Excerpt from Wake Education Partnership’s “In Context” Regarding Wake County’s Abandonment of its Diversity Policy
Proximity trumps balance in new plan
A couple of weeks ago, school board Chairman Ron Margiotta told the Northern Wake Republican Club that no one should be surprised the new school board is moving away from past efforts to maintain diversity in schools.
“No one should be shocked. This was the main issue in the campaign of those four candidates,” he said, referring to the new board members who joined Margiotta in December to create a five-member majority.
Indeed, few people were shocked as the board majority held to a tightly-scripted game plan and approved the conceptual framework Tuesday for new community-based assignment zones. There were plenty of people, however, who were angry and bitterly disappointed.
Under unusually tight security, dozens of speakers waited six hours or longer for the right to speak to the board for two minutes each. Professors, researchers, clergy, teachers, past school board members, civil rights attorneys, parents and business owners paraded to the podium. The plan’s opponents outnumbered supporters four to one.
But as Margiotta told the Northern Wake Republican Club, there was never much doubt how this would turn out – no matter how much the crowd applauded and jeered or how many student protesters were arrested in the hallway. In a series of votes, the majority routinely beat back efforts to significantly change the framework of the plan.
Amendments to assess the costs of the plan, review related research, hold school poverty levels below 75 percent and “ensure that schools will not become segregated” were all defeated.
Full article HERE.
Wake Education Partnership – “Role of Magnet Schools in Wake County”
I came across this whitepaper today, produced by Wake Education Partnership, a non-profit created in 1983 to support public schools. While I don’t know the political leanings of the WEP, the white paper, (“Role of Magnet Schools in Wake County”,) for the most part, mirrors my opinions of the Magnet program in Wake County.
Here are some excerpts from the whitepaper that I think are important:
“In 1982, a diverse student body meant racial integration. Today it refers to socio-economic balance.”
“The final number of schools with high concentrations of poverty will depend on how the school board defines a community and its choices. Board Vice-Chair Debra Goldman, for example, has often praised magnet schools for the sense of community they create with families and students. Other board members tend to fall back on the tighter geographic boundaries of a neighborhood.”
We hear the term “neighborhood schools” a lot, but how the current board will define “neighborhood” is the linchpin of any assignment plans they develop in the future.
“If families were taken only from nearby neighborhoods to fill the schools that are under capacity, the schools in these corridors would quickly enroll a disproportionate share of low-income students. Elementary schools such as Joyner and Conn, for example, fit this description.
It’s not that the neighborhoods surrounding Conn and Joyner are overwhelmingly poor, but they are older and many residents no longer have school-age kids. Magnet programs designed to attract middle-class families from outside the area offset that shortfall.
In other neighborhoods, there are simply too many poor families to ensure any kind of balance. In those cases, there are more low-income students than schools in the immediate area can accommodate. The drawback to creating a balanced student body in those schools is obvious: students from low-income families must be moved out to create seats for middle-class families attracted by the magnet program.
That is the compromise that the school district has brokered for years among middle-class and low-income families. The tool used is the magnet school program. It’s used because decades of research have made clear that high-poverty, urban classrooms quickly develop problems that traditional schools are not equipped to counter.”
I grew up in Wake County. I know from personal experience the negatives of Wake County’s school assignments. (Being reassigned to different schools year after year and having to drive past a closer school to go to MY school.) Then again, I also remember that there used to be a farm behind my house, and now that farm is a neighborhood. My wife, who’s several years my senior – remembers a time when she only encountered a “handful” of minorities at her school. (Prior to the magnet program being implemented in ‘82.) No one is saying that the current assignment plan is perfect. Wake County has grown at an insane rate, especially in the 80’s – and handling the growth rate while maintaining socio-economic diversity has been very difficult for the school board.
“While the test scores of low-income students in Wake County exceed state and national averages in some areas, there are other key areas where academic performance lags. Critics of the system often point solely to the lagging scores when suggesting the county is failing its poor students.
The achievement levels of poorer children in Wake County are unacceptable. [Matt here: I wonder what the national average is and how we compare.] Some might suggest the scores are predictable given that Wake County spends less than the state average and less than the national average per student. Regardless, there is no good reason for a system with Wake County’s talents and resources to post such scores.
But raising test scores was never a stated goal of the magnet program. The goal is to provide “equity in educational programs.” In layman’s terms, that means making sure students in poorer parts of the county aren’t stuck in schools with lower standards and less-qualified teachers.”
This is where many people make statements like “But the current magnet program ISN’T equal! My kids couldn’t/can’t get into a magnet school!” I understand their frustration, but you can’t make everyone happy all of the time. The magnet program was created to provide an incentive for more middle class families to go to a school that they normally wouldn’t go to, thereby assisting in the socio-economic balance of the school. Yes, the way in which the slots are filled needs improvement, but that’s a discussion all by itself.
In summary, depending on how the new board defines “neighborhood school” will be instrumental in how Magnet schools are leveraged in Wake County. Let’s hope the program continues to improve, and not regress.
