"Comments from the public: John Baldino, Blue Ridge Uniserv director, urged the board to be mindful of the workers at the bottom when they go into their budget discussions. He would like every employee to be paid a living wage.

Harley Miles, supervisor of assessment, gave a long presentation, with tons of PowerPoint graphs, most of which were on a multi-page handout. He had an interesting illustration, not in the handout, of how adequate yearly progress, AYP, is determined for each school: It showed a grid of on-off switches, each representing AYP in participation or in performance for English and math for every subgroup in the school-whites, blacks, Latinos, ESL students, economically disadvantaged students, etc.-so that the grid had 28 switches. If even ONE of the switches is in the "off' position (that is, AYP is not achieved) then the entire school is judged as not making AYP. Furthermore, according to the No Child Left Behind law (NCLB), the benchmark for AYP goes up by four percentage points each year, until it reaches 100% in 2013. [This is insane! In 2013, all children will have to participate and pass everything, or the school is not adequate!]

So, if you look at the results, Johnson School did not make AYP because African-American students and disadvantaged students did not reach the benchmark in English. Walker School did not make AYP because economically disadvantaged students missed the mark in math. Buford did not make AYP because of. .. several things. And the entire school system does not make AYP if even one school does not make AYP. Johnson, Walker, and Buford must now revise their two-year improvement plan; Walker and Buford must institute "additional corrective action" approved by the school board.

The rest of the graphs in the handouts speak for themselves. He showed some bar graphs not included in the handout, which compared disadvantaged black students to disadvantaged white students and nondisadvantaged blacks to non-disadvantaged whites, in a number of areas. In nearly all of them, white students score better than blacks.

Data on SAT and AP tests was presented and included in the handouts. In 2006, 172 students at CHS took 397 AP exams in 22 subjects (a huge number of AP classes, considering that CHS is a comprehensive HS, not a magnet school). 88% of the scores were 3 or higher; 34% were 5's, the highest score.

Ed Gillaspie presented data on student enrollment and demographics, all of which are in a handout. Bottom line: the city system this year is 43% white and 47% black, with wide disparities among the elementary schools; 44% live with two parents, while 46% live with mother only; 51% get free or reduced-price lunches. All of these data-filled slides are available on the website, someone said." (Liz Kutchai, LWV Newsletter, November, 2006)