The Recovery School District (RSD) is following through on its commitments to New Orleans. The RSD recently released information about their new citywide enrollment program (commitment number 6), which will be effective for the 2012-13 school year. The new enrollment program is intended to address many of the problems associated with open enrollment, thereby improving [...]
In November 2011, the Brookings Institution introduced an interactive web application called the Education Choice and Competition Index (ECCI), which rated the top 25 largest school districts on policies and practices related to school choice. Despite being on the forefront of the movement toward school choice, New Orleans was not one of the school systems included in the ECCI due to its relatively small size. I decided to use the scoring guide to the ECCI to calculate my own grade for New Orleans.
On a chilly December evening, over forty public high school teachers, administrators, and leaders celebrated the end of an impressive semester. AdvanceNOLA, the Cowen Institute’s college readiness program, has grown each year since its inception in the Spring of 2009, and the success is contagious. Under the innovative leadership of Emily Remington, the Cowen Institute’s Assistant Director of Programming, AdvanceNOLA currently works with over 600 public high school students and over 30 public high school professionals. To celebrate the tremendous progress of the past semester and to discuss the work ahead, AdvanceNOLA hosted a fun and informative evening with the talented individuals that work every day to positively impact the lives of students.
Each semester, the Cowen Institute hosts Tulane undergrads that are completing their required internship through the Center for Public Service. This is a guest post written by a Research intern offering up his perspective on his experience, some of his most important research findings, and his thoughts on public education in New Orleans.
Each semester, the Cowen Institute hosts Tulane undergrads that are completing their required internship through the Center for Public Service. This is a guest post written by a Research intern offering up his perspective on his experience, some of his most important research findings, and his thoughts on public education in New Orleans.
In our recent publication, Case Studies of School Choice and Open Enrollment in Four Cities, we suggest that education stakeholders in New Orleans could learn from the successes and failures of school choice and open enrollment policies in other cities across the country. As the Recovery School District (RSD) prepares to implement its new citywide enrollment system, it should consider what lessons can be gleaned from past experiences in New Orleans as well as in cities that have successfully implemented an open enrollment public school system such as Cambridge, San Diego, and New York City.
In early November, the RSD released its recommended school building assignments for its schools. The final assignments are due to be announced in December. The assignments are in essence the second half of the School Facilities Master Plan, which was adopted in late 2008. The master plan addresses how many facilities will be built or [...]
On November 19th Louisiana voters will go to the polls to select new members of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) in Districts 2, 6, and 8. BESE is the policy making body for Louisiana education issues including school funding, teacher certification and evaluation, and student assessment for all public K-12 schools across [...]
Two weeks ago, the Recovery School District (RSD) released a list of the six direct-run high schools and three direct-run elementary schools it plans to phase out or convert to charters next school year. This announcement marks a positive move towards increased transparency by the RSD. However, the RSD’s plan to phase out these schools still leaves a number of students in chronically failing high schools over the next two to three years. The RSD must explicitly identify what steps it is taking to invest in and support these students whose schools have already failed them for far too long.
The Charter Application Process in New Orleans
| February 3, 2012Recent charter authorization decisions by the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) and the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB), have led some local community members and organizations, organized as the Coalition for Community Leadership in Education, to express frustration with the charter application process. In a city where nearly 80 percent of public school students attend a charter school, community groups and local educators must play a role in the creation and operation of charter [...]