{"id":12933,"date":"2012-08-27T20:35:20","date_gmt":"2012-08-28T00:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=12933"},"modified":"2012-08-27T20:35:20","modified_gmt":"2012-08-28T00:35:20","slug":"achievement-gap-part-4-wake-county-then-and-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/news\/2012\/08\/27\/achievement-gap-part-4-wake-county-then-and-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Achievement Gap, Part 4: Wake County Then and Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bill McNeal will tell you his formula for narrowing the achievement gap boils down to one thing: an entire community working toward one goal. The goal was to help students succeed, regardless of race or class, and Wake\u2019s former superintendent McNeal, sometimes through sheer force of personality, helped the community accept it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never dealt with the achievement gap in that sense,\u201d McNeal said. \u201cWhat we said is we want a system of achievement for every child \u2026 I believe I can do that better with a diverse environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s the rub, today.<\/p>\n

While Wake County school officials still want all children to succeed, the decision-making process for how to get there has proven almost as dysfunctional as Washington politics.<\/p>\n

Should the system put extra resources into high-poverty schools? Provide the same resources for all schools regardless of their socioeconomic makeup? Or balance poverty levels, as it did then?<\/p>\n

[media-credit name=”Will Huntsberry” align=”alignright” width=”300″]\"\"<\/a>[\/media-credit]

Will Huntsberry<\/p>

Bill McNeal began as a teacher in the Wake County school system in 1974. He was superintendent from 2000 to 2006. McNeal grew up in Durham.<\/p><\/div>McNeal, who was voted 2004 National Superintendent of the Year, said more than diversity, or any program, the key to success is community buy-in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t have had a diversity policy unless the community agreed to it,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s no way. People look to the schools and say, \u2018why don\u2019t you just bring back diversity?\u2019 No. You\u2019ve got to have a willing community to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

McNeal\u2019s plan was to have 95 percent of all third through eighth graders proficient in reading and math at the end of a five-year push. While the school system didn\u2019t quite hit the mark, the huge disparity in passing rates between races and classes narrowed.<\/p>\n

The first step, he said, was getting everybody from central office down to the teachers and school staff to believe they could help groups that traditionally don\u2019t perform well.<\/p>\n

After gaining the support of the internal community, McNeal turned outward to sell the goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went after the faith community. We went after the business community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Business and faith communities were major parts of the engine for success. Business councils promoted the goal to the community, and faith organizations helped set up tutoring and technology centers for children.<\/p>\n

But garnering the support of business and religion wasn\u2019t just the goal then. It\u2019s integral to Superintendent Tony Tata\u2019s strategy now.<\/p>\n

Tata meets with the business community regularly, and Board Vice Chair Keith Sutton recently praised some local churches involved in tutoring.<\/p>\n

Wake\u2019s success with the achievement gap isn\u2019t just distant history, either.<\/p>\n

In Tata\u2019s first full year on the job, Wake narrowed the achievement gap in a number of areas. High schools saw a big leap in basic proficiency for vulnerable groups, but the gap was less noticeable for elementary and middle schools.<\/p>\n

For several previous years the gap had been stagnant. And as an earlier part of this series showed, Wake\u2019s economically disadvantaged students are still not performing as well compared to similar students across the state as they were during McNeal\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real story here for this year is that we\u2019ve focused effort and resources on closing the gap,\u201d Tata said. \u201cYou want to keep moving your topline up, but you want to accelerate your lower-performing line.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time he admits, \u201cWe\u2019re nowhere near where we need to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

[media-credit name=”undefined | Raleigh Public Record” align=”aligncenter” width=”600″]\"\"<\/a>[\/media-credit]

Wake\u2019s economically disadvantaged (E.D.) students are being outperformed by those statewide more than in MnNeal’s era. However, non E.D. students in Wake have consistently remained roughly 3 percentage points above those across the state. You can see that and other charts in <\/em>Part 1 of our series<\/a><\/span><\/span>. <\/em><\/center>Dividing Line<\/strong>
\nThe philosophical dividing line today separates those who want to put extra resources in high-poverty schools and those who think the district should balance poverty to avoid them.<\/p>\n

Putting extra resources in schools worked this year with Title I funds<\/a> and the Renaissance Schools program<\/span><\/span><\/a> as well as at Walnut Creek Elementary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the Renaissance program is funded by a federal grant, which enabled the school system to put $1 million extra into each of the schools. The money pays teachers and administrators who might not normally work in a high-poverty school.<\/p>\n

The four lowest-performing elementary schools in the district were chosen for the program and their gains compared to other elementary schools were considerable. Then again, they had a lot of room to grow.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Renaissance School idea\u2014I don\u2019t deny that you can put money in it and it will pay good dividends \u2026 you pay good teachers more to stay there; you pay school leaders more to be there. If you provide additional money for resources, can it work? Sure it can,\u201d McNeal said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, the history of doing that is not a good history. It says most districts will pour that money in for a year or two and then as times get harder that money will go away and then where are you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Research suggests that if the schools continue to have a high percentage of poor students, good teachers will flee.<\/p>\n

But in his State of the Schools speech last week, Tata made the counterpoint: \u201cSome people say, \u2018Well, Tata, that\u2019s unsustainable.\u2019 Well, I would rather try to figure out how to sustain this going forward, than to sustain what was happening before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

<\/p>

John Tedesco<\/p><\/div>\n

John Tedesco is perhaps the most enigmatic of those in the debate. While quick to acknowledge the perils of high-poverty schools, Tedesco doesn\u2019t think the school system should mandate diversity.<\/p>\n

He said he supports \u201cdriving some diversity into the system, but by voluntary means. We can\u2019t say, ‘because you live here your node has to get on a bus.’\u201d<\/p>\n

A Record analysis<\/a><\/span><\/span> of last year\u2019s controlled-choice model, which allowed parents some degree of voluntary choice in selecting schools, showed the plan was leading to higher-poverty schools.<\/p>\n

For Tedesco, the solution is: put your money where your mouth is and pony up additional resources for the high-poverty schools.<\/p>\n

But Jason Langberg, who works with low-income students and families at Legal Aid, wonders what\u2019s happening to the at-risk children who aren\u2019t in Renaissance Schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cWake County is following the law at a place like Walnut Creek, but that may mean they\u2019re implicitly not following the law at all other schools with at-risk kids,\u201d Langberg said.<\/p>\n

Chicken or the Egg<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s difficult to tell what\u2019s at the heart of real reform, whether it\u2019s changing policies or changing a culture.<\/p>\n

For McNeal, setting the goal and achieving community buy-in grew up symbiotically.<\/p>\n

The business community wanted the schools to perform better. The school system wanted the schools to perform better. So, the school system set the 95 percent goal and then businesses and churches helped McNeal sell it as a reality.<\/p>\n

And while the school system still makes a concerted effort to garner support from businesses and churches, the district just isn\u2019t the same as it was back then.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re playing to a parade,\u201d as opposed to a static audience, said Harvey Schmitt, president of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n

For McNeal, playing to the parade of newcomers means playing to an ever-increasing group of people who don\u2019t understand Wake County\u2019s history of integration and balancing for diversity.<\/p>\n

Wake is different than many other places in the nation, particularly the Northeast, simply by virtue of having a county school system. In many areas, schools are operated by city districts or independent districts that encompass small areas and are generally more economically and racially segregated than Wake as a whole.<\/p>\n

Since the 1970s, Wake has been in the business of not simply sending children to school in their own neighborhood to help avoid the \u201cnatural\u201d economic and racial segregation that occurs in neighborhoods and cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there are folks who want to take on this charge, it should be integrated housing patterns rather than at the schoolhouse door,\u201d Tedesco said.<\/p>\n

He claims the district is now too large, the demographic make-up too changed, for a diversity policy to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t bus out the inequities from Zebulon to Apex,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But Democratic Board Member Christine Kushner notes that the school system never tried to bus from Zebulon to Apex. Neither will a new assignment plan, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do have a diverse county and we do need to make sure our schools look like our county,\u201d Kushner said. \u201cBecause we\u2019re big, we can be very intentional about how we assign students.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Democrats and Republicans both consistently reinforce the importance of student achievement, it\u2019s this philosophic divide that has lead to paralysis.<\/p>\n

Without one voice emanating from the school system, business and faith leaders can\u2019t be sure who to follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe business community\u2014they get paralyzed when they have to choose between factions,\u201d McNeal said. \u201cThey do nothing, because they\u2019re saying \u2018I\u2019m not going to align myself with one or the other, because when I do that, that\u2019s a problem.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Schmitt of the chamber admits as much.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe partisan nature of the current conversation does make it harder for business to get engaged, because business is not interested in political parties as much as stability,\u201d Schmitt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat adds a bit of confusion, but it doesn\u2019t abate interest or efforts to assist the system in continuing to improve,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Despite current effort or interest, the education community, like national politics, is fractured. But, both McNeal and Schmitt say it would be fallacy to think division didn\u2019t exist in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n

McNeal believes Wake still wants all its kids proficient and college ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question that follows that is then, ‘what are you prepared to do in order to make it happen?’\u201d he said. \u201cThat still has to be answered.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, only five in 10 economically disadvantaged elementary and middle school students pass their reading and math tests. For economically advantaged students, the passing rate is nearly 9 in 10.<\/p>\n

You can email Will Huntsberry at <\/em>wehberrry@raleighpublicrecord.org<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/span> or follow on twitter @willhuntsberry or #wakeschoolboard<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With a new student assignment plan slated to appear in September, Wake County school officials face difficult choices about the paths they will pursue to narrow the achievement gap. Perhaps the most daunting: can everyone agree on something?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24024,"featured_media":12934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,23,55],"tags":[823,852,877,878,875,861,848,876],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12933"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24024"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}