Another Look

The data in my last post seemed to show that Economically Disadvantaged (ED) elementary students aren't affected as strongly by rising F&R rates as Non-ED elementary students are. Actually, it didn't seem to indicate that F&R rates made much difference at all on the passing rates of ED students, which honestly surprised me. I decided to look at the same information in another way to see if it yielded different results.


Remember that the Wake County average for elementary students passing both the reading and math EOGs are 45.9% for ED students and 83.9 for NED. The passing rates for elementary ED students ran from a low of 19.7% at Poe to a high of 76.9% at Cedar Fork. For elementary NED students, they ranged from a low of 50% at Brentwood to a high of >95% at Washington, Apex and Dillard Drive.

Again, I am not a statistician and I'm not intending to prove or disprove anything. I do not know what the answers are nor how I would change the diversity policy. What I do know is that I am not willing to simply shuffle children around to make F&R numbers look good and call it a success. Academic achievement of all children should be the number one goal of WCPSS and we need to seriously question whether or not this particular policy is raising achievement.