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 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.
On October 22nd Louisiana voters will go to the polls to select new members of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE). 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 the state. BESE is an eleven [...]
Later in October elections will be held for the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE). To help inform the elections, the Charter Board Council of New Orleans, along with many other organizations, is co-hosting a BESE candidate forum at Dillard University this Wednesday, October 5th. The forum will be focused on BESE District [...]
On Tuesday, September 6th, Recovery School District (RSD) Superintendent John White released the district’s new strategic plan entitled What Will It Take? The event was held at Loyola University with around 200 people in attendance. Superintendent White walked through the plan, discussing all twelve commitments with a PowerPoint presentation. The Cowen Institute supports the RSD’s [...]
As we have written about before (click here for past coverage), the Recovery School District and the Orleans Parish School Board recently proposed amendments to the School Facilities Master Plan (the plan). The current status of these amendments was discussed during the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (BESE) School Innovation and Turnaround Committee meeting [...]
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 [...]