Superintendent Presents Proposed Student Assignment Plan to Board
Oct. 5, 2011 – Superintendent Tony Tata presented his proposed student assignment plan to the Wake County Board of Education during their work session on Tuesday (read Tata's comments below). Board members will hold a public hearing on the proposal on Oct. 13 before voting on the plan during their next meeting scheduled for Oct. 18.
The entire proposal along with the PowerPoint presentation to the board can be downloaded online. The student assignment website also contains highlights of the plan, frequently asked questions and a comment form. Public comments will be accepted online through midnight on Oct. 13. All comments will be shared with board members prior to the Oct. 18 board meeting.
Members of the public may also share their comments with the board in person during the public hearing scheduled for 5 p.m. on Oct. 13 at Broughton High School. Online sign-up for the public hearing will begin on Saturday, Oct. 8 at 9 a.m. and will continue until midnight on Wednesday, Oct. 12. Speakers may also sign up on-site at Broughton High from 4 to 4:50 p.m. prior to the start of the public hearing.
The proposed student assignment plan is based on a choice model. It provides families across Wake County access to a quality school based on four priorities: achievement, proximity, stability and choice.
Superintendent Tata's Comments to the Board
Today is a very good day. We propose to you a strong plan that has been through a very thorough public vetting in an unprecedented level of genuine engagement with Wake County families. Accordingly, this plan has broad community support, precisely because we have listened to the public.
When the board gave us the responsibility for developing the plan, we quickly built a cross-functional team of Wake County Public School System professionals, representing the critical areas of student assignment, curriculum and instruction, magnet programs, professional development, and data and accountability. I am very proud of this team that has worked tirelessly on behalf of Wake County students and parents. We also created what we called a ‘reachback’ team consisting of members from growth and planning, transportation, and other key staff functions.
We studied 22 different school districts and developed a list of best practices. We started with a blank slate and considered national research and Wake County history. We developed criteria to which our community believes a plan should adhere. We involved principals and Central Services staff in feedback sessions on what type of plan the county should pursue. We created multiple concepts and narrowed those down to those that met the criteria.
We held 20 community engagement sessions in different locations all around the county. At those sessions, we provided interpreters and internet access for those who did not have it at home. We provided comment cards, so we could record every single thought, compliment or concern. We kept an on-line forum open so that parents, citizens and students, night or day, could post comments. Altogether we recorded over 4,000 comments. We ran a ‘test drive’ of a choice plan where we had 21,000 participants.
Overwhelmingly, those participants chose proximity, stability, achievement and choice as the drivers for the plan going forward.
This truly is Wake County’s plan. We have been open, transparent and approachable. We have proceeded with proper speed and due diligence. We take our charge seriously and have listened to every viewpoint presented.
It is important to know where we have been before we can know where we are going. Accordingly, relevant to this discussion is former Wake County superintendent Dr. Walter Marks and his introduction of 28 magnet schools in January 1982. From concept to approval, the plan that wholesale changed Wake County’s assignment patterns was approved in seven weeks. Within eight months, the plan was being executed. Tensions were high, and success was not guaranteed. These are the facts as many of you who were present know.
Today, we stand at a similar cusp. Our community has been through a lot and our families deserve the very best. Children and parents have paid the price for a cumbersome node-based reassignment system that forcibly reassigned on average 7,000 students a year with another 5,600 on average requesting transfer. Over the next 10 years, if we do not change the node-based assignment system, we will forcibly reassign at least 70,000 students with another 56,000 requesting transfer. We will grow to approximately 200,000 students and 195 schools by 2021, meaning at the low end, we would have 125,000 of 200,000 students impacted.
This plan today gives parents a stronger voice in the assignment of their children. Consistent with what Wake County parents overwhelmingly asked for by a greater than 2:1 margin, and consistent with national trends, the new Wake County student assignment plan is based on proximity, choice, achievement and stability through predictable feeder patterns. We prevent the growth of high poverty schools by going back to our roots in 1982, by maintaining the long-standing magnet programs exactly as they are. We ran 20 statistical models which demonstrated that the number of schools above 50 percent F/R student population under the choice plan will hold steady in the 19-25 percent range. Today we have 22 percent. Of course, these models are only as good as our assumptions and our diligence. Therefore, we also build into the plan high-quality choices for our families who cannot get access to their most proximate schools, because they are magnet schools. Student achievement is enhanced because all students have high quality choices on their list of school options.
At the end of the day, each parent is focused on the impact on their children and their community. In most cases, we see excitement about this plan. In some cases, we see anxiety. This is understandable. Change brings uncertainty. But we are a learning organization, and so we will lay bare some key points for discussion. We will seek board feedback on these points as well as the rest of the plan. We certainly make no claim that this plan satisfies everyone, but we do believe it is the best plan for Wake County.
You have received a written copy of the final plan, and we will brief that plan to you via power point slides.
We intend to monitor this plan and report to the board in reasonable intervals so that we can make corrections as necessary. We will search for unintended consequences, and we will be quick to make corrections where necessary.
Again, I am very proud of the assignment team and am thankful to the tens of thousands of families who have provided us feedback throughout this very thorough process.
Thank you.