Here's a quick recap of today's press conference with Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata.
The deadline for the online simulation of the blue plan has been extended from Monday until next Friday. Tata said he's gotten 10,260 responses but wants 12,000. Outreach events will be held Sunday and Monday in Southeast Raleigh and Eastern Wake, where the response has been lower than the rest of the county.
Tata has agreed to a request from the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, to meet with him about the new student assignment plan. But Tata is challenging Barber to tell him what the NAACP has done to help Wake recruit more minority teachers and principals and what the civil rights group has done to help the district do community outreach with parents.
Tata says the new state budget won't result in layoffs of teachers or teacher assistants. But they are going to have to cut custodians and more Central Services positions as well as absorb transportation cuts.
But he warned that Wake is not laying off teachers and teacher assistants by using $27 million in federal dollars this year. He said they'll face the "funding cliff" when that money is gone next year.
While Tata didn't outright say it, he gave strong indications today that he'll recommend that the school board request a state waiver from extending the school year by five more days. He cited problems squeezing in the days, on such short notice, for the multi-track year-round schools.
Also, Tata said they are submitting to the request by county commissioners to present the budget by purpose and function. But he stressed the need to have flexibilty to deal with "draconican state budget cuts."
UPDATE
Click here to view the letter that Tata sent today to Barber.
Tuesday's board meeting agenda has Tata recommending that the bell schedules be changed for the 2011-12 school year to add in 25 more hours of instruction while also seeking a state waiver not to add in the five days. The state budget called for schools to add both five days and 25 hours.
Comments
a special waiver?
Sun, 06/19/2011 - 00:15 — louiselee44As for the extended test drive
Fri, 06/17/2011 - 23:02 — FSandYOUis he going to delay recommending the blue plan Tuesday?
A plan will still be
Sat, 06/18/2011 - 07:45 — KeungHui (author)A plan will still be presented to the school board on Tuesday.
Interesting
Sat, 06/18/2011 - 10:53 — FSandYOUthe test drive goes on after the plan is announced. That seems to serve no purpose, unless he is leaving the door open to come back a few days later and recommend green if the numbers do show that indeed GSIW sabotaged the test drive. Thanks Mr. H.
NAACP
Fri, 06/17/2011 - 18:27 — EBDarcySince when is it there responsibility to help recruit minority teachers? Isn't that the HR department's job? Why haven't they been recruiting at schools who are graduating large numbers of minorities with education degrees?
And if they did push for it themselves (without encouragement from Tata) you could bet there would have been people here accusing them of pushing a radical liberal agenda or of reverse discrimination.
minority teachers/principals
Sun, 06/19/2011 - 17:36 — snordoneI know this is an something that Tata wants to do, but the problem is that there is no data to support a relationship between the color of a teacher and their effectiveness in the classroom with ED or minority children. An effective teacher is an effective teacher. Should we recruit/retain/create more effective minority teachers - absolutely. But if we hire one person because of the color of their skin without looking at their performance data then we are doing nothing but hurting more children.
In Wake, some of our most effective principals are AA, they know that color and demography don't define a child's ability and they were some of the first principals to use EVAAS/data over the biased effectiveness index. They were some of the first to place children in higher level courses according to their ability.
I have done some browsing on
Sat, 06/18/2011 - 11:00 — red_balloonI have done some browsing on the NC NAACP website but couldn't locate information that would answer Tata's questions. Would you happen to know of a URL for this?
And if they did push for it
Sat, 06/18/2011 - 09:03 — shearertwAnd if they did push for it themselves....
Nice try! Since when has the NAACP been concerned about being perceived as pushing a radical liberal agenda? Not to mention, this type of construct effort on their part is exactly what they should be doing to "advance colored" people instead of all the race baiting, victomhood stuff they appear to be stuck in.
This is classic, basic 101 mentoring stuff Tata clearly learned as a high ranking officer in the Army. When you have someone continuously coming to you with complaint after complaint and whine after whine, challenge them on what the "H" they are doing about it. You want me to do something about "your problem"?......Show me you're fully invested in solving it too and don't just have an ulterior motive with all your complaints (which Barber clearly does). Tata is schooling Barber and Barber has a lot to learn.
Amen! You nailed it.
Sat, 06/18/2011 - 10:22 — woodstockAmen! You nailed it.
Tata was not saying it was
Sat, 06/18/2011 - 08:01 — woodstockTata was not saying it was their (the NAACP's) responsibility per se. I believe he was saying WCPSS has indeed made concerted efforts to recruit minority teachers and admistrators and since the NAACP is an organization that purports to be about the "advancement of colored people," that maybe they could step and help instead of resorting to their usual MO of race-hustling and rabble-rousing.
Here is someting to consider. Perhaps minorities do not enter the teaching profession in the same proportion as Caucasians, thus lessening the pool of qualified minority candidates. I do not know the statistics, but I suspect that is the case. It is certainly the case among black males since nationally less than half even graduate from high school (in places like New York and Phildelphia only 28% of black males graduate from high school). So it is not reasonable to expect the ethnic make-up of the teacher population to reflect that of the general public. School system HR departments cannot overcome that reality and magically conjure up qualified minority candidates. Tata asks a good question, what is the the NAACP doing to help the advancement of the populations they claim to serve?
...
Fri, 06/17/2011 - 22:20 — SideburnsTata never indicated it was the NAACP's responsiblity and he has already directed the HR department. But, Tata has a point. Other than barking about what is wrong, filing lawsuits and holding vigils, how has Rev. Barber and the NAACP assisted WCPSS?
Back from April:
"Tata said he’s instructed the Human Resources Department to more aggressively recruit from historically black universities and colleges and in areas in the country that have higher densities of Hispanic education students such as Florida and Texas.
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/wakeed/tata-talks-about-bus-safety-and-minority-teacher-recruitment
naacp
Fri, 06/17/2011 - 19:05 — red_balloonSince when is it their responsibility to do anything constructive? Imagine Tata's gall in expecting the NAACP to actually do something about advancement.
not ever, apparently...
Sat, 06/18/2011 - 07:57 — AngelaWNAACP President refuses to answer questions from Wake Superintendent
http://www2.nbc17.com/news/wake-county/2011/jun/17/naacp-president-refuses-answer-questions-wake-supe-ar-1131575/
Who's Writing William Barber's Script?
Sun, 06/19/2011 - 07:37 — AngelaWIt's obvious now. NC NAACP President William Barber is not concerned with the children in the Wake County Public School System. He constantly proclaims problems with reassignment, yet has not offered any data to support his theory of re-segregation
http://venitapeyton.com/2011/06/whos-writing-william-barbers-script.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+venitapeyton%2FGWIi+%28Outside+the+Box%29
Oh man, that is funny, but
Sat, 06/18/2011 - 11:08 — woodstockOh man, that is funny, but not at all surprising. Barbar has no answers... or substance. He is a finger pointer, not a problem solver.
Regarding the question of the ratio of minority teachers to the minority student population is only a fair one if the pool of qualified minority teacher candidates, vs. other candidates, mirrors the proportion of minority students within the total student population.
Given the abysmal HS
Sat, 06/18/2011 - 12:37 — red_balloonGiven the abysmal HS graduation rate amongst AAs, is it any wonder that finding qualified AAs isn't an easy task.
Wow
Sun, 06/19/2011 - 08:50 — Dove314Careful, your true "colors" are showing.
Are you stating that a
Sun, 06/19/2011 - 09:01 — red_balloonAre you stating that a reduced number of AAs entering college would have no material impact on the racial composition of the skilled labor pool?
Fatal flaw
Sun, 06/19/2011 - 13:49 — Dove314It would only have an immediate and lasting impact if you can also make the assumption that none of the individuals who fail to graduate high school on time with their original grade cohort never go on to complete a GED and/or go on to complete any degree of post high school education for the remainder of their lives. For me, that assumption is absolutely not true. Most of those I've known who did not complete high school were able to get their GED by the time they were 20-22. Of those, more than half have gone back to school, completing an associates degree or a bachelor's degree.
Not graduating on time makes the rest of life harder but it absolutely does not preclude subsequently gaining an education and moving from the unskilled to the skilled labor pool.
flawed?
Sun, 06/19/2011 - 18:37 — red_balloonIf you have a student who takes the quickest route to qualifying as a skilled resource, and another takes an elongated path, who do you think is a better qualified resource? Everything else being the same, the one who graduated earlier is better qualified due to the richer post-grad experience. If people of a certain race make the transition to the skilled labor pool earlier, then it is reasonable to expect the workplace demographics to be slanted in their favor. I hope you can see the contradiction between "we want racial balance" and "we want the most experienced".
But, seriously, it is silly that we are discussing this. As Dr. Nordone alludes to in a preceding post, the emphasis should be on getting the right set of skills into the classroom. I don't think we should compromise our kids' future due to political correctness/ affirmative action/ preferential treatments.
There's another way to look
Sun, 06/19/2011 - 22:23 — loriacThere's another way to look at it. Sure we need to focus on hiring the right skills, but there also needs to be effort in getting minorities qualified with those skills. If this is not done, then there will always be the excuse that there's no AA principals because none are qualified.
Look at the effort to get more women/minorities into executive ranks - the ones who have made it are qualified because someone way back when was making sure that women/minorities were being given the tough assignments and the opportunity to prove themselves. But, this has to be done consistently throughout the organization over time. Gen. Tata asked exactly the right question of Mr. Barber. And using EVAAS to make sure every kid is in the right level of instruction is long overdue - we have to make sure every kid believes they can be successful and has the opportunity to be challenged with the right level of instruction.
reduced pool
Sun, 06/19/2011 - 17:45 — snordoneof AA students graduating and going to college effects all downstream professions. I have said multiple times that our lack of diversity in our university faculty, grad students, undergrad has its roots in K-12 education. If we are going to track students low because they are Black or Hispanic then we are indeed going to affect their ability to go to college. We start tracking students low so early that it has profound effects on their ability to see that they are smart, talented, worthy. Come to the ED Task Force meeting on the 30th, it will be an eye opener for you. And read Karolyn Tyson's book Integration Interrupted. She gets into the emotional effects of tracking students low and racial isolation within honors classes.
Uh....
Sun, 06/19/2011 - 14:22 — Bob_SconceI don't think he needs to assume any of those things. First of all, it takes time to get your GED, which necessarily means that there would be disproportionately fewer 22 year old African Americans with college degrees. Even if they were to eventually catch up by, say, age 26, the disproportion in ages 22-25 means that they would be underrepresented in the entire population of college graduates.
Secondly, note that you can't teach in NC with an associate's degree (except, perhaps, as a substitute.)
The net result is that African Americans are proportionately underrepresented in the pool of people who are qualified by education to be teachers.
I do completely agree with your last paragraph, though.
...
Sun, 06/19/2011 - 08:52 — SideburnsTalk about true colors. Nice edit.
seriously!
Sun, 06/19/2011 - 08:59 — AngelaWtrue colors indeed!
Wow
What kind of bullshit post is that?
...
Sat, 06/18/2011 - 10:31 — SideburnsThe video is funny. Thanks for sharing.
...
Fri, 06/17/2011 - 15:49 — SideburnsKeung,
Considering you don't need to have your child's NCWISE number, how easy is it to manipulate this 'test drive'? GSIW recently sent out a secret document that spelled how their intention to flood the system with the same/similar comments about the Green and Blue plans. What is stopping them from inputting random addresses throughout the county and making the choices that suit their agenda? Just curious.
Potentially it could be an
Fri, 06/17/2011 - 16:13 — KeungHui (author)Potentially it could be an issue but you're supposed to have your NC Wise number when you do the survey. People without NC WISE numbers who take the sim are supposed to be parents of rising kindergartners.
...
Fri, 06/17/2011 - 21:04 — SideburnsThe test drive says:
If you don't have a WCPSS student #, either because your child isn't in the system yet, you can't remember it, or you don't have children, please use one of the following codes:
All I'd have to do is put in a "1" and carry on inputting my choices.
And why would someone without children input a choice?
Well...
Fri, 06/17/2011 - 16:32 — Bob_SconceI did that because I don't know my kids' NC WISE numbers off the top of my head.
Need more data
Fri, 06/17/2011 - 14:55 — stevemichaelsThe WCPSS has a mix of both custodial staff that are full and part time county employees and also a large amount of contracts with private firms for services. When someone indicates they are laying off janitors it does not necessarily mean a job won't be done - it may simply mean that the job will now be done by a private firm. I will not get into costs, quality etc... But it can be a confusing statement.
They're going to cut the
Fri, 06/17/2011 - 15:03 — KeungHui (author)They're going to cut the amount of money for custodial services. How specifically it plays out remains to be seen.
Add the 5 additional days of
Fri, 06/17/2011 - 11:33 — mnordbergAdd the 5 additional days of school and get over it. Why would wake county do anything different than anything at the last minute like school assignments, elimination of tracks, force track changes,etc,etc. It is the law, don't whine and ask for a waiver, suck it up and add them.
They can't add in the days
Fri, 06/17/2011 - 13:44 — DrActualFactualThey can't add in the days in the multi-track YR schedule because they track in and out over the same weekend (there is no time in between to add 5 days) unless they redo the calendar which has already been adopted, track-out camps may not be able to adjust their calendars, etc. etc. Oh yes, $500,000 is also a lot of money to cough up as well. I would think that due to Wake's size/student population they would get the waiver, but might have to abolish/adjust multi-track for following years to get in extra days.
There has been a million excuses
Fri, 06/17/2011 - 22:53 — FSandYOUabout why YR can't do this, or why it can't do that, from the day it was forced upon us, but you have the best idea yet, just abolish the garbage!
Oh wait, that has been suggested repeatedly hasn't it, but the best we could get was 5 of 14 schools squashed down to one track. Which is not really YR is it.
I personally hope the state says too bad, make it work, deal with it. You guys in Wake created it, allowed it, so deal with it.
Parents can always opt not to send their kids if Saturdays are suggested as the quick fix.
Well, I guess Supt. Tata is
Sat, 06/18/2011 - 14:00 — DrActualFactualWell, I guess Supt. Tata is going to recommend adding 10 min. on to each day and hoping that will fly for the 180 days (at least it doesn't cost more). The Saturday school day has always been problematic. When makeup days occurred they would indicate that the lunch servers wouldn't be in so no breakfast or lunch would be served since it was a short day. (Some kids were no shows because there was no food.) Many students were no shows because they had chinese school, etc. Some didn't show because they had sports and other team commitments. The administration would always ask "Who is planning to come to school tomorrow?" Take a headcount and then try to get teachers without kids to cover the 1/2 day snow makeup Saturdays which we all know are for meeting the 180-day requirement and little else.
Well...
Fri, 06/17/2011 - 13:58 — Bob_SconceThey could, but it wouldn't be pleasant: schedule each track for 5 Saturdays on weekends while the track is tracked-in. Wouldn't affect track-out camps or vacation or anything else.
Of course, it would sort of moot the whole "Look how great we are, we're adding 5 extra days to the school year" garbage that the GOP in the GA was trying to sell. I think the days would only end up being 1/2 days, and nobody goes to Saturday school anyway. If they really wanted to add learning, they'd move EOGs to the last week of the school year and get rid of the whole retest thing.
Which would take backbone....
Fri, 06/17/2011 - 15:05 — bpuli9999- our legislators are spineless. They always take the easy way out (or whichever one pays them the most - as in political contributions).
Heh...
Sat, 06/18/2011 - 06:51 — Bob_SconceI think you just described every politician in the world.
With all the carping we do about local politicians, they seem to be least affected.