Wake County Schools staff will get together this week to begin discussing a way forward on the controversial issue of student assignment. Superintendent Tony Tata is convening a special task force that will develop a new plan.
The members of the task force have their work cut out for them – find a plan a divided school board and community can get behind.
Much of their work will be focused on dissecting the plan offered by the Wake Education Partnership and the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce.
The plan, developed by education consultant Michael Alves, has four “pillars”: stability, choice, proximity, and student achievement. The last pillar, student achievement, uses student test scores to diversify schools, instead of race or socio-economic status.
Tata has told the Wake School Board he hopes to have a first draft of a new plan to them by late spring.