Reflections on My Common Core Debate for the West St. Tammany Chamber
Below is a post that I wrote for Brietbart regarding my February 4th debate on Common Core. The debate occurred in the Louisiana parish in which I both live and teach, St. Tammany. (The somewhat-edited version posted in Breitbart can be found here.)
St. Tammany has had a solid reputation among southern Louisiana teachers for as long as I have been in the profession (1991).
Today a colleague referred to St. Tammany as “the best of the worst,” and she cited the oft-used stat that Louisiana ranks 49th educationally, only behind Mississippi.
I touch on the issue of a Louisiana “49th ranking” in my post below; however, I would like to take this moment to add some more information on Louisiana’s and St. Tammany’s education status and economic ranking.
Concerning the USDOE 2010-11 cohort graduation rate, Louisiana ranks 44th out of 51 (DC included)– 71% of Louisiana students graduated in four years. Interestingly, Louisiana tied with Jeb Bush’s ultra-reformed Florida, and Louisiana outscored reform vixen Michelle Rhee’s DC.
Louisiana is lower ranked on this cohort statistic. Nevertheless, Louisiana is not “the