The explosive growth of population in Wake County in recent years has been felt in many ways. Our school system has been given tremendous support by our community in providing resources that our county’s leadership has wisely used to best serve the children of our community. Seven new schools have already opened and 10 more are scheduled to open over the next three years. In approving a historic three-year assignment plan to fill these 10 schools and relieve crowding in our fastest growing areas of the county, the school system has been guided by its assignment policies that include these goals:
- Creating stable school environments (families, classmates, and peers)
- Protecting the ability to offer quality programs in every school
- Collaborating with the community (all parties/stakeholders)
- Creating and maintaining a diverse student body.
- Alleviating overcrowding
- Filling seats efficiently
- Achieving academic success for all children
- Providing a logical progression between elementary, middle, and high school
- Creating good teaching conditions (the social, emotional, and physical environment).
- Retaining good teachers
- Ensuring consistency across the System over time
- Building a sense of community and connection (i.e. neighborhoods, parent involvement)
- Fairness
A target of criticism in this list of goals is “Creating and maintaining a diverse student body.”
In January 2008, Assistant Superintendent David Holdzkom compiled an annotated bibliography that examines the issues of diversity and schools. You can find the bibliography here. You can find earlier reports from the WCPSS Evaluation and Research Department from 2005 and 2004.