In this edition of In the News:
- Three Wishes for 2012
- New Orleans Startup Boom
- Local Education News
- National Education Stories
- Louisiana Updates
Educate Now! wishes you and yours a healthy and joyous 2012.
For education reform in New Orleans, Educate Now! has three wishes for 2012.
Wish #1: Academic gains continue at a robust pace.
- New Orleans continues to improve much faster than the state.
- The percentage of students performing Basic or above exceeds 60%.
- New Orleans continues to close the achievement gap.
Wish #2: The new centralized RSD enrollment process goes well.
- Parents can understand the system.
- Parents and students continue to overwhelmingly get their first choice of school.
- Students with special needs have an easier time enrolling in schools.
Wish #3: The Orleans Parish School Board recognizes its role as Resource Manager for the entire system of schools in Orleans Parish. As our Resource Manager, OPSB:
- Rolls forward the millage to increase money available for schools.
- Uses the $79 million bond proceeds and the proceeds from the sales of surplus property in a manner that benefits ALL schools and creates a source of funds for capital repairs and maintenance.
- Quits using the OPSB fund balance (surplus) to subsidize the operations of its 5 schools and 3,000 students and instead creates a set of rules for use of the fund balance that benefits all public schools in the city. Read More »
In this edition of In the News:
- New Orleans is WSJ’s Most Improved City for Business
- Cowen Institute Releases Two Assessments of Progress
- Centralized Enrollment System
- Other Local New Orleans Stories
- Around Louisiana
- National Education News
- New Orleans Think Tank Aims to Reshape Public Education
New Orleans is WSJ’s Most Improved City for Business
WSJ: New Orleans Business – Most Improved in 2011
The Wall Street Journal – December 13, 2011
According to the Wall Street Journal‘s Marketwatch, New Orleans is the most improved metropolitan area for economic competitiveness. The Journal examined 102 metropolitan communities and compared unemployment rates, cost of living and personal income growth. In just two years, New Orleans has moved from dead last to the top third of the class. Read More »
In the News: A Clipping Service
In this edition of In the News:
- The Daily Comes to New Orleans
- Louisiana Education Reform: What’s Next?
- Charter School News
- National Education Stories
- Focus on Teach For America
The Daily Comes to New Orleans
The national, online magazine The Daily profiled education reform in New Orleans and how we are working to retain the young talent in the city. This three part series highlights Sci Academy as a new charter start-up (part 1), the teachers who are the cornerstone of the school’s success (part 2), and the influx of new, young people to the city (part 3). Read More »
In this edition of In the News:
- BESE Election Results
- Other Louisiana Stories
- Pizza Becomes a Political Hot Potato
- National Education News
- BESE Election Results
The BESE runoff elections were on Saturday, November 19th:
- Kira Orange Jones won District 2 (New Orleans, Jefferson and the River Parishes) with 57% of the vote, defeating incumbent Louella Givens.
- Incumbent Chas Roemer won District 6 (Baton Rouge area) with 57% of the vote, defeating Donald Songy.
- Carolyn Hill won District 8 (central Louisiana and Baton Rouge area) with 58% of the vote, defeating Jim Guillory.
Read More »
In this edition of In the News:
- The Future of RSD Schools
- New Orleans in the National News
- Mathematica Study Examines Charter Networks
- BESE Elections and the Next State Superintendent
- National Education Stories
- Local News
The Future of RSD Schools
Some RSD Schools Now Eligible to Return to OPSB
The Cowen Institute – October 24, 2011
Eight RSD schools have School Performance Scores high enough that they are now eligible to return to the Orleans Parish School Board. These schools must decide by December whether or not they want to return to OPSB. Read More »
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.
(higher than Educate Now!’s projection earlier this month)
The Louisiana Department of Education has released the official combined District Performance Score for New Orleans schools – 83.2.
#1 In Growth Since 2005
District Performance Scores = All students, all grades, all tests
Educate Now! compared District Performance Scores of the 4 largest districts in the state.
| |
2005 |
2011 |
Gain |
| New Orleans |
56.9 |
83.2 |
26.3 |
| East Baton Rouge |
73.1 |
86.2 |
13.1 |
| Jefferson |
74.3 |
88.2 |
13.9 |
| Caddo (Shreveport) |
82.3 |
88.5 |
6.2 |
While New Orleans still lags a bit, the large districts are all clustered within 5 points of each other. Our challenge will be to see if over the next 2-3 years we can surpass the “clustering” of these larger districts. Educate Now! is optimistic we will!
The Louisiana Department of Education recently released cohort graduation rates for all Louisiana schools. The cohort graduation rate looks at the 4-year graduation rate of students who started high school in 2007.
- The state’s rate increased to 70.9%.
- OPSB’s graduation rate of 93.5% is #1 in the state.
- RSD New Orleans improved its cohort graduation rate by 15.3% and is #11 out of 70 districts for most improved.
Read the DOE press release
View cohort graduation rates for New Orleans high schools [xls]
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 »
In this edition of In the News:
- Debating Reforms
- Louisiana News
- National Education Stories
- ACT Scores Rising Slowly
- Miller-McCoy in the Spotlight
- Other Local News
Debating Reforms
The School Reform Deniers
Reuters – August 21, 2011
After years of studying the school reform debate, Steven Brill has published a new book, Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America’s Schools. In this column, Brill summarizes his findings and takes on the reform deniers, who use the tactic of repeating things that are plainly untrue enough times so they start to seem true, or at least become part of the debate. Brill outlines a set of facts and simple questions with obvious answers that should guide America’s school reform efforts. Read More »
