In the News

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.

 

It’s Official – The DPS for New Orleans is 83.2

Posted on by Leslie Jacobs

(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!

 

Historic Gains in Four-Year High School Graduation Rate

Posted on by Leslie Jacobs

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]

 

BESE Election Update

Posted on by Leslie Jacobs

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.

Continue reading →

In the News: A Clipping Service – August 29, 2011

Posted on by Leslie Jacobs

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. Continue reading →

In the News: A Clipping Service – August 15, 2011

Posted on by Leslie Jacobs

In this edition of In the News:

  • Politics and Education
  • Local News
  • Around Louisiana
  • Looking at Charter Management Organizations
  • National Education Studies

Politics and Education

Louisiana Education Leaders Need to Step Up
The Times-Picayune – August 10, 2011
Louisiana’s movement toward charter schools, test-driven accountability and performance-based teacher evaluations is being challenged by teacher unions, school boards and superintendents. It is also being undermined by a lack of clear leadership on the part of the administration. Continue reading →

In the News: A Clipping Service – August 8, 2011

Posted on by Leslie Jacobs

Closing the Gap

New Orleans Public School Achievement Gap is Narrowing
The Times-Picayune – August 7, 2011
Black students in New Orleans performed better than black students statewide. New Orleans’ poor students and students with disabilities are also rapidly closing the performance gap compared to state performance. The numbers include all students in any OPSB or RSD school (traditional or charter) who took the state standardized tests this spring. According to The Education Trust, a national organization whose mission is to close achievement gaps, “This is really meaningful progress.”

Editor’s note:  In 2004, of 68 school districts, Orleans Parish ranked 68th – last – in the performance of its black students. To now outperform the state average is a major milestone as public education in New Orleans continues to improve. Continue reading →