Tag Archives: Wake County

The NAACP and WCPSS

A message to the NAACP regarding the Wake County public schools:

You are making yourself look silly.

Period.

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Charter Schools in WCPSS

For the first time in more than 100 years, Republicans control the North Carolina State House and Senate chambers.  Think of that.  For more than 100 years…

Elections have consequences.

One of those consequences may be the Charter School system here in North Kackolackey.

And I have mixed feelings.

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WCPSS: New Boss

Mr. Tata starts his new job today as Superintendent of Wake County Public Schools.

Many folks have criticized the hiring of Tata, saying there:

…are concerns from the public, educators and some school board members that Tata might not be the right person to lead the school system because of his lack of experience in the education sector.

I, for one, find that lack of experience in the Education sector critical to his success.  He’ll be able to come into his role clear of the bias of the industry.  He won’t have preconceived buy in’s to institutional methods and means.  He’ll be fresh and he’ll be excited.

Here are the things I would like Tata to work on:

  1. Eliminate the bottom 10% lowest performing teachers.
  2. Merit based pay.
  3. Create mentor teachers.  Promote them and pay them more, lots more.  This role should span multiple schools.
  4. Settle the assignment process.
  5. Graduate more kids.

Good luck Mr. Tata, you have a tough road ahead of you.

The John Tedesco Affair

We’ve gotten a bunch of attention lately.  None of it very good.

Wake County has had its name drug through the mud, both here in the county, elsewhere about the state and then nationally on the Colbert Show.

For this week, we’ve become a laughing-stock.

At the center of it all seems to be one individual; John Tedesco.

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What The Message of Dr. Martin Luther King DOESN’T Mean

He was a leader.

He was an innovator.

He stood up when many wouldn’t.  He preached love while others practiced hate.

He took the worst of us, saw the best in them and made us ALL believe that not only should we do better, but that we all would do better.

Martin’s message meant and means many things, but it doesn’t mean that we can use race as a means to implement policy.

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Wake County Superintendent

So, Wake County Public Schools has been without a superintendent for some time now.  When the new board began implementing policies that did not jive with the old boss; he resigned.

Fair enough.  The super and the board should get along.

And now we have our new guy.  Even though I’m disappointed the board didn’t disband the district and decide to give every child a waiver, there are things to like about the new superintendent.

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Diversity in Wake County Public Schools

Wake County Schools is huge, massive.  It ranks in the top 50 districts in the country and may be in the top 45 this year.  Compounding the challenge is the fact that the district encompasses the entire county; it’s large in terms of population and in terms of geography.

When faced with such a challenge, it’s the savvy manager that will set aside all preconceived notions of “how” and investigate all potential tools in the tool box.

And so it is that WCPSS embraced the “Diversity” policy.

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This is What Public Education Gets You

We continue to pour more and more money into public education and we get worse and worse results.

If this were a business, it would go out of business.

At some point, we are going to have to stop and make a decision between ideology and results.

Dollars per Year — UP

Graduation Rate — DOWN

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WCPSS: Diversity

The advocates of the Diversity policy in Wake County have lost an advocate.

Since I became interested in the debate, I have sided with the folks who were in favor of using socio-economic diversity when planning assignments in WCPSS.  I am pretty much in favor of using any tool in a tool box to fix a problem.  And I think the data supports the fact that when a school is becomes “too poor” it tips.

And achievement suffers.

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Raleigh May Sue Wake County Schools

The city of Raleigh is looking into a lawsuit over the change in direction taken by WCPSS.

I resonate with the city; I do.  I think that our schools should use every tool in the toolbox to make all schools as strong as possible for all kids.  And I think that maintaining economic diversity, when possible, is just such a tool.

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