In the News: A Clipping Service – April 18, 2011

In this edition of In the News:

  • New Orleans in the National News
  • New Superintendent for the RSD
  • KIPP Study Causes Controversy
  • Local Education Stories
  • National Education News
  • State News

New Orleans in the National News

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Says He’s Inspired by New Orleans Schools
The Times-Picayune
– April 8, 2011
During his visit to New Orleans, Secretary Duncan called New Orleans the most improved school district in the country and our progress since Katrina “remarkable” and “stunning.”

Continue reading

Special Education Revisited

Who is Educating Students with Disabilities, and How Are They Doing?

In New Orleans public schools, students with special needs now represent 9.1% of the overall student population. If every school enrolled a proportionate share, students with disabilities would represent 9.1% of each school’s student body. But that is not the case.

Recovery School District (RSD) schools are serving a much larger share of special needs students than are OPSB schools.

District % of Student
Population
RSD (direct-run and charter) 10.2%
OPSB (direct-run and charter) 6.7%

RSD charters exceed the city average in their percentage of students with disabilities. Continue reading

In the News: A Clipping Service – April 4, 2011

In this edition of In the News:

  • New Orleans Dropout Rate Plummets
  • The State of the RSD
  • Local Education Stories
  • National Education News
  • Announcements

New Orleans Dropout Rate Plummets

New Orleans Dropout Rate Falls 31% in One Year; 50% since 2005
Educate Now!
– April 4, 2011
Good News! Schools in New Orleans are doing a better job keeping kids in school. From 2008-09 to 2009-10, the city’s dropout rate for 9th-12th graders fell 31%, going from 8.3% to 5.7%. Once again, New Orleans improved faster than the state: the dropout rate for New Orleans has fallen 50% in five years, while the state average has dropped 27%. Pre-Katrina, New Orleans had a dropout rate of 11.4%, one of the worst in the country. Continue reading

New Orleans Dropout Rate Plummets 31%

Schools doing a much better job keeping kids in school!

The dropout rate[1] for New Orleans public school 9th-12th graders (RSD and OPSB, charters and direct-run) fell 31% from 2008-09 to 2009-10, dropping from 8.3% to 5.7%.

Since 2005, New Orleans dropout rate has been cut in half.

Pre-Katrina, New Orleans had one of the worst dropout rates in Louisiana, and Louisiana had one of the worst dropout rates in the nation. In 2004-05, 11.4% of the city’s public high school students dropped out.

Since 2005, both New Orleans and Louisiana have improved, but New Orleans is improving at a much faster rate than the state.  The New Orleans dropout rate has fallen 50%, while the state’s rate has dropped 27%.

Translation:  More teens in school

Put in real terms, this improvement means over 300 more students stayed in school in Continue reading

The Return Model for School Governance

In 2010, Educate Now! convened a Task Force to consider long-term governance alternatives for New Orleans public schools.  In a series of meetings over several months, the members of the Task Force worked on how best to restore local control of public education without imperiling the considerable academic progress since 2005.

The Task Force determined that New Orleans requires a unique governance structure to manage the new “system of schools” that has evolved since Katrina. The structure that the Task Force recommended is called the Return Model.

The Return Model:  A New Approach to Governance for Schools in Orleans Parish

Interviews:  Leslie Jacobs Explains the Return Model

Comment on the Return Model

The Return Model report lays out the governance system that the Task Force recommended.  Not every detail is attended to, and Educate Now! expects and invites community debate that will further refine the model.