In Context
WakeEd’s In Context newsletter is a monthly deep-dive into education issues impacting the Wake County Public School System.
WCPSS to Stop Naming Valedictorians
People like to know who is number one. So there’s no surprise that many people were upset when the Wake County Board of Education last week approved a new policy which prohibited the naming of valedictorians and salutatorians at all of the district’s high schools. In...
WCPSS Seeks Flexibility for Traditional Calendar Schools
Some things that should be easy turn out to be unnecessarily complicated. That’s what the WCPSS Board of Education is experiencing as it tries to set the traditional school calendar each year. In 2011, the General Assembly passed a law that limited the traditional...
Crossroads Flex: A New Type of High School For Today’s Students
Studies of high school drop-outs have long shown that a significant number of students who leave high school before graduation do it because they can no longer attend school during the regular school day. WCPSS, like all other school districts, has not been able to...
Setting a Baseline for Instructional Technology
Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) 2013 provides $26.5 million for instructional technology and $38.4 million for technology infrastructure. Improvements to infrastructure will include a reworking of wireless and network capacities that will make possible 1:1 (one to one)...
The Ten-Point Grading Scale – Coming to a High School Transcript Near You
The last time you submitted assignments and received grades was likely in college or graduate school. And most colleges and graduate schools award grades on a ten-point grading scale. That same grading scale has been adopted by the State Board of Education for NC’s...
Magnet School Expansion
Five new schools will get magnet school status and will join slate of thirty-four that WCPSS currently offers. Broughton High and Daniels Middle will return to magnet status. These two schools had magnet designation in the past, but both lost magnet programs in...
Vernon Malone College and Career Academy Will Add Ninth Grade
A freshman class will join the student body of the Vernon Malone College and Career Academy for the 2015-2016 school year. WCPSS staff recommended adding the ninth grade to the school's grade span during the October 7th Board of Education work session, and the Board...
School Enrollment Plan – Second Draft
Changes have been made to the School Enrollment Plan first released by WCPSS staff back in August. They reflect feedback that was provided by the community. And let’s just say that the community did a great job of providing that feedback. Senior Director Laura Evans...
A Final Budget Adopted
A final budget was presented to, and adopted by, the Board of Education for the 2014-2015 school year. As discussed in a prior edition of In Context, the district faced an overall reduction in state funding of $1.5 million. With legislative teacher raises other...
Shift in Budget Approach: Continuation Versus Base
We’ve written about this before, but a second look is worth taking. In this past legislative session, a change was made in how the biennial state budget will be prepared. In past years, state agencies were able to prepare a continuation budget that reflected...
Driver’s Education Funding: Dead End Ahead
One of the many responsibilities that school districts have in North Carolina is to provide Driver’s Education to students. The responsibility includes all students in a county, which includes those attending private, charter, or home-based schools. WCPSS Chief...
Teacher Supplement Pay – A Differentiated Approach
The Board of Education unanimously voted to request an additional $3.75 million in funding from the Wake County Commissioners that has been reserved for teacher supplemental pay. County commissioners made the offer back during budget negotiations as a local effort to...
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WakeEd Partnership
3101 Industrial Drive, Suite 100
Raleigh, NC 27609 | (919) 821-7609