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In North Carolina, school districts are designated by county. The colored areas on the map represent the three counties in the Triangle Region - Durham, Orange, and Wake. You can see from the map, the relative location of the five major cities in the Triangle Region.
Below is a brief description of the three county school districts - Wake County, Orange County, and Durham County - and one independent school district - Chapel Hill/Carrboro.
Wake County
The Wake county Public School system offers a wide variety of educational choices among its 108 schools. in addition to its highly successful year-round schools, the district provides traditional and modified-calendar magnet schools offering a host of programmatic themes.
The state's second largest school system is generally recognized as one of the country's top-performing urban school districts and one of the fastest growing. Today, nearly 92,000 students attend the district's 108 schools, which include 70 elementary, 20 middle, 13 high and five alternative schools. To accommodate the influx of new students, the district is building new schools and renovating many existing schools. in fact, seven brand-new schools will open in 1999-2000 alone.
The Wake school system is working hard to acheive a high goal - that by 2000, 95 percent of all students will acheive at or above grade level as measured by the orth Carolina End of Grade tests at grades 3 and 8. The district has just received a quality leadership advancement award for its work in continuing improvement and customer service. In 1998, nearly 4,000 students graduated from Wake's high schools and nearly 85percent are pursuing postsecondary education.
Also in Wake County, several new publicly funded charter schools opened their doors in 1997. For more information about them, call 919/715-1036.
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Durham
Durham Public Schools is a district focused on student achievement. Its vision is to ensure that all students achieve at their highest potential regardless of race, gender or socioeconomic status and that each student make continuous progress and be at or above grade level.
By focusing on student achievement, 22 of the 41 Durham Public Schools that participated in the state's ABC accountability program for 1997-1998 received Exemplary Performance status. SAT scores were at the highest level even, exceeding the NC average, and students acheived better than ever on every measure of academic performance.
Durham Public Schools believes that academic success occurs one student at a time. In order to meet the educational needs of the district's 29,000 students - who represent approximately 80 different nationalities - DPS offers a variety of high-quality programs, school settings and teaching strategies. Magnet, year-round, lab, and alternative schools, centers of specialization in each high school, International Baccalaureate programs and a hospital school provide options for students.
Systemwide programs such as services for academically gifted, Exceptional Children and Limited English Proficient provide additional support to meet students' needs. Each school also has flexibility to employ different instructional strategies. Among schools, you'll find differences in themes, schedules and teacher collaboration. Using these many approaches and options, DPS is commited to providing each student the unique combination he/she needs to be successful.
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Chapel Hill/Carrboro
This school system ranks first in the state for SAT scores. in fact, the average SAT score is 1188 - more than 170 points higher than the national average, 1017.
More than 8500 students are enrolled in this system, which includes 13 schools. The system has the state's highest ranking end-of-grade tests for grades 3 through 8 and the highest end-of-course test results for high school.
All elementary and middle schools have been designated as exemplary and as either schools of excellence or schools of distinction by the state Department of Public Instruction. One middle school and one elelmentary school are among the top 24 schools in the state in terms of student achievement. More than 90 percent of the studetns at Glwnwood Elementary School and McDougle Middle School are proficient on end-of-grade tests in reading, math and writing.
A new elementary school for grades K-5 at Southern Village and a 500-student addition at East Chaprel Hill High School will open in 1999-2000.
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Orange County
From offices in the historic town of Hillsborough, the Orange County School District oversees six elementary schools, two middle schools and one highs chool serving 6100 students. Of these, Hillsborough Elementary gives K-5 students a chance to pursue their education year-round. Sixth- and seventh-graders also have the choice of a year-round program.
The district and the community at large are cooperating in a strategic planning effort to define objectives for the schools through 2005. A new high school and elementary school are being built, a new Academically Gifted plan expands the number of students who can take part, and efforts to teach reading, writing and mathematics across the curriculum continue.
SAT scores for high schoolers continue to climb as the entire school community sets higher and more rigorous academic standards for students.
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