Irrational Numbers

A research paper about WCPSS was released this past June. It's titled "Middle School Math Acceleration and Equitable Access to 8th Grade Algebra: Evidence from the Wake County Public School System" and speaks very highly of WCPSS' math placement policy. And yet it has received no media attention, no mention of it by the School Board, and not a peep about it from Supt. Merrill.

But, why? Why would such an important document - one that shows that a simple change in policy has resulted in academic success for many minority and low-income students - not be lauded by the Wake County Public School System?

Let's go back to 2009 so you understand the whole story.

In 2009, a scathing report was released by SAS that accused WCPSS and their data reporting of "hiding an inequitable situation for students in schools serving more FRPL [free reduced price lunch] students." Under the leadership of then-Supt. Burns (the coward that left when he couldn't stand the heat), WCPSS had been purposefully withholding minority and economically-disadvantaged (ED) students from being placed in Algebra 1, even though they were academically ready.

Shameful, right? Even worse, Supt. Burns had the nerve to suppress this report for months - with no intention of releasing it to the public. No wonder he hightailed it out of town.

Fortunately, the then-School Board (you know, the ones that were painted as evil and racist) immediately worked to address this educationally-damaging practice that was restricting access to Hispanic and Black middle school students. Yes, that's right. They focused on academics; not diversity.

But this wasn't without strong opposition from the "diversity lover" Democrats.

School Board member Kevin Hill and newly-elected Jim Martin fought against allowing access to these children. Even though Hill acknowledged that some students had been wrongly held back, the Democratic Board members still believed that these minority children weren't capable of achieving.

Ironic, isn't it? The very people that were supported by the NAACP and Rev. Barber, the very people who stood arm in arm at protests and candlelight vigils, the very people who were elected to "protect diversity" were completely against implementing a policy that provided minority students opportunities to succeed.

Passing this policy was a huge step forward. Enforcing this new policy and unwinding years of a culture of low expectations was daunting. As the paper points out, "..compliance with the policy appeared more modest in its first few years." However, after a "powerful directive" from Supt. Tata, "...compliance with the policy became stronger over time".

The result? Enrollment in Algebra 1 nearly doubled from 2009 to 2011.

(Side note: let's not forget that Kevin Hill and his fellow Board members hated Tata's leadership style. Maybe because Tata demanded and expected results. Unlike Supt. Merrill, who does...what?)

And it wasn't just enrollment that increased. After the policy had been in effect for a full year and thousands of students were added to Algebra 1, much to the dismay of the Democrat School Board members, overall performance for all students in Algebra I went up 1.1%. 

So, read the paper. It's a lot to digest but here are some important facts about the policy change:

• We know from the End-of-Course (EOC) data that >95% of students placed are successful.

• The inclusion of ED and minority students in 8th grade Algebra I has significantly increased.

• Providing access to higher-level math exposed ED and minority students to teachers who were of average or greater than average effectiveness. Historically, these children have not had access to highly-effective teachers.

This is all great news but, under our current leadership, some very important questions and concerns remain:

• Has inclusion remained a goal of the system?

• Do students stay on an accelerated track once in high school?

• As the paper points out, this policy had to be mandated by Supt. Tata. What is Supt. Merrill's mandate? 

The math placement guidelines may be the same in writing as they were in 2010 but compliance to the policy is now unknown. Transparency is something this Board has lacked since day one. Are all qualified children, regardless of socioeconomic status or race, still given access to the proper math class? Supt. Tata demanded that the data regarding placement be transparent. Supt Merrill? Not so much.

So, now you know. Acknowledgement of this success by the Tata-hating School Board would be extolling the virtues of Tata's leadership and decisions. That will simply never happen.

And, considering Board members haven't changed their opinion on the capabilities of poor and minority children, don't hold your breath on any mention of this paper any time soon.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/08/19/1422077/hell-be-a-teacher-at-131000-a.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://blogs.newsobserver.com/wakeed/sas-and-wakes-achievement-gap#new#storylink=cpy

The Rat in the Hat

 
Look at me! Look at me! Look at me now!
It is fun to have fun but you have to know how.


Very fitting for Bill Fletcher. Full of trickery and lies.
(Yes, that's his goofy picture on the left.)

Back in 1993, when Fletcher first ran for School Board, he ran as a critic of diversity busing. Like any sane person, he was against the reassignment of children over and over again simply to meet a diversity quota.

Well, that was his first (and probably most damaging) trick on the citizens of Wake County. Once in office, Fletcher's true intent became very clear. He voted in favor of EVERY SINGLE REASSIGNMENT PLAN from 1993 to 2005. Twelve years of deeply-entrenched diversity busing plans - and Fletcher voted for every one of them.

Is it any wonder that Fletcher came in 3rd place the last time he ran in 2005?  Yup, didn't even make it into a runoff. The citizens of Cary were sick and tired of him, his lies, and being yanked around and ignored by a system that Fletcher happily created. (Then, like a knife in the back, the current majority appointed him back to the School Board this year.)

So, why does Fletcher think he can fool us again? Well, you can thank his cousin, Jim Goodmon. Goodmon is a mouthpiece in Wake County (He is the CEO of Capital Broadcasting) and has the media at his fingertips. He is active with Great Schools in Wake and has very deep pockets. There is no way that Fletcher will vote against anything his cousin wants. Goodmon has funded and continues to fund all the 'pro-diversity' candidates because, well, busing the poor out of Raleigh makes Jim happy. And Fletcher will use his cousin's influence and money to continue to lie and hope you don't remember the truth.

Another little tidbit about Fletcher. He used to sit as a member of the Board for Big Brothers Big Sisters - the place John Tedesco used to work. Fletcher, as this article implies, was instrumental in pushing Tedesco out of his job. Of course, Fletcher won't tell you the truth about that - but it certainly explains why Tedesco voted for a member of GSIW rather than Fletcher when filling this School Board seat. 

And this mess is so big
And so deep and so tall,
We cannot pick it up
There is no way at all!

Yup, pretty much sums up what Fletcher will do to this county and our children.

Vote for Caggia on October 8th.

Throwing stones

Do you remember AdvancED? They’re the group that Rev. Barber and his performance crew went crying to after the then-School Board began the process of changing student assignment in Wake County. AdvancED, for those who don’t know, is an accreditation company that…well…accredits our high schools. Sounds important, doesn’t it? Like someone we should keep happy. But are they really?

Consider the original complaint filed by Rev. Barber and the NAACP. It is nothing more than a rambling rant of how much they despised the Republican majority – Mr. Margiotta, in particular – and the Board’s desire to bring about common sense changes to student assignment.  (If you have a minute, you really should read the whole complaint to get an understanding of what started this ball rolling. The tone and inferences are, at times, quite comical)

 

Yet, as a result of this ridiculous complaint, AdvancED came marching in, demanding to scrutinize a variety of issues – many of which were completely irrelevant to accrediting a high school. If you recall, there was some debate as to whether AdvancED overstepped its authority in their review request. In the end, AdvancED came to town and placed WCPSS on “accreditation warned” status.

Fast forward to today. AdvancED’s new report lifts the warning and places WCPSS ‘s accreditation on "advisement".  Due to the hard work of the previous Board and Supt. Tata, the points raised by AdvancED, however disconnected they were to the performance of our high schools, have been addressed and corrected.

But, what has really changed – besides the political majority on the School Board? Are our high schools and their students better in some way? Even the Wake Education Partnership came to the conclusion that accreditation is just a public perception issue. We think it’s important only because we’ve been told it is.

The original complaint from 2010 accused the “Caucus” – which Rev. Barber condescendingly refers to the 5 Republicans that were serving – of violations in governance and leadership. One of those complaints – holding secret meetings. Ironically, we just recently learned that Chairman Kevin Hill arranged a private meeting for some of the Board members without the knowledge of others. The meeting itself was held less than 24 hours after the new Board members were sworn in. (Board policy requires a 48-hour notice for meetings.) And, remember, Kevin Hill wasn’t even Board Chair until that evening. Why was he even involved in the scheduling of any sort of meeting? It seems to me that some behind-the-scenes negotiations and discussions must have been going in secret with the other Board members.

Another point in the original complaint – “…Ms. Goldman, Mr. Tedesco, Ms. Prickett and Mr. Malone.…in lock-step, immediately unseated the experienced Chair mid-term and replaced him with Mr. Margiotta.” Well, isn’t that exactly what today’s Board did with Mr. Tedesco? Tedesco was readily removed as vice-Chair mid-term during the Dec 2011 Board meeting. As soon as Hill was elected as Chair, he, Sutton and their 3 new cronies replaced Mr. Tedesco with Mr. Sutton. 

Will AdvancED be hearing from Rev. Barber about these incidents? Don’t count on it. His friends are in charge now.

I’ve always wondered why people like Rev. Barber and his friends at GSIW who claim to want “high quality schools” for our children would want to risk accreditation that they deem so important. Could it be that they don’t actually care about our children and our schools – but only their own political agenda? As we witnessed with the election results last Fall, the fear and uncertainty created by these groups served its purpose. What a shame that these groups felt it was appropriate to use our children’s futures to achieve their goals. And what a shame that this Board feels they can behave in the same manner in which they complained about. Maybe AdvancED needs to look at their governance and leadership as well.

But, again, don't count on it.