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WakeEd
The WakeEd blog is devoted to discussing and answering questions about the major issues facing the Wake County school system: the reassignment of thousands of students, the conversion of traditional-calendar schools to a year-round schedule, the district's response to growth and the school construction program.
WakeEd is maintained by The News & Observer's Wake schools reporter, T. Keung Hui. While Keung posts information and analysis on the issues, keep us posted on your suggestions, questions, tips and what you're doing to cope with the changes in Wake's schools.
Not meeting the 95 percent goal
We can now officially say that the 95 percent goal is dead.
School administrators will present test results this afternoon showing Wake is well short of having 95 percent of students in grades 3-12 passing state tests by 2008. The result was expected but now it's final.
We don't have school-by-school results yet. But we do have districtwide data.
As mentioned before, today's result won't be a surprise. School board members have, on more than one occasion, blamed lack of funding from county commissioners for not having reached the goal.
Realistically, the changes in the EOG exams made the goal pretty unreachable. For instance, Wake's math passing rate dropped from 91.7 percent in 2005 to 74.5 percent after the exams were changed.
Goal 2008 was set by the board in 2003. It was a follow-up to the goal set in 1998 of having 95 percent of third- through eighth-graders passing state exams by 2003. While Wake fell short, the gains were noticeable.
The math EOG passing rate is now at 78 percent, up from 76.1 percent in 2007.
It's likely that the passing rate for the reading EOGs will tumble when the state renorms the exams later this year. In 2007, Wake's passing rate was 91.1 percent.
The achievement gap, at least on math, has narrowed. The passing rates for black, Hispanic, American Indian, low-income and limited English students went up more over the past two years than for white kids.
Wake also didn't get close to 95 percent passing on high school end-of-course exams. Several of the EOCs were renormed over the past five years.
You've also got ABCs, AYP and graduation data being presented today.
Back when Wake first released the graduation data, one of the TV stations reported that the the numbers significantly improved after five years. The new data doesn't bear it out.
While more students do graduate after five years, it's not a big gain over the percentage who graduate in four years.
Click here to view the data that will be presented.
T. Keung Hui
T. Keung Hui covers Wake schools.
Comments
WCPSS a Consistent Failure
Wed, 08/20/2008 - 08:40 — Kent Misegades (not verified)Well, you do have to give WCPSS credit for being consistent. Since moving here in 1996 I have observed three such "Goals" (2003, 2005 and 2008), announced by the WCPSS Superintendent with great fanfare. As the deadline for reaching the goal neared, talk of the objectives declined as the newest litany of excuses was announced through the mouthpiece of the mainstream media. In my world (those evil CEOs) I would have been shot out of a cannon by my shareholders when I failed to meet the first goal. What does the Wake BOE do? They give the Superintendent an automatic raise, a slap on the back and an extension to his contract. What a great country!
Simple solution......
Tue, 08/19/2008 - 12:24 — WuptdoFirst off, 60 years of "Big Ed" telling you everyone needs a HS education has to be overcome (keep telling the lie, and it will become true type thinking). According to a Department of Labor report I saw years ago basically stated that about 77% of all jobs in America needed an 8th grade education or less.
So how do we increase graduation rates?
1) The top 20% of students (based on testing/teacher eval) get to go to HS school for FREE;
2) The 50-79% tier of HS students can attend, but the parents will have to pay 50% of the cost of their education. I think if parents have to pay, they will be more involved.
3) The 40-79% tier have the option of various other training available up to one year at the public expense, then into the workforce.
4) The 39% and under crowd, off to work for you.
Don't ever forget, the reason why the big push for everyone to finish High School school was so the returning Vets would have jobs (GI Bill & college). We won WWII with less than 40% of the population finishing High School. Also to be truly competitive in the Global Economy, we need a large low skill/low wage workforce (and illegal aliens are not the answer).
Not to say that we shouldn't
Tue, 08/19/2008 - 07:08 — gunfamNot to say that we shouldn't have goals, but with "re-norming" (ie raising the bar) every several years, is it really realistic to have a 95% passing goal set several years out? When the bar is raised, there will always be a drop in percentage passing. It just all seems like a numbers game.
Yes, we want all kids to pass. Yes its good to raise the bar. But with all this focus on these tests, what are we really doing to help the kids that don't have support at home. That's what it comes down to. I don't have the answer, but teachers can only do so much without parents support.
You can see why, now, the presentation was had
Tue, 08/19/2008 - 05:44 — Dadof3When in doubt, the old battle-axe is always handy:
When ya gonna....?
Tue, 08/19/2008 - 15:02 — CitizenmomWhen ya gonna make one of these pictures where he says "My tie looks like a student assignment map"