“Seeking Integration, Whatever the Path” by Michael Winerip
New York Times, February 27, 2011
Topic: Integration in the Wake County Public School System in North Carolina.
Summary: This school district has long been known for integration. Originally, this meant racial integration. After that was outlawed, the district went to integration based on socio-economics. Now there is a proposal from community leaders in the Chamber of Commerce to integrate schools based on achievement.
Intended audience: General public
Key Points:
- After race-based integration was outlawed in 2000, Wake County adopted socioeconomic integration.
- The integration plan was dismantled in 2009.
- New proposal (Mid-February 2011) suggests achievement based integration with a “70-30 mix – 70 percent of students who have scored proficient on state tests and 30 percent who are below grade level.”
- All the schools will be academically successful – Hurrah!
- Ultimately, the decision is up to the board; however, it has been received favorably by conservative and liberal members of the nine person board.
Relevance: This article was really interesting to me – what an innovative way to look at school integration! The article touches on issues of diversity that we have discussed student achievement, race, socioeconomics, and politics. I am interested to see how this idea plays out.
Note - Here is the clip from the Colbert Report mentioned in this article about the Wake County Schools issue:
