Education Success in Wake County

Today in America, none dare call schools that are 95% black, hispanic and/or poor, segregated. Yet in reality, that is what they are. Instead, we call them "diverse." Right. . .

But in Wake County, NC, educators and parents are attributing huge improvements in test scores among minority students to income-based integration. In this day of gated "communities", this is an encouraging example of how policy can positively impact all classes of society.

But the prime reason for the students' dramatic improvement, officials and parents say, is that the district has made a concerted effort to integrate the schools economically.

Since 2000, school officials have used income as a prime factor in assigning students to schools, with the goal of limiting the proportion of low-income students in any school to no more than 40 percent.

I wonder if school vouchers would help or hurt these statistics. One thing is for sure, were upper-income Wake county residents to separate their children by race, neighborhood, or economic status, statistics like this would be still be a pipe dream and not improvements topping any in the nation.

In Wake County, only 40 percent of black students in grades three through eight scored at grade level on state tests a decade ago. Last spring, 80 percent did. Hispanic students have made similar strides. Overall, 91 percent of students in those grades scored at grade level in the spring, up from 79 percent 10 years ago."