Yesterday, Yevonne Brannon, Chair of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition (GSIW), circulated talking points about the “blue” and “green” student assignment plans presented to the public by Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata and his staff.  Great Schools in Wake has been a stalwart proponent of Wake County’s busing policy.  Members of the group seem to prefer the “green” plan, which limits parental choice and assigns students based on the traditional “node” system.

On page 3 of the talking points, Brannon comments,

(B[lue Plan]) Low-performing areas will be identified by calculating the average of the prior three years’ proficiency rate for all students living in each area. For students in grades 4-12 who will have participated in the state’s testing program, this priority determination could switch to using each student’s individual achievement status rather than using the historical performance of her/his area of residence as a proxy. This condemns students in grades K-3 to a single “ranking” based upon where they live, and likely whether they live in poverty or not.  I hope WCPSS is ready for another OCR [Office of Civil Rights] complaint. (Emphasis in original.)

This is unfortunate.  Wake County school officials and citizens are engaged in a fruitful discussion about the two assignment plans and GSIW is already talking about another OCR complaint.