Julie Lause is the co-founder of Crescent City Schools and the principal at Harriet Tubman Charter School, a Recovery School District charter school in Algiers. I first got to know Julie ten years ago, when we worked together setting up a charter school in Houston to serve New Orleans students displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Not […] More
It appears that officials at Lusher Charter School are doubling down on their promise to fight a proposed change in the way public schools are funded in New Orleans. Up to now, the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) and Recovery School District (RSD) have used different formulas to fund their respective schools. The new proposal […] More
I hopped on the phone yesterday with my friend Chris Stewart (a.k.a., Citizen Stewart) to record another episode of his podcast, Rock The Schools, focused on two recent scandals involving charter schools in New Orleans and New York. In the first half of our conversation, we discuss recent disturbing revelations at two charter schools in […] More
A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post that called out Lusher Charter School officials for making misleading, alarmist claims about an upcoming change to their school funding formula. Now, unfortunately, it appears that Lusher officials have decided to take their misinformation campaign a step further. On Monday, Lusher CEO Kathy Riedlinger and Board […] More
Just in time for Christmas, the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) released 2015 school letter grades and School Performance Scores (SPS) earlier today. Schools were assigned grades on a curve again this year, based on a temporary policy adopted to ease the transition to the higher demands of the Common Core standards. LDOE calculates elementary […] More
Dear Lusher Parents: No, the sky is not falling. Contrary to what you might have read on Saturday in the Uptown Messenger, Lusher is not about to be pushed off the edge of a $1.2 million fiscal cliff. Lawmakers in Baton Rouge have not conspired to punish New Orleans with a law all its own. […] More
Google Earth Tour of Locations in Going Backwards John McDonogh: Shooting Cop Criticizes Dead Teen – Mary Foster, Associated Press: April 14, 2003. 1 Slain, 4 Hurt At N.O. School – Brian Thevenot, Times-Picayune: April 15, 2003. One Killed and 3 Are Wounded at New Orleans School – Rick Bragg, New York Times: April 15, […] More
“Dozens of employees indicted or convicted on corruption charges. Tens of millions of dollars unaccounted for. Eight superintendents in seven years. Rock-bottom test scores. Shootings, sirens and police uniforms, often. The threat of bankruptcy and bounced checks, constantly. “In the dismal gallery of failing urban school systems, New Orleans may be the biggest horror of […] More
With the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaching, the nation’s attention is once again turning to New Orleans, seeking lessons from city’s rebuilding efforts, and in particular, from the revolutionary transformation of its public school system. After a decade of increasing academic performance, including significant jumps in both high school graduation and college acceptance rates, […] More
On Wednesday, the Recovery School District (RSD) released data showing that expulsions fell 14% across the city’s schools between the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years. In total, 199 students were expelled last year out of 45,803 enrolled in New Orleans schools; in S.Y. 2013-14, 231 students out of 44,306 were expelled. In 2012, the RSD […] More
A couple weeks ago, I had the honor of sitting down with blogger, activist, and New Orleans native Chris Stewart (a.k.a., Citizen Stewart) in an interview for his podcast, Rock The Schools. Over the course of our conversation, we reflected on the progress New Orleans has made in public education since Hurricane Katrina and the challenges we encountered along […] More
Last week, the National Education Policy Center (NEPC), a virulently anti-education reform “research organization” at the University of Colorado, released issued a press release that called into question the significant academic improvement seen in New Orleans schools since Hurricane Katrina. While it’s not necessarily newsworthy that NEPC (a beneficiary of AFT & NEA funding and […] More
Peter Cook