News
WakeEd Wednesdays
WakeEd Wednesdays is a video series produced to simplify many of the complexities of North Carolina’s largest school district, the Wake County Public School System. With more than 180 schools, 160,000 students, and 11,000 teachers, WCPSS has a major impact on all Wake County residents regardless of whether they have children enrolled in the schools.
SummerSTEM: A Hot Spot for Learning and Networking
As a pre-service teacher, I went into SummerSTEM unsure of what I might gain from the experience. The two-week program immersed more than 100 educators from 50 Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) K-12 schools in local STEM companies to improve project-based...
WakeEd Insight – July Edition
I’m pleased to announce that our annual Stars of Education Dinner/Gala, presented this year by PNC, will take place on October 12 at the Raleigh Marriott City Center. This event celebrates and honors educators, business volunteers and community leaders who form the...
Meet the Investors: UNC Rex Healthcare
UNC REX Healthcare supports WakeEd Partnership because the vitality of our market, Wake County – and our own success as a major employer and recruiter of talent – depend upon quality, effective public schools. As the son of a long-time public school teacher in Forsyth...
Math Standards Bill Dies, Achievement School Districts Bill Awaits McCrory’s Signature
There were two items that WakeEd was following in the short legislative session that we haven’t written about in a while. The first is the H657 bill, known as the Math Standards bill, and the second is H1080, the Achievement School Districts bill. The Math...
WCPSS Considers Its Options to Get To A Balanced Budget
By Margaret Leak, WakeEd Summer Intern Frustration. Disappointment. Aggravation. These were the emotions that were flying in the wake of the final state budget. Even though there were more dollars added to the budget this year for teacher salaries, it wasn’t...
Legislative Session Ends with Bang and Fizzle
Members of the General Assembly called this year’s legislative session “short,” but it was anything other than short when considering the number of education reforms addressed. Some passed, some failed. Either way, there’s harbingers for what’s ahead in next year’s...
Teacher Compensation Scale Adjusted, Performance Bonuses Added
In recent years, attempts to modify the teacher compensation scale have adjusted the scale in unfavorable ways. The most recent was to have salary plateaus so that teachers would only see an experience raise once every five years, unless the legislature adjusted the...
General Assembly Adds Flexibility to Teacher Preparation and Hiring
The budget also made attempts to address the growing teacher shortage by implementing a new Local Alternative Teacher Preparation Program, and by granting districts the ability to hire adjunct Career and Technical Education faculty. Lateral entry has been a way for...
School-Based Administrators Get Small Raise; Pay Scale Overhaul Coming
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
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
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
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...
Education in 2030
There’s a good chance that the careers today’s 4-year-olds will have don’t exist now, but when they graduate high school in 2030, they will need to possess the skills of those careers regardless. "(The future) will require more than just a multiple choice...
How fast is “fast?” A Teacher Innovation Grant Story
It’s a question special education teachers at Hilburn Academy have to answer every year. How do you teach elementary school students with disabilities the concept of “fast?”   The challenge is that for many students with disabilities, going fast is a secondary...
Meet Our Investors: Easter Maynard, ChildTrust Foundation
Think back to the first time you read a book on your own. Then recall the first book you really loved, maybe devouring it in one day or rereading it year after year. Now imagine you’d never had those experiences, never learned to read at a level that enabled you to...
Your Next Employee Is In Middle School
Think of your career ten years from now. You’ve received a promotion or two, increased your salary by more than 25 percent and now you’re in the corner office. You use your internal talent to steer your company to success. An internal talent force that will be...
Eleventh-hour Bill Proposes Changes to High School Math Standards
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
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
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...
WakeEd Insight – May Edition
It’s funny to think about ending something in May. We’re almost halfway through the calendar year, but, like many businesses, our fiscal year is coming to a close. As we look at spreadsheets and calculate numbers for next year, we also have to look back and ask...
Meet Our Investors: BB&T
My name is Gray Reed and I serve as the Triangle Region President for BB&T, a 144-year old North Carolina based financial services company that operates in 15 States and DC. I graduated from Broughton High School in 1979, along with my wife, and we have two...
SummerSTEM Ignites Innovation
A year ago, I applied to be a participant in a program called SummerSTEM. Little did I know that this decision would help to shape my future as an educator. I entered into this program thinking that I was an innovative teacher, but soon realized that I had much to...
Stars of Education Nominations Are Due
It’s hard to believe we are already knee deep in plans for Stars of Education. Our annual gala is just five months away. For the first time ever, a plated dinner will complement our evening to celebrate those who form the backbone of education in our community. You...
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...
Schools, County Officials Discuss School Construction
Financing school construction is a coordinated dance number with WCPSS and Wake County government as dance partners. But it will be difficult for WCPSS when other partners want to cut in. The WCPSS School Board and the Wake County Commissioners met in a joint session...
WAKE ED Insight – April Edition
Sitting on my deck this weekend, basking in the 70-degree temperatures; it hit me – what happened to winter? I blinked in February and now I’m staring at graduation invitations and Memorial Day pre-sales. That’s good for most of us that don’t like cold, but for WRAL...
Meet Our Investors: Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard
If there is one thing that attorneys everywhere understand very well, it is the power of a good education. Brooks Pierce considers it not only a privilege to partner with Wake Education Partnership, but a responsibility. For nearly 120 years, Brooks Pierce has been...
World Café: A Closer Look at One Company Impacting Two Local Schools
Lenovo is a company that “Never Stands Still.” This mindset translates to all aspects of the business, from sales, product development and marketing and even community outreach. With a headquarters in Morrisville, Lenovo is actively engaged locally with strong support...
How Teacher Innovation Makes A Difference
What may look easy now wasn’t at all when we came to WakeEd Partnership asking for a grant two years ago. Ballentine Elementary is a small school in southern Wake County. The school began using First LEGO League (FLL) four years ago to teach science, technology,...
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Raleigh, NC 27609 | (919) 821-7609
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WakeEd Partnership
3101 Industrial Drive, Suite 100
Raleigh, NC 27609 | (919) 821-7609