For most of New Orleans’ 45,000 public school students, Monday marked the first day of a new school year and NPR education correspondent Claudio Sanchez was in town reporting for a new series of nprEd Team stories focusing on the city’s school reform efforts since Hurricane Katrina. When I initially heard NPR was planning to […] More
Dear Steve, I was catching up on New Orleans education news yesterday, when I came across an article in the Times-Picayune focusing on Tuesday’s board meeting at John McDonogh Senior High School. I was surprised to read that you spent most of the meeting trying to deflect blame for John Mac’s poor performance since your […] More
The one thing that is clear to anyone who’s attempted to read Mercedes Schneider’s blog is that she’s angry: angry at John Merrow, angry about Common Core, angry about evolution, and angry at Teach For America, along with a whole host of other things. However, she reserves her greatest fury for the Recovery School District’s effort to improve […] More
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 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
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
Below are updates on selected education-related bills up for consideration before the 2013 Legislative Session of the Louisiana Legislature: 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, […] More
Peter Cook