Wake County, N.C. plans to reassign over 6,000 students next fall
Despite last-minute appeals by parents, the Wake County school board didn't make major changes to a controversial reassignment plan that will move 6,464 elementary students to different schools this fall. The school board approved the plan 7-1 with no additional students being dropped. The only change made will allow rising fourth-graders reassigned to new schools to be able to stay at their current school if they provide transportation. School board members stressed the two full days they spent reviewing the plan last month after hearing parents at three public hearings and reading thousands of online comments. The board had dropped 360 students last week. Despite the apparent finality of the vote, the reassignment plan might not be done yet. A pending appeal of a court ruling on Wake's use of year-round schools could reopen the reassignment process. At least 20% of the moves in the plan are primarily aimed at changing the percentages of low-income students at schools. This figure doesn't include reassignment where diversity is considered a secondary reason. Students are also being moved to fill three new schools and ease crowding at existing schools. In most cases, the plan calls for sending lower-income students to schools in more affluent neighborhoods; in a few instances, students from higher-income families will be moved to schools to help lower their poverty rate.
School leaders have pointed to research that shows that academic performance drops at a school when it has too many low-income students. But critics have complained that the school district hasn't done a study proving that Wake students who are reassigned for diversity actually perform better academically. Parents made a final plea to the school board, arguing that balancing the percentages of low-income students at schools doesn't justifying moving children to different schools. The plan moves students out of five magnet elementary schools. The goal is to free more spots for students to apply for those schools through this month's magnet application lottery. Two types of students attend magnet schools: those who apply through the lottery and those who live in a school's attendance area. The schools targeted have low percentages of magnet application students. Parents asked that children currently at the magnet schools be allowed to stay until they graduate. But the board rejected a motion by Ron Margiotta to grant this request. This year's reassignment plan doesn't affect middle and high school students. School officials say they limited the plan to elementary students. Later this year, they will begin developing multi-year assignment plans.
Source: Raleigh News & Observer, 2/6/08, By T. Keung Hui
[Editor’s Note: For background on the assignment plan and the pending appeal of the court decision blocking year-round schooling, see the NSBA links below. The next links are to the Wake County Public School System’s (WCPSS) website pages about each issue, including related documents and online tools for parents to check how the assignment plan may affect their children. Meanwhile, the Raleigh News & Observer reports at the last link that the North Carolina state Board of Education has refused a request from WCPSS for permission to continue to exceed state-imposed class size limits at some schools. The state board initially had granted this request last month in light of the “extenuating circumstances” of the court challenge to the district’s use of multi-track, year-round schooling to help relieve overcrowding by accommodating 20-33% more students in the same facilities.]
NSBA School Law pages on Wake County assignment policy
NSBA School Law pages on appeal of ruling on year-round schools
WCPSS information page on assignment plan
WCPSS information page on year-round schooling
Raleigh News & Observer, 2/8/08, By T. Keung Hui & Kinea White Epps