Thursday, October 9, 2008

The Correct Decision

Most of you have probably heard by now that in their work session on Tuesday, the BOE voted to de-magnetize Daniels Middle School. Of course, most of you know that I believe this was the correct decision. It was not an easy decision for the board, but it was absolutely the right one.

I attended the work session on Tuesday because of my obvious interest in the magnet discussion, but I encourage all of you to attend a work session at least once if you can. The public is allowed to quietly observe and I took advantage of this for first time on Tuesday. This will come as no surprise to those who know me, but I had a very hard time with the 'quietly observe' part. :-) I even slipped a note to Beverley Clark during one of the discussions (more on that in another post).

I took copious notes of the entire session and will post those at a later time, but I will give a brief synopsis of the Daniels discussion.

Most of the discussion centered around whether or not Daniels would be a 'healthy' school if it wasn't a magnet. Could a reasonable base population be drawn into the school while maintaining a healthy F&R%? The general consensus was yes. With only a 14% magnet student population and a 30% F&R, its pretty much a base school already.

Lori Millberg brought up the fact that we have 3 IB elementary, 3 IB middle and 2 IB high schools. Considering that 3 elementary schools can fill 1 middle school, she and others questioned the number of IB schools we have and their balance.

There was an inordinate amount of hemming and hawing about what to do. Beverley Clark mentioned her reluctance to move out large portions of Daniels' base only to replace them with magnet students who would not change the school's profile (F&R%). She commented more than once along the lines of 'if a school can have a reasonable base drawn then it shouldn't be a magnet'. Yet she (and everybody else for that matter) was unwilling to make a motion to de-magnetize Daniels. After about 20 minutes of this back and forth, Millberg finally told Beverley to just make the motion already, to which Clark replied "I was waiting for somebody else to make it". Watching everybody dance around the subject was one of those times when it was hard for me to stay quiet, and when Lori Millberg made her comment I said a resounding "YES!" in agreement :-)

The motion was seconded and then passed with only Kevin Hill, Eleanor Goattee and Anne McLaurin voting no. I don't recall hearing any argument from any of them as to why Daniels should be spared. The only argument I heard came from David Ansbacher, the Director of Magnet Programs. He brought up the fact that Daniels went through this very situation before. It was a magnet school in the 1980s (I think) due to declining enrollment and rising F&R. Once the school was in a situation similar to the one its in now, they demagnetized it. Over the course of about 6 years, the population dwindled and the F&R rose again so they made it an IB magnet.

He expressed concern that the same thing will happen and in another 6 years they will be having the discussion to re-magnetize Daniels. Ansbacher also mentioned the fact that the Daniels base has private options available nearby, such as Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Timothy's and that many of those families can 'take advantage of'. Additionally, Daniels base parents could apply to charter schools such as Magellan and Endeavor as well.

Ansbacher's comments reinforced an idea that I have suspected but had never heard directly expressed by a staff member before. Basically when he said that some of the families can 'take advantage of' the private school options in the area, it means that some of those families have the financial means to go private. WCPSS cannot afford to have 'wealthier' families leave schools like Daniels because it will be harder to fill those empty seats with other non-F&R families.

Many families in Apex, North Raleigh and Cary have left WCPSS for private, charter and even homeschools, but we are a dime a dozen. If we leave the system, there are plenty of others who can take our place in our overcrowded schools. While I understand the concern about Daniels and other schools in less crowded areas, there is something fundamentally wrong with this way of thinking.

Lots of parents around the county are not happy with the level of academics and opportunties available to their children. But if this particular population deems that the standard level isn't good enough for their children, we are going to give them more than everybody else? That seems to be counter to the WCPSS belief that everybody deserves a good education and that where you can afford to live shouldn't dictate the quality of your schools.

If you get a chance, write to your Board of Education member to let them know that de-magnetizing Daniels was the correct decision. Difficult, yes, but correct.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Just For Fun--Davis Drive Real Estate Sales

Most of us probably think of Davis Drive families as fairly wealthy and many of us think they are elitists who don't think their school should be 'burdened' by high needs children. I have even heard a staff member from WCPSS say in response to a comment about DDE's high achievement, "Well, there's a reason why Davis Drive is a School of Excellence". The dedicated teachers and parents? No, this staff member was referring to Davis Drive's low F&R percentage. At 9.8% (2007-08 school year), it is one of the lowest in the county. And since non-economically disadvantaged students pass the EOGs at a rate significantly higher than economically disadvantaged students, it follows that Davis Drive's overall test scores will be higher. But does this necessarily mean that Davis Drive deserves the image that it has?

First of all, although Davis Drive's F&R is well below the county average of 31.6%, the school's percentage of ESL and LEP (Limited English Proficiency) students are slightly above the county average. And while Davis Drive has a much smaller percentage of black students than the WCPSS average for elementary schools, the percentage of asian students is much greater. So while the racial makeup of the school is probably not what WCPSS would like to see, it is nonetheless a racially diverse school.

Second, does the fact that a school has a very low F&R mean that the rest of the population is high income or wealthy? When Davis Drive parents protested reassignment last year, we saw footage of beautiful homes and manicured lawns. I'm sure that many of us made assumptions about how much those houses cost and the types of families who live in them. But were we correct?

I was meeting with a group of Davis Drive parents last month when I mentioned that I was thinking about researching home prices in some of the ITB magnet base nodes. I wanted to show that many of those reaping the benefits of magnets weren't in low income neighborhoods . One of the women had already done that research for one of the neighborhoods assigned to Davis Drive for the opposite reason--to show that Davis Drive wasn't composed of elite, expensive subdivisions like the image suggests. So I thank her for giving me the idea for my research and for the google documents spreadsheet setup. :-)

While the homes in these Davis Drive nodes are not inexpensive by any means, they are also not as expensive as some people might think. And especially not as expensive as homes in western ITB as noted in my previous posts on Underwood, Joyner & Martin. I've included all of DDE's nodes except for the 2 low income nodes that are bused in.

One other stat that I noted to myself: Of the 87 homes that sold in the Davis Drive nodes in the last year, only 14 of them were more than the lowest median price for the Joyner and Underwood base nodes. Underwood's node 92 had a median Single Family Home sales price of $386K.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Why Should I Care and What Can I Do?

Some of you may be wondering what the big deal is. Maybe you aren't interested in magnet programs for your children or maybe you think its all a bunch of fluff that detracts from basic academics. So why should you care? Because your non-magnet base school is limited in what it can offer to your child. No 'regular' elementary schools can offer band or orchestra. They cannot offer a foreign language as anything more than a once a week special. Your middle school children can only take 1 elective each semester. Non-magnet base schools are prohibited from offering anything more than the basics because then the magnet schools won't be so appealing. Not enough of 'you' will apply to the magnet schools to help them achieve their goals.

I think most of us have learned to accept this even if we don't like it because we are led to believe that all magnets are located in crime-ridden, high-poverty neighborhoods. We're led to believe that we are giving low income kids opportunities that they might not otherwise have like exposure to the arts and violin lessons. But as I've illustrated, some of the magnets are not located in high-poverty areas. So not only are our children denied opportunities at their base schools, we are subsidizing those opportunities for children living in homes that most of us could never afford. And we are paying for them to get those opportunities at their neighborhood school where they can walk or ride the bus with their neighborhood friends.

That is why you should care.

So what can you do? Write to the BOE to let them know that it is not acceptable to have magnet schools serving middle to upper income base nodes. Magnets should be located in high poverty areas or at the very least, only serve high poverty base areas.

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Magnet Review Time redux

Now is the time to act. The BOE is conducting their magnet review to determine which schools, if any, are not fulfilling the goals of the magnet program. Remember, the goals are to:
1) Reduce high concentrations of poverty and support diverse populations
We are generally led to believe that magnets are located in such high poverty areas that they must use special programs to entice non-F&R students to attend. Therefore, magnet schools should be located in high poverty areas and have F&R base populations. I would further propose that elementary magnets should be at or near the 40% F&R threshhold set by the BOE for healthy schools and that middle and high magnets be at or near the county average. Magnets receive extra funds to provide their programs and magnet families are generally involved and motivated to see their children succeed. A magnet with 40% F&R has an advantage over a non-magnet with the same 40% F&R.
2) Maximize use of school facilities
The idea behind this is that some of these older schools are in neighborhoods that have aged out. There aren't enough kids in the surrounding areas to fill the school so a magnet program must be in place to attract other students.
3) Provide expanded educational opportunities
I interpret this to mean expanded opportunities to all students in WCPSS.

So which schools aren't living up to these goals and why?

Elementary Schools

Underwood
As illustrated in a previous post, Underwood is not located in a low income area. Instead, it draws its low income students from downtown. The two base nodes directly next to Underwood have no F&R students and the median single family home price is around $400,000.

Underwood is overcrowded so 2 low income nodes were removed in last year's reassignment plan. In that same plan Growth Management noted that at 29%, Underwood's F&R is "slightly lower than desirable for a magnet school. However, staff did not identify a change in base area to recommend at this time". Perhaps they should have removed the higher income nodes near the school and let the low income nodes stay. And by the way, the 2 low income nodes were moved to Green Hope Elementary--18 miles away.

Joyner
Again, refer to the previous post on Underwood and Joyner. Joyner has 4 base nodes with median home prices ranging from a low of $390,000 to a high $760,000. While this school does have some low income areas assigned to it, I question why it is a magnet school.

Solution? De-magnetize Joyner and assign the non-F&R base nodes from Underwood to Joyner. There is legitimate concern that if both Underwood and Joyner were de-magnetized, there wouldn't be enough students in that area to fill the 2 schools while keeping them both under 40%. Since Underwood only has the 2 non-F&R base nodes it would be easier to move them over to Joyner.

Wiley
Although I haven't done all the research on Wiley's nodes like I did for the other schools, a quick look at zillow.com shows very similar home prices, so I think this school is worth mentioning. Wiley has an F&R of only 28% and like Underwood, Growth Managment recognizes that it is too low for a magnet. But like Underwood, they were unable to recommend a change to the base area. May I suggest that if Growth Management can't come up with a way to raise Wiley's F&R, then perhaps it should no longer be a magnet? Wiley could draw new base nodes from Lacy, which is overcrowded and already shares an assignment boundary with Wiley.


Middle Schools

Daniels Daniels has an 80% base population yet only has an F&R of 30%. Clearly, Daniels is not located in a high-poverty area, especially when compared to E Millbrook MS, which is 74% base and 44% F&R. Some of the most expensive and elite areas of central Raleigh are assigned to Daniels. See my previous entry on Joyner and Underwood nodes for an example--those nodes are all assigned to Daniels.

While your child has to choose between taking Band and Spanish or between Spanish and Art, students at Daniels get 2 elective periods each day. Daniels runs on a tri-mester schedule so students can take up to 6 different electives each school year, which helps with fitting in the Keyboarding course that middle school students must take.

Martin Martin has a 36% base and only 23% F&R, well below the WCPSS middle school average of 29%. Additionally, Martin pulls in low income nodes from downtown/SE Raleigh, a sign that it isn't located in a high-poverty area. You can see the price ranges for homes in Martin's base nodes in my previous post.

Martin is a gifted & talented magnet and offers an incredibly wide array of electives, including four different foreign languages. Martin students have 3 elective periods each day and electives are either year long, semester long, or quarter long giving students the opportunity to take up to 12 electives each year.

Solution?
De-magnetize Daniels and transfer the non-F&R base population from Martin to Daniels. Nodes that have both lower-income apartment complexes and homes selling for an average $500,000 should be split to allow the lower income children to stay at Martin. I would also increase Martin's low income base to bring it closer to 30% F&R.

High Schools

Well, there's only one high school to address, and that's Broughton. I cannot figure out why Broughton was made a magnet in the first place since it has always been the base school for the most expensive and elite areas of Raleigh. With a 67% base and a 21% F&R it doesn't appear to be a magnet candidate. I have heard rumblings for a few years now that Broughton is up on the magnet chopping block. One solution I have heard is to move the IB program to Millbrook High, which has been hurting in recent years. At 29% F&R, its not struggling as much as East Wake, Garner or Knightdale High but it is located down the street from East Millbrook Middle which has an IB program. So it would be a logical choice.

Additionally, Broughton has a very supportive alumni foundation that raised almost $500,000 in 2007. Given our limited funds, there are high schools that need a magnet program more than Broughton.

That's it for this post, although I could go on--and I will in the next entry. :-)

Martin Middle School

In my last post I addressed the higher income base nodes for Joyner and Underwood Magnet Elementary Schools. Now I'll tackle Martin Middle School, a gifted and talented magnet. Students at Martin get to take 4 electives each semester while students at non-magnet middle schools get to take 1 per semester. Martin offers an amazing array of electives including four different foreign languages, modern dance, civil war history, mythology, and printmaking. You can view the electives catalog here. Martin is comprised of a 36% base population and has an F&R of 22.8%, which is lower than the WCPSS middle school average. Several low income nodes are bused in from downtown/SE Raleigh but the majority of the base assignment area is located in neighborhoods surrounding the school. You can see a base assignment map here

The following table shows all of the base nodes that are in the surrounding area. Again, this table is abbreviated and the full data can be seen at Martin

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

More Magnet Questions

In my last entry I mentioned something that has bothered me: the number of non-F&R families who are given magnets as their base schools. Their children not only get to take advantage of the special programs that the rest of us are denied, but they get to walk to school or ride their neighborhood bus. WCPSS lets us believe that magnets are located in high poverty neighborhoods, but that isn't always the case. So just who is getting magnet schools as their base? Two examples that should shock you are the base populations of Joyner and Underwood, both elementary magnets.

To be fair, both schools do have low income nodes assigned to them. Joyner is located in an interesting area that is a mix of apartment complexes, condos and single family homes. Across the street from Joyner is a new development of homes starting in the $700Ks (The Oaks at Fallon Park) while behind Joyner is a large apartment complex where a lot of the low income kids live. Underwood, on the other hand, has to bus in their low income kids from downtown because there aren't a significant number near the school.

At one point in time, both of these schools (and their surrounding areas) may have struggled. But as you will see in the following tables, neither school is located in a high poverty area as we are typically led to believe. So why are they still magnets? Even more frustrating is the fact that in last year's reassignment plan, it was noted that Underwood has too low of an F&R for a magnet (29%) but they couldn't figure out how to raise it. If you can't raise a magnet's F&R above 29%, then perhaps its time to rethink its magnet status.




Both of these tables are abbreviated versions. The full tables, including information for each property that sold are available at: Joyner
and Underwood

Magnet Review Time

Holy cow its been a long time since I last updated! I've still been plugging away doing my research and speaking with lots of other frustrated parents around the county. Aside from the upcoming reassignment plan, the big news is the magnet review. As many of you may have read, the BOE has given preliminary approval for 2 new magnet schools--Brentwood and Smith. Both schools were approaching 70% F&R last year so it's about time that they do something for them.

So while that is good news, the BOE still has to do their review of current magnet programs to decide which aren't living up to the goals of the magnet program. Something that bothered me during our magnet years was the number of non-F&R families who are given magnet schools as their base. Also troubling is the low F&R at some of the magnet schools. So I put together a chart showing the base percentage at each magnet as well as the F&R.

Some caveats: these figures are for the 2007-08 school year and I am missing the figures for some magnet schools. Also, Douglas and Brooks had some base nodes moved out to make room for magnet applicants. So their numbers should be different this year. The other magnets should remain about the same.



Most troubling to me is Daniels Middle School with a base population of 80% and an F&R of only 30.3%. Compare that to East Millbrook or East Garner and I've got to seriously question why Daniels is still a magnet school. The same could be said for Broughton as well.

Friday, March 28, 2008

At-Large Elections

I'm sure you've all heard the talk of moving towards at-large elections. I support this move for two main reasons, accountability and equity. Currently our BOE members are only accountable to their own constituents for their decisions, even though their decisions impact all residents in the county. Further complicating matters is that while somebody may live in one district, their children may attend school in another district (sometimes even more than one other district) due to either base assignment or magnet attendance. Who truly represents the interests of those families?

While accountability is an issue in this matter, equity is by far the most important one. Because the district boundaries are drawn only every ten years with the census, Wake County's tremendous growth causes those districts to become extremely unbalanced before the next redistricting. According to information I found on the WCPSS website, "To comply with one-person, one-vote, no district should be more than five percent above or below the population of the ideal-size district." At that time, it was reported in the June 1, 2001 edition of 'School Connections' that "The board used data from the 2000 Census and advice from its legal staff to draw districts equal in population. The nine districts had to include between 66,723 and 73,249 voters to meet legal requirements."

I do not have access to population figures for each of our BOE districts, but we all have access to the voter registration figures for each district as well as the school and student numbers for each district. While it is not the same as having population numbers, we can still look at those figures to get an idea of how unbalanced the districts are.

First, the voter registration numbers:

If we use the same criteria that WCPSS used in 2001, the ideal district would have about 58,493 voters in it. Adding the 5% variance above or below that ideal number, then each district should have between 55,568 and 61,418 voters. We currently only have 1 district that falls within those criteria.

Now for a repeat of the student population numbers by district:

You can see that we have very unbalanced districts and I think its safe to say that this is due to the tremendous growth in the 'suburban' areas of the county. Even after the district boundaries are redrawn with the next census(2010-11), this same imbalance will occur by the time we redraw the boundaries again in 2020-11. The growth may occur in different areas of the county, but the imbalance will be there and citizens will not be properly represented. We can avoid this heavy imbalance by moving towards district seats that are voted on by all citizens. This will ensure that no areas of the county carry more pull than they should and more importantly, that some areas of the county are not underrepresented.

This is a bi-partisan issue that will ensure fairness for ALL citizens, whether they be Republican or Democrat, urban or rural, or live in 'old' Raleigh, North Raleigh, Apex, Zebulon, or Cary. Please write your NC Senate and House Reps, your mayor, city council members, and BOE rep in support of at-large elections.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Equal Representation Revisted

A while back I posted the numbers of students in each BOE district. The imbalance was startling. I ran the numbers for 2007-08 and not much has changed. 'County' districts are underrepresented while Cary and Raleigh 'city' districts are overrepresented again.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

What Did MYR Conversions Do To Your Chances?

I was struck by a few of the converted schools that were so underenrolled that they didn't qualify for any of the rounds in the magnet lottery. Since they had F&R low enough to qualify, I wondered how the conversions affected their chances.

This year's criteria were very similar to last year's. The only differences were Round One going to the 4 demagnetized schools and the capacity figure of 85% used in later rounds. Last year's capacity figure was 90% for the later rounds. Following is a table that shows the earliest round that each converted elementary was eligible for last year as well as this year. I adjusted this year's rounds by removing the special consideration for the demagnetized schools. So Rounds 2-5 became Rounds 1-4 this year to make the comparison more in line. As you will see, not all of the schools were affected but Baucom, Green Hope, Middle Creek and Wakefield were the most negatively affected by the conversions.

45 out of 96?!?

Students from 45 out of the 96 elementary schools get to compete for the last 10% of magnet seats. Interesting and frankly, a bit shocking and sad.

Only 25 base school applicants have to compete for the first FOUR rounds of magnet selection. Even sadder.

So What Are Your Chances?

I posted the criteria for getting selected for a magnet program in the last post. But what does that mean for you?

Even without knowing the F&R% of your particular node, we can still see which base schools give you the best chance of being accepted to a magnet. According to WCPSS, 31.6% of all elementary students participate in the Free & Reduced Lunch Program. I rounded that up to 32% then considered 27% to be 5% points below the average. After siblings are placed, the earliest you can be accepted into an elementary magnet based on your current base school is:

Round One--4 Schools
Base or Magnet students at Root, Olds, Forestville,and Lincoln Heights.

Rounds Two and Three--15 Schools
**Must live in a node 27% or less F&R, base school must be 27% or less F&R, and crowding factor must be greater than 100%
Baileywick
Brassfield
Cedar Fork
Davis Drive
Forest Pines
Hunter (magnet, not sure they have any base nodes under 27% F&R)
Lacy
Oak Grove
Partnership (magnet, not sure they have any base nodes under 27% F&R)
Pleasant Union
Turner Creek
Wake Forest
Weatherstone
West Lake
Wiley (magnet at 27.7%--not sure how WCPSS would treat this)

Round Four--6 Schools
**Must live in a node with 27% or less F&R, base school must be 27% or less F&R, and crowding factor must be greater than 85%
Ballentine
Brier Creek
Highcroft
Jones Dairy
Morrisville
Salem

Round Five--26 Schools
**No requirement for F&R of your node, base school crowding factor must be at least 85%, and no more than 40% F&R
Adams
Apex
Brooks (magnet)
Combs (magnet)
Dillard Drive
Douglas (magnet)
Durant Road
Farmington Woods
Fuller (magnet)
Fuquay-Varina
Green
Harris Creek
Hilburn Drive
Holly Ridge
Jeffrey's Grove
Joyner (magnet)
North Ridge
Northwoods
Penny Road
Rolesville
Swift Creek
Timber Drive
Underwood (magnet)
Washington (magnet)
Wildwood Forest
Yates Mill

Lottery for the Remaining 10% of Seats--45 Schools
**Comments after each school indicate why it wasn't considered in the first 5 rounds.
Aversboro (53.3% F&R)
Baucom (82.3% crowding, but only 12.1% F&R)
Barwell Road (57.9% F&R)
Brentwood (65.8% F&R, 24.3% Level 1 or 2)
Briarcliff (40.9% F&R, but 112.5% crowding)
Bugg (magnet, 44.4% F&R, but 129.4% crowding)
Carpenter (73.2% crowding, but only 14.7% F&R)
Carver (61.8% F&R, 71.6% crowding)
Cary (40.9% F&R, but 120.6% crowding)
Conn (magnet, 44.8% F&R, but 117.4% crowding)
Creech Road (62.4% F&R, but 109.8 crowding)
East Garner (59% F&R, 52.4% crowding)
Fox Road (52.9% F&R)
Green Hope (82.9% crowding, but only 5.9% F&R)
Hodge Road (58.6% F&R)
Holly Springs (78.7% crowding, but only 17.3% F&R)
Heritage (79.1% crowding, but only 24.4% F&R)
Holly Grove (82.3% crowding, but only 16.9% F&R)
Kingswood (41.4% F&R, but 120.8 crowding)
Knightdale (62% F&R, 83% crowding)
Leesville Road (76.7% crowding, but only 12% F&R)
Leadmine (41.7% F&R, but 101.1% crowding)
Lockhart (45.8% F&R, 75.7% crowding)
Lynn Road (41.7 % F&R, 74.3% crowding)
Middle Creek (77.4% crowding, but only 20.5% F&R)
Millbrook (magnet, 55.5% F&R, but 107.6% crowding)
North Forest Pines (66% crowding, but only 21.6% F&R)
Olive Chapel (81.7% crowding, but only 4.9% F&R)
Poe (47.2% F&R, but 111.7% crowding)
Powell (57.7% F&R, but 115.1% crowding)
Rand Road (82.7% crowding, but only 25.6% F&R)
Reedy Creek (83.6% crowding)
River Bend (57.5% F&R)
Sanford Creek (64.9% crowding)
Smith (70.8% F&R, but 106.8% crowding)
Stough (46.4% F&R)
Vance (75.5% crowding, but only 20.4% F&R)
Vandora Springs (52.2% F&R)
Wakefield (82.4% crowding, but only 25.6% F&R)
Wakelon (78.9% crowding, 63.5% F&R)
Wendell (46.8% F&R, but 105.6 crowding)
Wilburn (79.4% crowding, 53.5% F&R)
Willow Springs (82.8% crowding)
York (49.2% F&R, but 103.7% crowding)
Zebulon (equity magnet, 75.2% crowding, 56.6% F&R)

Magnet Selection Criteria

I've mentioned here before that the magnet 'lottery' isn't a true lottery. It's weighted--certain nodes of students have a better chance of getting into a magnet than others do. WCPSS has released the selection criteria for this year.

SELECTION CRITERIA – ELEMENTARY MAGNET
Siblings of present magnet students identified on the intent form

After assigning the students who meet the criteria above, the school will determine the number of vacancies available.

90% of these vacancies will be filled from valid applications in the following order:

ROUND ONE (For 2008-09 only)
· M or B from 413, 476, 524, or 548 This translates to magnet or base from Forestville, Root, Olds and Lincoln Heights. Those are 4 of the schools that were demagnetized this year. In the case of Forestville, it was supposed to get a magnet program but then the board decided against it AFTER families had applied for the program. Note that Wake Forest Elementary isn't included on this list because it was an equity magnet, meaning that it was entirely base, no applications. I don't have a problem with them not getting priority for magnet programs, but why do the base populations at the other 4 schools get priority?

ROUND TWO
· Live in a node where the SES percentage for elementary aged children is at least 5% below the county average AND
· Assigned to a base school where the SES for elementary aged children is at least 5% below the county average AND
· Assigned to a base school where the 2-year average of level 1 and 2 percentage students tested is 20% or less AND
· Assigned to a base school that has a current crowding factor above 100% of the adjusted building capacity AND
· Submitted a valid application for the same program the previous year

ROUND THREE
· Same as Round Two with deletion of previous year’s application

ROUND FOUR
· Same as Round Three with the revision of the crowding factor to be above 85% of the adjusted building capacity.

ROUND FIVE
· Assigned to a base school that has a crowding factor above 85% of the adjusted building capacity AND
· Assigned to a base school where the SES for elementary aged children is less than 40% AND
· Assigned to a base school where the 2-year average of level 1 and 2 percentage students tested is 20% or less.

Ten percent (10%) of vacancies identified above will be filled randomly from all remaining valid applications.

SELECTION CRITERIA – SECONDARY MAGNET
The selection process for secondary schools is the same as elementary with the addition of the second priority which states that students currently attending a magnet school and have magnet status have a priority to attend a magnet school in the next grade configuration: middle school or high school.

Friday, February 1, 2008

How Does F&R % Affect EOG Passing Rates? Updated

As I was updating my spreadsheets with EOG passing rates from the 2006-07 NC Report Cards, I noticed that I made a mistake the first time I posted these figures. I used the F&R percentages from 2006-07 but the EOG passing rates from 2005-06. So I redid the tables with the F&R and EOG rates from the same years. Not much changed--the results still show that the Non-Economically Disadvantaged (NED) children's EOG scores went down as F&R went up while the Economically Disadvantaged (ED) children's scores didn't seem to follow any pattern.