band, at schools like Knightdale, the percentage of the AP test takers to total NED population is 4%. It is so low that something is seriously wrong and I don't think it is the $85 fee (assuming the students have to pay for it).
...
Fri, 01/29/2010 - 15:20 — SideburnsKeung,
Was this a normal WEP presentation (Suspending Disbelief, Striking a Balance, etc.) or did Denlinger fine tune the data specifically for the Knightdale 100?
Thanks
I wasn't there. But based on
Fri, 01/29/2010 - 15:51 — KeungHui (author)I wasn't there. But based on the story that's running in Eastern Wake News, it looks like she presented a modified version of Suspending Disbelief with a lot of Knightdale High data.
In Appreciation of Wake Ed Partnership
Fri, 01/29/2010 - 12:58 — shardy3As a member of K100 I want to thank Wake Ed Partnership for giving our community a concise and objective report on the current data for Knightdale High School. The data was cross-referenced and presented so that we citizens could clearly see how our high school compares to ALL high schools in Wake County. The data will soon be posted on knightdale100.blogspot.com for any citizen that is interested in the presentation. Further the forum will be on EWTV (channel 22) tonight at 8pm. http://198.85.228.95:50001/websched.php?channel=1&day=fri
Wake Ed Partnership is a non-partisan group dedicated to world class schools for ALL of Wake County. Their interest in presenting in East Wake was due to our request for their presence. We deeply appreciate that Dr. Ann Denlinger and Tim Simmons (President and VP of Communications for Wake Ed Partnership) shared their expertise with over 60 Knightdale parents and active citizens that want to learn more!
The forum was organized by Knightdale 100 a new grassroots advocacy group for Knightdale's schools. Our group invited School Board Member Chris Malone to attend, but he was unable - although he assured us he would be present for a future forum. In his absence WE ARE GRATEFUL that County Commissioner Joe Bryan did find the time to hear this important data and continues to take an interest in equitable use of Wake County's tax dollars. Finally, we must thank Knightdale High School Principal, Ms. Carla Jernigan's willingness to attend and field many difficult questions. Her commitment to KHS success is clear and an inspiration.
This forum was not an attack...this is an important community effort to collaborate with decision-makers and improve Knightdale's schools!
shardy--I'm really happy to
Fri, 01/29/2010 - 16:54 — jenmanshardy--I'm really happy to see Knightdale 100 has formed and started taking positive steps to ensure equal access for your students. And thanks so much for posting the info about the meeting being televised. I'm setting up my TiVo to record it!
Wishing you well!
HS attention finally!
Fri, 01/29/2010 - 19:11 — DrActualFactualI am so happy to see that the public is beginning to address some of the system failings in regard to HS age students. In order to turn around Wake's dropout rate and get students into college we need to do some work at the high school level and quick. I was informed yesterday that all students in all grades at our HS will only get 1 math per year. We need to address our shortcomings as a system and provide ALL our HS students with opportunities to excel regardless of color, income, or zip code. I hope other communities beyond Knightdale will address this issue. It will be interesting to see if WEP comes up with a UNIVERSAL solution or just a bandaid for one area.
Glad they helped you,
Fri, 01/29/2010 - 14:52 — changewcpssGlad they helped you, although you will find they are not unbiased, transparent, or without ulterior motives.
I am surprised Knightdale
Fri, 01/29/2010 - 12:56 — carson79I am surprised Knightdale has 11 AP's and Enloe 28! The way some on the blog talk about it (not Eastern wake people) you would think Enloe has 50 and Knightdale 0. 11 AP classes is a lot compared to my friends high schools not in Wake.
let them eat cake?
Fri, 01/29/2010 - 13:04 — loriacSo those of us not worthy of magnets should be happy w/ our crumbs?
Why should anyone be satisfied if their school has less than half the AP classes of another high school, when the criteria to get in is discriminatory (everyone does NOT have an equal chance to take advantage of these).
I hope you'll take a second
Fri, 01/29/2010 - 18:48 — carson79I hope you'll take a second to read the postings back to you.
Wakefield has what 26 AP's? So are they telling Leesville to "eat cake"? Is admission to Wakefield "discriminatory"? They offer more than double the AP courses of Knightdale high - is that ok with you? Why should Enloe not be able to - it is open on a lottery basis to the entire county - Wakefield is only open to residents in its assignment zones.
You are reading into my posts.
I did thank User for posting
Fri, 01/29/2010 - 18:55 — loriacI did thank User for posting that - it gave more info than your post.
Enloe is not open to the entire county. All may apply. However, only a few are eligible to attend. It is not a 'fair' lottery.
I think there is work to do to even out the offerings across the county.
You are right it is not even
Fri, 01/29/2010 - 19:02 — woodstockYou are right, it is not even close to a fair lottery. However, even if it was, having a lottery system is no way to run a PUBLIC school system. Whether my children have access to the best Wake has to offer should not be left up to chance.
Whether my children have
Sat, 01/30/2010 - 14:41 — carson79Whether my children have access to the best Wake has to offer should not be left up to chance.
So it should be left up to what? where you can afford to live?
It is already left up to
Sun, 01/31/2010 - 00:31 — jenmanIt is already left up to where you can afford to live. Getting into a magnet in K is based almost entirely on where you can afford to live and how much money your child's classmates parents make. Getting into a magnet middle school is based mostly upon whether or not you went to a magnet elem school, then on where you can afford to live and how much money your child's classmates parent make, Getting into a magnet high school is based on . . . .
We are NOT giving the best we have to offer to the best and brightest. Its all based on where you can afford to live. Where have you been? Have you been paying attention?!?
actually some seats are
Sun, 01/31/2010 - 22:25 — carson79actually some seats are reserved for a true lottery with no priority given for the things you mention above. So you are being misleading when you post this stuff.
The assignment policy recognizes the importance of continuity so preference is given to keep kids on an assignment track.
And you are still missing the main point - you are complaining that something is not 100% perfect but then advocating to eliminate it 100%!!! You are throwing out the baby with the bathwater and I honestly have no clue how you cannot recognize this!
If not, what is your alternative?
Yep, I know that there are
Mon, 02/01/2010 - 10:52 — jenmanYep, I know that there are 10% of seats open for everybody. That is why I said based "almost entirely on where you can afford to live". I'm not being misleading at all.
I have no idea what you say I am advocating getting rid of entirely.
It is you that doesn't get
Mon, 02/01/2010 - 08:46 — CaryCurmudgeonIt is you that doesn't get it. Jenman already won the lottery and got her kid into magnet school. But, unlike the parade of whining magnet parents who only care about keeping what's theirs, Jenman is actually interested in what's fair for all.
Having 10% of magnet seats available on a true lottery basis is nothing more than a token nod to the real estate industry, so they can dangle the magnet carrot in front of prospective buyers.
Your odds of pulling a winning scratch-off ticket are better with the NC "Education" lottery.
last 10%
Sun, 01/31/2010 - 22:42 — loriacyes, the current magnet selection system is far from perfect and blatantly unfair. The whole magnet system was not well thought out - we're past the end game now and that's why these issues are coming up. We have all these Enloe students saying they only go there for the diversity - so why does Enloe need more electives than any other school?
Spread the offerings around, make it an open lottery - lots of suggestions have been made.
BTW - you never answered - where do your kids to to school?
How about...
Sat, 01/30/2010 - 15:59 — Bob_SconceThe amount of effort they put in and their natural ability.
Interesting! I can't argue
Sat, 01/30/2010 - 17:00 — carson79Interesting! I can't argue with that. How do you see it in place? like how would change from the current policy? I could see an application system where kids from the "bad" schools (I'm just trying to get to my point quickly here) could apply to the schools with more and tougher courses - ie kids that want to learn at the "new enloe" but don't get access to courses could apply to wakefield or wherever.
So...
Sat, 01/30/2010 - 17:19 — Bob_SconceRight now, admission to magnet schools is controlled by (i) lottery where your chance of being accepted depends enormously on the number of poor kids in the node you live in and (ii) for Middle School and High School Magnets, whether your previous school was a Magnet.
One possibility is to have an annual entrance exam. If there are 300 spots in the magnet program, the top 300 students on the exam get to go there. Once admitted, you have to keep your grades and class participation up or you will be booted.
Now, I'm not a huge fan of that approach--I would rather see those kids served at their local high school instead of having one centralized magnet that's a whole lot more convenient for some students than others. But, it's a fairer way of assigning students than we have now.
I have no philosophical problem with allowing students to apply to other schools if their base school doesn't offer wanted courses. At a practical level, this means distributing courses throughout the county so Johnny isn't travelling from Wendell to Middle Creek HS (or Enloe, for that matter) to take AP Calculus III.
that's the million dollar question
Sat, 01/30/2010 - 15:58 — loriacThere's a prize school in Wake County called Enloe - has a greater variety of offerings than any other high school. Many more Enloe students are accepted by UNC (or Stanford) than any other Wake County HS.
How do you determine who gets in? Who has the 'right' to attend such a school?
Right now the students of Wake County do not all have an equal chance of attending this school. Even if someone could decode the round 1/round 2... rules, these can be changed on a whim by GM. Some have 0 chance of being accepted, just because of the node they live in.
Why does such a school even exist, if everyone can't benefit from it? Way back when someone determined that they needed to beef up Enloe to get people to travel downtown to school. (the irony is that the base kids don't even get to attend these beefed up offerings) Mission accomplished - in fact, if you believe all the Enloe students who have spoken at the recent BOE meetings, the most important thing about Enloe to them is the diversity. Problem solved! Spread these wonderful offerings around to the rest of the high schools in Wake COunty!
No one thought about the end game of magnet schools. Now all who benefit from these magnets (downtown businesses, nearby homeowners, current magnet students) are fighting tooth and nail to keep things the same. How can this be justfied?
So would you be ok with the
Sat, 01/30/2010 - 16:43 — carson79So would you be ok with the situation where the highest course offerings are in schools in the best neighborhoods? Wakefield with 26 has only 2 less than Enloe!
Where is your outrage against Wakefield that it has more offerings than Leesville and is FULLY restricted to students who live in the assignment area?? while Enloe is open to students from across the county??
You are asking great questions and they are the same as mine - the difference is you are only asking them about Enloe and not the great suburban schools or varied offerings at them. Who decides who gets in to Wakefield?
"Where is your outrage
Sun, 01/31/2010 - 15:20 — Apexter"Where is your outrage against Wakefield that it has more offerings than
Leesville and is FULLY restricted to students who live in the
assignment area?? while Enloe is open to students from across the
county??"
WCPSS does not have a policy that limits the offerings at any other high school in order to avoid having it compete with Wakefield HS for students.
It does for Enloe.
Additionally, you have demonstrated that Wakefield has more AP courses than the average school, and nearly as many as Enloe. I've seen nothing to demonstrate that Wakefield has substantially greater offerings of electives in general than the standard Wake County High School, or that WCPSS has invested substantially more in its facilities and faculties than any other non-magnet high school in the county.
Soo...
Sun, 01/31/2010 - 05:16 — Bob_SconceRecognize that the courses a school offers depend highly on demand. Wakefield gets about as much per students as Knightdale does. The problem is just that fewer students at Knightdale want AP courses (or they want a smaller set of them). Should Knightdale stop spending money on courses the students want and start using it for AP courses they're not that interested in? If either Knightdale or Wakefield had more money, they could offer a few courses that appeal to a smaller subset of its students.
The problem with Enloe is that gets that extra money and, as a result, offers its students an extravagently broad range of courses that just wouldn't be possible if it had the same budget as other schools. Extra AP courses are just a small part of that extravagently broad range.
Here's an analogy. There's no problem if the district gives $1000 to schools A & B and school A spends it on new library books and school B spends it on computers. School B doesn't complain about school A's new books and A doesn't complain about B's computers. They each bought what they thought was most important. But, school A & B should complain when the district gives school C $10,000, which it spends on new books, new computers and new plasma-screen TVs.
??
Sat, 01/30/2010 - 17:26 — loriacI'm not sure how you came to that conclusion. Enloe is a completely different case than Wakefield. Enloe is a magnet and has a discriminatory selection policy for entrance. Now I supposed I could go live in the base area for Enloe, but then my kids would be 'base' kids not eligible for those courses (said sarcastically - but unfortunately, that is the current state at Enloe).
Just like w/ Leesville - I can move to the Wakefield base area, or Green Hope, or Panther Creek, Cary High, whatever, and be assigned to those schools. I do think the offerings need to be evened out among the schools. Enloe, however, is a different case - it has electives far and above any other school in Wake County (not just AP courses), yet all Wake COunty kids do not have an equal chance to go there.
so you say you can move to
Sat, 01/30/2010 - 19:37 — carson79so you say you can move to the Wakefield base area so you have equal chance to go to any school in wake county - what about people that can't afford to move somewhere?
Wakefield has AP courses far and above most other schools in wake county, yet NO Wake county kids have ANY chance to go there unless they can afford to move to the base area.
I'm just pointing out your hypocrisy here and I don't think it will make a difference because you think that everyone can move to a certain school giving everyone equal access. I completely disagree with this notion.
Specialized knowledge
Sat, 01/30/2010 - 21:23 — SDR256I think you can both (and we can all) agree that what has been discussed and agreed to or disagreed is very, very, very specialized knowledge. I am educated. I am sensitive to my childrens' needs. I am energetic and have some flexibility in my family schedule to be able to think about and have the resources to research this topic. I STILL cannot imagine keeping track of all this minute, specialized information. This is insane. I would so much rather have some kind of rating for a school. I would rather have my kids go to a school that had middlin' programs but some aspect that I preferred - like stability. I think stability is REALLY important.
Think about what we are asking new parents, or even 'old' parents like me, who don't have the radar for this kind of 'death by a thousand cuts' kind of minutae? OMG! Can't we design a system that is actually human and usable? I can only hope for one that is connected to my neighborhood because then I have a hope for figuring it out.
??
Sat, 01/30/2010 - 19:46 — loriacI said I agree that the offerings need to be equalized throughout the county high schools. I had no idea until I saw this list that Wakefield had so much.
There are houses of all price ranges in the Wakefield base. Not sure what you are getting at. And I don't want to move to Wakefield - for lots of reasons. So, I'd rather argue for fairness in offerings across the county. The hypocrisy is that we need to offer all the extra electives (in addition to the AP courses) at Enloe to 'get' people to go there, when they are so happy with just the diversity of the school. (notice you didn't comment on that)
Anyone moving in can choose to live in a certain school's base area. But, as the recent letter to the editor said - they were surprised when they got here that they had zero chance at getting into a magnet.
What school do your kids go to?
"notice you didn't comment
Sat, 01/30/2010 - 20:00 — carson79"notice you didn't comment on that"
I guess I didn't comment because it didn't make sense to me - all of the magnet families I know are there for the programs and some for the diversity - I never heard anyone arguing that they only like Enloe for diversity.
I agree that there should be baseline elective and AP offerings at all schools - like Jenman said, the EW High course offerings would be unacceptable to me.
"Anyone moving in can choose to live in a certain school's base area. "
I think we fundamentally disagree that this should be parents only avenue at choosing the best school for their child. It gives privilege to affluent families that I cannot condone in a PUBLIC school system. The magnet system is not perfect and I hope that they go to a true lottery system. Maybe we agree there?
??
Sat, 01/30/2010 - 21:58 — loriac'I never heard anyone arguing that they only like Enloe for diversity. '
You are on the blog so much - can't believe you missed this. Watch the public comments for the first BOE meeting this year - the 'Enloe parade', as they are now known, came in and talked only about how great the diversity was at Enloe, and please don't take that away. That nothing should change at Enloe because they have all benefitted so much from diversity. Right.
I'm not sure what you mean about a school's base area - we moved to our neighborhood because of the proximity to RTP. THe fact that everyone said Leesville schools were good, was also a consideration - but we didn't have kids at the time, so it was just information. If someone said the schools were terrible - yes, we would have thought twice. This goes on in every town across America.
I can't understand the whole magnet thing - it obviously only benefits a few, especially those ITB, at the cost of everyone around the whole county.
So - what school do your kids go to?
MYR hurt Leesville but
Sun, 01/31/2010 - 17:42 — changewcpssMYR hurt Leesville but helped others. My neighbor is a realtor and said Leesville was always cream of the crop. After MYR hit, relocating families have researched Wake County and know about the negative ramifications MYR brought to Leesville. He has been able to sell houses in other areas, when they would have otherwise bought up North in Leesville base area. Have Leesville families seen or heard that same story?
"THe fact that everyone said
Sun, 01/31/2010 - 12:07 — user12345"THe fact that everyone said Leesville schools were good, was also a consideration - but we didn't have kids at the time, so it was just information. If someone said the schools were terrible - yes, we would have thought twice. This goes on in every town across America.
I think what I don't like is the fact that there can be so much disparity between school in the same system. I understand not wanting to live in Durham Co. because of the schools but the fact that you need to spend a lot of time researching which Wake Co. school to attend seems sad. And if a person did chase the best school it should be fleeting and change constantly as teachers and principals move around unless being the best school is some how predetermined. So, a person should be able to pick WCPSS and find any house they can afford and get a good education for their children and should not need to buy an expensive home to get a good PUBLIC education. I would like to see it where people can live anywhere in the county, with whom every they please, no matter how much money they make and all get the same good education.
Like it or not, the real
Sun, 01/31/2010 - 13:15 — loriacLike it or not, the real estate agent sells the schools. Is your assignment area MYR? Is it traditional? Is it a bus ride across town? The important factors will be different for everyone. At the time I never understood why people would talk about test scores at a school - I never understood what possible bearing that would have on my kids' scores.... now I know that it was all part of the game.
This is also the carrot to make sure problems with schools are addressed. But - not by shipping us across town to 'fix' a school because lots of our parents happen to volunteer. THat's what the previous board did, and like many - we opted out.