Friday, January 11, 2013

Louisiana Educator: Miracle Results of School Takeovers . . . .Not in Louisiana!

Louisiana Educator: Miracle Results of School Takeovers . . . .Not in Louisiana!:


Miracle Results of School Takeovers . . . .Not in Louisiana!

The education reformers in Michigan and Ohio were told that Louisiana had achieved almost a miracle in student achievement by taking over low achieving schools using a State Recovery School District (RSD) and converting these schools into semi-autonomous charter schools. The news out of Louisiana was so good according to reform activists, that other states should hurry to copy this plan and also produce stunning results for their students. So I understand that Ohio and Michigan have now formed Recovery Districts patterned after the Louisiana model.

There is only one problem with the Louisiana Recovery District model. It does not work!In fact when Louisiana tried to expand its own Recovery District beyond the New Orleans school system, the result can only be described as a clear failure.
After 4 years, out of the twelve schools taken over by the state RSD and converted to charters outside of New Orleans, all of them are still rated “F”, and have declined in performance by an average of 10%. But not only have