Educate Now! collected enrollment data for all New Orleans public schools. This unofficial October 1 student count shows:
Student enrollment is 42,198.
An increase of 2,321 students from last year and a 64% increase since 2006, the first full year after Katrina.
78% of New Orleans students now attend charter schools, up from 71% last year.
New Orleans Public Schools
October 1 Student Count (all students)
| Year |
OPSB Direct-Run |
OPSB Charter |
OPSB
Direct and
Charter |
RSD Direct-Run |
RSD Charter |
RSD
Direct and
Charter |
BESE
Type 2
Charter |
TOTAL |
% at Charter Schools |
| 2004 |
65,349 |
N/A |
65,349 |
N/A |
261 |
261 |
762 |
66,372 |
2% |
| |
| 2006 |
2,904 |
6,246 |
9,150 |
8,619 |
7,200 |
15,819 |
682 |
25,651 |
55% |
| 2007 |
2,630 |
7,089 |
9,719 |
11,608 |
10,040 |
21,648 |
782 |
32,149 |
56% |
| 2008 |
2,806 |
7,402 |
10,208 |
12,724 |
12,177 |
24,901 |
846 |
35,955 |
57% |
| 2009 |
2,773 |
7,606 |
10,379 |
11,933 |
14,821 |
26,754 |
918 |
38,051 |
61% |
| 2010 |
2,790 |
7,797 |
10,587 |
8,779 |
19,433 |
28,212 |
1078 |
39,877 |
71% |
| 2011 |
3,047 |
7,921 |
10,968 |
6,398 |
23,285 |
29,683 |
1,547 |
42,198 |
78% |
Sources: Louisiana Department of Education for October 1, 2004 through October 1, 2010 enrollment. The October 1, 2011 enrollment is self-reported by the RSD, OPSB and individual charter schools. Note: This chart does not include the Louisiana Virtual Charter Academy’s enrollment, since most of its students do not live in New Orleans.
Here are the results from the October 22 BESE elections:
District 1 (St. Tammany, most of Jefferson and some of New Orleans) incumbent Jim Garvey won reelection with 58% of the vote.
District 2 (New Orleans, Jefferson and the river parishes) incumbent Louella Givens received 31% of the vote and heads to a runoff with Kira Orange Jones, who leads with 39% of the vote.
District 3 (includes St. Bernard, Plaquemines and some of Jefferson) Lottie Beebe beat incumbent Glenny Lee Buquet with 56% of the vote.
District 4 (northwest Louisiana) incumbent Walter Lee was unopposed.
Read More »
Educate Now! strongly encourages everyone to Vote this Saturday. Every vote counts - especially since voter turnout is expected to be light.
The BESE elections are critically important because they will impact the future of public schools in New Orleans.
Candidate Profiles
District 2: There are four candidates for District 2, which covers most of Orleans, parts of Jefferson, St. John, St. James, St. Charles and Assumption (incumbent Louella Givens).
The Times-Picayune Profiles District 2 Candidates
Council for a Better Louisiana: Meet the District 2 Candidates
District 1: There are three candidates for District 1, which covers parts of Orleans, most of Jefferson, and St. Tammany (incumbent Jim Garvey).
The Times-Picayune Profiles District 1 Candidates
Council for a Better Louisiana: Meet the District 1 Candidates Read More »
The Money Myth is the belief that the RSD in New Orleans receives significantly more public money to educate its students than other districts do. Not true.
MYTH 1
Jack Loup, president of the St. Tammany Parish School Board, said State Superintendent Pastorek directs about $13,000 per student to RSD schools in New Orleans, compared to $5,900 per student in the St. Tammany school system.
FACT
New Orleans RSD schools receive less state funding per pupil than St. Tammany Parish schools. New Orleans RSD direct-run schools receive $4,342 per pupil. St. Tammany schools receive $5,289.
FACT
New Orleans RSD schools receive less state funding per pupil than the state average. New Orleans RSD direct-run schools receive $4,342 per pupil. The state average is $4,999.
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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.
BESE held its full Board meeting today. The final votes are as follows:
1. Pastorek’s Revised Plan for Return of Schools was approved.
2. BESE approved a new letter grading system for schools, which will go into effect in 2011. The letter grades will replace the current star ratings. The Department of Education estimates over 500 schools will have D rating. Read More »
After a 13-hour, marathon day of meetings, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) has approved the following items in committee. While these votes are preliminary – each committee recommendation will be considered by the full Board on Thursday – items recommended by committees are almost always approved by the full Board.
1. Pastorek’s Return of School Proposal: Approved
The Recovery School District Committee approved Superintendent Pastorek’s Revised Plan for Return of Schools by a vote of 4 to 2. Read More »
Five years ago yesterday, the levees broke. Hurricane Katrina flooded roughly 80% of this city, causing nearly $100 billion in damage. The storm forced us to rebuild our homes, workplaces, and many of our institutions – including our failing public education system.
But from the flood waters, the most market-driven public school system in the country has emerged. Education reformers across America should take notice: The model is working.
Citywide, the number of fourth-grade students who pass the state’s standardized tests has jumped by almost a third – to 65% in 2010 from 49% in 2007. The passage rate among eighth-graders during the same period has improved at a similar clip, to 58% from 44%.
Read More »
After Hurricane Katrina, state officials faced a choice: Take control of the schools in New Orleans or leave them in the care of the city’s notoriously troubled School Board. A takeover was risky. New Orleans Public Schools were among the worst in the nation. Most New Orleans legislators opposed state action. More daunting, any reasonable analysis would have put the state’s chance of success extremely low and of political embarrassment correspondingly high. Nowhere else in the nation had a state department of education ever assumed direct responsibility for operating local schools.
Yet state leaders, led by Gov. Kathleen Blanco and then-Superintendent Cecil Picard, had the courage to take the gamble. With legislative blessing, they moved decisively to expand the state-run Recovery School District – initially created to handle just a handful of failing schools – to include all but 16 schools in the city.
Five years later, it’s clear that gamble has paid off in ways unimaginable even to the most ardent supporters of the takeover. Read More »
Before the end of 2010, the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) will have to determine if New Orleans schools will stay in the Recovery School District (RSD) or be returned to the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB). Here is a brief review of the law governing BESE’s decision-making process and an outline of the steps involved.
Read More »
