August 5, 2011

Top News

Superintendent Tony Tata discussed the state ABCs of Public Education, school safety and the opening of the school system’s early colleges in his Friday, Aug. 5 news briefing.

Superintendent Tata on ABCs of Public Education

The NC Department of Public Instruction released the state’s school-by-school results yesterday as part of the state’s ABCs of Public Education accountability program.

Listen to Superintendent Tata's August 5 news conference 21 minute mp3 file

The ABCs are a whole-school measure of performance. This is different from the Adequate Yearly Progress standard that considers the results of a school’s student subgroups.

The ABCs look at two things:

• Performance composite - the percentage of students who demonstrate proficiency on End-of-Grade and End-of-Course tests,
• Growth – how many students make a year’s academic progress, or more, from where they were at the start of the school year.

Out of 162 eligible schools, 154 schools made at least Expected Growth. A total of 114 schools made High Growth.

“Our schools made their strongest showing on growth since 2006, when the state changed its formulas,” said Tata. “For 19 out of 20 of our schools to make Expected Growth, and 7 out of 10 to make High Growth, is a testament to the focus and energy our teachers and principals bring to our schools.”

Growth and overall performance are factored together in determining our schools’ rankings in the ABCs of Public Education.

Schools of Excellence have 90 percent of their test scores proficient and meet expected growth. The state recognized five WCPSS schools as Honor Schools of Excellence and 12 WCPSS schools as Schools of Excellence.

The Honor Schools of Excellence are Cedar Fork Elementary, Davis Drive Elementary, Highcroft Elementary, Olive Chapel Elementary and the Wake Early College of Health and Sciences.

“I want to congratulate these five schools for meeting that extremely high bar,” said Tata. “This is a difficult standard to meet, because the schools must make Adequate Yearly Progress in all subgroups in addition to the 90 percent proficiency standard.”

The 12 Schools of Excellence are Apex Middle, Apex High, Brassfield Elementary, Davis Drive Middle, Green Hope High, Heritage Middle, Lufkin Road Middle, Mills Park Elementary, Morrisville Elementary, Panther Creek High and Salem Middle.

Schools of Distinction have 80 percent of their test scores proficient, plus meet expected growth. WCPSS had 79 Schools of Distinction, up from 63 last year. 49.7 percent of our schools earned that recognition, compared to 28.8 percent of the state.

WCPSS had 53 Schools of Progress, seven schools with No Recognition, only two Priority Schools, and no Low Performing Schools.

“On balance, these are solid results that do credit to the hard work of teachers, principals and students,” said Tata. “The ABCs are another data point within a range of measures of school effectiveness. When we put it all together, we see a picture of a strong school system with clear opportunities for improvement.”

The school board has asked for a comprehensive report on academic results for 2010-11, and that will be presented on Aug. 16.

You can find more information here.

WCPSS and the ABCs of Public Education

	Honor Schools of Excellence	Schools of Excellence	Schools of Distinction	Schools of Progress	Priority Schools	Low Performing
2010-11	5	12	79	53	2	0
2009-10	9	5	63	63	4	0
2008-09	10	2	50	68	12	0

School Status Labels and Recognitions

PERFORMANCE LEVEL Based on Percent of Students' Scores at or above Achievement Level III	ACADEMIC GROWTH
	Schools Making Expected Growth or High Growth		Schools Making less than Expected Growth
90 to 100 %	Met AYP	Honor School of Excellence	No Recognition
	AYP Not Met	School of Excellence
80 to 89 %	School of Distinction
60 to 79%	School of Progress
50 to 59 %	Priority School
Less than 50 %	Priority School		Low Performing

More News

WCPSS and School Safety

The Wake County Public School System recently submitted to the NC Department of Public Instruction our incident report for the last school year, as required of all school districts annually.

Over the last six years, the crime rate in our schools declined from 9.61 percent in 2006 to 7.87 percent last year.

The violent crime rate dropped significantly this year as well. There were 99 reported incidents in 2009-10, but only 41 in 2010-11. That represents a 59 percent decrease.

“There are a lot of factors that go into making a campus safe – from promoting a respectful environment to effective discipline to conscientious security measures,” said Tata. “I want to congratulate our security department, our school-based staff, the SROs, and especially our students, for taking school safety to heart.”

WCPSS Early Colleges Begin a New School Year on Monday

Wake County Public School System early colleges begin on Monday. We mentioned the Wake Early College of Health and Sciences earlier as one of our Honor Schools of Excellence. The district's second early college, the new Wake NC State STEM Early College High School, opens this year.

The STEM Early College’s first day will begin in what’s expected to be a two-year temporary facility. The school administrators plan a ribbon-cutting at 1 p.m., on August 18.

Millbrook High Student Exchange Program

Millbrook Magnet High has begun an international exchange program with the Beijing Royal School in China. We are sending six students to Beijing Royal School this academic year, and we are hosting Chinese students at Millbrook High School.

Principal Dana King is still looking for families who will serve as hosts to students from the Beijing Royal School. She asked that North Raleigh families willing to host Chinese students contact her at dking@wcpss.net to discuss the requirements.