While there’s a pause in the Wake school board majority’s action, the Great Schools in Wake coalition offers a public forum tomorrow — Saturday, October 16 — at the McKimmon Center, N.C. State University, 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Speakers include such academic experts as Helen Ladd (Duke) and Amy Hawn Nelson (UNC-Charlotte), plus civic heavyweights like Jim Goodmon (Capital Broadcasting CEO), Tom Oxholm (Wake Stone Corp., ex-school board member) and Tom Bradshaw (ex-Raleigh mayor, investment banker).
It’s a good opportunity to catch up on the latest twists and turns in the Wake schools saga — and figure out what the next moves should be.
Whetting our appetites, Tama Bouncer, the new Wake NCAE (teachers association) president and one of tomorrow’s speakers, sends along this survey — on the attitudes of Wake’s teachers re: the school board majority, diversity and so on.
What’s it say? By 4-1, Wake teachers like the diversity policy and oppose the school board’s decision to get rid of it.
By an 81 to 19 percent margin, the Wake County teachers surveyed said they disagreed with the Board’s decision to end the system’s longstanding diversity policy and listed it as the top problem facing the system.
In addition, 72 percent of teachers surveyed say the school system is headed in the “wrong direction” and 91 percent have a “negative or very negative” view of the School Board. By contrast, 93 percent of teachers surveyed have a “positive or very positive” view of the school where they teach.
Here’s the survey as a pdf: Wake_Teacher_Survey.pdf
Program is below the fold:
The program:
AGENDA: Costs & Consequences: What’s at Stake for Wake?
Registration and Coffee: 8:00amSession I: Introduction and Overview
Introduction, Forum Overview
Yevonne Brannon
Welcome
Irma McClaurin
How Quality Public Schools Build a Thriving Community
Tom BradshawSession II: A Tale of Two Systems: Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Wake County Schools
Video: A Look Just Down the Road
Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools: The Experience & Lessons of Resegregation
John Chesser
Why Balanced Schools?Good for Student Achievement, Good for Long-Term Student Outcomes
Amy Hawn Nelson
Good for Our Wallets
Tom OxholmSession III: Panel Discussion
Panel Participants: Tom Bradshaw, John Chesser, Amy Hawn Nelson, Tom Oxholm
Session IV: Teachers: Costs & Consequences in the ClassroomThe High Price of High Poverty, or You Couldn’t Pay Me Enough to Teach There
Helen Ladd
Preliminary Results From a Survey of WCPSS Teachers
Tama Bouncer
Session V: Panel Discussion
Panel Participants: Helen Ladd, Tama Bouncer, Allynna Stone
Session VI: Where Do We Go From Here?
Getting Us Back on Course
Jim Goodmon