2010 State of Public Education in New Orleans Report
The Cowen Institute has released the 2010 State of Public Education in New Orleans report which provides a comprehensive survey of quantitative data and public opinion about what is working and not working in our public schools – sharing the voice of the educators, parents, and voters. It is important that decisions affecting public schools and students in New Orleans be informed decisions, based on research and the needs and desires of the people most impacted.

The report also offers a set of successes that schools have achieved over the past two years as well as key challenges that still face public education in New Orleans.  The report is designed to help policymakers, educators, parents, nonprofit organizations, and the community understand how public schools in New Orleans have progressed over time and also how they compare to schools around Louisiana and the United States.  This is the third State of Public Education in New Orleans report published by the Cowen Institute.

In addition to explaining how the current system emerged after Hurricane Katrina, the report gives detailed information on student demographics, school facilities, school finances, school choice and human capital. The 2010 State of Public Education in New Orleans report also provides detailed student achievement data by school and survey results from a recent public opinion poll on school governance.

For more information and to download the report, click here.

Public Education Through the Public Eye: A Survey of New Orleans Voters and Parents
The Cowen Institute has released the results of a recent public opinion poll called Public Education through the Public Eye: A Survey of New Orleans Voters and Parents. The opinion poll surveyed New Orleans voters and parents of public school students to assess their opinions about recent public education reforms and the future direction of public schools in New Orleans. No previous survey has delved this deeply into the public’s opinions about and experiences with school reform and governance since Hurricane Katrina.

Few cities have the opportunity to think through the organization of their public education system in the way that the city of New Orleans has had and will continue to have over the next few years. As part of the Cowen Institute’s work of informing the educational transformation taking place in New Orleans, giving voice to citizens and parents is crucial to sustaining positive change.

For more information on this opinion poll including full voter survey results, please click here.

Creating a Governing Framework for Public Education in New Orleans
The Cowen Institute has released the first three reports in a series of papers on public school governance. The series is the first of its kind in New Orleans to look at governing framework options for all public schools in New Orleans. The overall goal of the study is to lay out options for the roles and responsibilities for all governing entities in public education in order to support a system of high-performing public schools. With a mayoral race, a legislative session, and federal Race to the Top applications coming up, this information is critical and timely – not only for New Orleans but to public school districts across the country. Under state law, the Recovery School District must make a recommendation in 2010 as to whether some or all of the schools it took over after Katrina should return to local control. The citizens of New Orleans must now begin to consider the long-term structure that ensures that every child has access to a high-performing public school. The purpose of this series is to inform that dialogue.
[more info]

Education Transformation Online Research Archive
The Cowen Institute’s research archive is a powerful tool to inform the public about the transformation of public education in New Orleans and influence New Orleans’ transformation with ideas and lessons from around the world.  The archive allows researchers, educators, and the public to access information directly relevant to the process of school system reform in New Orleans. Foremost, it is a repository of studies, papers, articles, and case studies written about New Orleans public education. The archive houses documents produced by outside individuals and organizations as well as papers written by the Cowen Institute and its partners. In addition, the archive hosts a selection of documents that analyze the process of school and school system transformation in other places that are directly relevant to the New Orleans experience. This part of the archive emphasizes the role of charter and other autonomous schools, and maintain an exclusive focus on school operations and governance.
[Visit the archive]

The Study of the Transformation of Public Education in New Orleans
The Cowen Institute has partnered with the RAND Corporation, an internationally recognized research organization, to conduct a two-phase study to measure the impact of the radical changes that have taken place in our schools on student achievement. In the first phase, RAND and Cowen Institute researchers will use interviews, surveys of principals, teachers, and parents, and a review of state and local data and policies to examine how different types of schools in New Orleans have organized their school governance, operations, and curriculum. This phase will also examine how various stakeholders perceive the effectiveness of different types of schools. In the second phase, RAND researchers will use information from the first phase, combined with three years of student test data, to examine what effects different types of schools and school characteristics have had on student outcomes. Phase I and Phase II of this project are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2010. [more info]

Research Consortium on K-12 Public Education in New Orleans
The Cowen Institute seeks to develop an education research consortium in New Orleans on the model of similar consortia in Chicago and New York. The consortium would be governed by a board made up of  representatives from the school districts, charter schools, and research universities. The consortium board would set priorities for research projects on public education in New Orleans and the consortium’s staff would coordinate the projects in partnership with researchers from universities or other research organizations. This effort is still in the planning phase.