Tuesday, May 21, 2013, 7:31 pm
Schools under the OPSB serve a disproportionately low number of students with disabilities. The city average is 9.9% special education students, but OPSB schools (charter and traditional combined) serve 6.6%. OPSB charters serve only 5.49% while RSD charters serve 11.1%.
Even OPSB’s open-admission charter schools are significantly under-serving special education students.
OPSB receives a lump sum based on the total number of students with disabilities in the city. It then distributes the money among its schools as if each individual school had the average 9.9% special education enrollment. That means some OPSB schools are getting much more than their fair share of special education dollars, while other schools aren’t getting enough.
Read more in this article in the Times-Picayune:
Special education enrollment numbers show Orleans Parish School Board charters lagging
View the list of schools and special education enrollment:
Tuesday, May 21, 2013, 5:41 pm
In this Edition of In the News:
- Choice Updates
- Session Status
- National Headlines
- Local News
Choice Updates
Shakeout from school voucher ruling by Louisiana Supreme Court begins
Times-Picayune - May 15, 2013
The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that using the MFP to fund vouchers and Course Choice is unconstitutional, which means the state has to find another way to pay for the programs. Andrew Vanacore suggests that with 8,000 vouchers students already signed up for this coming school year, legislators will probably approve voucher funding for 2013-14. After that, the programs’ future is uncertain. As for Course Choice, Superintendent John White says his department plans to go ahead with the program next year and fund the $2.1 million through his own department budget.
Read More »
Monday, May 6, 2013, 12:24 pm
In this edition of In the News:
- Boomtown New Orleans
- BGR Releases Report on OPSB Finances
- Rethinking the High School to College Transition
- Common Core Updates
- National Education Stories
- Louisiana Headlines
- Local News
Boomtown New Orleans
The Top 12 American Boomtowns
Bloomberg - April 24, 2013
According to Bloomberg Rankings, New Orleans is one of America’s fastest growing cities. The New Orleans metropolitan area – New Orleans, Metairie, Kenner – was ranked #2 for population increase combined with growth in real GDP. New Orleans came in after Austin in the rankings but beat out Raleigh and Houston for the #2 spot.
Read More »
Monday, April 29, 2013, 11:10 pm
There has been much discussion about how folks really view education reforms in New Orleans. Last week, Tulane’s Cowen Institute released a 2013 public opinion poll providing data that replaces pure speculation with poll results on how voters feel about key issues.
Key Findings
Voters agreed more than they disagreed, reflecting consensus on some key points:
- Support for school choice for families, with only 21% wanting a return to neighborhood schools;
- Replacing operators of low-performing schools with charter operators who have demonstrated success (65%);
- The need for the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) to make structural and operational changes before schools are returned (65%), with a strong preference (41%) for a local school board with a mix of elected and appointed members; only 16% of voters believe OPSB as currently structured should have oversight of all charter schools.
- While black and white voters disagreed on when to return schools, the majority (55%) feel return should be in the more distant future (3-5 years) or never.
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Read More »
Monday, April 22, 2013, 11:52 am
In this edition of In the News:
- New Orleans and Innovation
- Education Nation Comes to New Orleans
- Louisiana Headlines
- National Education Stories
- Local News
New Orleans and Innovation
The Big Comeback: Is New Orleans America’s Next Great Innovation Hub?
Atlantic Monthly - April 8, 2013
New Orleans had a choice after Katrina – curl into a wet grave; rebuild as it was; or reinvent itself. Today the city has become a hub of innovation and an incubator for new entrepreneurs. This choice reveals both the tantalizing allure, and the deep challenges, of reinventing a city.
Can a ‘Moneyball’ Approach Turn Around New Orleans Schools?
National Journal - April 13, 2013
A strong focus on student data and analytics is one way schools like Sci Academy are changing public education in New Orleans. The challenge going forward is to build on the city’s successes – improved test scores, a graduation rate on par with the national average – while addressing tough challenges, including services for children with disabilities and not enough high-quality schools.
TFA Alumni Aid New Teachers in New Orleans
Education Week - April 19, 2013
The influx of new, inexperienced teachers to New Orleans schools continues to spark debate between those who point to significant gains in student performance as a sign of success and those who see high teacher turnover and attrition rates as indicators of failure. Two TFA alums started a support group called the New Teachers’ Roundtable to help new teachers cope with their experiences and understand their role in this city’s history and schools.
Read More »
Thursday, April 11, 2013, 5:06 pm
The state has released the four-year cohort graduation rates for 2012, and the news is good for New Orleans.
The combined graduation rate for all New Orleans public schools rose to 77.8%.
Four-Year Cohort Graduation Rate by District
New Orleans = OPSB, RSD, charter and traditional schools
- The New Orleans graduation rate of 77.8% compares well to the rest of the country. According to the U.S. Department of Education report released in November, in 2011 the national average graduation rate for African American students was 60%, and the national average for white students was 76%.
- In New Orleans, public school enrollment is 88% African American, 6% white and 6% other.
- New Orleans outperformed the state of Louisiana (72.3%).
- New Orleans also outperformed Shreveport (63.4%) Baton Rouge (66%) and Jefferson Parish (70.4%).
- RSD-New Orleans is among the most-improved districts, going from a graduation rate of 58.8% in 2011 to 67.7% in 2012.
- RSD-New Orleans ranks #49, outperforming Baton Rouge and Shreveport. The RSD took over the worst performing high schools in the state. This progress in just a few years is remarkable.
- OPSB has the highest graduation rate in the state, although it dropped from 93.8% in 2011 to 89.3% in 2012.
Read More »
Monday, April 8, 2013, 12:55 pm
In this edition of In the News:
Common Core is Coming
Louisiana overhauling teaching goals, standardized tests in effort to raise the bar for students
Times-Picayune - March 22, 2013
This article gives a good overview of the major changes coming as Louisiana raises the education bar again, implementing the new, national set of education standards called the Common Core. To help students meet the new goals, textbooks must be ordered, computers upgraded, lesson plans updated, and new tests developed. Louisiana has joined 22 states in using the PARCC tests for English and math, which will be much more rigorous than the current LEAP tests. The tests won’t go into effect until late 2014, but teachers will start teaching to the new standards this fall. Educators are encouraged to look at the PARCC sample items and prototypes to help them prepare.
Editor’s note: New York and Georgia are ahead of Louisiana in developing their new curricula, and both states are offering all of their materials for free online. Visit EngageNY.org or GeorgiaStandards.org for more information.
Read More »
Friday, December 14, 2012, 6:45 pm
The state has released enrollment data for New Orleans public schools, which includes all OPSB schools, RSD New Orleans schools and the city’s Type 2 charter schools. As of October 1, 2012:
- 84% of New Orleans public school students attend charter schools, up from 78% last year and 71% in 2010. New Orleans has a greater percentage of students in charter schools than anywhere else in the country. Detroit and the District of Columbia come in a distant second with just over 40% in charters. The national average is 4%.
- Enrollment increased for the 6th consecutive year to 43,540 students, up 1,626 students from last year and a 70% increase from 2006, the first full year after Katrina. Additionally, another 2,440 New Orleans students are receiving publicly funded vouchers to attend private or parochial schools. This increase in enrollment likely means the city’s population continues to grow. Read More »
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 8:51 am
In this Edition of In the News:
- Resurgent New Orleans
- News from the OPSB
- Latest on LA Education Reforms
- BESE Approves MFP for 2013-14
- National Education Stories
- Local News
- Announcement: Grant Funds Available
Resurgent New Orleans
New Orleans reached 81 percent of pre-Katrina population in 2012, Census figures show
Times-Picayune - March 14, 2013
New Orleans continues to grow and, according to the latest Census data, was at 81% of the city’s pre-Katrina population as of July 1, 2012. The New Orleans metropolitan area was in the top 25 counties for growth – the only urban center in that group. This growth includes a new influx of professionals to the city – from recent graduates to entrepreneurs to seasoned corporate professionals. Read more about the resurgence of New Orleans in this Times-Picayune article.
Read More »
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 9:28 am
OPSB President Ira Thomas could be violating state law by holding a seat on the Orleans Parish School Board while also working for the state.
Thomas has served on the Orleans Parish School Board for the past four years. He has been Police Chief for Southern University at New Orleans for three and a half years. By holding both positions, he may be violating Louisiana’s Dual Office Holding and Dual Employment Law.
The law states: “No person holding an elective office in a political subdivision of this state shall at the same time hold another elective office or full-time appointive office in the government of this state or in the government of a political subdivision thereof. No such person shall hold at the same time employment in the government of this state, or in the same political subdivision in which he holds an elective office.”
Read more about Thomas and what might happen next in The Lens.
Update 3-19-13: Board President Ira Thomas said he will seek the opinion of the state Attorney General on whether it is legal for him to be both the board President and an employee of Southern University at New Orleans, where he directs security.
Monday, March 4, 2013, 9:55 am
In this edition of In the News:
