Additional Cowen Institute Reports, Publications & Presentations

The Cowen Institute’s work focuses on a wide variety of topics pertaining to K-12 public education in New Orleans and Louisiana. Below are some of our reports, publications and presentations that do not fall under one of our primary issues.

The State of Public Education in New Orleans
These publications are part of a series that the Cowen Institute produces on a regular basis about the state of public education in New Orleans.  The reports include a comprehensive description of the current system.

2011 Legislative Session Wrap-Up
August 2011
During each session of the Louisiana Legislature, the Cowen Institute tracks all education-related bills and resolutions from their introduction in the legislature to their final disposition at the end of the session.  Every week in our Legislative Update email we publish each instrument and its author, date filed, status in the legislative process, and a brief summary.  To read about the legislation from the 2011 session, please see the following documents:

The 2011 State of Public Education in Louisiana
April 2011
This annual report is meant to inform our state legislators and key stakeholders on public education issues in Louisiana. Each section can be downloaded separately by clicking on the section title below.

The Recovery School District in New Orleans: 2003-2011
April 2011
In this document, the Cowen Institute chronicles the history of the Recovery School District in New Orleans from its inception to the present in the form of a timeline.

Public Education Data Transparency and Accessibility in New Orleans and Louisiana
March 2011
In this paper, the Cowen Institute explores the importance of making data more readily available to stakeholders. We also examine the state of data transparency and accessibility in New Orleans and Louisiana and make recommendations for improvement.

NOLA by the Numbers: Enrollment and Demographics
March 2011
Part of the Cowen Institute’s NOLA by the Numbers series, the brief reports on the February 2011 enrollment and demographic data and how it compares to recent years.

NOLA by the Numbers: Enrollment and Demographics
December 2010
Part of the Cowen Institute’s NOLA by the Numbers series, this brief reports on the October 2010 enrollment and demographic data and how it compares to recent years.

Desegregation Orders in Louisiana: You mean we still have those?
August 2010
This blog post explains the role of desegregation orders in Louisiana’s school districts and provides recommendations for how desegregation orders may be resolved. It includes links to the following Cowen Institute publications regarding this issue:

2010 Legislative Session Wrap-Up
July 2010
During each session of the Louisiana Legislature, the Cowen Institute tracks all education-related bills and resolutions from their introduction in the legislature to their final disposition at the end of the session.  Every week in our Legislative Update email we publish each instrument and its author, date filed, status in the legislative process, and a brief summary.  To read about the legislation from the 2010 session, please see the following documents:

A Response to the Institute on Race and Poverty’s “The State of Public Schools in Post-Katrina New Orleans: The Challenge of Creating Equal Opportunity”
May 2010
In this paper, the Cowen Institute responds to a report issued by the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota Law School that criticizes the use of charter schools as a method of reform in the post-Katrina period by claiming that charter schools segregate students in New Orleans on the basis of race and income. While some of the report’s claims and observations are accurate and compelling, we show that many of the claims in the report suffer from a lack of historical analysis, rely on shaky (often anecdotal) evidence, selectively exclude evidence that contradict the report’s findings, and in some cases misrepresent the truth.

Is Education Reform in New Orleans Working?  A Few Facts Swimming in a Sea of Unknowns
October 2009
Two of the Cowen Institute’s researchers, Michael Schwam-Baird and Laura Mogg, presented this paper at a symposium entitled “Reconstructing Education in New Orleans” hosted by the Loyola University College of Law. This paper, which will be published in Loyola’s Journal of Public Interest Law, compares claims made about public education in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina to the education data that is available.