Trial Simulation of School Choice Proposal Available June 13 - 20
June 10, 2011— Superintendent Tony Tata is calling on parents throughout Wake County to participate in an online simulation of the proposed Community-Based Choice Plan, commonly known as the “Blue Plan.” The simulation is the next step in the school district’s process of developing a long-range student assignment plan.
Starting June 13 at 5 p.m., and continuing through June 20, parents can come to this Website to rank the school choices available for their address. This test run will gauge how parents might select their children’s school, in the event a choice-based system is used for assigning students in the 2012-13 school year. The choices produced under the simulation are samples only and will not affect students’ assignments for next year.
“We sincerely hope that all parents go online and participate in the ‘test drive’ of this proposal and make their hypothetical choices,” Tata said. “We want to better understand how parents will select potential schools for their children. The insights we gain will help us better work through the next steps in refining sets of base schools, achievement schools and magnet school percentages and feeder patterns,” he said.
At this point in the plan’s development process, the schools listed in this simulation are for demonstration purposes only and are not final school assignments. Tata says he knows the Student Assignment Task Force has a lot of work to do.
“The more families who participate in this simulation, the better our information will be as to how a choice plan might work in Wake County. Once we determine how parents might select a school, we can continue developing the model with more precision,” Tata said.
The other leading proposal, the Base Schools Achievement Plan, known as the Green Plan, is a base assignment model. Families are offered a base school assignment along with calendar and magnet options, similar to the plan that is currently in place, therefore a “test-drive” is not needed.
Tata created the Student Assignment Task Force in March to develop a long-range student assignment proposal that focuses on maximizing achievement for every student while providing families with more stability and choice.
Of the nine courses of action the task force considered, the Blue Plan and the Green Plan have become the leading proposals. All nine plans are available for review online at http://assignment.wcpss.net. Tata plans to present a recommendation to the Board of Education on June 21.