Helping Schools, Students and Teachers Affected by the Floods

The recent devastating floods have impacted the lives of students, families, and school staff across South Louisiana. Here are some ways you can help:

Donate Clothing and Supplies

OPSB, RSD and New Schools for New Orleans are collecting school supplies, new or gently used school uniforms, and gift cards for school supplies and/or uniforms. Click here for more information on the items they are collecting and drop off dates and locations.

RSD is also collecting supplies for families. Click here to view their Wish List and information on drop off dates and location.

Stand for Children Louisiana has created an Amazon Wish List for families, educators, and classrooms in need. Purchased items can be shipped to Stand for Children’s New Orleans address for distribution.

New Schools for Baton Rouge (NSBR) has created an Amazon Wish List with items requested by schools and families in their network. If you purchase an item on the list, it will be shipped to NSBR in Baton Rouge and they will distribute it to the school.

NSBR is also accepting donations of school supplies and clothing at 100 Lafayette Street, Suite B251, Baton Rouge, LA 70801. For more information, call 225-384-0271.

Donate Funds

Associated Professional Educators of Louisiana (A+PEL) has set up a Disaster Relief Fund to assist teachers with replacing classroom supplies lost in the flooding. 100% of donations go directly to teachers. 

New Schools for Baton Rouge has established a School Relief Fund to help schools in their network as they work to repair flooded facilities and replace damaged textbooks and classroom supplies. 

The Baton Rouge Area Foundation has created a Louisiana Flood Relief Fund. The foundation is sending staff members across South Louisiana to find where needs are the greatest and to ensure your donation goes quickly and directly to nonprofits that are doing the most for people affected by the floods.

The NOLA Pay It Forward Fund, activated by the Mayor of New Orleans in partnership with the Greater New Orleans Foundation, will provide resources for the early relief and rebuilding efforts of communities impacted by the floods.

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K-8 Student Performance Improves

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The state has released the results for the 2015-16 LEAP tests for grades 3-8. This is the second year of new tests aligned to more rigorous standards. 

How Did New Orleans Do?

  • New Orleans student performance improved, but lagged the state.
  • New Orleans outperformed the state average for African-American students and English Language Learners.

Performance: All Students

  • The percentage of New Orleans students reaching the state’s new proficiency goal of Mastery or above grew from 28% to 31%, a gain of 3 points; the state improved by 5 points. 
  • The percentage of New Orleans students performing Basic or above grew from 60% to 61%, a gain of 1 point; the state improved by 2 points.

Gains in LEAP Performance in English and Math

LEAP_Performance_2015_vs_2016

These results are for English and math only. To view all subjects, view the state’s 2016 Tests by District Report.

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News Alert: Cynthia Cade disqualified from School Board race

Latest on OPSB Elections

One week after qualifying ended for November’s OPSB elections, one incumbent has been disqualified and three candidates have been elected without opposition.

Cynthia Cade was disqualified by a Civil District Court Judge who said she did not file her tax forms and signed false certification papers claiming that she had. Cade, who represents District 2 (Gentilly, New Orleans East), has 24 hours to appeal the decision. If the decision is not reversed, Ethan Ashley of the Urban League of Greater New Orleans will become the representative for District 2 when the new board takes office in January. 

Ben Kleban was the latest candidate to be elected outright when his opponent, Eldon Anderson, withdrew. Kleban, who is the founder and president of the New Orleans College Prep charter school network, will represent the 5th District (Uptown).
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High School Performance: ACT and EOC Test Results

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The state has released ACT and End of Course Test results for 2015-16. The results are disappointing and mark a pause in the steady progress we’ve made toward closing the gap with the state average.

  • The average ACT Composite score for New Orleans (OPSB + RSD) remained flat at 18.8, while the state average improved slightly from 19.4 to 19.5. New Orleans’ district rank fell from 36th to 37th out of 69 parishes.
  • The percent of students scoring 20 or higher on the ACT (a requirement for TOPS 4-year scholarships) fell from 38% to 35%. The state average remained flat at 45%.
  • The percent of students scoring Excellent or Good on End of Course Tests (EOCs), fell from 61% to 58%. The state average remained flat at 62%.

The good news:

  • New Orleans outperformed most other high-poverty districts (more than 75% economically disadvantaged students) on both the ACT and EOCs. Looking at the percent of seniors scoring 18 or higher on the ACT, only three high-poverty districts performed better than New Orleans – St. Bernard, Jefferson and Catahoula. Looking at the percent scoring Excellent or Good on the EOCs, only 2 high-poverty districts performed better – St. Bernard and Jefferson.
  • Black students in New Orleans outperformed the national and state averages for black students, with a local ACT Composite score of 17.8, compared to 17.1 nationally1 and 17.4 for the state.

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ICYMI: Brown, Usdin re-elected without opposition

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

OPSB Elections and the Return of Schools

Qualifying for the School Board elections in November ended today:

  • Two incumbents are re-elected without opposition: John Brown in District 1 and Sarah Usdin in District 3.
  • One incumbent, Seth Bloom from District 5, is not seeking re-election. Two people qualified for his seat, Ben Kleban, founder of New Orleans College Prep, and Eldon “El” Anderson, who is in the music promotion business.
  • In District 2, Ethan Ashley, an executive with the Urban League, is challenging incumbent Cynthia Cade.
  • In District 4, incumbent Leslie Ellison has two challengers: attorney Morris Reed, Jr and Walter Umrani.
  • In District 6, David Alvarez is challenging incumbent Woody Koppel.
  • In District 7, incumbent Nolan Marshall also faces two challengers: Kwame Smith, who ran for the seat in 2012, and Alvin Crusto, Jr.

There’s a lot at stake in this election because with the passage of Act 91 the school board we elect this fall will set the tone for how this newly unified school district will operate.
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ICYMI: Catching up on the news

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

Louisiana Headlines

The Senate Finance Committee approved a budget plan that funds TOPS at 70% and cuts a total of $38 million from K-12 schools to help fund colleges, universities and medical schools. This plan has gone to the full Senate for approval. If this latest version of the budget is approved, the $44.2 million that K-12 received last year for teacher pay raises (outside of the MFP) is reduced to $6.2 million. 

Beginning in 2017, Louisiana public schools will be required to teach cursive writing through 12th grade.

The end of the Common Core war: Louisiana lawmakers signed off on the Louisiana Student Standards, which replace the Common Core State Standards. To help with implementation, the Louisiana Department of Education has provided tools and resources for schools and districts.
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ICYMI: State Budget Impacts Education

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

Budget Impacts Education

The state budget proposal approved by the House has a $72 million shortfall in TOPS Scholarship funding. The Senate is now considering the proposed budget and discussing two possible ways to handle the shortfall. One is to increase the minimum ACT score for TOPS, reducing the number of awards by about 13,000, and the second is to keep the minimum ACT score the same but reduce all scholarship amounts by about 25 percent.

The money in the proposed state budget for vouchers may not be enough to fund the program. Editor’s note: Returning voucher students will likely have the first priority. If there isn’t enough funding for new students, it could increase kindergarten enrollment in New Orleans public schools.
 
School Choice Updates

Slightly more than half of New Orleans students got their first choice of public school in the main round of the city’s common enrollment process, and 77 percent received one of their top three choices. TheEnrollNOLA report shows 91 percent of applicants who listed three or more schools in their neighborhood were matched with a school in their zone. More than half of the applicants listed a school outside of their neighborhood zone as their first choice. The top OneApp schools were Warren Easton High School and Ben Franklin Elementary
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More students graduating on time!

New Orleans 4-year Cohort Graduation Rate Continues to Rise

The citywide 4-year graduation rate for New Orleans (OPSB+RSD) increased by 2.5 percentage points, bringing it to 75.2% of all students graduating on time.
 
Today, the state released the 4-year cohort graduation rates for the Class of 2015. The Class of 2015 cohort includes all students who entered 9th grade for the first time in 2011, and the cohort graduation rate is the percentage of students in the cohort who graduated within four years. 

New Orleans Outperforms the State in Every Key Sub-Group

In 2015, 73.3% of African-American students graduated on time in New Orleans, an increase of 2.6 percentage points from 2014 and 1.9 points higher than the state average of 71.4% for African-American students. 
 
The New Orleans 4-year cohort graduation rates for other key sub-groups – students with disabilities, economically disadvantaged students, and English language learners – were also higher than the state average for these sub-groups.

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Return of Schools – Reimagining a Traditional School District

If, when and how the Recovery School District (RSD) schools should return to local control has been a point of discussion and contention for the past ten years. On Wednesday, SB 432 by Senator Peterson unanimously passed the Senate and now heads to the House. If SB 432 becomes law, these questions are about to be answered.

SB 432 redefines the roles of the School Board and the district Superintendent, creating an opportunity for New Orleans to implement a reimagined school district in which:

  • Parents choose the school best for their child
  • Autonomous schools make unimpeded academic and personnel decisions on behalf of children
  • The Superintendent authorizes schools to exist and regulates the fair treatment of students
  • The School Board hires and fires the Superintendent, oversees the system’s financial health, and approves policy as needed

The risk going forward is one of execution:

  • Will the Superintendent and School Board be willing to make the hard decisions necessary to promote excellence and equity for all students?
  • How well will the Superintendent and the central office perform the current RSD functions?

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ICYMI: Return of Schools is Getting Close

Return of Schools is Close

State control over New Orleans schools could be coming to an end. A bill proposed by Sen. Karen Carter-Peterson would move all New Orleans RSD schools back to OPSB by 2018. There are some key sticking points for stakeholders, but this is the closest education officials and charter advocates have come to giving their blessing to a return plan.
State tuned – Educate Now! will be discussing this legislation in more detail later this week.

Differentiated Funding Lawsuit Update

Former state superintendent Paul Pastorek has filed his first case as an education attorney – intervening in Lusher and Lake Forest’s lawsuit against OPSB on behalf of four families with disabled students. The plaintiffs (Lusher and Lake Forest) are suing to block the new funding formula; these families are countering that the current public school funding is discriminatory.

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