When the Wake County school board's new majority started moving Wake schools in a new direction, many people believed that the majority members were in over their heads to make the proposed changes.
I attended the July 27 Student Assignment Committee meeting featuring consultant Michael Alves's "controlled choice" concept. I listened to discussion between John Tedesco, chairman of the committee, with some members of the committee about counting and balancing the number of low-wealth students in the schools. I and others have concluded that Tedesco's weak and vague answers clearly provided more evidence that the majority members are deeply in over their heads.
Fortunately, there are many experts working in Central Office who are providing excellent data to Tedesco and the Student Assignment Committee. Fortunately, there are some members of the assignment committee who are teachers or have other relevant backgrounds and are asking the important questions about the new directions of the majority. Data about the current successes and strengths of Wake County schools under the abandoned formula for spreading diversity by use of free and reduced lunches have proven to work very well.
