NC Policy Watch has a preview of director Chris Fitzsimon’s interview — to air this Sunday on NC Justice Center’s News and Views — with Wake Education Partnership’s new president, Steve Parrott.

Parrott stresses student achievement levels as the basis for modifying student assignment plans.

I think it’s a mistake to knowingly go into student assignment and automatically create a school environment where we know going in that most of the kids that we’re sending there are at or below grade-level. … it’s one thing if, after the fact, you identify that you have a school that’s maybe not performing where you would like it and you want to target specialized resources to that, but I don’t think we should create that environment going in. I think that is something you observe and monitor after the fact, but I think what we need to do through using the student-achievement principle on the front end, is make sure that we’re getting an environment where we have a mixture, a diverse mixture, of students that are above grade-level, and at or below, and not really looking at factors like, you know, income level or race or ethnicity or anything like that. But let’s look at student achievement as the factor, which really builds equity. All students are viewed the same and have an equal opportunity.

The preview video:

(Image: YouTube/TheProgressivePulse)