County School System Highlights Bigger Issue

Articles in the Bertie Ledger-Advance and Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald mention Lindalyn Kakadelis‘s contribution to the Save Our Schools
(SOS) fight waging in Bertie County.  At issue is the recommended
closing of three of the best performing elementary schools in the
county at the behest of the county’s School Board, citing a 37-year-old
desegregation case.  Here, and nationwide, those in power look to
the make-up of the classroom and not its performance outcomes when they
seek reform.  In Bertie, it’s race.  But the same argument
has been made for class size.  Terry Stoops, in an interview with WPTF’s Bill LuMaye, points out that smaller class size doesn’t affect student achievement.  Scott Mooneyham in the Sanford Herald,
took issue with Stoops’s analysis.  One reason that the issue of
class size is of interest is because a portion of the education
lottery’s revenue will go to Easley’s class-size reduction initiative,
a point made by John Hood on WTVD Channel 11 and WLFL Fox 22.