student performance

Myth 4: If a school kept its name, it must be the same.

Posted on by Leslie Jacobs

Fact:  For many schools, only the name is the same.

Comparing the performance of individual New Orleans public schools with the same name pre- and post-Katrina is not a valid analysis.

Why? We shuffled the deck.

Schools with the same name may:

  • be in a different location
  • have different grade configurations
  • no longer serve the surrounding neighborhood
  • have different admission requirements Continue reading →

Myth 3: Student test scores were improving before the storm at the same rate they are now.

Posted on by Leslie Jacobs

Fact:  Since the state takeover, student improvement has more than doubled!

Educate Now! compared the percent of students Basic or above in math and English on the 4th and 8th grade LEAP and the 10th grade GEE tests for 2000, 2005 and 2010.* (For other grades the state changed the tests, so we can’t compare pre- and post-storm numbers.)

  • From 2000 to 2005, the percent of students scoring Basic or above increased from 30% to 37%, a gain of 7 points.

  • From 2005 to 2010, the percent of students scoring Basic or above increased from 37% to 53%, a gain of 16 points! Continue reading →