2003 Wake Education Summit plans for new goal
May 2, 2003 - More than 850 community, business and education leaders gathered in the 2003 Wake Education Summit to hear the findings of a year-long community initiative and to prioritize those findings for creating a new community education goal.
 Orage Quarles, Voices and Choices co chair, discusses education success in Wake County. |
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Orage Quarles:
We have a decade of real gains in student achievement.
Our drop-out rate is the lowest level ever. More than
85 percent of our children leave our classrooms and
go on to college. After six audits of spending by public
schools, we know that you are getting a bargain with
the tax dollars you use. When we compare our students'
achievements with other communities, we see that Wake
County truly is one of the best in the nation.
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 Superintendent Bill McNeal provided a sunny forecast for the school system's future. |
"The summit marks the only time we come together on a countywide basis to set the direction for the future of our public schools," said Orage Quarles, a co-chair of the Voices and Choices community initiative. "While the Board of Education and the superintendent are charged with adopting policies and providing day-to-day management of schools, the community is charged with setting the direction and holding a vision of quality that lasts beyond political cycles."
Quarles, publisher of the News and Observer, and Lynne Garrison, vice president of corporate communications for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, co-chaired the Voices and Choices project begun at last year's education summit.
"More than 100 volunteers stepped forward and helped us conduct feedback sessions across the community about our schools," Garrison said. "We held 100 sessions in homes, churches, schools, businesses, town halls, chambers and services clubs in every town in Wake County over the last year. More than 1,850 citizens from every corner of Wake County have made more than 5,000 specific recommendations about our schools and how we can take our already outstanding schools to new heights. The Voices and Choices steering committee formed a research team to determine how we could best scientifically analyze and report on the findings from these sessions."
Analysis of the information gathered in the community meetings found eight themes: achievement, size, involvement, curriculum, teachers, assignment, testing and change.
Quarles, Superintendent Bill McNeal and Jim Talton who co-chaired the Citizens Advisory Council discussed the school system's success.
"Since 1998, our public schools have made remarkable, historic gains in student achievement," said Quarles. "In fact, as we meet here to make recommendations for improvement and change, we do so understanding that one fact is becoming very clear. The Wake County Public School System is becoming one of the very best in America."
The first Wake Education Summit in 1998 led to the Board of ducation's creation of Goal 2003: By 2003, 95 percent of students tested will be at or above grade level as measured by NC End-of-Grade testing at grades 3 and 8. Quarles said summits that followed have addressed key aspects of achieving goal 2003 and refined strategies to make sure that teachers have the support that they need for every child.
Superintendent McNeal said Wake County schools have moved dramatically forward since the establishment of Goal 2003.
McNeal said the percent of students at or above grade level on state End-of-Grade testing for reading rose to 87.6 for third-graders in 2002 compared with 79.3 in 1998. The percent of students at or above grade level on state End-of-Grade testing for reading rose to 91.4 for eighth-graders in 2002 compared with 86.4 in 1998.
McNeal said the percent of students at or above grade level on state End-of-Grade testing for math rose to 87.1 for third-graders in 2002 compared with 75.4 in 1998. The percent of students at or above grade level on state End-of-Grade testing for math rose to 88.3 for eighth-graders in 2002 compared with 83.2 in 1998.
McNeal likened the potential success in Wake schools with a weather forecast, predicting mostly sunny skies ahead.
"We have strong winds pushing us to have all of our children reading by third grade, which is a key to future success," McNeal said. "A warm front of academic support for struggling children including retaining and recruiting quality teachers to lead them. Spring showers to nurture our crop of students and the showers come in the presence of strong school leadership at our schools, safe, orderly and healthy schools in every part of our county, a county that can boast of 52 Schools of Excellence, 37 Schools of Distinction, 66 schools performing and achieving high growth. It's phenomenal. We have a rising tide of high expectations to carry our children forward. Our education weather forecast is unique. Here's the unique part. We control our own forecast."
Jim Talton, who co-chaired the Citizens Advisory Committee for Appropriate Funding of Public Education (CAC), summarized the efforts of the citizens panel created by the county commissioners and school board.
- The CAC reaffirms the proper stewardship of public funds by WCPSS, including the operations of the central office/administration.
- Human Resources has significant needs for additional resources to recruit and retain the required number of excellent teachers.
- The CAC has developed a methodology to project future funding needs. This methodology should make funding decisions arising from inflation and enrollment growth more routine. The methodology establishes a baseline for adequate funding of WCPSS operations. It also requires WCPSS to provide a business case to the BOC and the public in order to request funding for any additional program initiative. The CAC understands that the BOC needs to consider the business case of any proposed initiatives in light of total funding needs of Wake County.
- The CAC commends the strides made by WCPSS in approaching Goal 2003. Based on a business case presentation of proposals for further progress toward the goal, we recommend six additional programs for funding. The CAC does not believe the goal will be reached in 2003. Therefore, WCPSS should revise the target date for the goal in light of all available data.
- Aside from new funding that will be required for inflation, student growth and state-mandated programs, the CAC believes that additional funding is required to make adequate progress toward Goal 2003 and to assist with teacher recruitment and retention. The net new funding that will be required in each of the next four fiscal years approximates $17.4 million in 2003-2004, $14.7 million in 2004-2005, $12.4 million in 2005-2006 and $10.8 million in 2006-2007.
Tables filled the hall where facilitators led discussions with the eight people at their table. They discussed the themes identified in Voices and Choices and ranked them in order of importance. In the voting process, the themes were:
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Several of the persons attending the summit were invited to briefly report what they heard at their table or other tables' discussions.
Virginia Parker of the Junior League and Wake PTA Council said people talked about the importance of having a specific goal.
"It was easy to rally around, gave us focus, gave us purpose," Parker said. "There were recommendations about teachers, creating professional career paths, and development opportunities for our teachers and administrators as they try to accomplish these recommendations."
Wake County Commissioner Joe Bryan noted five of the commissioners attended the summit.
 Kathryn Quigg, Board of Education chair, listens to discussions on setting new education goal. |
"We will jointly build goals along with the school system, developing those with the staff, school board and county commissioners together," Bryan said. "That type of new partnership I hope will be one of the new achievements of this Voices and Choices event."
Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce President Harvey Schmitt said he heard people talking about the importance of setting an overarching goal, and how the 95 percent goal has really moved schools to a different place.
"At almost every table there was a great deal of discussion about how much each of these elements are interrelated," Schmitt said. "Its like this jenga game you may have seen with the interlocking blocks. If you mess with enough of them, you end up toppling the game over. You have to find a way to create adequate enough balance. That's really what you are trying to do and really with a constrained amount of resources which is the big challenge that the county commissioners face. It's a very good thing that both the county commission and the school board really talk through all of this competing interest."
The information presented and discussed at the summit will now be used to develop a new community goal for education in Wake County.
The summit was hosted by more than 100 businesses and community organizations and was open to the public.
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2003 Wake Education Summit
plans for a new goal |
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