Advocacy
Every day in Wake County, a new kindergarten class is born. With nearly 160,000 public school students in Wake County alone, the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) is larger than the entire public school systems of eight U.S. states.
In our rapidly growing county – home to the state capital, Research Triangle Park, and diverse communities – state-level advocacy is not enough. Wake County requires a local leader to speak up for our unique needs.
WakeEd Partnership exists to ensure an advocate for all WCPSS teachers sees the full scope of education in our county and works to help state and local elected officials make decisions that lead to positive educational outcomes.
Public Policy Agenda
Strong Schools in Every Community
- Provide adequate state and local public education funding which ensures every school has the proper staff, supplies, and support to produce high-achieving students from pre-kindergarten through high school graduation.
- Formulate equitable school performance reports which are simple but comprehensive, tools for demonstrating effectiveness and areas for growth.
- Address performance inequities among schools by giving local education authorities the flexibility to innovate at the district and school building levels.
Excellent Educators in Every School
- Strengthen the career pipeline by reducing impediments to licensure, developing educational leaders, and providing competitive compensation throughout the professional continuum.
- Invest in professional development programs which build capacity of educators to adapt to emerging best practices and dynamic teaching methods.
- Create advanced teaching roles which inspire teachers to lead within their school communities by adopting structures of advanced responsibility.
Successful Students in Every Classroom
- Ensure equal access for students to an education which includes arts, sciences, engineering, technology, mathematics, and literature, which prepares students for college, career, and civic participation.
- Promote literacy initiatives which ensure all students will read proficiently by the end of third grade and beyond.
- Diversify student evaluation to include multiple measurement methods which capture the full growth of students each school year.
2019-20 Legislative Policies
Strong Schools in Every Community
- Adequate funding for school operations
- Restore flexibility to allotment categories
- Provide funding to meet K-3 class size requirements
- Modify the state school calendar law
- Align high schools to the post-secondary calendar
- Eliminate statutory school year end date
- Adjust school grading formula
- Remove F grade
- Properly weight achievement and growth
Excellent Educators in Every School
- Funding for professional development
- Invest in programs which improve educators’ abilities to innovate instruction
- Teacher pay raise
- Reach national average
- Restore Master’s pay and annual step increases on all salary schedules
- Expand, fund, and make permanent the Advanced Teaching Roles legislation
- Principals pay raise and salary schedule enhancements
- Provide incentives for the best principals to work at low performing schools
- Appropriate pay for support staff
- Instructional assistants, bus drivers, child nutrition staff, and clerical staff
Successful Students in Every Classroom
- Promote universal literacy
- Embed early literacy practices to improve grade-level reading proficiency
- Fund local programs which show promise
- Significantly and permanently increase funding for student support services
- School-based social workers, counselors, psychologists, and nurses
- Restore funding for learning materials such as textbooks and digital resources
- Ensure local school district choice in which materials to purchase
- Revise testing requirements
- Utilize flexibility of ESSA to modify NC’s state testing requirements
In-Context Archive
10 November 2020
Econonimst: WCPSS Provides Significant Economic Impact
A new report titled, “The Economic Impact the Wake County Public School System” released by WakeEd Partnership...
06 October 2020
How COVID-19 has exacerbated existing public school needs
Returning to in-person instruction for WCPSS students and staff is the most difficult policy decision...
06 April 2020
WCPSS Response to COVID-19 An Example of Masterful Leadership
The response by Wake County Public School System to the COVID-19 pandemic is a masterclass in leadership...
05 February 2020
Attrition Report Ignores Serious ‘Brain Drain’ Among K-12 Teachers
According to a report about teacher attrition prepared for the State Board of Education this week, the...
21 November 2019
Boosting Hourly Pay is One Way to Ease School Bus Driver Shortage
For most people, the yellow school bus has a straightforward purpose: to get kids to and from school...
29 October 2019
Even in large organizations like WCPSS focusing on finer details contributes to overall success
It can be easy to overlook details that tell a larger story while running a $1.6 billion organization...
25 September 2019
Desegregation Efforts Taking an Important New Direction in WCPSS Schools
Wake County has been a national leader for its desegregation efforts for more than 40 years, and the...
27 August 2019
MVP Math = content + skills: A formula for workforce readiness and student success
There’s a common theme that comes through frequently as WakeEd interacts with dozens of business leaders...
25 June 2019
Wake’s Leaders Chose Wisely with New Tax Rate
This year’s Wake County tax increase was a big step in the direction of adequate funding because state...
22 May 2019
WCPSS is No Longer the Top Driver of Tax Increases in Wake County
This year’s budget process has marked a turning point in the discussion about local education funding....
WakeEdge Archive
15 March 2021
The post-pandemic three R’s of education: Recover, restore, and rebuild
Amid all the discussions about getting kids back into the classrooms there has been little focus of what...
09 April 2020
WakeEd Board of Directors: Schools need support and flexibility during COVID-19
[et_pb_section fb_built=\”1\” admin_label=\”section\” _builder_version=\”3.22\”][et_pb_row...
16 December 2019
Investing in Education is A Choice, Not An Invoice
The 25-year lawsuit to improve education funding in North Carolina reached a major milestone last week...
05 November 2019
National Reading Scores Show NC Literacy Instruction Needs Improvement
The disappointing news last week that the state’s overall reading proficiency of fourth graders has dropped...
11 September 2019
Stagnant School Performance Reveals It’s Time For A Change
The North Carolina school performance grades released last week continue to tell the same stories across...
12 July 2019
A 15-Point Win for School Report Cards
A bill on its way to the governor for signature will prevent a major upheaval in the way school performance...
06 May 2019
County Manager David Ellis Proposes $36.5 million more for WCPSS
In his second budget as county manager, David Ellis proposed a 6.36-cent tax increase that would send...
10 September 2018
WakeEd Board Adopts Resolution Supporting the WCPSS Bond Referendum
The Board of Directors of WakeEd Partnership through its President, Steve Parrott, today announces the...
21 June 2018
Belt-Tightening Forcing Tough Choices for WCPSS
The Wake County Public School System is preparing for the 2018-19 school year by looking at ways to reduce...
22 May 2018
WakeEd Board Approves Resolution Supporting Additional Funding for WCPSS for 2018-19
The WakeEd Board of Directors has adopted a formal resolution in support of increased funding for Wake...
More about WakeEd
Learn more about the Wake Education Partnership.