Student performance showed robust improvement for the 6th consecutive year. New Orleans (OPSB & RSD) is #1 in growth, gaining 5 points in the percentage of students meeting the state proficiency goal of Basic or above. This growth was fueled by RSD-New Orleans, with its 6 point gain. OPSB grew 1 point, equal to the [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
August 20, 2012 – 7:29 am
This fall, all seven seats on the Orleans Parish School Board will be up for election. This election is important because: This board will choose the new School Superintendent. This board will play an important role in the return of RSD schools to local control over the next few years. The primary will be held [...]
The K-8 student test scores for Louisiana were released today, and New Orleans continues to improve. Test Score Highlights For the 6th year in a row, student performance is up. Growth was less robust this year. While the RSD outperformed the state, for the first time since Katrina, OPSB did not. New Orleans Combined (OPSB [...]
One of the key goals of K-12 education is to give our students the educational foundation they need to be college or career ready. In Louisiana, we have a good benchmark to measure this preparedness – what percent of our students qualify for TOPS, a program that provides two- and four-year merit-based scholarships to Louisiana [...]
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 [...]
December 30, 2010 – 10:36 am
Top 5 Stories of 2010 1. New Orleans public school students (RSD+OPSB) ranked #1 in the state for improved student achievement – both for the year and for the 2005-10 period! 2. FEMA announces a $1.8 billion settlement for rebuilding and repairing New Orleans school facilities. FEMA Awards $1.8 Billion to New Orleans Schools for [...]
December 9, 2010 – 10:56 am
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 [...]
