10 Years After Katrina, New Orleans’ All-Charter School System Has Proven a Failure
- Thread starter A Real Human Bean
- Start date
Might post that later.
Why Liberals Should Learn to Love Charter Schools
"New Orleans is a good example of where charters, which now educate 95 percent of New Orleans public school students, are working. A decade ago, New Orleans had the worst schools in the country—so bad that the Recovery School District (RSD), a state takeover of the schools, was launched even before Hurricane Katrina.
The storm damaged almost all of the city’s schools, and as they were rebuilt and slowly reopened, the RSD turned crisis into opportunity. Like nurses, city employees and thousands of other workers, teachers who fled New Orleans in 2005 were dismissed and had no guarantee of jobs when they returned. The RSD required them to pass tests before being rehired, which led to much higher teacher quality.
The reform efforts have been driven by KIPP and other experienced charter operators. Meanwhile, Teach For America corps members—half of whom are black, Latino, or from low income backgrounds—comprise about a fifth of New Orleans teachers, and they and their more seasoned colleagues are making a huge difference.
One of the secrets of their success is that so many of them use Doug Lemov’s essential book, Teach Like a Champion, to help educate new teachers. Every KIPP or TFA teacher (often one and the same) I’ve spoken with over the years has found Teach Like a Champion full of concrete suggestions that actually help them improve as teachers.
The results in New Orleans are impressive. Over the last decade, graduation rates have surged from 54 percent to 73 percent, and college enrollment after graduation from 37 percent to 59 percent. (There’s also a new emphasis on helping those who attend college to complete it.) Before Katrina, 62 percent of schools were failing. Today, it’s 6 percent.
The biggest beneficiaries have been African-American children, who make up 85 percent of New Orleans enrollment. The high school graduation rate nationally for black students is 59 percent. In New Orleans, it’s 65 percent, which is also much higher than the state average. Test scores are still low overall, but thousands more African-American students are taking the ACTs and doing better on them."
Ten Years After Katrina, New Orleans Charter Schools Have Made Real Improvements
"New Orleans is a good example of where charters, which now educate 95 percent of New Orleans public school students, are working. A decade ago, New Orleans had the worst schools in the country—so bad that the Recovery School District (RSD), a state takeover of the schools, was launched even before Hurricane Katrina.
The storm damaged almost all of the city’s schools, and as they were rebuilt and slowly reopened, the RSD turned crisis into opportunity. Like nurses, city employees and thousands of other workers, teachers who fled New Orleans in 2005 were dismissed and had no guarantee of jobs when they returned. The RSD required them to pass tests before being rehired, which led to much higher teacher quality.
The reform efforts have been driven by KIPP and other experienced charter operators. Meanwhile, Teach For America corps members—half of whom are black, Latino, or from low income backgrounds—comprise about a fifth of New Orleans teachers, and they and their more seasoned colleagues are making a huge difference.
One of the secrets of their success is that so many of them use Doug Lemov’s essential book, Teach Like a Champion, to help educate new teachers. Every KIPP or TFA teacher (often one and the same) I’ve spoken with over the years has found Teach Like a Champion full of concrete suggestions that actually help them improve as teachers.
The results in New Orleans are impressive. Over the last decade, graduation rates have surged from 54 percent to 73 percent, and college enrollment after graduation from 37 percent to 59 percent. (There’s also a new emphasis on helping those who attend college to complete it.) Before Katrina, 62 percent of schools were failing. Today, it’s 6 percent.
The biggest beneficiaries have been African-American children, who make up 85 percent of New Orleans enrollment. The high school graduation rate nationally for black students is 59 percent. In New Orleans, it’s 65 percent, which is also much higher than the state average. Test scores are still low overall, but thousands more African-American students are taking the ACTs and doing better on them."
Ten Years After Katrina, New Orleans Charter Schools Have Made Real Improvements
humble forever
All Star
i know a man that spent a lot of time in and around NO to form building departments that approve buildings and shyt like that. anyways, he said he spent a ton of time down then and slowly figured out why so much of louisiana is a shythole. The people are corrupt. They hire their friends and spend money on them and its one big game of passing money along making sure your whole crew gets paid. he said he left because he couldn't have his name associated with any of the departments
im guessing that sort of culture has carried over to the running of NO's charter school system. I live in sw florida and there are some really nice charter school in the area. But there were already nice schools here, so they actually had to stay locked in a battle to show they're better. They gave those charter school companies the perfect opportunity to be terrible and waste money in new orleans
it's like what happened i think in Wisconsin or iowa. the dude who ran the charter school company got the contract cuz he donated big to the governor. then he bought buildings and made his company pay him rent money to use his buildings. He hoovered up as much money as he could from the funding while his schools failed! the staff turnover was insane and principals quit regularly, but they school board was able to constantly cover it up because they're a private company.
if there isn't tight regulation, which is exactly what the people who want charter schools are against, regulation, then we will regularly be seeing abuses of this system.
it's another perfect government money faucet for politicians. The people that want the contracts are going to be big donators to their campaigns. they award them with the contract to run the schools. better yet, this time the government is less accountable when the schools get terrible ratings. they can say oh. yeah we had issues with that provider. let's bring in a new one. we'll find another for you. and so the cycle can continue
im guessing that sort of culture has carried over to the running of NO's charter school system. I live in sw florida and there are some really nice charter school in the area. But there were already nice schools here, so they actually had to stay locked in a battle to show they're better. They gave those charter school companies the perfect opportunity to be terrible and waste money in new orleans
it's like what happened i think in Wisconsin or iowa. the dude who ran the charter school company got the contract cuz he donated big to the governor. then he bought buildings and made his company pay him rent money to use his buildings. He hoovered up as much money as he could from the funding while his schools failed! the staff turnover was insane and principals quit regularly, but they school board was able to constantly cover it up because they're a private company.
if there isn't tight regulation, which is exactly what the people who want charter schools are against, regulation, then we will regularly be seeing abuses of this system.
it's another perfect government money faucet for politicians. The people that want the contracts are going to be big donators to their campaigns. they award them with the contract to run the schools. better yet, this time the government is less accountable when the schools get terrible ratings. they can say oh. yeah we had issues with that provider. let's bring in a new one. we'll find another for you. and so the cycle can continue
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They are along with vouchers, the entire public school system should be thrown in the garbage and we should start from scratch like in New Orleans
So we can have a nationwide education failure?
Graduation rates don't mean anything. The graduation rate for the US is now 80% which means that they are handing out diplomas to kids who just show up. The graduation rate is the easiest stat to cheat.
In Louisiana basic is a level below proficient (proficient is called mastery in Louisiana). In New Orleans only 19 percent of kids are proficient/mastery not 63 percent. The state has given schools until 2025 to have the majority of their students proficient/mastery. In addition the state exam has changed since Hurricane Katrina so it is not possible to compare scores.
Louisiana state test scores remain stable in 2014
76 percent of Louisiana 4th graders passed (basic and above) both the state reading and math exams. But when they took a national exam, NAEP, only 22 percent were proficient in reading and 25 percent in math. Results were similar for 8th graders. Louisiana students do better on state tests than on national ones
New Orleans is a low-wage city where about 25 percent of kids attend private school, so public/charter schools are left with the poorest of the poor, who unfortunately do not do well academically. I think the schools have improved greatly in that every student will now be able to read and write, which didn't happen before Hurricane Katrina. However, there was no miracle.
maybe what isnt registering with you is that we already have had nationwide failure, for the past 100 years
How much of statistical improvements in New Orleans' schools is due to the death of 2,000 and displacement of 100,000s of the city's poorest? I imagine getting rid of many of the traditional lowest scorers would drastically better the scores of any district, regardless of system
I would assume this as well. Louisiana has maybe the richest history of corruption in the U.S.
Which is why things like common core are just basic. People rant and rave against standardized tests but if there aren't exact standards its impossible to get accurate reads on how a school is doing. Which isn't to apologize for the excesses of testing regimens, but what's the alternative?
I would assume this as well. Louisiana has maybe the richest history of corruption in the U.S.
Which is why things like common core are just basic. People rant and rave against standardized tests but if there aren't exact standards its impossible to get accurate reads on how a school is doing. Which isn't to apologize for the excesses of testing regimens, but what's the alternative?
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So your solution is to trade one failure for another one. Smart, I like it.
A Real Human Bean
and a real hero
Testing itself isn't the issue. Tests can give you a certain amount of information about the school and the student. The larger issue is putting too much importance into these test scores and punishing people (students, teachers, communities) in ridiculous ways for not producing high enough scores. Things like teachers salaries and jobs being tied to the test scores of their students, and students being pushed out of schools and classes for not getting high enough test scores. This is just asinine. Schools shouldn't be measured in this way. If a school happens to be under performing, try to find out why and then take measures to improve it. Don't punish people for it.
aside from commie mags with their occasional hit pieces there is no evidence that charter schools or vouchers are a failure, quite the opposite, the evidence shows that overall charter schools and vouchers help black kids get better education than public schools
these hit pieces avoid a simple comparison of before and after, they avoid this because a simple before and after comparison would show what an absolute disaster the previous public school system in NO was
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
The problem here is as usual for you is that you're unable to comprehend what you're reading.