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Wake School Shuffle
Some weeks my deadline approaches and I don't feel any inspiration for a blog topic. That was how I was feeling, until I read the morning paper. I think the N&O does a good job of providing side-by-side differing views on various topics (remember, I am not a PAID employee of the N&O, so I don't HAVE to say that). On Tuesday, page 7A presented two different views on Wake County Schools in view of the upcoming School Board Election. Is the Wake County School system a system trying to hide its failures? Or do the public's "anti-diversity" efforts threaten us all?
The former asks the question, could Wake County be carrying out "massive reassignments…to meet its percentages and make the performance look like it is improving without really helping anyone?" The latter points out that "test scores are up," "Wake County's status quo is a good thing," and that Wake county schools have "earned national accolades and increasingly excellent academic results."
I don't claim to be an expert on either of these points, but I have some statistical information and some anecdotal information that may shed some light on this conflict.
Before making decisions based on Wake County's reported performance, I think it's critical to look at one key statistic…our graduation rates. The Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) web site publishes a page called Measuring Up, which details graduation rates for a period of three years. It currently shows the following results:
2005-06 82.6%
2006-07 79.3%
2007-08 78.8%
I am not a statistician. I didn't even take statistics in college. But even I can see that the percentages are moving in the wrong direction. Think about this as you are dropping your child off for his/her first day of high school. For every 5 kids you see, bright-eyed and backpack-carrying, fewer than 4 of them will be in the graduation ceremony you attend in four years. The report states that, "four out of every five students who enrolled in 9th grade for the first time in the Fall of 2004 had graduated four years later." My take on it is…OMG!!! One out of every five students starting ninth grade doesn't graduate!!!" The result is that when test scores and performance are measured for graduating seniors, we have already weeded out over 20% of the lower performing students. That kind of boosts the overall scores, right?
Another area that is often cited to prove improved performance is SAT scores. The WCPSS web site boasts, "High Schools See Higher Scores on SAT." For those too lazy to scroll all the way down, the site conveniently posts the results of the 8 schools that posted average scores greater than 1,600. (For those of you from the old days, the SAT now includes a writing component, making a perfect score 2,400, as opposed to 1,600 back in the day.) Next the site lists the 8 schools that boasted participation rates of over 70%. You have to scroll all the way to the bottom to see that the overall participation rate is 64.3% and that 6 out of 21 high schools report participation rates of less than 50%.
Again…please feel free to question my statistics, but here's how I look at it. Let's say we have 1,000 kids. 21.2% of them drop out before graduation and I think it would be safe to say that a very small percentage of them, if any, took the SAT. That means we are left with 788 students. Going with the county-wide average, 64.3% of these students take the SAT. That leaves about 506 of those students who started 9th grade upon whose performance we are evaluating our county's performance on the SAT…roundabout 50% of the kids who start 9th grade?
The article that claims that "'anti-diversity' efforts threaten us all," claims that "the majority of Wake County residents agree with the overall goals of Wake's current income-based assignment policy because they believe that it is in the best, long-term interest of the entire community." Note that it refers to "residents" rather than the parents who actually have to live with the fall-out of the current reassignments, conflicting calendars and greater distances from schools. My anecdotal story is about a friend of mine who, in order to protect her privacy, I will refer to as Mary.
Mary has three children, two of whom attend Wake County Schools. Her oldest graduated last year and is in his first year of college. One child is a sophomore in high school on a traditional calendar and one child is in 5th grade at a year-round school. Fortunately, Mary does not work. I can't even imagine someone dealing with what she does while working full-time. The high school student is on a traditional calendar with the typical holidays, spring break and summers off. The elementary school student tracks out for three weeks at various times of the year. Occasionally, the stars align and both kids are off at the same time and Mary's family might be able to take a vacation together. Most of the time, one is out while the other is in. Mary's high-schooler is a competitive swimmer. Mary's 5th grader is active in various community sports. A typical day for Mary starts at 4:30 when she gets up to take one kid to swim practice. She races back to get him to school by 7:30. By the time she gets home, it's time to get the second kid up and ready for her school (fortunately, a mere 3 miles away) which starts at 9:00. 2:00 p.m. finds her sitting in the carpool line to pick up her son to get him to his afternoon swim practice. She has a carpool to get him back home after practice because she has to be home by 4:00 when her 5th grader arrives on the bus. A couple nights a week, the younger child has practices or games for the community sports in which she participates. Now, one could argue that Mary's kids don't HAVE to participate in these extracurricular activities, but isn't that part of the experience of growing up? And shouldn't our kids have some activities that do not involve the homework and getting back and forth to school that already occupy so many of their out-of-school hours?
Add to this crazy schedule the fact that her kids do not share the same days off and that her husband works nights and you can imagine the chaos. Again…what if Mary worked? She was about to breathe a sigh of relief that her daughter would be entering middle school and FINALLY she would have kids on the same schedule. The middle school is a reasonable 5.5 miles away. Now she has been notified that her daughter will be reassigned to a new year-round school opening next year. This school is 10.6 miles away. Her round trip to drop her child off at school just went from 20 minutes to 35 minutes. Take the bus? Not in the morning unless you want to get your child up and on the bus a full hour before school even starts. Oh…and two more years of having her two kids on conflicting schedules.
Mary is not alone. She's not even really an anomaly (except, perhaps, for that whole before-school swim team practice thing). Thousands of families are dealing with the same situation. And many of them are families where both parents are working. What is even worse is that the year-round thing involves elementary and middle schools, whose kids are not old enough to be left alone at home when parents are working. Both kids on the same schedule? Perfect, the older one can watch the younger one or you can hire a high school kid to watch the younger one. Different schedules? Parents who might already be struggling are forced to spend a great deal of money to put their younger children in track-out camps.
The "status quo" may work from some global perspective, but I believe it doesn't even work, it just manipulates the data in a way that makes it LOOK like it's working. In the interest of "No Child Left Behind," I believe we are leaving thousands behind, costing our collective school families millions of dollars and making the day-to-day world in which our students live unnecessarily complicated, chaotic and confusing.
Diane appears Wednesdays on TriangleMom2Mom. Read more about Diane on her blog Live and Let Di.
Live and Let Di
Diane is a TriangleMom2Mom featured blogger, appearing every Wednesday.
I try to be the voice of Moms with teens. My daughter Haley is 16. She's at that age where she is convinced that I know nothing. I'm thinking I'll seem a lot smarter when she's 22. We bond over Broadway shows. My son Rory is 13. He started reading the sports page when he was 5 and his passion for anything sports-related has grown ever since. This year he beat out 9 guys in their 40s to win his Fantasy Football League. Watch for him on ESPN in a few years.
My husband Hurley works from home, but travels quite a bit. When he's gone, I usually take a break from making dinner and cleaning the house. Oh, I don't do those things regularly when he's here either! Our parenting philosophy is "choose your battles." The only problem is that we often choose different battles. It keeps it interesting!!!
Diane appears Wednesdays on TriangleMom2Mom. Read more about Diane on her blog Live and Let Di.
Comments
What a NIGHTMARE you have described! I am old enough to remember so many educational "experiments" and shudder at the memories, as both a teacher and a parent. In my humble opinion, the only way to fix the American public schools is to trash everything and start over from scratch. Applying gigantic, expensive "bandaids" just isn't working and never did.As far as statistics, I did take a course in statistics in college. And the most interesting classes were about "how to lie with statistics". Looks like you have found some examples of that. SHAME on whoever thought up those "facts".As a resident of a state (Delaware) whose public schools were destroyed by a failed desegregation order imposed by the courts 30 years ago, I am appalled that this kind of false maneuvering is still going on. When will people learn?
In today's paper, Wake School Diversity Could Be Swept Away:
http://www.newsobserver.com/home/story/118498.html
And Making a Difference on the Dropout Rate (shouldn't it be "in" instead of "on?")
http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/columnists_blogs/story/118230.html
Di..you are SPOT ON. More to come.........as I expand on my own experiences with this....yes, I know you all are breathless with anticipation......I think I'm going to do a blog later today....
Lilybug...be sure to post the link here so the conversation can continue.
I'm all for neighborhood schools coming back. When we moved to our present town, my youngest son was (and still is) able to walk to both his middle and high school. He and several kids pick each other up and walk, rain, shine or snow (they bike if the weather is nice). Getting together with friends is easy because they are all in walking/riding range of one another. I love not having to drive them around, it's greener for the environment, and better for the families all around.
I understand the desire to "force" diversity, but I do feel that there are better ways to realize that ideal. If resources were better allocated throughout school districts and town according to need, not standardized test result scores (in our state, the results are thus: Kids score high in wealthy towns and score poorly in low-income districts. Wow, who would have imagined that!), there might be ways to improve the schools that need help and keep the ones that are doing well strong. Capitalize on community and parent volunteer support where it is available and funnel the money into hiring help into towns and schools where it is needed. Keep kids and neighborhoods together.
I guess I disagree on all these points except the reassignment issue -- Wake County does need to find a way to accomplish their goals without so many reassignments. Tough job with new schools having to be built -- and yes, they are needed. Most parents I know do feel that diversity benefits the community, and benefits their kids, but dislike reassignments and busing to achieve it. But unless we build more low-income housing in North Raleigh, Cary, and Apex, what's the solution? Charlotte-Mecklenburg's 'Schools of Choice' solution? Take a look at THEIR diversity, achievement scores, and graduation rates since that was instituted. No matter what statistical calculations or tricks are used to determine graduation rates, Wake County still looks better than the national and NC rates which, agreed, are terrible. The Measuring Up page also says that among the 50 largest school systems in the nation, Wake County's rates are consistently in the top 10 (6th most recently). And our EOC's and EOG's look better than almost every system in the state. Finally, I don't think year-round schools are the culprit -- in fact, they reduce the need for more new schools and thus more reassignments. I feel for your friend Mary -- been there, done that. But even when both of my kids were on the SAME year-round schedule, because I also had a competitive swimmer and both kids in lots of activities, my day looked like that. Only difference was my kids went to the after-school program because my husband and I work full time. The conflicting schedules once the oldest went to high school just didn't change our lives that much. Both kids were off for all the holidays, and at least one mutual week in the summer, so that's when we planned a vacation. Heck, it was easier then to plan a vacation than it is now with both of them off all summer but working -- four work schedules to negotiate!
In terms of the declining numbers of students taking the SAT, keep in mind that more and more students are seeing community colleges as an option. Their entrance requirements are much lower, one doesn't have to take the SAT to get in, and the cost is more affordable. As far as so-called "wealthier" students scoring higher on tests, that fact is NEVER going to change. "Wealth" isn't the issue, but values are. The common denominator for a successful student is involved parents who raise the student to 1) value an education 2) expect their student to perform and succeed, and if s/he doesn't, impose consequences. Schools cannot change the fabric of society or the home lives of students. They can only hope to influence their student populations to value an education and develop a work-ethic that will help them to succeed, regardless of their backgrounds.
http://www.trianglemom2mom.com/content/upcoming-school-board-elections
Diane -- You are so right! Can you please write an article for the N&O so people can see the other side of the story?
We need a CHANGE because what we're doing isn't working. And voting people onto the School Board who think we're doing just fine, won't work.
In the Brox is a school called KIPP. Half their students are African American, the rest are Hispanic. 75% of them come from single-parent homes. 90% qualify for F&RL. Yet, 84% of them are at or above grade level in mathematics. 90% of them get scholarships to private or parochial high schools. And 80% of the graduates go on to college. Those are way better numbers than the ones we have here, as sighted by Diane.
Changing our schools to function properly is what we need. And that doesn't mean forcing families to be on different schedules. Or to be sent to a school that takes a half hour or more to get to.
Yes, KIPP schools (there are 82 of them around the country) are wonderful, vibrant, and successful schools. But people may not realize that the students spend 60% more time in class than our students do. They attend classes from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, every other Saturday, and three weeks every summer. For the most part, they are staffed by young, energetic teachers (most of whom don't have children of their own) who are willing to put in such long hours for not much pay because the job is so rewarding. So it's not exactly fair to compare their results to those of a typical public school. But we could learn much from the KIPP philosophy of high expectations for every child, no excuses.
Hey mezzoforte --
It's fair to compare in this way -- if we have a neighborhood school with kids that need that kind of attention -- to get their scores up and let them feel like they belong somewhere and that someone cares -- then we can give it to them. We can't do that right now under the current situation.
i disagree with wealthier areas having better test scores and that lower income areas would do better if they had the financial means. the government has been throwing more money at the school system for years and still test scores and participation numbers are dropping. so obviously giving schools more money isn't the thing to do. what we need to do is get rid of school boards. they're the ones with all the money, making ridiculus salaries that the tax payers are paying for when the school board isn't doing it's job. let's go back to the days when the parents ran the schools and got involved in their child's education.
After reviewing the candidates' web sites and platforms, I've decided to vote for John Tedesco in District 2 (Garner, Willow Spring, Fuquay Varina). Both his views and his methods seem to be the most consistent with my beliefs.