In Context

WakeEd’s In Context newsletter is a monthly deep-dive into education issues impacting the Wake County Public School System.

A new report titled, “The Economic Impact the Wake County Public School System” released by WakeEd Partnership and Wake County Public School System, in collaboration with NC State University, assesses the value-add of the state’s largest school district to its region, and the results are good for taxpayers and WCPSS graduates alike.

Three Ways to Improve North Carolina School Report Cards

Sep 24, 2018

The recent release of the North Carolina public school performance report cards is a timely reminder that school grading is here to stay, so our state has a responsibility to make sure the formula is adequate and the grading system is equitable. North Carolina’s...

Law of Averages: There Are Better Ways to Measure Teacher Salaries Than State or National Averages

Aug 22, 2018

With the election season on the doorstep, it is reasonable to think that public school funding will be among the top issues raised at candidate forums, and specifically teacher pay will be one issue that is likely to receive the lion’s share of attention. Teacher pay...

Class Size Relief is Welcome, But Tough Choices Still Loom

Feb 14, 2018

The class size reduction compromise passed by the General Assembly this week is a mixed bag for local school districts. Among the positive outcomes are a multi-year approach to reducing class sizes, adding funding for program enhancement teachers, and eliminating the waiting list for pre-kindergarten classes.

School-Based Administrators Get Small Raise; Pay Scale Overhaul Coming

Jul 11, 2016

While teacher pay has dominated the headlines and discussion school school-based administrators have waited even longer for salary increases. Principals and assistants principals have not seen any meaningful salary scale adjustments and pay rate ranks 50th in the...

WCPSS May Join Forces With YMCA and Wake Tech On New Schools

Jun 26, 2016

The Wake County School Board agreed to partner with two organizations that will bring a new partnership and expand an existing one to help build more community responsive schools. In two separate agreements, WCPSS will join forces with the YMCA to open an elementary...

Schools, County Agree to 7-year School Building Plan

Jun 26, 2016

A new era of school construction planning is here. The Wake County Board of Education and the Wake County Board of Commissioners have agreed, after a year of intense collaboration, to a 7-year school construction plan that will keep school construction moving along...

WCPSS Considers Cuts After County Funding Falls Short of Proposal

Jun 26, 2016

With no fat in the WCPSS operating budget, the only thing left to cut is muscle. Last week’s Wake County Commission vote to approve its 2016-17 budget left an $11.8 million deficit in next year’s proposed school district operating budget, which had planned for a $35.7...

Eleventh-hour Bill Proposes Changes to High School Math Standards

Jun 14, 2016

Just as the State Board of Education was set to approve revisions to the high school math standards, Sen. Jerry Tillman introduced a bill to switch the sequence of math instruction altogether. What’s at stake is the difference between the ways in which high school...

Education Budgets Update

Jun 14, 2016

The state and local budget processes are in their final stages, and there’s a great deal at stake on their final versions. Locally, there’s concern that over the difference between what the schools are requesting and what the county is offering. At the state level...

WCPSS to Stop Naming Valedictorians

Jun 14, 2016

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

May 2, 2016

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

May 2, 2016

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...