Author: Leslie Jacobs

Schools More Diverse; High Poverty Stays the Same

Posted on by Leslie Jacobs

Orleans Public School Enrollment Continues to Climb with Increase in Diversity and Charter Choice

  • New Orleans continues its steady increase in enrollment, growing from 39,877 students last year to 42,030 this year.
  • The student population continues to diversify, with the percentage of non-African American students growing to 13.7% this year, up from 11.3% last year and 6.6% before Katrina.
  • The percentage of students attending charter schools increased sizably, from 71% last year to 77.5% this year
  • The percent of students qualifying for free and reduced lunch has remained fairly constant – 83.5% – and is more than 16 percentage points higher than the state average.

View student enrollment for OPSB and RSD by year and by sub-group (white, black, free, reduced).


View the Oct 1 student enrollment by school.

For more information on children in New Orleans, read this report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. It includes demographic and socio-economic data as well as information on educational achievement.

 

In the News: A Clipping Service – January 30, 2012

Posted on by Leslie Jacobs

In this edition of In the News:

  • What Can Ohio Learn from the RSD?
  • The Case for Charter School Districts
  • Gov. Jindal’s Plan for Education Reform
  • National Education Stories
  • RSD in the News
  • In Other News
  • Announcements

What Can Ohio Learn from the RSD?

What Can Ohio Learn from the Louisiana Recovery School District?
Education Gadfly – January 17, 2012
According to Ohio’s Fordham Institute, the speed and scale of improvements in Louisiana’s Recovery School District is vastly superior to anything they’ve seen in Ohio’s troubled schools. Fordham commissioned a report on the RSD to learn more about what’s working, what’s not, and what lessons can be applied in the Buckeye State. Continue reading →

In the News: A Clipping Service – January 16, 2012

Posted on by Leslie Jacobs

In this edition of In the News:

  • Measuring Teacher Effectiveness
  • New Superintendents Chosen for Department of Education and RSD
  • Louisiana Education Stories
  • National News
  • Announcements

Measuring Teacher Effectiveness

Big Study Links Good Teachers to Lasting Gain
New York Times – January 6, 2012
A new study of the value-added method of teacher evaluation shows that teachers who help raise their students’ standardized-test scores have a lasting positive effect on those students’ lives beyond academics. The study tracked 2.5 million students over 20 years and found that students with high value-added teachers are less likely to become pregnant as teenagers, more likely to enroll in college, and more likely to earn more money as adults. Continue reading →

News Alert: John White is New State Superintendent of Education

Posted on by Leslie Jacobs

Today, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) elected John White as the new state Superintendent of Education.

Since May 2011, John White has served as the Superintendent of Louisiana’s Recovery School District. White began his career in education as an English teacher in a high-poverty school in New Jersey. He later became the Executive Director of Teach For America-Chicago, where he worked for three years before taking a job with the New York City school system. In New York, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer for the Portfolio Division, leading efforts to turn around failing schools and develop new ones, and later he served as NYC’s Deputy Chancellor, overseeing talent, labor and innovation.

John White has named Patrick Dobard as the new Superintendent of the Recovery School District. Dobard is a local New Orleanian and a career educator who taught for eleven years in Louisiana schools. In 2001, Dobard joined the Louisiana Department of Education, and over the next ten years he served in several key positions before moving to the Recovery School District. As the RSD’s Deputy Superintendent for Community and Policy, Dobard led the RSD’s 100-day strategy sessions that resulted in the comprehensive “What Will It Take” strategic plan for the RSD.

For more information, read the Louisiana Department of Education’s press release.

 

In the News: A Clipping Service – January 4, 2012

Posted on by Leslie Jacobs

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. Continue reading →

In the News: A Clipping Service – December 19, 2011

Posted on by Leslie Jacobs

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. Continue reading →

In the News: A Clipping Service – December 5, 2011

Posted on by Leslie Jacobs

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). Continue reading →

In the News: A Clipping Service – November 21, 2011

Posted on by Leslie Jacobs

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.

Continue reading →

In the News: A Clipping Service – November 9, 2011

Posted on by Leslie Jacobs

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. Continue reading →

Student Enrollment Continues to Rise; Almost 80% at Charters

Posted on by Leslie Jacobs

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.