Have you seen your future?
WCPSS has posted the recommendations for the "bridge" plan for 2013-14. And it provides some very good insight into what is coming down the pike with the BIG reassignment plan in 2014-15.
If you didn't know already, the new Board majority voted to move back to base assignments - which caused great disruption and upheaval to our children and families for the past decade - rather than continue with the Choice Plan, which promoted proximity and promised stability. And, yes, nodes are back too.
In a quick reading, here are some things we all should be concerned about:
1. Anyone can choose to move back to their base assignment based on their 2011 node assignment. Or can they? In the proposal, it states: "Students participating in the Base Declaration will have a guaranteed seat at their base school for the new school year."
Sounds great! But, wait...there's more.
"Unless the school becomes fully capped based on numbers requesting to return to their base school." Huh? That's a guarantee? Some will get their base assignment; some will not. How is that any different than not receiving your first choice, which the anti-Tata's so whined about as a problem with the choice plan?
2. This proposal includes a stay-where-you-start policy. The Dem majority on the Board have touted the implementation of this sort of policy in their push back to base assignments. In his editorial rant, Kevin Hill referred to this new policy as a way to provide stability. Well, what he didn't say is that this Board's version of stability will not, in most cases, come with bus transportation. Read it and weep.
3. Those who participated in the Choice Plan last year are now being told that their promised feeder patterns "...will be honored, to the extent possible." Doesn't sound promising, does it? And, once again, your choice to maintain that feeder pattern may not come with transportation.
Keep in mind -- this is just the beginning. This proposal mostly addresses the opening of a few new schools. Next year, the Board will address what they have coined as "hot spots" across the county - and more than likely use the same guidelines as listed in this proposal.
No bus, no choice, no stability, and no recourse. Welcome back to 2008.
The Wake County Board of Education allows public comment on issues of concern. This is my 3 minutes.
Showing posts with label choice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label choice. Show all posts
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Out of focus
Let me start out by saying that I believe assignment - and how students are assigned - should have nothing to do with achievement. For decades, the solution to addressing student achievement in WCPSS was always to fall back on student assignment. If a school wasn't performing, students were moved to other schools to make the school "healthy" once again. That solution didn't actually do anything positive to the education of those who were moved - you simply can't make a child smarter or perform better just by reassigning them. But, it made some people feel good. Really good. It was a cheap, feel-good way to perpetuate the awards for diversity and the perception of "no bad schools". It also, however, created much unnecessary instability, did nothing to improve achievement and ticked off many parents royally.
WCPSS was on its way to untangling assignment from achievement with the new Choice Assignment Plan. All parents were given choice - with a mix of proximity, calendar, and magnets. All families were promised stability at every school level and a predictable future as their children aged up. Plain and simple - this plan provided what parents wanted for their children and families -- and had little to do with raising achievement.
As a result of this new focus, Supt. Tata and his staff have worked to understand the educational needs of different schools and students and have implemented academic solutions to address achievement -- and we are now seeing very successful results. Just last week, the NC Department of Public Instruction released performance data for Wake County schools -- and the results are incredible. There have been gains across the district - at many schools and subgroups. (You can look up your school here.)
So, rather than fret over the demographics of a school and how to create and maintain a utopian mixture of students, it's obvious that our focus should remain on how each school population could be served better academically. We've seen the success - and it could be only the beginning.
Instead, however, the School Board has thumbed their noses at parents and chose to direct staff to link assignment with achievement once again. They didn't even wait to see how many more successes could be achieved. The new Choice Assignment Plan has been nixed (without even getting a chance) and we're moving back to "healthy" schools, set aside seats for certain types of student, limited choice and quotas for every school.
Back to a system that believes assignment and "diversity" will magically increase achievement. In reality, it will only serve to make the Democratic Board members feel good about themselves. After all, that's all it's done in the past.
WCPSS was on its way to untangling assignment from achievement with the new Choice Assignment Plan. All parents were given choice - with a mix of proximity, calendar, and magnets. All families were promised stability at every school level and a predictable future as their children aged up. Plain and simple - this plan provided what parents wanted for their children and families -- and had little to do with raising achievement.
As a result of this new focus, Supt. Tata and his staff have worked to understand the educational needs of different schools and students and have implemented academic solutions to address achievement -- and we are now seeing very successful results. Just last week, the NC Department of Public Instruction released performance data for Wake County schools -- and the results are incredible. There have been gains across the district - at many schools and subgroups. (You can look up your school here.)
So, rather than fret over the demographics of a school and how to create and maintain a utopian mixture of students, it's obvious that our focus should remain on how each school population could be served better academically. We've seen the success - and it could be only the beginning.
Instead, however, the School Board has thumbed their noses at parents and chose to direct staff to link assignment with achievement once again. They didn't even wait to see how many more successes could be achieved. The new Choice Assignment Plan has been nixed (without even getting a chance) and we're moving back to "healthy" schools, set aside seats for certain types of student, limited choice and quotas for every school.
Back to a system that believes assignment and "diversity" will magically increase achievement. In reality, it will only serve to make the Democratic Board members feel good about themselves. After all, that's all it's done in the past.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
And now for something really scary...
As I talked about in my last post, the WCPSS Board majority is raising the dead.
Yes, the horrors of nodes, multi-year reassignment plans and assignment quotas are on the verge of a unwanted return.
And that's not even the scary part.
A parent from Kevin Hill's district wrote to him with concerns about changing the new Choice Assignment plan. In his reply, Mr. Hill stated:
"I agree with the following: 'Parent choice' proceeds from the belief that the purpose of education is to provide individual students with an education. In fact, educating the individual is but a means to the true end of education, which is to create a viable social order to which individuals contribute and by which they are sustained. 'Family choice' is, therefore, basically selfish and anti-social in that it focuses on the 'wants' of a single family rather than the 'needs' of society."
Yes, the horrors of nodes, multi-year reassignment plans and assignment quotas are on the verge of a unwanted return.
And that's not even the scary part.
A parent from Kevin Hill's district wrote to him with concerns about changing the new Choice Assignment plan. In his reply, Mr. Hill stated:
"I agree with the following: 'Parent choice' proceeds from the belief that the purpose of education is to provide individual students with an education. In fact, educating the individual is but a means to the true end of education, which is to create a viable social order to which individuals contribute and by which they are sustained. 'Family choice' is, therefore, basically selfish and anti-social in that it focuses on the 'wants' of a single family rather than the 'needs' of society."
Say WHAT?!
Kevin Hill, the chairman of the Wake County Board of EDUCATION, does not believe that the purpose of education is to provide individual students with an education?!
Hill believes your children should be used "to create a viable social order"?
Hill believes your children should be used "to create a viable social order"?
O.M.G.
Yeah, read that again...and again...until it really sinks in.
It's hard to believe Hill actually admits that he doesn't think education is about educating at all. But, after years of pretending otherwise, he did.
It's hard to believe Hill actually admits that he doesn't think education is about educating at all. But, after years of pretending otherwise, he did.
So, the jig's up.
It is now clear that this new Board majority isn't out to help you or your children. So, you can quit emailing them about not getting your 1st choice, or not liking your feeder pattern, or your disgust over their sneaky midnight vote to revive the old assignment plan. It does not matter.
What matters
to them is what part you and your children will play in their socially-engineered agenda. To them, you, your
family and your children are just pieces of their societal puzzle.
And we should be very scared.
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