In this edition of In the News:
- Last Week to Win $1,000 for Your Favorite Public School
- Debate Continues on Return of New Orleans Schools
- Are Special Needs Children Being Served?
- What Works (and What Doesn’t) in Education Reform
- Looking at What’s Fair
- National Focus on New Orleans
Last Week to Win $1,000 for Your Favorite Public School
Educate Now!’s Share to Win Competition ends this Friday, October 22 at midnight. The three participants who have generated the most entries (by sharing the contest information with friends) will win one of three $1,000 donations for their favorite New Orleans public school. If you haven’t already entered, visit www.sharetowinnola.com today. And if you have entered, keep sharing this week to increase your chances of winning.
Debate Continues on Return of New Orleans Schools
Hundreds of Parents are Fired Up at Hearing about Future of New Orleans Schools
The Times-Picayune – October 14, 2010
Last Thursday more than 600 people gathered at McDonogh 35 High School to debate the future governance of New Orleans schools.
Stay with RSD or Go Back to OPSB?
Fox 8 News – October 15, 2010
As Superintendent Paul Pastorek explains his plan to return schools to the Orleans Parish School Board, some are looking at alternate forms of governance that allow for a locally elected board but also protect charter independence.
View Superintendent Pastorek’s plan for the return of schools.
Are Special Needs Children Being Served?
The Problem With New Orleans’s Charter Schools
Newsweek – October 6, 2010
Newsweek reporter concludes that enrollment of special needs students is too low and suspensions are too high in New Orleans charter schools, but also notes that the same problems existed when schools were under the OPSB.
State Education Officials Announce Measures to Better Serve Special Needs Students
The Times-Picayune – October 12, 2010
The state proposes a centralized enrollment system for New Orleans that will pair special needs students to appropriate schools and also proposes a special education oversight unit to address specific problems.
What Works (and What Doesn’t) in Education Reform
How To Fix Our Schools: A manifesto by Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee and other education leaders
The Washington Post – October 10, 2010
The transformative changes needed to truly fix our schools will not happen unless we first shed some of the entrenched practices that have held back our education system, practices that have long favored adults, not children.
Mayoral Control Alone Doesn’t Fix Schools, Rutgers Institute Study Finds
Bloomberg News – October 12, 2010
After a two-year study of nine education systems, the Rutgers Institute concluded that turning schools over to mayoral control did not have a positive impact on student achievement.
An Offer They Wouldn’t Refuse
Newsweek – October 12, 2010
Charlotte, NC successfully entices its most successful principals to take on the challenge of transforming its worst performing schools.
Looking at What’s Fair
Is School Funding Fair – A National Report Card
Education Law Center – October 12, 2010
A new national report rates school funding in the 50 states with idea that fairness depends not only on a sufficient level of funding for all students, but also the provision of additional resources to districts where there are more students with greater needs. Louisiana scored below average on all four indicators of fairness: funding level, funding distribution, state fiscal effort, and public school coverage.
Obama Administration Targets ‘Disparate Impact’ of Discipline
Education Week – October 12, 2010
Students of color receive different and harsher disciplinary punishments than whites for the same or similar infractions. Going forward, federal officials plan to look not just at different treatment (intentional discrimination) but also at disparate impact, whether a group is disproportionately affected by a policy though no intentional discrimination exists.
National Focus on New Orleans
New Orleans in Early Phase of School-Building Boom
Education Week – October 15, 2010
New Orleans is in the early stages of a construction spree to both build and renovate dozens of schools. With close to $2 billion on the line some question whether there is sufficient oversight and opportunity for community input in the building process.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu and Local Educators Speak About New Orleans Schools at NBC News Event in New York
The Times-Picayune – September 28, 2010
Mayor Mitch Landrieu was one of several local panelists for a discussion titled “The Lessons of New Orleans: Does Education Need a Katrina?” The discussion was part of a two-day national education summit sponsored by NBC, and Landrieu was joined by Tulane’s President Scott Cowen, RSD Superintendent Paul Vallas, and Dr. King Charter School principal Doris Hicks.