RALEIGH - In the face of rising parental revolt, a powerful civic ally of the Wake County school district wants to rescue one of the most controversial reasons for moving thousands of students to different schools -- reassignments done for diversity.

The Wake Education Partnership, an independent advocacy group of business and community leaders, launched a campaign Thursday aimed at rallying public support for the beleaguered policy of moving students to level the percentage of poor students at individual schools.

Ann Denlinger, president of the Partnership, said diversity is necessary to meet the school district's goal of closing the academic achievement gap between poor and more affluent students while maintaining overall test scores at all schools.

"We believe every child should attend an excellent school, and we believe every school has to be socioeconomically diverse," said Denlinger, former superintendent of Durham public schools.

The group's opening salvo: a report released Thursday morning supporting Wake's diversity policy.

The report cites studies compiled in the past 40 years that say there is a direct correlation between poverty and school performance. The report also looks at the way students in Wake have performed academically compared with those in other urban North Carolina school districts.

According to the report: Of the 211 schools statewide in 2006-07 where 20 percent or fewer students receive free or reduced-price lunch, the average passing rate on state exams was 79 percent. The passing rate declines steadily as poverty increases.

Wake schools follow the same pattern, the report said. Schools in the county with the least poverty, defined as having no more than 20 percent of the student body getting free or reduced-price lunches, had the highest average passing rate at 83.7 percent. Schools with the most poverty had the lowest average passing rate -- less than 70 percent.

"We want to close the achievement gap," said school board Chairwoman Rosa Gill.

Wake school leaders use reassignments to reach a target of each school having no more than 40 percent of its student body receiving free or reduced-price lunches. Students are also reassigned to fill new schools and ease crowding.

As part of rallying support for the policy, Denlinger said she plans to speak to town leaders and parents about the policy. She made a brief mention of the partnership's efforts Thursday at a breakfast with the Apex Chamber of Commerce.

But the partnership could be hard to sell. Across the county, some parents are angry and frustrated by reassignment plans they say gut parental support of neighborhood schools and send some students more than a dozen miles from their homes. Thursday night, a group of parents met with the Cary Town Council, calling on elected officials to secede from the Wake school district.

"I feel our diversity policy is hurting children more than it's helping them by taking them out of schools in their community," said school board member Ron Margiotta, a frequent critic of the diversity policy.

Critics have faulted the district policy, saying there is no proof that poor students perform better when they are reassigned to more affluent schools.

"Putting a struggling student in a high performing school does not help the student unless their needs are being met," said Dawn Graff, co-founder of the parent group Wake CARES, which sued the school district for making year-round schools mandatory.

Critics of the policy say Wake should pour more money into high poverty schools and offer incentives to the best qualified teachers to teach in those schools.

"Diversity is a laudable goal, and no one would disagree with that," said Apex Mayor Keith Weatherly. "Moving resources to underperforming schools and getting parents to be involved in their child's education is much more important than artificial diversity goals."

The partnership is an independent advocacy group that works to build relationships between the school system and the business community. The News & Observer's publisher, Orage Quarles III, sits on the organization's board of trustees. The newspaper and other businesses support the organization financially.

(Staff writer T. Keung Hui contributed to this report.)