In case you missed it, on Monday Salon published a lopsided piece (In Salon? No kidding.) by Jennifer “Edushyster” Berkshire on New Orleans’ school reforms that painted a very misleading portrait of things on the ground in the Big Easy. I thought I would add much needed clarifications and context to the piece (which I’ve […] 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
Bobby Jindal wanted to be a contender. He wanted to be somebody… …specifically, President of the United States. And for a while, at least – back in the days before his disastrous State of the Union response – everyone thought Jindal was the next big thing. However, over the course of his tenure as Governor, […] More
On Tuesday, the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) released a scathing report detailing the findings from an investigation into Lagniappe Academies by LDOE and Recovery School District (RSD) officials. The accusations in the report [see full report below] include: Failing to provide legally-mandated services to special education students, then doctoring forms to make it appear […] More
St. Tammany Parish teacher, blogger, and inveterate pessimist Mercedes Schneider desperately wants to believe New Orleans’ Recovery School District – and by extension, its students – have failed. For years, she has taken to her blog to malign the district at every available opportunity, dismissing evidence of the RSD’s progress as either smoke-and-mirrors or outright […] More
Last week, Will Sentell at The Advocate reported that a panel appointed by the Legislature to review Louisiana’s teacher evaluation system is gearing up to recommend a series of changes that could seriously undermine efforts to ensure every child has an effective teacher. The 17-member School Accountability Commission began its review back in October and […] More
On Halloween, the Louisiana Supreme Court dismissed a class-action lawsuit arising from the layoffs of over 7,600 New Orleans school employees in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The 5-2 decision represented a “stunning, wholesale reversal” for the plaintiffs, who prevailed both at trial and before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal; those rulings had found […] More
It’s been a tough couple weeks for our friends at the Louisiana Federation of Teachers (LFT). On October 15th, the Louisiana Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Act 1 is constitutional, overturning a lower court’s finding that the law violates the “single object requirement” of the Louisiana Constitution that prohibits the legislature from passing bills with […] More
A RESOLUTION OPPOSING ASININE RESOLUTIONS FROM THE CONSTITUENTS OF THE ORLEANS PARISH SCHOOL BOARD WHEREAS, generations of young New Orleanians were denied an adequate education in the city’s public schools prior to Hurricane Katrina as a result of chronic mismanagement by Orleans Parish School Board; and WHEREAS, the State of Louisiana, as duly authorized by […] More
This morning the Louisiana Supreme Court will hear arguments in the appeal of Eddy Oliver, et al. v. Orleans Parish School Board, the lawsuit brought on behalf of teachers terminated in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. In January, the Fourth Circuit of Court Appeal unanimously upheld an earlier ruling that teachers were wrongly terminated by […] More
Directions: Below are three examples of controversial education issues in New Orleans. Each issue includes two statements that describe the same scenario, albeit in slightly different ways. Read each statement and then answer the question that follows. Issue 1: Standardized Testing Statement A: “More than a third of the city’s schools were flagged by the […] More
Peter Cook