In Case You Missed It (ICYMI) … Your mini news clippings

A program called Thread is getting results that defy expectations. Thread connects struggling high school students in Baltimore with a team of up to five volunteers who commit to support them in any way necessary – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for 10 years. The results are impressive: 92% of students in Thread for five years graduated from high school (the city average is 72%); 90% were accepted into college; and of those who attended college, 80% completed a two- or four-year college certification program. Editor’s note: It would be really exciting to have a program like this in NOLA. Any volunteers?

Louisiana Headlines

Gov. John Bel Edwards issued his legislative agenda for the Regular Legislative Session. It includes proposals to stem the growth of charter schools in A and B-rated districts and reduce the value-added component in teacher evaluations.

State Supt. John White is worried about future funding for Louisiana’s public schools. Although state aid to public schools wasn’t cut during the Special Session, it could still be on the chopping block for next year. The Legislature did cut close to $4 million from the Department of Education’s 2015-16 budget (ending June 30, 2016), and White says he’s concerned additional cuts to the department’s 2016-17 budget could result in significant layoffs and affect essential services.

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In Case You Missed It (ICYMI) … Your mini news clippings

The Elections and New Orleans Education Reform

John Bel Edwards and David Vitter are “night and day” on major education issues. These differences are very apparent in how they answered the questionnaire from the Louisiana School Board Association about charter schools and the RSD.

A recent Advocate editorial said Edwards may be more informed than Vitter about the failure of charters in East Baton Rouge, but Vitter’s position on charter schools is the right one – students in New Orleans are much better off today than they were pre-Katrina, and charters are a critical component of that success.

While both the Tea Party and teacher union activists oppose Common Core (as do Edwards and Vitter), the “manufactured controversy” didn’t resonate with most statewide voters in the recent BESE elections.

More on High School Performance Scores

High schools across the state are showing significant improvement, but Louisiana standards are not in line with national standards for college readiness – at least not yet. Currently, Louisiana considers an A-graded high school to be one where: 75 percent of students graduate on time; the average ACT score is at least 18; and the average EOC score is Good or above. Beginning in 2016-17, the state will start to raise the bar on every performance measure so that in 10 years, the majority of students in A-rated schools will be college and career ready.
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In Case You Missed It (ICYMI) … Your mini news clippings

New Orleans Charters Outperform

Charter schools in urban areas are outperforming traditionally operated public schools, according to CREDO’s latest report. CREDO has been studying charter school performance for a number of years. This latest study included 41 cities and found students in urban charters gained 40 more days of math and 28 more days of reading than their peers in traditional public schools. New Orleans’ results were among the strongest:

• Students in New Orleans charters gained the equivalent of an extra 86 days in math and 63 days in English compared to their peers in traditional public schools. (Louisiana assumes a 180 day school year, so about one half of a school year extra in math and one-third in reading)
• This puts New Orleans 7th out of 41 urban areas studied.

Other Research

US News and World Report focuses on New Orleans public schools in a story on equity in school choice. This story was in response to a report from the Education Research Alliance (ERA) on how schools in New Orleans respond to competition. Both US News and World Report and the Times-Picayune point out how New Orleans is ensuring equity of access through OneApp.

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School Performance Scores Released
2013-14 a stand still year

New Orleans hit the pause button this year. After 7 years of robust growth in school performance, 2013-14 remained flat.

 Variability in School Scores

While overall city performance was unchanged, individual school scores varied a great deal from 2013 to 2014. Of the 63 schools that received a letter grade in 2013 and 2014, almost half had a letter grade change: 11 moved up and 19 went down.

• K-8 scores were impacted by a decrease in progress (bonus) points. Schools earn progress points by improving the performance of non-proficient students more than expected. This year the state changed the rules and made it more difficult to earn progress points¹, so only five K-8 schools received the maximum of 10 points, whereas twenty-three received the maximum last year.

• 2014 K-8 scores also reflect the migration to Common Core standards. In the spring of 2014, students took LEAP and iLEAP tests that were Common Core aligned. (Students will transition to the new PARCC tests in 2015, unless this is changed by the current litigation.) While the state “curved” the letter grades so the distribution remained the same statewide², the test results in the spring clearly showed some schools adapted to the new standards better than others.

• Finally, beginning in 2013, the state increased the inherent volatility of school scores and letter grades by using only one year of data to calculate letter grades instead of averaging two years of data.

School Performance Scores 

Despite the variability in individual school grades, the overall grade distribution is about the same as last year.

• Two-thirds of students attended a school with a letter grade of A, B or C.
• 5% attended a school with a letter grade of F.

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The Public Affairs Research Council released an excellent summary of the pending crisis in student testing and school accountability and the role Governor Bobby Jindal has played in this state-manufactured crisis.

Leadership and Crisis in Education

In the fight over Common Core, Louisiana state government is
failing its citizens and the governor is chiefly responsible

Louisiana state government is failing its duty to provide leadership and accountability for public school education in the upcoming academic year. The situation has reached a crisis level with serious potential consequences for students, parents, teachers and all of us as stakeholders in the future of Louisiana. This was a crisis of choice and the clearest responsibility for it lies with the governor. 

Read more …

With the RSD becoming the first all charter district, there have been lots of assertions in the media about how New Orleanians view public education reforms. Tulane’s Cowen Institute recently released its 2014 opinion poll, and comparing these results with prior polls provides some insight based on survey results versus speculation.

School Choice

Voters generally think choice has had a positive impact on schools.

In 2014, Cowen asked if “choice has had a positive, negative or no impact on the quality of education in New Orleans.”

• 53% said positive
• 20% said negative
• 27% said no opinion, no impact or some positive and some negative

Voters support OneApp.

When asked if all public schools in New Orleans should use a common application process,

• 79% of voters agreed
• 12% disagreed
• 9% were uncertain or refused to answer

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Educate Now! is giving students in one New Orleans
public school classroom a shopping spree at the Maple Street Book Shop!

Educate Now! is sending one lucky New Orleans public school classroom (transportation included) to the Maple Street Book Shop where each child will pick out a book of their very own to take home!

Do you want to choose the winning classroom?

Enter Educate Now!’s Share to Win competition, and if you win, you pick the lucky classroom.

To enter, go to www.sharetowinnola.com and register. Then use the website to share the contest information by email, Facebook or Twitter. The website will generate your own, unique Share to Win link to send to your friends. If you get the most number of people to sign up, you win.  So, share your link and urge your friends and colleagues to register. Be the one to pick the lucky classroom.

For complete contest terms and conditions, click here.

Educate Now! wants you to Share to Win for New Orleans public schools!

In this edition of In the News:

• The Miracle of New Orleans
• New Orleans Charter School Performance
• LA Board of Regents’ Report UNO, SUNO and Delgado
• U.S. Outnumbers Rest of World in High (and Low) Achievers
• The Focus is on Teachers
• Detroit: 41 Charters in Six Months?
• It’s That Time Again

The Miracle of New Orleans

Educate Now! wants to share some good news about New Orleans and its recovery.

The New Orleans Miracle
Site Selection – March 10, 2011
This positive article on New Orleans, published by an international magazine for expansion planning decision-makers (CEOs, facility planners, corporate real estate executives), talks about the region’s recovery, growth, and tremendous economic potential. Continue reading →

Educate Now! is pleased to announce the three schools chosen by the winners of our Share to Win competition:

• Edward Hynes Charter School
• Langston Hughes Academy
• Lusher Charter Elementary

Each school will receive a $1,000 donation from Educate Now! Continue reading →