OPSB Selects Superintendent

ICYMI … Your mini news clippings

• The Orleans Parish School Board has selected a new superintendent, Henderson Lewis, Jr. Want to know more about him? Read his 180 day plan. The school board also elected Seth Bloom as President and Cynthia Cade as Vice President.

• In this letter to the editor, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Juvenile Court Chief Judge Gray and others applaud the One-App’s centralized enrollment process and congratulate the RSD for its efforts to hold schools accountable for serving all students.

• The Education Research Alliance released What Do Families Want (and Why)? – a report on school choice in New Orleans. NPR and NOLA.com both reported on the results. Educate Now! agrees with Neerav Kingsland’s blog post about the report’s most important takeaway: “After Katrina, the lowest-income families had greater access to schools with high test scores.”

• WWNO’s Voices of Educators interviewed college counselor Sheena Reed, a first generation college graduate who is now advising students at Sci Academy.

• Last session, the LA Legislature passed a law to allow some special education students, based on their IEP, to graduate without passing state mandated tests. For a second time, the U.S. Dept. of Education has warned state law could conflict with federal law.

• Charter Management Organizations (CMOs) continue to expand while the number of standalone charter schools in the RSD dwindles.

• At its January meeting, BESE decided that Einstein would operate Reed, the RSD would do an RFP for a new operator for Wilson Charter School, and MLK was approved to return to OPSB. Lagniappe is fighting for its academic life, as BESE deferred on whether to renew Lagniappe’s charter pending an investigation into the school’s operations.

• Common Core:
  • There will be several changes to Louisiana’s Common Core testing next spring, including a delay in the implementation of online testing for third through eighth graders.
  • Politico looks at Louisiana’s tussle over Common Core as indicative of the national struggle and asks whether savvy education reformers like Superintendent John White can save Common Core.

• Shout out to the Rex Organization for contributing $860,000 to education groups.