Education Week - October 3, 2012 - 8

EDUCATION WEEK

OCTOBER 3, 2012

www.edweek.org

Wake County, N.C., Board Fires Schools Superintendent
Board’s Democratic majority leads call for dismissal
By Jaclyn Zubrzycki
The Wake County, N.C., school board voted last week to dismiss Superintendent Anthony J. Tata, the latest flare-up in a long-running controversy involving a district that is nationally known for its bold school integration plans. Mr. Tata, a retired U.S. Army brigadier general, has led the 150,000-student district since January 2011. The 5-4 decision to fire him leaves the district without a permanent leader as it confronts instructional shifts, rapid population growth, and yet another anticipated shift in its closely watched integration efforts. But observers said the board’s action also has implications for the national conversation about student-assignment and integration plans and the role of partisan politics in school boards. Stephen Gainey, who had previously been the district’s assistant superintendent for human resources, will serve as the acting superintendent while the board conducts a national search for Mr. Tata’s successor. Mr. Tata will receive his annual salary of $253,625 for one year in exchange for terminating his contract before it expires in December 2014. The district, which has its headquarters in Cary, N.C., includes the city of Raleigh.

Leadership Style
The school board said Mr. Tata’s dismissal was not politically motivated, despite a vote that fell along party lines, with Democratic members leading the call for Mr. Tata to leave. While contentious, the dismissal did not come as a surprise to most of the county’s education community, said Tim Simmons, the vice president for communications of the Wake Education Partnership, a local advocacy organization. Mr. Tata, who was trained at the Broad Superintendents Academy, a foundation-backed program for aspiring district leaders, many from nontraditional backgrounds, is popular and built relationships in the community, Mr. Simmons said. But, he said, there was speculation after the 2011 board elections, in which Democratic members gained a majority, that the superintendent—appointed when Republicans had the edge—would be replaced. Boardelection ballots don’t include party labels, but members’ affiliations are widely known. The board downplayed talk of a new superintendent at the time, but board Chairman Kevin Hill said in a Sept. 26 press conference that circumstances had changed, and that the board’s majority had

lost confidence in Mr. Tata. Mr. Hill said he was concerned by claims that Mr. Tata’s leadership style did not allow for dissenting views and for teacher voices to be heard, and that, while Mr. Tata had bridged partisan divides early in his tenure, friction had built as time passed. Despite the intention that school board elections and decisions in North Carolina be nonpartisan, the current environment in the Wake County system is politically fractious, said Jacob L. Vigdor, a professor of public policy and economics at Duke University, in nearby Durham. He said that Mr. Tata’s selection by the previous board exemplifies what he sees as a more frequent tendency by school boards to try to bring rapid, politically motivated change in policies to their district as opposed to pursuing incremental change.

Implications for Integration
School integration efforts and student diversity are perpetually in the spotlight in Wake County, which drew national attention in 2000 for creating a school-assignment plan based on socioeconomics rather than race. That plan was dismantled, however, after Republicans gained control of the board in 2009, largely because of voter dissatisfaction with transportation issues and frequent changes in school assignments. The district

moved to choice-based school assignments in 2011-12. The current board, though, has put racial, economic, and academic diversity back on the front burner. It directed the district to create a new plan—the third in as many years—for 2013-14 that accounts for proximity, stability (that is, not continually reassigning students), and student achievement. District administrators proposed a plan that shifts back to linking students’ school assignments to their home addresses, while also factoring in student achievement, but the board’s Democrats worried that it didn’t go far enough to ensure diversity and equity. Mr. Tata’s dismissal was partly linked to the board’s lack of confidence that he would implement a plan that aligned with its priorities, according to John Brittain, a law professor at the University of the District of Columbia. Especially with constantly changing student-assignment plans, the management of transportation, construction, and logistics has proved to be a challenge in the rapidly growing school district. But Wake County’s transportation system was in turmoil this fall: After the district attempted to transport more students using fewer buses, stories of lost, late, and overcrowded buses hit the local newspapers, and the district’s chief operations officer, Donald Haydon Jr., resigned in mid-September.

WAKE COUNTY

DISTRICT AT A GLANCE
Total enrollment: 149,529 Number of schools: 169 Percent of students getting free and reduced-price meals: 33.3% Percent of white students: 49.3% Percent of African-American students: 24.7% Percent of Latino students: 15%
SOURCE: Wake County Public Schools

At a Sept. 25 press event, Mr. Tata thanked district staff for their service and cited a list of accomplishments, including academic gains for low-income high school students and a reduction in the number of schools where fewer than 70 percent of students scored below proficient on state tests. He turned away questions and said, in an email to Education Week, that he would not release any new statements to the press until this week.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.

BLOGS of the WEEK
| NEWS |

On Special Education

Student Move Doesn’t End Special Ed. Obligations
A federal court of appeals has ruled that when a student with disabilities moves out of state, that doesn’t absolve a school district from providing compensatory education services. In a ruling last month in D.F. vs. Collingswood Borough Board of Education, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia reversed a previous ruling that excused the New Jersey school district from making up for special education services a student missed when enrolled in that district. D.F. was a kindergartner in the district in the 2008-09 school year, but he had been identified as having a disability by another school district. Midway through the school year, D.F.’s mother filed a complaint, alleging that Collingswood wasn’t upholding its obligations to her son under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. By the end of the 200910 school year, the family had moved to Georgia, and an administrative law judge dismissed D.F.’s case as moot. The student’s mother complained that her son had been in a regular classroom without a personal aide for part of the school year, violating his education plan.

D.F. had been diagnosed as having adhd and oppositional defiant disorder, and although his cognitive abilities were at or above grade level, he threw objects, hit classmates, had temper tantrums, and ran away. In the school district where he had been diagnosed with disabilities, strategies outlined in a behavior-intervention plan had begun to improve his behavior. The Third Circuit said a “claim for compensatory education is not rendered moot by an out-of-district move, even if that move takes the child out of state.” But what does the ruling mean for Collingswood? The court said one way the district could provide this compensatory education is by establishing a fund that could be spent on D.F.’s education. The district could also pay D.F.’s new district or contract with a local provider in his new home to provide tutoring, counseling, or —NIRVI SHAH other support services.
| NEWS |

Curriculum Matters

Common Core Reaches Into Science, Survey Finds
The Common Core State Standards aren’t just changing instruction in math and English/language arts, new survey data suggest. They’re also finding their way into a lot of science classrooms. A majority of science teachers surveyed see some benefit coming out of this intersection, even as some worry that pressure to infuse science lessons with math and literacy takes time away from the core content of their disciplines. The data, collected by the National

Science Teachers Association, provide a glimpse into how the common core is affecting classrooms for grades 6-12. My favorite part of the survey asks teachers for open-ended responses. “Students have to improve their reading skills to find the reasons in the research to support their claims and evidence,” one teacher responded. “I am concerned that science may become another literacy block,” another lamented. The nsta data do not reflect a nationally representative sampling of science teachers. Even so, the results offer helpful clues as to what’s happening in schools. Nearly 400 science teachers from 34 states responded to the online survey. The ela standards appear to be reaching more science classrooms than the math standards, based on the data. Nearly two-thirds of science teachers said they’re being asked by administrators to devote class time to the section of the ela standards that covers reading in science and technical subjects, compared with about one-third who said the same of the new math standards. About the same proportion said the reading standards complement and improve science instruction “somewhat” or a “great deal.”
—ERIK W. ROBELEN

| NEWS |

Charters & Choice

Letter Warns Chief To Avoid Politics
An Atlanta lawyer is telling the state’s schools chief to stay out of politics—at least while in his current job.

State school Superintendent John Barge recently announced his opposition to a measure on the ballot this November that would create a state commission with the power to approve charter schools, over the objections of local districts. But lawyer Glenn A. Delk says Barge went a step too far in taking that public position. In a letter to Barge and a group of local school superintendents who have opposed the referendum, he argues that they are violating state law, which “clearly prohibits the use of school tax funds for any purpose other than the support and maintenance of public schools.” He says that Barge—an elected Republican who has angered some conservatives by opposing the measure— used public resources (like public stationary) in issuing statements and materials against the referendum, an amendment to the state’s constitution. Delk, a lawyer who has represented parents and others on school issues, said he was writing on behalf of several taxpayers, whom he declined to identify. He said he personally supports the referendum. If Barge and the local superintendents—from the Gwinnett, Atlanta, and Fulton school systems— don’t cease the activity, the lawyer says he’ll seek to stop them in court. Barge’s office is evidently taking that threat seriously. It declined comment, citing the possibility of litigation.
—SEAN CAVANAGH

To see all Education Week blogs, go to edweek.org/go/blogs.

http://www.edweek.org http://www.edweek.org/go/blogs

Education Week - October 3, 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - October 3, 2012