No Governor Left Behind - Part Deux
No Governor Left Behind - Part Deux
Name a state program or agency that you would describe as a model of efficiency, effectiveness and progress. I know. Me neither. One of the last solutions anybody would come up with that really wanted to solve a problem would be more governmental involvement. So why does Governor Deal think that a new state agency disguised as the Opportunity School District would fare any better? I’m not sure he does. I think he promised himself into an educational corner during the heat of an election and had to come up with something, and Bobby Jindal happened to visit on his way to Washington and said “you should see what we pulled off in New Orleans. We nearly doubled the number of charter schools and things are going so well I might even run for President.” But wait a minute. Are things in New Orleans really going that well for education? In the early fall of 2014 the Cowen Institute at Tulane University withdrew its entire report touting the enormous academic improvements for the Recovery School District in NOLA. Someone - gasp - had cooked the books and used selected data to make the report that presented the RSD in a favorable academic light.
Using accurate data comparing the RSD with other public schools in Louisiana shows that the RSD charters perform consistently in the bottom third of all schools. The vast majority of charters in Louisiana, except for those with a selective admissions process, are rated D or F by their own state. The RSD we are supposed to emulate was rated as one of the lowest performing districts in the state. The latest LDOE testing results puts the RSD at the 17th percentile among all Louisiana public school districts. Those schools taken over in New Orleans and converted to charters perform at a rate below 83% of all Louisiana schools in spite of the fact that a special law was passed that allowed the state to take over failing schools.
Corporate reformers and privatizers of public education have used selective, bogus data to promote exaggerated reports of academic progress of students in the RSD to encourage other states to emulate the New Orleans model in spite of the disastrous results. Maybe they believe that if others go along with what’s turned out to be a really bad idea they won’t look so silly all by themselves. Retractions of these reports are rarely mentioned, and the urban legend of miraculous improvements continues unchallenged. Six percent (6%) of the HS Seniors in the RSD scored high enough to qualify for admission in a Louisiana university. Since 2005, RSD ACT scores have improved 2% to a class average of 16.4. This is the model we want? If the goal is to increase the number of charter schools there are simpler ways to do it. If the goal is to help students in schools struggling to meet state requirements there are better paths to follow thandrjamesarnold.com: No Governor Left Behind - Part Deux:
