Magnet Lottery 2011

So what are your chances for getting into a magnet school next year? If WCPSS uses the same criteria as last year, they will be as follows:

Rounds 1 and 2: Your base school must have a current crowding factor at least 95% of the adjusted building capacity. Round 1 is for applicants who submitted an application for the same program last year.

Adams YR
Apex
Aversboro
Baileywick
Baucom
Brassfield YR
Brentwood magnet
Briarcliff
Brooks magnet
Cary
Cedar Fork
Combs magnet
Davis Drive
Dillard Drive
Douglas magnet
Durant Road YR
Farmington Woods magnet
Forest Pines
Forestville Road
Fuller magnet
Green Hope
Heritage YR
Hodge Road YR
Holly Springs YR
Hunter magnet
Jeffreys Grove
Jones Dairy YR
Joyner magnet
Kingswood
Lockhart YR
Lynn Road
Millbrook magnet
Mills Park
North Forest Pines YR
North Ridge
Northwoods
Oak Grove YR
Olds
Partnership magnet
Poe magnet
Powell magnet
Root
Stough
Swift Creek
Underwood magnet
Wake Forest
Washington magnet
Wiley magnet
Yates Mill

Carnage magnet
Centennial magnet
Davis Drive
Dillard Drive
Fuquay-Varina
Heritage YR
Leesville Road
Ligon magnet
Martin magnet
Wake Forest-Rolesville
Wakefield

Athens Drive
Broughton
Cary
East Wake School of Arts, Education & Global Studies
Enloe magnet
Garner magnet
Green Hope
Holly Springs
Leesville Road
Millbrook magnet
Panther Creek
Sanderson
Wake Forest-Rolesville

Round 3: Base school must have a current crowding factor of 90% or greater.

Brier Creek YR
Carpenter YR
Conn magnet
Fuquay-Varina
Lacy
Leesville Road
Morrisville YR
Pleasant Union YR
Rolesville
Sycamore Creek YR
Turner Creek YR
Vance YR
Vandora Springs
Wildwood Forest

Apex MS
East Millbrook magnet
Reedy Creek

Apex HS
East Wake School of Engineering Systems
East Wake School of Health Science
Fuquay-Varina


Round 4: Base school must have a current crowding factor of 85% or greater.

Bugg magnet
Fox Road
Holly Ridge
Laurel Park YR
Lead Mine
Middle Creek YR
Olive Chapel YR
Timber Drive YR
West Lake YR
Wilburn YR

Durant Road YR
Lufkin Road YR
Moore Square magnet
West Lake YR
West Millbrook

Knightdale HS
Middle Creek
SE Raleigh magnet


Last 10% Round: 10% of magnet seats are reserved for students applying from schools with less a crowding factor less than 85%

Alston Ridge 42.7% YR
Ballentine 81.3% YR
Banks Road 61.6% YR
Barwell Road 79.5% YR
Carver 71.7%
Creech Road 74.3%
East Garner 76.5% YR
Green 72.8% YR
Harris Creek 71.4% YR
Herbert Akins 71.1% YR
Highcroft Drive 71.9% YR
Hilburn 68.3%
Holly Grove 78.1% YR
Knightdale 80.2%
Lake Myra 52.5% YR
Lincoln Heights 58.6%
Penny Road 83.7%
Rand Road 67.9% YR
Reedy Creek 68.1%
River Bend 61% YR
Salem 83.7% YR
Sanford Creek 83.7% YR
Smith 79.9% magnet
Wakefield 76.9% YR
Wakelon 79.6%
Weatherstone 72%
Wendell 79% magnet
Willow Springs 81.9% YR
York 72%
Zebulon 79.9% magnet

Carroll 79.7%
Daniels 80.9%
East Cary 63.2% YR
East Garner 84.2% magnet
East Wake 71.7% YR
Holly Grove 58.3% YR
Holly Ridge 79.3%
Mills Park 84%
North Garner 81.6% YR
Salem 84% YR
Wendell 80.8%
West Cary 60%
Zebulon 57.9% magnet

East Wake School of Integrated Technology 74.8%
Heritage 48.9%
Wakefield 82.9%

A Partial Victory

As you may know, WCPSS changed the magnet lottery last year to remove the F&R status of your node and your assigned school. This was a great step towards making the magnet lottery a fair process for all students, but it is still not a true lottery. Your base school's crowding percentage is what determines whether or not you get into a magnet school now. While I do understand the reasoning behind this, we need to give all of our students an equal chance to take advantage of these amazing opportunities.

In addition to wanting an equal shot for each student, I'm concerned that the capacity numbers being used to determine your fate are not accurate. I spoke at the last board meeting and gave 3 examples of schools whose numbers were a bit misleading.

Daniels Middle School is listed by WCPSS as being at 81% of capacity, which would place Daniels in the last 10% round. But at a recent work session, that capacity was called into question. It seems that while Daniels has extra classroom capacity, they do not have cafeteria capacity to handle that many students.

Wakefield High School is listed at 83% of capacity, but much of that extra space is unused trailers that are going to be moved. I don't think that a date has been set for moving them, but it was pretty clear at that same work session that they have no intention of using those trailers anytime soon.

Wakefield Elementary School was one of the 22 schools converted to the year round calendar and has been under capacity ever since. It is currently at 77% capacity and the BOE has declined to convert it back to traditional, citing the need to save that capacity for future growth. In the meantime, those students are penalized in the magnet application process.

See for the facilities utilization report that lists the capacity and student population figures for each school.

Please send an email to the board members asking for a true lottery. All of our students deserve an equal chance to take advantage of the wonderful opportunities that magnet schools provide.

Elementary School Magnet Lottery 2010-11

As you may know, some board members like John Tedesco are looking to change the magnet criteria this year to make it more equitable. Others are resistant to any changes at all or want to wait for at least a year before any are made. IF the criteria do not change, this is what your chances will be for getting into an elementary school magnet for next year. A full 1/3 of the elementary schools are in the 'last 10%' round.

Rounds One & Two-23 Schools
****Must live in a node 33% or less F&R, base school must be 33% or less F&R, and crowding factor must be greater than 95%. Round 1 is for those who meet all the criteria and applied for the same program last year but were denied. Round 2 is the same except for the 'applied last year' criteria.

Apex Elementary
Brassfield
Brooks (magnet)
Carpenter
Cedar Fork
Combs (magnet)
Davis Drive
Durant Road
Forest Pines
Fuller (magnet)
Jones Dairy
Lacy
Laurel Park
Leesville Road
Morrisville
North Forest Pines
Oak Grove
Olds
Partnership (magnet)
Pleasant Union
Underwood (magnet)
Vance
Wiley (magnet)

Round 3-15 Schools
**No node criteria, but base school must be 33% or less F&R and at least 85% crowded.

Cary
Farmington Woods (magnet)
Fuquay-Varina
Green Hope
Heritage
Holly Ridge
Holly Springs
Joyner (magnet)
Northwoods
Olive Chapel
Penny Road
Salem
Swift Creek
Turner Creek
Weatherstone

Round 4-30 Schools
**Base school must be less than 40% F&R and be at least 60% crowded.

Adams
Baileywick
Ballentine
Banks Road
Baucom
Briarcliff
Brier Creek
Douglas (magnet)
Harris Creek
Herbert Akins Road
Highcroft
Holly Grove
Hunter (magnet)
Jeffreys Grove
Lincoln Heights
Middle Creek
Mills Park
Rand Road
Reedy Creek
Rolesville
Root
Sanford Creek
Sycamore Creek
Wake Forest
Wakefield
Washington (magnet)
West Lake
Wildwood Forest
Willow Springs
Yates Mill

Lottery for the remaining 10% of seats-34 Schools

Aversboro-54.9% F&R
Barwell-62.2% F&R
Brentwood-77.9% F&R new magnet for 2009-10
Bugg-54.7% F&R magnet
Carver-54.7% F&R
Conn-41.7% F&R magnet
Creech Road-66.6% F&R
Dillard Drive--43.4% F&R
East Garner-61.3% F&R
Forestville Road-55.1% F&R
Fox Road-64.5% F&R
Green--49.8 F&R
Hilburn Drive-44.7% F&R
Hodge Road-65.2% F&R
Kingswood-44.2% F&R
Knightdale-58.9% F&R
Lake Myra--47.7% F&R
Lead Mine-40.6% F&R
Lockhart-52.5% F&R
Lynn Road-50.5% F&R
Millbrook-60.7% F&R magnet
North Ridge--40.9%
Poe-48.1% F&R magnet
Powell-53.9% F&R magnet
River Bend-57.1% F&R
Smith-66.7% F&R new magnet for 2009-10
Stough-44.9% F&R
Timber Drive-47.4% F&R
Vandora Springs-44.7% F&R
Wakelon-66.0% F&R
Wendell-52.9% F&R magnet
Wilburn-59.3% F&R
York-44.9% F&R
Zebulon-59.6% F&R magnet

Fear Mongering on Election Eve

It has come to my attention that an email containing falsehoods is circulating this evening. Written by Diana Bader and Roxie Cash, the email claims that if the 4 candidates supported by WSCA get elected, it will mean the disappearance of magnet schools. This is FALSE. None of our candidates have ever said that they would get rid of magnet schools. This rumor has appeared before and when asked directly if he would get rid of magnet schools in low income areas, Chris Malone responded "No. Why would we get rid of a successful program?" Other candidates have expressed interest in expanding magnet opportunities and ending the magnet acceptance policy that discriminates against low income children and any child assigned to a school over 40% F&R.

Supporters of the status-quo are willing to say anything they have to to maintain control of our school system. WSCA and the candidates we support, John Tedesco, Chris Malone, Debra Goldman and Deborah Prickett do not advocate for the removal of magnets nor do we advocate throwing everything out and starting from scratch. These candidates will do what current and former Board of Education members have been unwilling to do: honestly assess what is working and what is not working in WCPSS and make recommendations for improvement.

I urge you all to see through the lies and half-truths being spread and vote for positive change tomorrow!

Vote Oct. 6 for Tedesco, Prickett, Goldman & Malone for School Board!

Election day is drawing near and we have the opportunity to make positive changes to the Wake County School Board. Four seats are up for election this year and there is a clear choice for each of those seats. If you are unsure if you live in one of the districts up for election, you can find out at www.sboe.state.nc.us. As a member of the Wake Schools Community Alliance, I am proud to endorse the following candidates:

District 1 (Wake Forest, Rolesville, Knightdale, Zebulon & Wendell): Chris Malone
Chris Malone is the only candidate in this 3 person race who has a real grasp of the issues. Malone supports community based schools but recognizes that they aren't a magic bullet to fix all of our system's problems. He wants to implement new approaches to reachstruggling students because merely busing them around hasn't worked. He supports expanding magnet opportunities and believes that the current discriminatory magnet selection process is wrong. He also believes that year round schools should be voluntary.

Malone's opponents are Debbie Vair and Rita Rakestraw. Although Vair agrees with Malone on many issues, her entrance into this race seems to be motivated mostly by her oppposition to the proposed high school on Forestville Road. Rakestraw doesn't seem to understand the issues of her district at all. She believes that there are no mandatory year round schools--that everybody has a traditional and a year round option and they go to the one they want. She is a supporter of the current diversity policy even though it has actually harmed Eastern Wake county. Eastern Wake has a high percentage of low income students yet WCPSS has stated many times that there's little they can do to lower the poverty percentages at Eastern Wake schools. The two solutions suggested by WCPSS so far have been to 1)wait for I-540 to bring higher income residential development to the area and 2)further reduce the number of magnet seats available to children in the area. Rakestraw is heavily supported by central Raleigh politicians and business leaders who are concerned with the health of central Raleigh schools and care little about Eastern Wake. Its easy to brag about the health of Wake County's 'urban' Raleigh schools if you keep the red-haired stepchild out of view. Rakestraw's support of the current diversity policy will further harm her district and will keep Eastern Wake 'left behind'.

District 2 (Garner, Fuquay-Varina): John Tedesco
John Tedesco is a dynamic man with fantastic ideas who can also bring those ideas to fruition. John grew up in poverty and changed schools frequently so he has a real understanding of what our lower income students need in order to achieve. He also works in a leadership role with the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization and mentors at risk youth. John supports the community schools model which is advocated by Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Most importantly, John believes that low income students CAN achieve and that their families can be engaged.

Tedesco's opponents are Horace Tart, Carlene Lucas, and Cathy Truitt. Tart, the incumbent, is not troubled by the long distances traveled by many of our low income students. He believes that distance is not a factor in parental participation for low income families. They just won't participate no matter how close they are to a school so it doesn't matter how far we bus their children. This elitist attitude is also shared by Chuck Dulaney, director of Growth Managment for WCPSS. Instead of looking for ways to actually engage low income families and improve academic achievement, he's satisfied with just busing their kids around and wiping his hands clean of them. Low expectations for low income children are the norm for WCPSS and Tart will do nothing to change that. Lucas's controlled choice model is really just more of the same that we have now. Parents can apply for the school they want but acceptance is still based on low income percentages. When I first heard Truitt speak, I thought that if Tedesco wasn't in the race she'd be my pick. Since then, however, she has engaged in attack ads on her opponents that make me question what her primary motivation for seeking this office is.

District 7 (Northwest Raleigh and Morrisville): Deborah Prickett
Deborah Prickett is a Raleigh native and former teacher and school counselor who supports community based schools as a way to provide stability and increased parental involvement. Prickett supports voluntary year round, which is a big issue in this district which includes the Leesville schools. She is also in favor of getting the school board out of the land buying business so they can concentrate on actual education issues.

Prickett's opponent, Karen Simon is backed by the status quo and it shows. Much of what she says is just parroting what WCPSS's PR department says about itself. We're one of the top school systems so let's keep doing what we're doing, blah blah blah. Simon supports mandatory year round assignments and claims that they are necessary because of growth. Considering that Leesville ES is located right between 2 very underenrolled year round schools (Brier Creek & Sycamore Creek) and near 2 underenrolled traditional schools (York & Hilburn), I think she should rethink her answer. Simon would also make no changes to the magnet system as it currently exists. I guess that giving kids who live in the right neighborhoods and attend the right schools better access to the best WCPSS has to offer is ok with her.

District 9 (Cary): Debra Goldman
Debra Goldman understands that students need stable assignments in community schools in order to succeed. Like the other candidates I endorse, she favors placing resources where they are needed rather than just busing children around. Goldman also favors voluntary participation in year round schools and believes that WCPSS is too top heavy.

Goldman's opponent, Lois Nixon is clueless when she states that mandatory year round schools have saved the taxpayers $350 million dollars so far. Year round schools don't save any money unless they are at capacity and most of our newly built and converted yr schools aren't anywhere near capacity. She is even more clueless when she states as she did in one forum, that the children in her neighborhood have 27 different schools they get to choose from. She obviously doesn't understand how the magnet selection process works. Her neighborhood is assigned to Reedy Creek middle school so they actually have the least likely chance of getting into a magnet middle school. Nixon also touts the use of our schools as an 'economic tool' and how we don't want to "kill the goose that laid the golden egg". This is particularly disturbing to me and is a trend of all 4 candidates who are supported by the status quo.

Business leaders are very much behind the diversity policy not because it actually helps disdvantaged kids (it doesn't) but because it is good for business. It gives them bragging rights to say that all of the schools in the 'urban' core are good, but they ignore the fact that we still have those not so good schools. Since they are not in central Raleigh, however, it doesn't matter. They are invisible to companies looking to do business here. When the status quo candidates refer to the schools as economic tools it shows us that their number one priority isn't student achievement, it is about appearances. We all deserve better than that.

2009-10 Magnet Criteria--Elementary Schools

I posted your chances of getting into a magnet earlier in the year, but I was using last year's selection criteria. The Growth Management and the BOE tweaked the criteria a bit this year and it does actually make some people's chances of getting in a bit better. I'm not sure why they raised the max F&R for the 1st 3 rounds to 33% (system average) from the previous 27% (5 percentage points below system average). Chuck Dulaney did say that the minimum crowding percentage was lowered from 100% to 95% because growth has slowed. A big change was the removal of the 20% max of students performing at Level 1 or 2. Changes in the EOGs last year caused test scores to be lower across the board and it would have sharply reduced the odds for getting into a magnet.

Rounds One & Two-27 Schools
****Must live in a node 33% or less F&R, base school must be 33% or less F&R, and crowding factor must be greater than 95%. Round 1 is for those who meet all the criteria and applied for the same program last year but were denied. Round 2 is the same except for the 'applied last year' criteria.

Apex Elementary
Brassfield
Brooks (magnet)
Cary Elementary
Cedar Fork
Combs (magnet)
Davis Drive
Forest Pines
Fuquay-Varina
Holly Grove
Holly Ridge
Hunter (magnet)
Jones Dairy
Lacy
North Forest Pines
Northwoods
Oak Grove
Olds
Partnership (magnet)
Penny Road
Root
Swift Creek
Turner Creek
Underwood (magnet)
Weatherstone
West Lake
Wiley magnet

Round 3-12 Schools
**No node criteria, but base school must be 33% or less F&R and at least 85% crowded.

Ballentine
Briarcliff
Carpenter
Heritage
Leesville Road
Lincoln Heights
Middle Creek
Morrisville
Olive Chapel
Pleasant Union (94.8%--could be rounded up to 95 which would place it in Round One/Two)
Vance
Willow Springs

Round 4-29 Schools
**Base school must be less than 40% F&R and be at least 60% crowded.

Adams
Baileywick
Baucom
Brier Creek
Dillard Drive
Douglas (magnet)
Durant Road
Farmington Woods (magnet)
Fuller (magnet)
Green
Green Hope
Harris Creek
Highcroft
Holly Springs
Jeffreys Grove
Joyner (magnet)
Laurel Park
Mills Park
North Ridge
Rand Road
Rolesville
Salem
Sanford Creek
Sycamore Creek
Wake Forest
Wakefield
Washington (magnet)
Wildwood Forest
Yates Mill

Lottery for the remaining 10% of seats-31 Schools

Aversboro-52.1% F&R
Barwell-58.8% F&R
Brentwood-69.8% F&R new magnet for 2009-10
Bugg-49.2% F&R magnet
Carver-57.7% F&R
Conn-42.8% F&R magnet
Creech Road-64.3% F&R
East Garner-58.9% F&R
Forestville Road-43% F&R
Fox Road-60.5% F&R
Hilburn Drive-42% F&R
Hodge Road-59.9% F&R
Kingswood-40.1% F&R
Knightdale-55.7% F&R
Lead Mine-43.5% F&R
Lockhart-44.7% F&R
Lynn Road-46.7% F&R
Millbrook-55.6% F&R magnet
Poe-45.2% F&R magnet
Powell-52.3% F&R magnet
Reedy Creek-41% F&R
River Bend-56.2% F&R
Smith-68.1% F&R new magnet for 2009-10
Stough-46.4% F&R
Timber Drive-40.3% F&R
Vandora Springs-46.7% F&R
Wakelon-66.7% F&R
Wendell-49.6% F&R magnet
Wilburn-57.8% F&R
York-47.3% F&R
Zebulon-57.2% F&R magnet

What Are Segregated Schools?

I asked this question in my last post. What exactly are 'segregated' schools? As I mentioned in my previous post, Wake County today looks much different from Wake County 30 years ago. We have a growing Hispanic, Asian, and multi-racial population. It is not enough to talk about segregation in terms of the black population. I did a little poking around the internet to find a 'modern' definition of segregated schools and found that the term 'racially identifiable' is most often used. I could not find any NC definitions of either term but I did find a few.

A 1999 Minnesota state rule labels a school segregated, or racially identifiable, if the minority enrollment is more than 20 percentage points above the district minority enrollment. The Civil Rights Project defines segregated schools as those where the percentage of minority students deviates by more than 15% from the district wide percentage. In Chicago, schools are considered integrated if the white population is between 15-75%. A school is out of compliance if 70% or more of the students are white, and a racially identifiable school is one which is 85% or more non-white. (Of course, 'racially identifiable' is interesting because it sets everything up as two races: white and non-white, but that's an whole other discussion.)

I always get frustrated when people claim that the diversity policy keeps WCPSS from having schools over 40% F&R. Yes, that's the goal and it sounds terrific. Except nobody ever mentions the fact that 30% of our elementary and middle schools are over 40%. I think that most people aren't even aware of this--they just repeat the policy as fact. I've been thinking about this argument that without the diversity policy, we would go back to segregated schools. I wondered how many segregated schools we currently have and if we do have any, why is it never brought up?

I used Civil Rights Project's guidelines to determine which schools were segregated or racially identifiable. I thought that a 15% deviation seemed too strict, so I used Minnesota's '20% rule' but also added the schools that would qualify under the CRP guidelines. White students make up 51.8% of WCPSS's total student population.