Not backing a diversity study

Last night I posted some information on my hometown district (under the Enloe in the News) thread. My hometown district has all Title I schools and all the ES and MS meet AYP. ncdad1 and VoR had some questions. ncdad1 - you asked about "good" vs. "bad" sections of the county. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "good" vs. "bad" based on your example of "white" and "black" schools. If you are asking if there are “white” and “black” sections of the county or schools, the answer is no. My home county is 83% "white" and 8% “black”. If you are asking if there are “good” and “bad” sections or schools based on socioeconomic status, the answer is basically no. The ES with the lowest F&R rate is at 40% and the “lowest income” ES school is 81% F&R. They both meet AYP and both received a “B” on their school report card. All students attend the same MS and in my day HS (the alternative HS did not exist then). There are some nicer sections, some less nice sections in the county, but they are pockets here and there vs. large areas. I also looked at another town that was in our athletic conference that is 55% “white” and 33% “black”. The district F&R rate is 75%. All the kids attend the same schools and both ES and the MS meet AYP. Again high F&R does not have to equal failed school. VofR – you asked about ES class size. They average from 18-20 (MS is 19, HS is 20). I think you may be correct about ESL/LEP. My hometown does have a higher than average Muslim population (originally largely from Yeoman), but I think most of the influx was 10-20 years ago. As for the AG, I understand your daughter’s situation. The ES I attended (which BTW was probably around 60-70% F&R) taught based on two main concepts 1) respect others right to learn and 2) individual paced learning. The teacher would introduce concepts to the whole class for 10-20 minutes and then we spent a lot of time working on those concepts at our own pace. This kept me from getting bored and gave opportunity for the teacher and classroom volunteers to give extra help to those that needed it. When I got to sixth grade the district went from a K-6, Jr. High, HS model to a K-5, MS, HS model to consolidate schools due to shrinking population and they weren’t quite prepared for the first sixth grade MS class. So, rather than dividing by learning aptitude, they divided us at random. Most classes were desks in rows, lecture format all hour, multiple repetitions to the whole class for those who needed it – very different from my ES experience. I was bored and miserable. From 7th grade on, there were advanced classes at least in some subjects. I had a more positive experience in my higher F&R ES than my sixth grade MS class, with lower F&R, simply due to the structure of the classroom and teaching method. Needless to say, I’m amazed at the amount of time, energy, focus and money Wake County spends on this concept of having to get F&R% below 40%, when there are school systems out there where most, if not all the schools, have higher than 40% F&R and those schools are not failing. What would WCPSS do if, like in my home town, more than 40% of the population qualified for F&R – just throw their hands up because they think high F&R schools can’t succeed?

I may have missed a posting or two, as there are quite a lot!!
But I did read enough to see that people are concerned about the #'s being bussed that are low income. Well, take a look at the #'s that are being bussed into the magnet schools from the suburbs. They are huge!!
Last year I looked at the numbers of buses coming to my children's traditional ES. 10. Then I looked at the # of buses going to Hunter elementary school. 40.
The majority being bussed were not to remove F&R families, though this certainly happens and added to our 10, but to provide transportation to the few in each node that won the "lottery" and made it to the magnet program.
The wasteful busing is coming from mostly empty buses traveling all over the county to take a handful of students into the magnet program.
I know that voiceforequality.com has addressed this issue, but it seems lost in the sauce.
There should be a greater spread of magnet schools countywide if we are going to continue with the magnet program in our county. How can we meet the requirements of the magnet program if we are neglecting the schools that have over the 40% desired F&R population, due in part to our diversity goals, throughout the entire county?

The answer is known about student achievement, that's why they will not do the study. If you listen to WCPSS they say it is for healthy schools. Let me tell you healthy Title I schools = $$$$; unhealthy Title I schools = - $$$ (loss); that is it pure and simple. Economic Diversity Busing means they don't have to try to hard to fix the problem at Title I schools if the transfer LOW PERFORMING NODES out of Title I schools. Ask they why they track academic performance BY NODE, it's on their slides in their planning. They also keep changing the variables so if anybody tries to do a scientific analysis on their own, those variable can be pointed to as the problem. Smoke & Mirrors. And the federal spotlight never hits them...Yet. I believe we are starting to see the cards fall because when they now say they will deny voluntary busing as mandated by NCLB, they will have to explain (I don't think they will be able satisfactorily since they created the problem).