Happy Anniversary, Tony Tata

So today's newspaper reminded me that it is the one year anniversary of the head of the Wake County Public School System, retired Brigadier General Anthony (Tony) Tata.   If you have been reading my blog for over a year (and if you have been, bless you!), you know that I had my doubts about Mr. Tata.  I doubted his experience, I doubted his political orientation, I doubted his former boss when he was head of operations in the DC Public School System (that is, Michelle Rhee)....but most of all, I doubted his bosses, or at least the Republican majority who voted him into office in a rather dubious manner right before Christmas of 2010.

So it seems only fair that I report my assessment of the man after a year on the job.  And that assessment is ... relatively positive.

As I said at the time (in one of my most-frequently read blog post, Wake School Board Majority Should Be Ashamed), the Republicans on the Board did him no favor in the way they pushed through his appointment, seemingly in the dead of the night, with no public notice and some of the Democrats on the Board unable to attend a meeting called with 48 hours notice only days before Christmas.  It was not an auspicious way to begin a job, and I did express my sympathy to Mr. Tata at that time.

However, I did review an interview he had,  as well as his first statement after accepting the position,  and found room for hope in both.  He seemed like a nice man, a reasonable man, and, most of all, a man who knows that you don't win a campaign--military, educational, social, it doesn't matter--by castigating, blaming, and demoralizing your "troops" (what ever their actual jobs may be) on the front line.

So I've not met the man, so my assessment is based only on what I've seen going on in Wake County schools.  I believe our basic political beliefs are not aligned.  We probably have fairly different visions for how the children who attend Wake County Public Schools would be best served.

However, there is no denying that things have been so much more peaceful, respectful, civil, and hence, productive, in 2011 then they were in 2010.  And I attribute a lot of that to Mr. Tata, since that is the major thing that changed between the two years (the elections were held in 2009 and the end of 2011).

Superintendent Tata has apparently been able to smooth the waters of the often fractious School Board--which to me is a big deal.  I'm OK with people disagreeing--our entire political system is based on that reality--but the Board shenanigans had become not just a local, not just a statewide, but a national embarrassment (when Steven Colbert is making fun of you, you should know you've gone too far).  Things have gone so much more cordially and low key in the past year, and I credit Tata with at least some of that.

I also really acknowledge Superintendent Tata for his efforts to reach out and talk with the community, even those who opposed his appointment.  To me, this should be a given.  Again, our system was set up with the idea that we might disagree, but that the majority would find a way to work with the majority.   Sadly, that philosophy has been abandoned lately in our national politics.  But it is great to see a School Superintendent who is trying to connect with all facets of the community, even those who disagree with his political orientation.  (Although he hasn't, to my knowledge, met with the homeschooling community, although I think that could begin a very enriching dialogue that would benefit both sides.)

Along those lines, the agency that was threatening to withdraw accreditation from the WCPSS in 2010 has come again, and found things much approved.  It upgraded our accreditation status to accreditation advised (subject to a few more improvements), and commented positively both on the Board's better behavior and Superintendent Tata's "stablizing influence."  Again, as I stated in a previous blog post, this is a big deal to me.

Next, I'm pleased that things have been going along the lines that I advised in a blog post of a year ago, Four Pieces of Advise for Anthony Tata (and One for the Board of Ed).  While he hasn't adopted all my words of wisdom....YET....he has stuck to one of my top ones, which was to abandon his conservative commentary that he maintained while he was working with the DC School System.  Different place, different job, different sensibilities.  According to the News and Observer, Tata has steadfastly refused to comment on military-related or other conservative topics, sticking strictly to talking about the Wake County School System.  I'm sure it was hard, as an ex-military man,  not to comment on, say, the death of Osama bin Laden.  But the fact that he refused to do so makes him much more credible as the head of our school system.

Finally, he has produced.  We have a plan, and a plan with enough information that parents can actually comment on and/or do something with.  I don't necessarily agree with his plan.  But at least it is something concrete and with enough specifics that parents can react to.   From what I can tell--it is very confusing to dwell into specific details--I don't agree with the overarching philosophy, but it is beginning of a system that is more responsive to family needs and request.  It is, at least, something to work with.  With the way that the Board was acting in 2010, having something even nominally reasonable is a great accomplishment.

So all in all, I say pretty well done, Mr. Tata.  I have issues with the school plans that you have produced.  But I can still admire what you have accomplished, given the cards you were dealt.  Of course, the election results last November shuffled the decks a good bit, so who knows what lies in our future.  But at least things are operating on a more civil and reasonable basis, and we can all be glad of that.

PS--Do I agree with the Republicans who think we should be extending his employment contract already?  No.  Do I think the Democrats should (or will) kick him to the curb?  No.  He's made a good start.  But let's see things play out a bit more before we decide whether he should continue to be Superintendent past 2014.

Democrats Gain Control of Wake County School Board

Well, it's official.  Democrat Kevin Hill won the run-off election for the final seat on the Wake County School Board, giving the Democrats a 5-4 majority for the next four years, since in the elections for the other half of the board that will take place two years for now, only the four seats currently held by Republicans.  This means that the Republican sweep of two years ago, when all Republicans were elected and started to take the nation's 18th largest school system in a dramatically different direction, has effectively been swept out again.

Long-time readers of this blog know that I have had a lot of issues with the Republican-led board over the past two years (for reminders, you can see some of my posts such as Wake School Board Majority Should Be Ashamed  or How NOT to Respond to Reports Critical of Wake County School Board).  Such readers will not be surprised to hear that I'm glad that the Democrats have regained control.  For one thing, I happen to agree more with the educational priorities of the Democrats than I do with the Republicans.  I believe even the choice plan that was passed by the Republicans just weeks before they lost all the elections will lead to a less equitable and more segregated community, and I think that is a bad idea.

However, politics and policies aside, here are some reasons why I think the counter-sweep is a good idea.

Reason Number One:  The Board Majority Was an Embarrassment to our Community
Please understand that I'm saying all Republicans are an embarrassment, because I'm not.  I'm referring to the specific personalities of the individual people elected, particularly the two whose names appeared in the newspaper most frequently.  Too often, the board were rude to the public, to school system personnel, and even to each other.  They would insult each other in public meetings.  Too often, they were arrogant, and refused to listen to their colleagues or to public they were supposed to serve.  Too often, they displayed an astounding ignorance of the educational issues about which they were supposed to setting policy.  And too often, they meddled where they didn't belong, such as the time when the two board members decided they would draw up redistricting maps all on there own.

And when I say they were an embarrassment, I really don't think I'm speaking subjectively.  I think that any school board that gets singled out and criticized by Stephen Colbert and the US Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan  can be said to be tarnishing our reputation.

This point was also made frequently in letters to the editor of the local newspaper.  Several authors pointed out that even though the area is increasingly mixed demographically, we are still in the South, and we just don't believe in people behaving badly, especially people who are supposed to be leading our children.  So I think one message of this new election is for people to behave better, which is certainly something I support.

Reason Number Two:  Money Didn't Carry the Day
This was the most expensive school board election in Wake County history, and perhaps in the history of North Carolina.   The news is now saying that half a million dollars was spent on this school board election, much coming from interest group outside our community.

However, in most, if not all of the races, the Republican candidates received a much higher percentage of the money.  In the case of the run-off between Hill and his opponent, the Republican's donations were twice that of the Democrat.

And despite all that money, every Republican lost.  So this election is a reassuring example of money not being able to just "buy" an election.

Reason Number Three:  It Shows that Trying to Cram Through One-Sided Ideology Doesn't Work
Here is what I think is potentially most important about these results.  I hope our elected official at all levels will see this as a lesson that just because you won the latest election, it doesn't mean you can enact everything you want 100% your way.  If you refuse to listen to or compromise with or accommodate the other side's concerns, at least to some extend, you are shooting yourself in the foot.  You'll simply rile up your opposition, who will turn you out of office as soon as the next election comes along.

So here is an admission:  while I don't agree with everything the Republicans were trying to do, they had some valid concerns and proposals.  I think the school system needed some shaking up.  In the early 2000s, it was the schools who were arrogantly refusing to listen to parental frustrations about the constant moving about of their children.  It wasn't until the Towns of Cary and Apex threatened to sue their own school system that the school system started to take the family complaints seriously.  So the Wake County Public School System made their own bed, and were made to lie in it when a too-long-ignored public turned out WCPSS' traditional supporters on the Board for the innovators offered by the Republicans.

However, the Board majority blew their opportunity.  They refused to listen to any concerns from the other side about their plans.  They tried to move much more quickly than the school system or the community were obviously ready for.   They rejected any attempts towards compromise that might buy them some more public support for their plans.  And so here they are, two years later, with the control snatched away from them by a public that didn't like their radicalism.

So what happens now?  Who knows.  Will the Democratic majority put a stop to the choice plan?  We'll have to see.  I doubt the rifts dividing the community about how we should structure our school system will be settled any time soon.

However, I am hopeful that the new majority will have learned a lesson from the past two years, and proceed with a more respectful, more deliberative, more consultative, and more compromising approach than their predecessors did.

UPDATE:  The political commentator for the local News & Observer has a good article analyzing the Republican defeat, which echoes and expands upon some of my points above.

NPR Features Wake County School Board $125,000 Run-off

There is a special run-off election on Tuesday for the deciding seat on the Wake County NC School Board.  Whereas all Republicans won in the 2009 elections, which gave them the controlling majority on the Board, this year all Democrats won the formerly nonpartisan election.  However, Democrat Kevin Hill did not win by enough to avoid a run-off election with the next highest-ranking candidate, Republican Heather Losurdo.

Given that this run-off would decide whether the Republicans or Democrats dominate on the school board, I expected that there would be a lot of focus on this race.  However, I never imagined that it would raise so much money.  At this point, nearly $125,000 has been donated to the two candidates, much from people and organization outside Wake County, and even outside North Carolina.

This is such an amazing amount of money to spend on a single school board race that it was the focus of a new article today on the National Public Broadcasting (NPR) program All Things Considered.  To hear their 10 minute segment on the Wake County race, and some other places where national groups are pouring outside money into local elections, visit their website here.

The Republican candidate, Losurdo, has received twice as much money as the incumbent Democrat Hill.  It will be interesting to see if that enables her to beat Hill this time around.

If you happen to live in Wake County's School Board District 3, don't forget to vote on Tuesday.

Bento Box Blog Inspires Back to School Lunches

Tomorrow (by the time most people read this; Thursday, August 25th, which is technically two days from when I wrote it) is the first day of school for traditional calendar schools in Wake County, NC, where I live.  Since we homeschool, it doesn't effect us directly.  But I'm thinking good thoughts for all of my friends who will be sending their children off for a new school year tomorrow.

While this wasn't a deciding factor, I'm so happy I don't have to get my son dressed, with his books and other stuff together, and out the door for the school bus at the early hours required for schools around here. And I glad I don't have to face the chore of making portable lunches every morning.

BUT...if I did...I found some inspiration for new levels of boxed lunch-making at the blog, BentoLunch.  In it, a Texas mother displays photos of the lunches she makes for her two sons based on the Japanese Bento philosophy of small containers of different-colored food.  The Japanese have a whole theory about it that I don't know and so won't try to contain, but their "lunch boxes" contain containers to hold a variety of different food, displayed in a beautiful way.

I don't think Shannon, the author of the blog, particularly follows the Japanese theory either.  But she sure creates some adorable and healthy-looking lunches!  Her boys are younger, but I think that many a middle schooler would love to open up a lunch like the ones on her blog (albeit with much larger portion sizes, at least among the boys I know).  And while some might find them intimidating at first, lots of the special treats are created using cookie cutters, and/or are simply enhanced by having some cute doo-dads to stick in to make some ordinary foods look special.

So for any parents (or students, for that matter) who are looking for some new ideas to make their boxed lunches more creative--check out BentoLunch.

My other special treat for my school-going friends is to repeat my favorite quote from what is probably my leading Newbury award contender for this year (so far), Gary Schmidt's Okay For Now.  This is a speech that is given to incoming students in the book, which is set in 1968:

"Within a year, possibly by next fall," he was saying, "something that has never before been done, will be done. NASA will be sending men to the moon. Think of that. Men who were once in classrooms like this one will leave their footprints on the lunar surface." He paused. I leaned in close against the wall so I could hear him. "That is why you are sitting here tonight, and why you will be coming here in the months ahead. You come to dream dream. You come to build fantastic castles into the air. And you come to learn how to build the foundations that make those castles real. When the men who will command that mission were boys your age, no one knew that they would walk on another world someday. No one knew. But in a few months, that's what will happen. So, twenty years from now, what will people say of you? 'No one knew then that this kid from Washington Irving Junior High School would grow up to do".....what? What castle will you build?"

That's the kind of education that every one of our children deserves, whether they are going to public, private, or home school.  Here's hoping this is the kind of teacher your child will get--and/or this is the kind of teacher you will be--this year!

Britney Spears and the Wake County School Board's Redistricting Plan

Last month, I wrote a post about how the Wake County Public School System's Board approach might relate to the school systems accreditation problems.  Since our accreditation hinges on the School Board's ability to repair its fractured relationships with the community it is supposed to serve, I proposed that the legally-required 10 year redistricting process was an excellent way to start rebuilding trust with the Wake County citizens.

Alas, it appears that the Board has not taken my sage advice.  Instead, as I look at the way they are choosing to handle the redistricting issue, it reminds me of one of Britney Spear's most famous songs-- "Oops, I did it again."  It appears that the Board--or, at least, the anti-diversity and Republican majority of the Board--are back to their same old tricks of secrecy, partisan politics, and disdain for public input.

As I stated in my original post, Wake County has a model of what an open and accountable redistricting process can look like.  One of the units within Wake County, the Town of Cary, has demonstrated what good redistricting should look like.  They began early (in February) with public meetings, and all of their official discussion have been in open meetings.  The town staff prepared 19 different map options, all of which were made available to the public with all the details.   The town welcomed, responded to, and/or incorporated public comments and issues.  They are close to deciding on a final map that everyone seems to think is fair and reasonable.

But what did the Board of Education do?  First, they paid an OPENLY PARTISAN Republican lawyer--one who had donated to the campaigns of the Republicans on the Board and even hosted a fundraiser for one of them--$10,000 to handle the redistricting.  This Republican Shanahan (a former Republican member of the Raleigh Town Council) then met IN SECRET with each of the Board members individually (so that they could subvert the open meetings requirement).

There was no official opportunity for the public to voice concerns about what should be in the maps since there were no public meetings beforehand.  However, the League of Women Voters of Wake County and the Great Schools in Wake Coalition collected all the data, produced some proposed redistricting maps that met the Board guidelines and good electoral map procedures, and held some public meetings to help educate the public about this issue.  They even revised their maps in response to concerns that were raised by the School Board.

Then on April 26, Shanahan produced a SINGLE map for our $10,000.  The public then had two weeks to respond to that map, which was finally discussed publicly on May 10.  However, even then the public wasn't given all the specifics about exact borders and such.  Shanahan's excuse for why he hadn't provided the exact data was that it would go against client-attorney confidentiality.

So even in the ONLY public comment meeting, the community was not given detailed information in order to comment effectively.  Also, two of the Republican Board members announced in advance that they wouldn't consider any revisions to the plan, regardless of what the public had to say during the meeting.  However, even without the specifics, several speakers questioned why the general guidelines broke up several municipalities and seemed to have much more tentacle-like boundaries than the ones produced by the League for Women Voters.

The detailed information was finally released at the end of last week AFTER the public comment meeting.  According to a News and Observer analysis and blog post, the Board's plan seems to be politically advantageous to the Republicans, since it moves several potential Democratic candidates out of Republican-held districts into competing against other Democratic candidates in Democratic districts, or moves some Democratic strong holds out of Democratic-held districts into Republican ones.

Despite all this, everyone thinks the plan is a done deal and will be approved by the Board on Tuesday, May 17.

I'm not surprised, but very disappointed by the Board's actions on this matter.  The Republicans may think that they have won.  However, it is one more reason for the accrediting agency to conclude that the public is not being served by its School Board and so to pull the Wake County School System accreditation.  And then it will be the children and families of Wake County who have lost--big time.

Why Wake School Board Redistricting Matters in Regards to Our Accreditation

If you have been following this blog or the education news in Wake County, NC, you will know that the Wake County School System recently received an "Accredited Warned" review by the AdvancED independent accrediting agency, which gives the system a year to address shortcomings or risk losing its accreditation (which has implications for college admissions, scholarships, etc.).  The AdvancED report had little to say about any perceived failings on the part of the school system's instructional or even administrative staff; instead, they threatened to withdraw the accreditation because of inappropriate actions on the part of the elected school board.

I think the AdvancED report is pretty clear when it says:

Since December 1, 2009 the actions and decisions of the Wake County Board of Education
have resulted in creating a climate of uncertainty, suspicion, and mistrust throughout the
community.  ... (T)he Board of Education and Superintendent must work to gain the community’s trust and confidence in the school system and its ability to meet
the needs of all students.    

However, judging by how the Board is approaching the critical issue of legally-mandated redrawing of the School Board election districts, the Board members STILL haven't gotten the message.

Drawing up the boundaries for the nine different districts that elect the School Board members is legally required every 10 years after the national census, which provides the latest population data.  The point behind this is to give each citizen equal representation by having election districts of basically even populations.  The 2010 census shows that this is not currently the case in fast-growing Wake County, where some of the School Board election districts in the booming suburbs or outlying towns (like Wake Forest and Holly Springs) now have double the population of slower-growing urban centers (such as inside-the-Beltway Raleigh).  So the redistricting process requires that some voting precincts be moved out of the overpopulated districts and joined to the underpopulated districts in a way that makes sense.

This is not just an issue for the School Board; the same process is going on in all levels of government.  It is a process that should be nonpartisan and should be dedicated primarily to ensuring equal representation for all voters.  However, it is hard to keep the process from becoming politicized, although it can be done.  But the particular problem for the Wake County School Board is that if the redistricting is closed and politicized, not only will we end up with suspect voting districts (along with probably even MORE lawsuits), but it could actually threaten the accreditation of our schools.

However, the School Board does not seem concerned about keeping the redistricting open and transparent.  It began by awarding a contract for $10,000 for assistance with the redistricting, not to the regular WCPSS attorney, but to an openly partisan Republican lawyer, Kieran Shanahan, who was a four-term Republican member of the Raleigh City Council (you can read his bio here.)  It has not held any public meetings on the redistricting, nor published a timeline for when the proposed redistricting will be announced and approved.  Furthermore, sources say that Shanahan has been meeting with the board members either one-on-one or in groups of three or less in order to skirt the state's Open Meeting laws (the Board's attempts to avoid that law was one of the issues mentioned in the AdvancED report).

Contrast that with the approach taken by the city I live in, the Town of Cary.  On January 14, 2011, the town published a redistricting plan on its website, including the numbers in the Council Districts that need to be balanced, a timeline for action on the plan that is open to the public, and an intention to arrive at a final plan before the end of May in order to give potential candidates plenty of time to know where they might be campaigning before the candidate filing opens in July (you can read their announcement here).  They have been maintaining a redistricting website that not only explains the process, but has links to reports of the open working sessions and maps of the redistricting options under consideration.

Had the Board adopted such an approach to redistricting, it might have been a great thing to show AdvancED of the Board's commitment to regain the trust of the Wake County public.  To be fair, they hired Shanahan shortly before receiving the AdvancED recommendations (although I doubt they came as a great shock to the Board).

But I think there is still time to rectify the situation.  Recently, the Wake County chapter of the League of Women Voters, one of the oldest and most respected nonpartisan organizations that works for the improvement of government and the unbiased education of voters, has entered the fray.  (Full Disclosure note:  In my previous life, my first job out of college was working on energy and environmental education programs for the national staff of the League of Women Voters.  It was a great job and I believe them to be a great organization, full of integrity and dedicated to fairness, good government, and citizen education and empowerment.)  Volunteers from the League and from the Great Schools in Wake Coalition have developed a proposed redistricting map.  League volunteer Saroj Primlani took all the census data and entered it into a Wake County database, outlining the population and racial composition of every School Board voting precinct.  A group then developed a balanced redistricting plan that follows most of the common principles, including not dividing towns, keeping the districts contiguous, not diluting racial minorities, etc.  According to Primlani, the effort took about 10 hours of time to input and manipulate the data and come up with the new proposed districts.

The League and GSWC have shared their data and proposed plan with the School Board and with the public through a series of open houses around Wake County  I attended the one yesterday at Eva Perry library, which is where I got this data;  there is another one on Tuesday, April 19, from 4:00-7:00 PM at Cameron Village Library.  You can also access their plan online.  Here is an overview of the current districts.  Click here to see the existing School Board District detailed maps, and then here to see the LWV/GSWC proposed districts.

The League does not claim that their plan is necessarily the best or final solution.  However, they are putting it out to try to get the ball rolling in terms of public involvement with the redistricting.  They are urging the Board to put out its plan as soon as possible to allow time for public comment and to settle the matter in enough time to give candidates plenty of notice before the July filing season.  Since the data is now all available and categorized, and it took their committee only about 10 hours and no money to develop their plan, they are questioning why the lawyer who was awarded $10,000 in February to come up with a plan is taking so long.

Board Chair Ron Margiotta has claimed the Board wants the process to be transparent, but that their primary concern is coming up with a plan that will withstand court challenges.  But surely the best way to avoid lawsuits is to announce the plan as soon as possible with a maximum amount of public input and involvement in order to address issues before the deadline for a final decision, isn't it?  If the Board would work with the League of Women Voters, a renowned advocate for nonpartisanship and equity, that would only strengthen its case should it go to court.  It would also give us, the non-expert voters, a vote of confidence that the plan was fair and unbiased.  And it would have to look good to AdvancED as a major step in repairing the School Board's relationship with the public it is supposed to be serving.

So this has turned into a long and complicated post about something most people may not care about.  But my point is that if you live in Wake County, you should.   The way the redistricting process is handled may not only determine who gets elected to the School Board in the fall (which will, in turn, determine future school policy), it may also contribute to whether or not AdvancED decides to continue the accreditation of our school system.

How NOT to Respond to Reports Critical of Wake County School Board

In case you missed the latest in the agony and the ecstasy that is the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS), here are this week's headlines for the leading educational stories in the local paper, the News and Observer:
3/12/11  (School Board Member) Goldman's child sent to out-of-zone school, soon followed by
3/15/11 (WCPSS Superintendent) Tata to look into transfer
(Short version:  Board Member Goldman's middle school daughter was one of only 15 students out of the 140,000+ students in the system to receive a little-used administrative procedure to transfer out of her usual school choices that requires merely an oral request, rather than the more extensive paperwork necessary for traditional transfer requests.)

3/15/11 Play nice, audit tells board
(Short version:  An outside audit conducted by Superintendent Tata's educational training organization concluded that the WCPSS school board's public fighting, disrespect for fellow board members, and even name calling was damaging the school system's image with the public and overshadowing all the good work the schools were doing.  You can read the entire 52 page audit on the WPCSS website using this link.)

The biggie, however, was this one:
3/17/11  Schools lost Wake's trust, report says
(Short version:  The WCPSS accrediting agency, AdvancED, is giving the school board one year to clean up its act or risk the system losing accreditation.  AdvancED accused the Republican majority of alienating much of its constituency by giving inadequate notice of major action and ignoring data when making major policy decisions.  Because the system's governance had created "a climate of uncertainty, suspicion, and mistrust throughout the community," AdvancED gave WCPSS its second toughest rating, Accreditation Warning," which means that it is a serious problem that must be addressed within a year in order to remain accredited.  You can read the entire 15 page report on the WCPSS website using this link.)

That story broke, by the way, two days after Superintendent Tata presented his budget cuts for the 2011-2012 school year, and on the same day as Tata was meeting with officials of the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, which is investigating WCPSS' elimination of its diversity policy.

My two-bit response to all this good news is:

YA THINK?
After a year in which school board meetings have become a zoo, with many citizens regularly protesting and even getting arrested, while the board members insult each other in front of the public, AND the NAACP is bringing lawsuits and administrative actions against the system, AND our school system has been publicly criticized from such national figures as the Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, former president Bill Clinton, and even Steven Colbert, AND just plain old residents such as myself are writing blog posts like Wake School Board Majority Should Be Ashamed....yes, I think it is reasonable to say that there are some serious governance issues here.

However, how are the Republicans responding to these critiques?  Well, good old Apex Representative and NC House Majority Leader Paul Stam (sponsor of the bill to give tax credits to families who pull their children out of school in order to send them to private school or homeschools, which I wrote about in this blog post) is one of several Republicans who have introduced a bill to effectively bypass the well-established tradition among ALL of American education of outside accreditation, and instead create a state-run accrediting agency.  The bill would also PROHIBIT any North Carolina higher education institutions (colleges, universities, or community colleges) from considering whether or not a candidate's high school is accredited when making admission, scholarship, or loan decisions.  (You can read the full text of the bill, HR 342:  High School Accreditation, through this link.)

I'm sorry, but I think this is the same "heads in the sand" thinking that I criticized the WCPSS board in my post Why Wake County Board Should Continue Accreditation with AdvancED.  I know it sounds naive to say this, but if there is anything that should be above politics, it should be our children's future.  A community will come to pieces if it can't trust the people responsible for their children's education.  That is the point of OUTSIDE, NON-POLITICAL, UNBIASED accreditation agencies like AdvancED.  They aren't Republicans, pushing more charter schools and lower budgets, etc., and they aren't Democrats, pushing more early intervention and social programs for disadvantage populations, etc.   They come in without an agenda, and say, Are the policies fair?  Are children being treated equally?  Are people--teachers, administrators, support staff, and even BOARD MEMBERS--do their jobs right at the level of quality that the public deserves to expect?  They also have a regional and national perspective, and can comment on how a system is doing vis-a-vis their peers in the state, area, and country.

A state agency will be immediately suspect of bias.  Even if it can avoid a partisan bias, which seems difficult, given the increasing involvement of the NC legislature in educational issues, it will certainly seem to have a bias to continue accreditation of NC schools to maintain the state's reputation.  I mean, isn't that why it is being created?  What purpose would it serve but to provide NC schools with some alternative accreditation if AdvancED pulls their, as they are threatening to do in Wake and Burke county (coincidentally enough, most, if not all, of the co-sponsors of the bill come from those two counties).

Also, this view point is very provincial.    Outside this state, college specify requirements of accreditation from regional accrediting organizations, so it would not help with the thousands of NC graduates who want to attend higher ed institutions outside of North Carolina.  However, it would probably diminish the national reputation of North Carolina colleges and universities, not to mention setting a bad precedent of the legislature messing around in the UNC admissions policies.  ( And I thought the Republicans were supposed to be the party of less government interference....)

Wake County can not continue to ignore the big rifts in our community over school issues.  But things seem to be getting better since Superintendent Tata came on board.  The Board has been acting more professionally.  They actually managed to go on a weekend retreat and come back with something constructive.  The WCPSS has been open about these critical reports and have posted them on their websites.  I think the general mood is hopeful that some healing and compromises can take place.  However, that is only possible if people feel that they have been listened to and respected, even if there are disagreements and ultimately their positions don't win.  And it only works if people feel like they can trust their school system.

In my opinion, HR 342 would only make things worse, not better.

Special Pi Day Webinar by Author of Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci

In yesterday's blog post, I announced our March Giveaway of an autographed copy of the book, Blockhead:  The Life of Fibonacci by Joseph D'Agnese, in honor of the celebration of Pi Day on Monday, March 14.  However, this month we have an extra treat.  The author of the book, Joseph D'Agnese, has agreed to do a special webinar about this book on the evening of Pi Day itself (although, just to be clear, he will not be speaking about math that relates specifically to Pi or Pi Day activities).


Therefore, at 8:00 PM US Eastern Time (GMT -5.0), Mr. D'Agnese will give us some insight into his book and how to use it to teach match concepts to our students.  Joe will go beyond merely talking about the sequence and pattern of Fibonacci numbers to illustrate other ways to use the book to talk about such mathematical concepts as different numeral systems (Roman, Arabic, etc.), the value of place values, what is a number, numbers in nature, using an abacus, and many other related topics.  For the book lovers in the audience, he will also describe some of his inspiration and research for the book, and display the wonderful pictures in the book that convey these mathematical concepts, sometimes subtly, sometime more directly.


To participate in this seminar, which is being offered as part of Maria Droujkova's Math 2.0 series of math-related computer-based discussions, all you need is a computer and an internet connection, although it is helpful to have a built-in computer microphone so you will be are able to speak.   For the details on how to join in the webinar, please visit the event webpage on the Math 2.0 wiki.


UPDATE:  In response to a question, let me add that we will be recording this webinar for people who can't participate at the designated time.  I will have a link to the recording on my March 15 blog post.

Should We Expand the Charter School Program in Wake County?

This week the NC Senate passed a bill to remove the cap on charter schools in North Carolina, which had previously been limited to 100 statewide.  The following are some of the arguments for and against expanding the charter school program, based on statistics for Wake County students:

PROS

Charter Schools Are Popular

Although Wake County already has the largest number of charter schools than any other county in North Carolina, those 13 charters can not come close to meeting the demand.  For example, Raleigh Carter High School advises new students they have about a 13% chance of getting into the 535-member school.    Applicants faced even worse odds attempting to enter Franklin Academy in Wake Forest.   In 2009, 1,842 students competed for 123 open spots, which represents only a 7% acceptance rate.  Even though the school expanded in 2010 to provide more openings, Franklin Academy reports that there are still about 2,000 students on its waiting list.

The existing charter schools only enroll a total of about 6,000 students.  However, the high application rate indicates that many more families would choose a charter school for their children if there were additional space available.

Charter Schools Are Innovative

Freed from some of the regulatory restrictions of traditional public schools, charter schools can experiment with new approaches and curricula, although they must still conform to the NC Standard Course of Study and participate in End of Grade (EOG) Testing.

Charter Schools Outperform Traditional Schools

While national studies have not shown a clear academic advantage in comparing average charter school student performance to their peers in schools, charter schools in Wake County do seem to have better average test scores.  According to the Wake Education Partnership, in 2007-08, 74% of students in Wake charters were performing at grade level, compared to 70% of general Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) students and 65% of students in public magnet programs.  Similar results were reported in 2008-09, when 81% of Wake County charter students were at grade level, compared to 76% of WCPSS students and 65% of magnet students.

CONS

Charters Reduce Diversity

Charter schools are much more racially unbalanced than traditional Wake County schools.  The Wake County Public School System reports that in 2010-11, approximately 50% of WCPSS students are White, 25% are Black, 15% are Hispanic, 6% were Asian, and 4% are mixed or other.  

However, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction states that among the 13 charter schools in Wake County, seven have enrollments that are 75% or higher White students, while three others have enrollments that are 75% or higher Black students.  Only three charter schools--Casa Esperanza, Southern Wake Academy, and Sterling Montessori--have a more racially mixed student population, although even those schools have a disproportionately high number of White students. 

Charters Do Not Serve Low-Income or Special Needs Students

Charter schools receive a per-student payment for educational expenses, but not for building and facilities expenses.  Therefore, they are not required to have cafeterias, nor must they participate in the free or reduced lunch programs designed to support low-income students.  

Charters do not have to provide transportation for students, which can effectively eliminate students from families who do not live nearby and who not own a car or other means to get their children to school.  Finally, charters do not have to offer services to students with special needs, such as learning disabilities or autism.

Charters Will Drain the Public Schools of Resource if Expanded Dramatically

Currently, Wake County charter schools only enroll about 6,000 students, compared to the 140,000+ students in the WCPSS.  Thus, the issues of racial imbalances in charter school or the relatively small numbers of low-income or special needs students in charters don’t have a large impact on the entire school system.  However, critics warn that as the program grows, it could continue to drain off the most affluent and successful students, leaving the public school system to deal with larger percentages of more challenging student populations, such as the low-income, non-English-speaking, and learning disabled students.  

Will A Military Man Bring Peace to Wake County?

Well, we've gone several weeks now without news reports of Wake County (NC) School members being ugly in public to each other, or someone threatening a new lawsuit or other legal action against the Wake County Public School Systems, or extra police having to be hired to keep the peace during school board meetings.  In most of the country--all those places the Washington Post education writer, Jay Mathews, is describing when he says-"over the years, I have found school board meetings to be as interesting, newsworthy, and uplifting as a trip to the dentist"--that is no big deal.  But in Wake County, NC, where school board meetings over the past years have featured diatribes, insults, protesters, and arrests, it is remarkable enough that the LACK of angry rhetoric received coverage in the latest issue of Education Weekly, one of the largest national new sources on education.

To what can we attribute this new wave of tranquility wafting over Wake County?  Could it be the spring-like weather we've been enjoying for the past couple of week?  A holdover from our holiday of love, Valentine's Day?  As one of the many who questioned the credentials of our new superintendent, I kind of hate to admit it, but I think it may be due to the arrival of retired Army General Anthony Tata as head of the Wake County Schools.  Mr. Tata has certainly negotiated his entry into Wake County as smoothly as could be expected, and brings some hope that he may be able to navigate through all the bad relations that have tied up progress on the educational issues that divide this community.

I got some insight today on the whole embarrassing spectacle that has been much of the Wake County school board operations last year when I read a blog post by Mike Rose, a really wonderful writer and teacher who works at the School of Education at UCLA.  In his latest post, The Meaning of Michelle Rhee, Rose looks at the continuing controversy over Tata's former boss, the head of the Washington DC public school system.  The whole post is worth reading, especially if you are interested in the whole school reform business.  However, I found this passage particularly relevant to the Wake County school system.

Writing about what Rose calls "weaknesses of current school reform," he said:

There is a belief in the tough, bold outsider, the gunslinger who will come in and clean things up. These gunslingers are often young, smart, quick on their feet, and very, very assured. But what comes with this character – a very appealing character for Americans – is a disdain for anything already in place, an unwillingness or inability to find the local good and take the time to learn local history. This attitude and bearing fits also with the technocratic dismissal of the old and the embrace of the new. A bad mix: the righteousness of the gunslinger with the naïve belief in the latest technology of reform.

The above suggests a Manichean view of the world; there are good guys and bad guys. You’re on the side of the good – and these days the bad are older teachers, teachers unions, ed schools, and pretty much anyone not on your reform wagon. Ms. Rhee is fond of saying that she and like-minded peers are in this “for the kids” and everyone else is simply looking out for their own adult self interest.

When I read those paragraphs, I thought "Exactly!"   When the new board majority were elected in 2009, they came in with guns blazing, claiming a mandate to reform the system.  However, they didn't seem to be very good shots, or maybe they themselves didn't know who they should be shooting.  What they did do, though, was manage to antagonist everyone who didn't agree with their plans 100%--including, famously, one of their own board majority members, who switched her vote when when the board leaders wouldn't share their plans with their own subgroup on the board, let alone the public.  And for those who seriously disagreed with their views, such as the NAACP, the board's own actions gave their opponents enough ammunition to bring lawsuits, accreditation questions, and even a federal civil rights review against their policies.  Whatever value or new ideas these members might be bringing to the system got lost in all the smoke of the hostility, incivility, and hubris the new board brought to the deliberation about how we should be educating our children.  And as I stated at the end of one of my previous posts, it seemed to me that the school board had forgotten that the public of Wake County are not their enemies--we are, indeed, their bosses.

In my experience, though, the ones who are quickest to threaten aggression against others are those who have never had to actually live with the consequences of that action.  It is generally the new recruits to the military who proclaim their eagerness to kill, not the older leadership who have had to kill and who have seen good people with whom they served be killed.

So I don't want to overstretch the whole gunslinger metaphor.  I certainly don't mean to suggest that anyone involved in the school debate intended any physical harm to each other.  But I am thinking that a man who has lived through the destruction created by physical violence may have the wisdom to help lift the system from its recent history of verbal turbulence.

Anthony Tata has made a good first impression on people.  And the thing is, it didn't take much.  He showed up and seems like a nice guy.  He is willing to actually listen to people.  He is looking for data instead of political positioning.  He has maintained an open office policy, and says he looks forward to talking with people on all sides of the issue.    It's not like it is brain science.  Yet, compared to what has been going on for the past year, it makes him look like a genius.

But after reading Rose's analogy, I went back and read Tata's first statement to the community.  In light of Rose's description, I found Tata's opening and closing paragraphs very reassuring.

I am humbled to be selected as the next superintendent of the Wake County Public School System. I intend to focus the system's impressive resources on the academic achievement of our students and on closing the achievement gap in student performance. I will ensure our teachers and principals have the resources they need to deliver this improvement. One of my goals will be to energize all aspects of Wake County's very large, complex organization to operate at maximum capacity and minimum cost so that we can push as many resources as possible to where they belong -- the classroom..... 

I believe I have the experience, heart, resources, and vision to help Wake County Public School System accelerate its drive to become a world-class education system. I will bring a primary focus to supporting schools and teachers so that they may achieve academic success for our children in the same way I delivered unrelenting support to our troops on the front lines as they served our nation. (emphasis added) 

So in his first statement, Tata affirms what is good about what we've already got in Wake County--which is a lot, especially compared to many school systems.  He talks about getting teachers the resources they need, not making everything their responsibility alone.  

But most of all, Tata knows that you don't win a war by bashing the troops you expect to fight your battles.  For so much of the school reform efforts, the entire focus is on demonizing the school teachers and their organizations--the very people WHO ARE GOING TO HAVE TO BE THE ONES to make whatever grand new vision of education you have ACTUALLY WORK.  

If nothing else, I believe Tata knows that attacking the teachers and/or the parents is not the way to build a 21st century school system that will work for all the students of Wake County.  That realization alone puts him ahead of many in the national school reform movement...not to mention some of his own bosses.

Stephen Colbert Coins New Word For Wake County School Battles

I used to think things couldn't get much worse for the national image of the Wake County School System than the very public rebuke of the U.S. Education Secretary.....but it turns out I was wrong.

Now Wake County has become the inspiration for Stephen Colbert's "Word of the Day" segment last night.  My text can't do it justice, so just watch the clip and make up your own mind about it:








http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/371414/january-18-2011/the-word---disintegration


Thanks so much to my good friend Bridget for bringing this to my attention!

Why Educate?

I was going to write something different today, but I was inspired by one of the comments from a previous post (see what power you have if you leave a comment?) to draw together some thoughts I've been pondering for a few weeks about what is the point of education.  That was not her question; her question, posted in response to my post about the latest battle over whether or not our local school system in Wake County, NC should drop its accreditation rather than to submit to the questions posed by the accrediting agency, is how people can continue to deal with the frustration of trying to resolve the numerous issues that are dividing our community about the fundamental principles of our educational system.

But I think those are both really the same question, or at least, the same set of questions.  Why does it matter?  Who cares about education?  What is it that education should be doing?  Why care?  Why educate?

So let me give you my perspective on this issue.  As I've said before, I'm from the DC area originally, and between growing up there and spending most of my professional life there, I've met lots of important and significant people in many different realms (not the least of which is my father, who held presidential appointment-level positions under six? eight? different US Presidents, along with teaching in two universities and serving as a top-level executive in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York).  But no matter how accomplished (or not), almost everyone I've talked to who has children tells me that their children are at least as important as, if not more significant than, whatever they have achieved in their professional lives.  I think for most people, if you ask them the most miraculous moments in their lives, the top ones include holding their child(ren) in their arms for the first time--whether the children were naturally born, adopted, born through a surrogate, or whatever.  For the vast majority of those of us blessed with children, other things fade in comparison with them.

Even those who haven't raised children themselves usually have a soft spot for children.  Some chose to forego them because they thought they couldn't be the kind of parent they wanted to be, given their professional or other life situations.  Others wanted to be, but things just didn't work out.  And some just never felt the call that parenthood was for them.  But that doesn't mean that such people don't care about and work towards the safety and well being of children.  Because, as the saying goes, it DOES take a village.

So at least in the US, once you've got the child's basic food, shelter, and physical safety needs met, the next need we deem most important as a society is the child's education (we could make a good case here for children's health care, but we'll leave that for another post).  But education is kind of a funny thing with us Americans.  With our rugged individualism mythological past, we tend to think it is up to the parents to take care of feeding, clothing, sheltering, and providing medical care to their own children.  But everybody wants to have some say in how the children are educated, since our historical analogy was education as a melting pot where all sorts of different cultures came in, blended together, and were poured out into multi-colored molds, producing components that fit together to build an ever bigger and better America.

So this is part one of the question--Why does it matter?  Why deal with the frustration?  Why bother?  We care and we fight and we bother and we persevere despite frustration because, really, what else can be more important?  Yes, we can do other things---we can acquire wealth, or fame, or accomplishment, or lose ourselves in hedonistic pleasures, or just surrender ourselves to staying in bed all day.  Does any of that matter all that much in the long run?  Most of us want to invest at least some of our energy in making sure that the next generation not only survives, but flourishes.  And for many of us, the education system is the most tangible way we can do that (beside supporting the raising of our own immediate families).

So people have a high level of investment in the fact that education matters, not just for their own family, but for society in general.  High enough that for many of us, at least, it is enough to forego the frustration and negative energy to continue to fight for what we believe.

This point of view assumes agreement about the importance of education and the future of "our" children.  So our real issues, then, are about what it is that education should be doing.

I can't be a good advocate for the point of view of the current majority of the Board of Education--who, it is important to remind ourselves, were elected by a majority of the voters in Wake County.  If there is every a reader from that side who would like to present that perspective, I would LOVE for you to send me a guest post, which I PROMISE to post (with full credit, of course).

Until that happens, though, I can only present my perspective and the things that inspire me.

As I've said before, we homeschool, and one of the reasons we do so is because I don't like the current commitment nationwide to evaluating education only by those things that can be rated by standardized tests.  We are just starting a study of Dickensonian English history and literature, so when thinking of the present approach to education, I can't help but recall the opening passage to Dicken's Hard Times (his novel that deals most specifically with education):

'NOW, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!'

Maybe it is my personality, maybe it is my education philosophy, or who knows...but I while I think facts are definitely important, there are other important things.  As Albert Einstein says, "Imagination is more important than knowledge.  For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."  So facts teaches our children what we know from the past, but in the rapidly-changing world in which we live, preparing for an unknown future must be, I think, equally important.

(Note:  Of course, this is not one of the battles that are even being debated in the ongoingly-contentious Wake County School Board public meetings.  But perhaps we can get to it once we settle the issues about who should be going where and how we should distribute the resources and children of this county.)

Let me add a few links of other people who have asked this question about the ultimate role of education.

In honor of Martin Luther King's Day yesterday, here is a link to his article on this issue.  Dr. King makes the point that it is not enough for education to make our children smart; it must give them character as well.  He gives an example of a man who is an accomplished scholar within the realm of academia, but can still justify discrimination against people based purely on the color of their skin.

Then, in the Washington Post today, the president of Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia wrote a nice piece about the purpose of a liberal arts college education today.  According to Dr. Christopher Howard, the role of COLLEGE (let alone undergraduate education) is to help today's students make sense of their individual experience with the world, past, present, and future.  Dr. Howard calls for engagement, which he describes as purpose, passion, and calling, rather than providing them with specific skills, knowledge, or employment tracks.

One of the other blogs that I follow, a lovely site called Fairy Dust Teaching, kind of sparked my thinking along these lines with a post she had last month.  She is a Waldorf-trained Kindergarten teacher, so she is the other end of the spectrum.  But one of the thing she said in her post was:
I have a sticky note posted in the front of my lesson plan book that says, "A good education gives you goosebumps."  It reminds me to not forget to add a little wonder and curiosity in the plan.  


I love that reminder.  I may not always get there, but I think that is a great goal to aim for.  To read the rest of her inspirational notes, see her post on Why Educate?

I have one last reference to add.  I have been reading the magnificent book, My Reading Life by Pat Conroy, a writer that I have adored now for about 20 year now.  This book is like a Valentine's Box of Godiva Chocolates for literature, and each essay is like the richest literary truffle you could ever imagine.  But Conroy is only the latest to write about the impact that an individual teacher made on his life.  In his case, it was an English teacher whom Conroy describes as:
Gene Morris didn't just make his students love books; he made us love the entire world.  He was the essential man in the lives of a thousand boys and girls who dwelled in the shadow of his almost unnoticeable greatness.

Conroy had one other fantastic quote from that essay that I must add:
If there is more important work than teaching, I hope to learn about it before I die.

And that, I think, sums up why we continue, despite the frustration.

Why Wake County Board Should Continue Accreditation with AdvancedED

All in all, it hasn't been a good week for the Wake County Board of Education.

After the first three days of the week being either early release, cancelled, or opened late due to ice, school were having a rocky week.  Then Wednesday night, the Board had another public meeting filled with angry and concerned parents.  This time the contention was over statements by some of the Board that they might just choose to drop their accredited status, rather than answer the questions being posed by AdvancED, the accrediting agency for the Wake system.  The Board majority's compromise decision was to write a letter to AdvancED regarding the restrictions under which they would agree to cooperate with the agency's attempts to investigate charges of racial discrimination and improper board procedures lodged by the state's NAACP chapter.  Less than 24 hours later, the Board received AdvancED's response, which was basically "Sorry, Charlie."  I'm sure it was stated in more appropriate legalese, but AdvancED could have reduced it to the immortal words of the Jeffrey Rush character in my favorite movie of the moment, The King's Speech, when he said, "My game, my turf, my rules."  That is, the whole point of accreditation is to have an experienced, unbiased, outside team of educational experts look at the operation of a school to assure the public of its quality (or alert them to lack thereof).  They can't really do that if the schools they are examining tell them what parts of the system they can and can not look into.

Then, on Friday, the head educator in the entire country, the U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, chose to single out Wake Country among all the public school systems in the country to question its commitment to racial equity.  And this was not an off-hand comment captured on someone's iPhone; it was stated in a Letter to the Editor of the Washington Post expressing his concerns about the WCPSS as depicted in a Washington Post article that I mentioned earlier this week.  (Click here to see the letter in the Washington Post.)

Although it may not seem like it, I really try hard to understand the point of view of the Republican majority on the School Board, and I do my best to see them in their best light.  Nonetheless, I have to say that I think it would be foolish for the Board to continue down this destructive path towards non-accreditation.  There are three major arguments against pursuing this course of action:

1.  Lack of Accreditation Will Hurt Graduating Students

Accreditation is the accepted procedure for colleges to know you are coming from a respectable school system.  Losing your accreditation--or voluntarily withdrawing from accreditation when under an investigation--makes the system look fishy.  Board Chair Margiotta, in his ignorance?arrogance? I don't know, I'm having a hard time finding a more neutral term here, states that since Wake County is so big, he is sure that colleges won't stop excepting Wake County graduates.  He's probably right--for schools in North Carolina.  I'm sure there's no way that NC State or UNC is going to ban all Wake County schools from their campuses, nor will ECU or probably Duke or other colleges in the state.  But that understanding of this special situation will fade the further from North Carolina the high school students are looking to roam.  Some colleges, especially the highly competitive ones, have an automatic "kick-out" of candidates from non-accredited schools...one way to keep the numbers manageable.  Will they go back and make an exception for Wake County students?  I don't know, but if I had a child graduating in the next year or so, I wouldn't want to count on it.

Furthermore, there are some programs, loans, internships, and scholarships that have legal requirements that students graduate from accredited schools (sometimes with exceptions for homeschoolers).  They don't have any choice about it--Wake County students will not be eligible for those.  So, sure, if you have a child who graduates from Wake County, is only interested in going to a North Carolina college, and doesn't need these restricted loans or scholarships, whether the schools are accredited or not probably doesn't make that much difference.  But I think there are a lot of North Carolina high schoolers who don't fit into that category.

2.  AdvancED is NOT Your Enemy; They Could Even Turn Out to Be Your Best Friend

AdvancED is not reviewing the operation to come in and tell the Board what to do or to tell them how to assign students to schools.  AdvancED is supposed to be like a mediator or arbitrator; someone from the outside who can look at the issues with an impartial eye and give a ruling on which side is right.  For months now, the NAACP, leading the charge for many other critics, has charged that the Board acted against its own established procedures and agreed to a policy that will lead to racially discriminatory education.  The Board responded that they followed the correct procedures and have their arguments about how the new school assignments will benefit all students in the county.  The NAACP has one set of statistics backing up their side; the Board has another set backing up their contentions.  Whose figures are right?  Were procedures followed or not?  The latter question, at least, seems like there should be a simple yes or no answer to it.  But we have been given no answer, nor even a suggestion of how we are going to achieve such an answer; instead, we have month after month of each side arguing over the same points and making no headway in proving their points.

Enter AdvancED.   THAT is their job--to answer that question (among others).  If the Board REALLY believes they have followed the appropriate procedures, and they REALLY believe their statistics are more valid than the ones of their critics, they should welcome AdvancED to come and tell the public, The Board is right, they did things properly, and their figures are appropriate.   If AdvancED backed up their decision, that would take a lot of the wind out of the sails of the critics.  Maybe we could even move on and get something accomplished.  However, as I stated in an earlier post, this is not the first time that the Board majority acts like people outside their own ranks are out to get them.

3. Guess What?  You're Going to Have to Answer those Questions Even If You Drop Your Accreditation

Let us not forget that this fight with AdvancED is not the only regulatory problem the Board has on their plate.  The U.S. Education Department's Office of Civil Rights has not just one, but TWO, investigations of Wake County pending--one for racial discrimination, another for sexual discrimination (in interscholastic sports).   And while you can chose to drop your accreditation rather than answer those pesky questions from AdvancED, you can't just opt out of a Civil Right discrimination suit brought by the US government....a suit that will be bound to ask all those same questions and MORE.

This is where Secretary Duncan's letter is so significant.  As I've said before, I grew up in the Washington DC area, so I am fluent in DC-ese.  Therefore, allow me to translate this letter.  This letter is a warning to Wake County not to try to blow off and bluster through these discrimination complaints.  There is NO WAY Secretary Duncan would mention Wake County in that context without someone in his office having checked into the case and decided that there were legitimate reasons for concern that the system was racially discriminating.

So the Board can stick their heads in the sand if they want and force AdvancED to leave--at the expense of Wake County graduates.  But you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be at least an investigation, if not a lawsuit, coming from the federal Office of Civil Rights.  And refusing to cooperate with AdvancED will make the suits in DC even more suspicious that there is something rotten in the county of Wake.

The best thing the Board could do for the schools, the public, and particularly for ITSELF is to get out of its own way and cooperate with AdvancED.  But will it?  As my Magic 8 Ball says, "Cannot predict now."

PS--

On a happier and less complicated note--today is my son's 12th birthday!  Happy Birthday to Him!  But it makes me kind of sad to think that this is the last year before he turns into a teenager...

Article Gives Background on Wake County Public School Politics

I have been writing a lot recently about the current politics surrounding the Wake County Public Schools, particularly in regards to the appointment of new Superintendent, Anthony J. Tata.  But I haven't gone into the background of the whole situation much.  For those of you who don't know how we got where we are today, there is an article in the Washington Post that I think does a great job of trying to give an unbiased description of the political issues the school system is struggling with now.

The articles is entitled "Republican school board in N.C. backed by tea party abolishes integration policy." The web link is: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/11/AR2011011107063.html
(Note:  I don't know if you can get directly to the article by clicking above; you may have to create or sign into your Washington Post account in order to read it.)

Four Pieces of Advice for Anthony Tata (and one for the Board of Ed)

I worked in DC for an educational association and for other educational companies for close to 15 years before moving down to North Carolina, and my father still lives in the District of Columbia.  Therefore, I have a lot of information on the DC schools, both past and present.  I have been following closely Michelle Rhee's endeavors, along with her downfall with her one-term mayor sponsor, Adrian Fenty.  But there hadn't been much media coverage of Rhee's COO, Anthony Tata.  He had generally been described as hard working, action oriented, and politically conservative (an anomaly in HEAVILY Democratic Washington).  Most praised him for his focus on organization and logistics, but there were some who questioned his people skills.  Michelle Rhee has been quoted as saying, "He's not a touchy-feely guy who will hold people's hands."

As I said in my first post, I want the new Superintendent to succeed, even if he wouldn't have necessarily been the one I would have picked (of course, we have no idea about the other candidates).  So I thought I would offer General Tata the following advice, based on my experience with both the DC and Wake County Schools.

1.  Capitalize on Your Fresh Food for School Lunches Initiatives
Let's face it, experience in ordering textbooks and making sure the lights work doesn't sound that impressive for the man who is supposed to be running North Carolina's largest school system.  (Of course, the people here don't know the history of how horrible the District schools were at even the most basic tasks and what accomplishment that was compared to some of your predecessors.)  Plus, one and a half years isn't really enough time to make many major improvements in an organization like the DCPS.  But one thing you can point to is the improvement that you made in the school system food service, and especially the trial programs that are to begin this fall in using fresh, locally-produced food for the meals cooked in a few experimental foods.  The whole locavore, natural foods movement is really big in this area, especially among the demographics who may be the most critical of your political leanings.  Making them aware of your efforts to create healthy, locally-produced food for the DC children may reduce some of the resistance to your appointment.

2.  Stay Off the Conservative Blogs, TV Shows, and Other Commentator Opportunities
Look, I get it.  You've got strong opinions, you've got a lot of experience, and you want to share them.  As you've famously said, after risking your life to protect Constitutional protections like the right to free speech, you would like to engage in some free speech yourself.   And so your contract allows you the right to continue your "after hours" work as a political commentator as long as you don't identify yourself as the head of the Wake County schools.  But just because you've got that right doesn't been you need to exercise it.  I promise you, if you do, you will set off a firestorm each time you appear on one of those shows, and that is NOT something you need (see my first post in this series for details).

I know that Rhee (not a media shrinking violet herself) said that your political work didn't interfere with your work with the schools.  But, Tony, you're not in DC anymore.  It's not going to work here because:

• Now you are the top dog, not the COO, which, frankly, nobody knows.  But to your community, you are now the face of the Wake County Public Schools, even if it doesn't say that under your picture when you are speaking on Fox News.
• In DC, you were part of a minority so small that it is almost endangered--a conservative working for the highly Democratic city government.  The people you served weren't threatened when you expressed opinions different than their own.  But in closely split Wake County (which is represented in the US Congress by both the liberal-leaning Democrat David Price and the Palin-endorsed Republican Renee Ellmers), you are risking antagonizing large portions of your community, even though you are not speaking about educational matters.
• Finally, politics is Washington's favorite sport.  Everyone eats and breathes politics, so of course your personal opinions were going to come out.  But it's not like that here.  For many people, talking about politics is more like talking about your sex life--not something a respectable person does on TV.

3.  Don't Push the IMPACT Teacher Assessment Project
One thing you really have going for you is that you've got great teachers in this school system.  Maybe not all of them, but most of them are dedicated, capable educators.  It's not like things were in DC, where the school system, like all the city government, had large numbers of staff who got their jobs through political chronyism.  Believe in your teachers, get to know your teachers, and listen to your teachers.  Given your lack of instructional or academic leadership experience, you need to earn their trust.  Touting the highly controversial and not-yet-proven teacher assessment system Rhee launched in the DC schools (as you do in your WCPSS statement) is not a good way to get them on your side.

4.  Fix the Planning Office
Another thing you talk about in your WCPSS statement is the fact that your academic training institute, The Broad Superintendents Academy, will do three free audits of your choosing as part of their support of you as a graduate.  I don't know how I feel about that, since I don't know enough (yet) about the Broad Center to determine whether I want their input or not.  But if they are going to do anything, have them help you figure out how to do a better job of planning.  Simply put, the citizens of Wake County are tired of having their children's education being a constant revolving doors of schools as they get reassigned every other year.  I know this is a high growth area, but there are lots of high growth areas--I grew up in one--and I've never seen a system where children are moved around so frequently.  In my opinion, that is the single biggest problem for the general population in the Wake County schools.  Fix that, and you may even be able to go back to your night time commentator gig!

Finally, I have one free piece of advice for the majority on the Board of Education

You Have Your Man.  Now Back Off and Let Him Do His Job.
When I worked with the educational association, I dealt with hundreds of educational boards.  I've studied board theory, and even contributed to a book about the subject.  And the classic wisdom is that Boards set the vision, establish the policies, determine the budget...and everything else is up to the staff.  Boards DO NOT gather up the data and try to come up, on their own, with the specific operational plan about what communities should go to what schools.  Of course, we all saw how well that worked....

So, please, stick to doing your job, which is plenty hard enough.  Leave the implementation to the General.  After all, that is why you hired him.

Oh, and by the way, one other small reminder.  They way you have been acting lately, you are treating the public like we are your enemy.  We are not your enemy.  We are not even your customer.  We are your bosses.  And we remember that, even if you do not.