New Orleans RSD — the ‘miracle’ district
The Louisiana Department Of Education just released the 2011 School Performance Data. As New Orleans has been hailed as a ‘miracle’ district, I was eager to see the results. As you might know, after Katrina the lowest performing schools were assembled into a district known as ‘The Recovery District’ (RSD) which has become a grand experiment in what would happen if an entire city was taken over by charter schools with a high number of Teach For America teachers.
When I downloaded the data I learned that 87% of the 68 schools in the RSD got either a D or an F on their State Report Card. This did not seem very impressive.
But then I read the press release from their website, which I’ll quote here:
While state officials point to significant overall improvement from 2010 to 2011, among the highlights noted is the growth of schools in the Recovery School District, which assumes responsibility for chronically failing schools. Specifically:
For three of the last four years, Louisiana’s school turnaround model has been ranked highest for the percentage of gains achieved from one year to the next.
