Part III: Determined Leadership: The third installment in a four-part series exploring the reform of the Jefferson Parish Public School System In an exchange over his proposed reorganization plan at a board meeting last April, Dr. James Meza said what, in effect, has been his mantra since assuming the district’s top post: “We’ve got to be […] More
Part II: Community Investment: The second installment a four-part series exploring the reform of the Jefferson Parish Public School System Although enrollment numbers had ominously fallen over the previous two decades, the introduction of statewide testing in Louisiana in 1999 brought the full extent of Jefferson’s problems into focus. And over the next several years, lagging test […] More
Part I: Introduction to JPPSS: The first installment in a four-part series exploring the reform of the Jefferson Parish Public School System Louisiana has garnered national recognition in recent years for “putting students first in its education policies,” and for its leadership in education reform. While much of this attention has focused on the transformation of […] More
Following the Orleans Parish School Board these days is like watching the remake of a lousy movie: the actors are different, but the protagonists are still boorish, the plot is still clunky, and you already know that it’s going to end badly. For those of us who suffered through the slow-motion car wreck that was […] More
I generally refrain from challenging the absurd claims of the anti-progress Ravitchite fringe, since their pathological obsession with “proving” that education reform is part of a sinister corporate plot is clearly delusional, if not mildly amusing. However, now that long-time anti-edreform blogger and conspiracy theorist Jason “Crazy Crawfish” France has decided to smear Sci Academy – the highest-performing open-enrollment school in the Recovery School District and a […] More
Orleans Parish School Board President Ira Thomas is playing racially-charged, self-serving political games on the school board and the target of his machinations is once again OPSB Superintendent Stan Smith. On Thursday, the Times-Picayune reported that Thomas was trying to schedule an emergency meeting aimed at demoting Smith and possibly installing Armand Devezin as superintendent. However, Thomas was unable to secure the quorum […] More
With the final adjournment of the eight-week political marathon that was the 2013 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature yesterday, it’s time to step back and assess the session’s impact our state’s education policies. First, the good news… Thankfully, the most regressive education-related bills filed by lawmakers either failed or were rendered harmless through amendment. […] More
Earlier today, the Senate Education Committee considered House Bill 160, proposed by Rep. Gene Reynolds (D – Dist. 10), which would have delayed the full implementation of Compass, the state’s teacher evaluation system, until the 2014-15 school year. Although Rep. Reynolds stressed to the committee that he was seeking a delay only so that kinks in the system could be ironed out, […] More
Former Recovery School District superintendent, Paul Vallas, has been in the news recently for comments he made during a May 10th panel discussion, “An Agenda for Public Education: Challenges and Possibilities,” at CUNY Hunter’s Institute for Education Policy. Over the course of the discussion, Vallas, along with the College Board’s David Coleman, NY State Education […] More
Here are some of the hot-button education bills the Senate Education Committee is slated to consider today: Bill# Bill Description Notes HB115 Provides for parent petitions relative to the transfer of certain schools from the Recovery School District back to the local school system Amended in committee to exclude Type 5 charter schools, thereby making […] More
Peter Cook