Think tank issues annual report on Orleans schools - SFGate

Think tank issues annual report on Orleans schools - SFGate:

Think tank issues annual report on Orleans schools

By KEVIN McGILL, Associated Press

Updated 2:47 am, Wednesday, August 6, 2014

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Tulane Universitythink tank has issued its annual report on public education in New Orleans, noting strides made in performance since the state assumed authority over most of the city's schools, but also citing the need for numerous improvements.

The Cowen Institute's report, released Wednesday, comes as fewer New Orleans public schools are deemed to be failing and more students are achieving at least basic, grade-level performance. But only 19 percent of New Orleans public school students have shown mastery of subject matter.

The Cowen report says problems posed by the divided system of governance in New Orleans — the state oversees most schools while the Orleans School Board still oversees some — are being addressed.

For instance, it said all public schools are using the same expulsion policy. And most of them are part of the centralized enrollment system called "One App."

The report also notes that the state and the Orleans Parish school boards have adopted standards for charter school performance, an important step since all of the state Recovery School District schools and most of the Orleans Parish schools are now run by independent charter organizations.

Also praised in the report is a cooperative endeavor agreement signed in March in which the Recovery School District and the Orleans system address challenges they face in serving students throughout the city.

Cowen researchers see little sign of a major change in the divided governance.

"Long-term unified governance under OPSB appears to be out of reach," the report said. "During the 2013-14 school year, 10 charter school operators overseeing 17 schools eligible to return to OPSB decided to stay under RSD oversight. This marks the third year in a row that all eligible charter schools have decided against going under OPSB governance."

Political divisions on the local board, as evidenced by its inability to agree on a permanent superintendent, are a contributing factor, the report said.

"Until a permanent superintendent is named, there may be reluctance to return to OPSB," the report said. "Some school boards prefer to stay with the structure they know (RSD) rather than transfer to the unknown and potentially unstable OPSB."

The State of Public Education in New Orleans

The 2014 State of Public Education in New Orleans is now available. This year, we have two versions of the report: a downloadable PDF and a website with interactive maps, charts, and data. Download, read, and interact with the report at www.speno2014.com.

Since the Cowen Institute opened its doors at Tulane University in 2007, we have published an annual State of Public Education in New Orleans report to provide an ongoing chronicle and assessment of the reform efforts. The report is designed to help policymakers, educators, and citizens understand how public schools in New Orleans have progressed over time and also how they compare to schools around Louisiana and the United States.

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Tulane University, one of the nation’s most prestigious research universities and the largest employer in New Orleans, is taking a leadership role in the process of transforming K-12 public education in the city. The Cowen Institute, which opened its doors in March 2007, is an action-oriented think tank that informs and advances solutions – through policies, programs, and partnerships – to eliminate the challenges impeding the success of K-12 education in New Orleans and beyond. By leveraging Tulane’s human, intellectual, political, financial, and social capital, we are pioneering a new role for major research universities to interact with K-12 public education systems in their respective communities. Our work is focused in the following areas: Applied Research, Public Policy, Reconnecting Opportunity Youth, and College Readiness Programs.

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The Latest from the Cowen Institute

Voters’ Perceptions of Public Education in New Orleans, Spring 2014

The Cowen Institute is pleased to release its fifth poll gauging opinions of public education in New Orleans. The May 2014 poll asked respondents about their general satisfaction with public education and opinions on taxes, governance, school choice, common standards and tests, and college and career readiness. Click here for the report and the poll results.

NOLA by the Numbers: LEAP & iLEAP Test Results, 2014

The latest report from the Cowen Institute analyzes the 2014 LEAP and iLEAP test scores for 3rd-8th graders. The report looks at school results over time, the number of students who are well-prepared for the next grade-level, and how scores vary by grade and subject. Click here to read the report, explore a map, and interact with the data.

High School Disconnection: Insights from the Inside

The Cowen Institute is pleased to release High School Disconnection: Insights from the Inside, which explores the causes of high school disconnection and potential solutions to address it. The study uses information gathered in interviews with high school administrators and staff, leaders of supporting youth development intermediaries, as well as focus groups with youth, to understand the root causes of youth disconnection and current practices and interventions targeting dropout prevention in New Orleans. The discussions center around the issues of academic preparation, school culture, building relevant and rigorous curricula, and relationships with adult mentors and peers. Click here to read the report, explore a map, and interact with the data.

NOLA by the Numbers: Free and Reduced-Price Lunch Eligibility, Feb. 2014

The Cowen Institute is pleased to release its latest NOLA by the Numbers, which analyzes student free and reduced-price lunch eligibility in New Orleans public schools based on February 2014 data. The report looks at this data relative to school performance and compares New Orleans’ rate to other major U.S. cities. Click here to read the report, explore a map, and interact with the data.

Road Map to Success: FAFSA Completion in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Nation

The Cowen Institute is pleased to introduce Road Map to Success, a new series that will assist practitioners by providing data driven analysis and highlighting some best practices. The first installment, FAFSA Completion in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Nation, analyzes data on FAFSA completion and offers strategies for how all schools can connect their students to student aid, grants, and scholarships. Click here to read the report, explore maps of completion rates by parish and state, and interact with the data.

Career Day of Action 2014

On March 21, 2014, the Cowen Institute hosted the first annual Cowen Institute Career Day of Action. Keeping with our mission to advance the success of New Orleans children on their educational pathways, the College and Career Readiness team provides direct services to prepare and connect New Orleans youth to college and careers through a broad spectrum of initiatives. Click here to read more.

http://www.coweninstitute.com/

Fifth Anniversary of Blog | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Fifth Anniversary of Blog | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Fifth Anniversary of Blog

Dear Readers,

This post marks my fifth anniversary as a blogger. I want to thank those readers who regularly read my twice-weekly posts, those who have dipped into them occasionally, those who have subscribed to the post, and finally those—over 6500–who have taken the time to write comments.  The blog has had nearly 850,000 views from around the world (40 percent outside of the U.S) since August 2009. Not exactly viral but, for me, most gratifying.

For the 597 posts I have written in the past five years, I have followed three rules:

1. Write less than 800 words.

2. Write clearly on school reform and classroom practice.

3. Take a position and back it up with evidence.

Anyone who blogs or writes often knows that sticking to these rules is no easy task. Occasionally, I have slipped and alert readers have reminded me of these rules.  Yet after four years, writing two posts a week–with help from guests (teachers, administrators, non-educators, family, and academics)–has been very satisfying. I remain highly motivated to write about what happens to policy as it gets translated into practice and those unrelenting efforts of reformers with varied ideas inside and outside the schools who have sought improved schooling.

Five posts have caught the most clicks since beginning the blog:

“Data-Driven Instruction and the Practice of Teaching (over 24,000)

“The Difference between ‘Complicated’ and ‘Complex’ Matters (18,000)

“High-Tech Gadgets: Addiction, Dependency, or Hype?” (16,000)

“Cartoons on Common Core” (13,000)

“Chains or Spaghetti? Metaphors of Implementation (nearly 11,000)

For the first time, a cartoon feature has entered the top five posts. Three years ago, I started a once-monthly series of cartoons on selected topics of teaching, administering, policymaking, and school reform. This year I started monthly series on poetry about teachers and students written for, about, and by students, teachers, administrators, and non-educators.

As I begin my sixth year, I am not sure where I fit into Roz Chast’s breakdown of bloggers, but poking fun at those who blog is, well, part of being a blogger. Thank you again, dear readers, for making the past five years a satisfying experience.

Larry Cuban

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Eduflack's Review of This Is Not A Test, For Argument's Sake - The Jose Vilson

Eduflack's Review of This Is Not A Test, For Argument's Sake - The Jose Vilson:



Eduflack’s Review of This Is Not A Test, For Argument’s Sake

Today, Patrick Riccards of EduFlack wrote a review of my book This Is Not A Test, and it moved me in a major way. Read this excerpt:

But most importantly, I walked away thinking I want someone like Vilson to be teaching my kiddos. This is a teacher who cares and a teacher who is making a difference each and every day he steps into his classroom. We may disagree on the finer points of testing, with me hoping he would give more credit to the value of interim assessments in improving both teaching and learning. But there is no disagreeing that Vilson gets it. He knows what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong in the American classroom. He cuts through all of the flowery language and platitudes and excuses we hear far too often, and speaks truth on issues where honest truth is often absent. And he lays out issue after issue that I want to further engage him on, have a deeper discussion of, and, yes, try to change his mind about.

This.

I have a plethora of great reviews from friends, colleagues, and folks who agree with my edu-politic. But this one was special because, even though we’ve had good conversations on Twitter, I didn’t think we had much in common. When it comes to assessment, we’re as “opposite” as can be. I’m up for debate on most days when we . I don’t play the edu-jargon games, so that makes it harder to paint me in a corner. Also, I understand, though not always agree, other viewpoints other than my Eduflack's Review of This Is Not A Test, For Argument's Sake - The Jose Vilson:

 

Two years later, answers still elude API update panel :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet

Two years later, answers still elude API update panel :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

AUGUST 06, 2014

Two years later, answers still elude API update panel

by Kimberly Beltran

(Calif.) The state’s Academic Performance Index should retain its simplicity as a tool for public comparison of schools, the state’s liaison to an advisory committee working to restructure the accountability system urged Tuesday.

But the Public Schools Accountability Act Advisory Committee still had more questions than answers after a day-long hearing exploring the next steps. Perhaps the biggest question is how to retain the system’s existing symmetry while adding other indicators that will fulfill legislative ambitions to have the API reflect far more than just student test scores and instead communicate college or career readiness or both.

“One thing API was designed to do was to provide a single measuring stick by which basically all schools would be measured,” said Keric Ashley, who oversees the California Department of Education’s Analysis, Measurement & Accountability Reporting Division.

Ashley and his staff have guided the work of the PSAA panel, convened to make a recommendation for changes to the API to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and, in turn, the California State Board of Education.

The changes being contemplated are required by state law approved two years ago and call for reducing the influence of test scores – which today account for 100 percent of the API – to 60 percent. The remaining 40 percent of the formula must be calculated using graduation rates and other indicators that show how well-prepared high school completers are to enter college or the workforce.

Further complicating the committee’s work is the knowledge that top education officials are also seeking to diminish the API’s status as the predominant indicator of how well students are learning by rolling it into comprehensive Local Control Accountability Plans, which districts must complete under the state’s new school funding system.

For more than two years now, the advisory committee has met almost monthly to identify Two years later, answers still elude API update panel :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

Bond scofflaws get extension for filing disclosure fix

(N.Y.) Smaller bond issuers – which include many of the nation’s school districts – have been granted more time to consider participation in a streamlined settlement initiative for violators of disclosure rules.

by Tom Chorneau / 6h 

Russ on Reading: A Data Wall for Corporate Education Reformers

Russ on Reading: A Data Wall for Corporate Education Reformers:

A Data Wall for Corporate Education Reformers

Corporate reformers love their data. They say data is what should drive instruction. One particularly pernicious aspect of a data driven obsession is the data wall. Data walls are intended to display student perforance publicly in the classroom or, as I have often seen it, in the hallway, so that everyone can see who has done well and who has not on standardized tests and other measures of performance.

Above is one typical example (hat tip to Edusanity). Guess how long it will take children to figure out which student corresponds to which number? The purpose of these data walls appears to be, as Valerie Strauss has pointed out, the humiliation of children. In the spirit of this reformy idea, I thought I would develop a data wall of my own to assess the progress of some of the more noted educational reformers.

As you can see this data wall has four categories of cluelessness. Since the education reform movement is heavily populated by people who have never or only briefly taught, the highest rung they can Russ on Reading: A Data Wall for Corporate Education Reformers:

NYC Educator: Should We Be Recruiting Teachers on Craigslist Before Placing ATR Teachers?

NYC Educator: Should We Be Recruiting Teachers on Craigslist Before Placing ATR Teachers?:

Should We Be Recruiting Teachers on Craigslist Before Placing ATR Teachers?

I was pretty surprised to see this ad on Craigslist. Apparently you can be a city teacher and utter lack of experience is no obstacle. When I started in 1984, I got my job via a subway ad, and lack of experience was about all I brought to the table. But times were different then. No one wanted this job. The city conducted intergalactic searches for anyone willing to sit in one of the ancient wooden chairs that sat in front of thousands of classrooms. Now reformy folks everywhere complain the standard for teachers isn't high enough.

Nonetheless, though there's actually a glut of teachers on the market, we're still not only recruiting people cold on Craigslist, but subsidizing their Masters programs. I'm all for helping people with education costs, particularly in such a miserable economy, but our priority ought to be getting experienced teachers working with kids, where they belong.

The Absent Teacher Reserve is the very worst consequence of the short-sighted 2005 UFT contract. I wasn't very active in union politics before then. I'd written a few pieces in NY Teacher, and I started this blog hoping to counter some of the anti-teacher nonsense I'd read in the tabloids. In fact, I was thrilled when Edwize popped up, thinking it would further aid the cause. I made an agreement to write for Edwize, and was about to fold this blog when the 05 contract popped up.

I could not believe how bad it was. I was shocked the union could agree to this. Edwize writers suggested the ATR was just a temporary NYC Educator: Should We Be Recruiting Teachers on Craigslist Before Placing ATR Teachers?:

UPDATE: Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: In the 'trenches'

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: In the 'trenches':

Malaria and good schools. 'Problem solved'

Reader Rufus responds to Bill Gates with a comment on my Schooling in the Ownership Society Blog. This one is too good to leave in the comments section.Rufus August 6, 2014Gates claims it's easier to find cures for malaria and other diseases than to “fix” American education.Neither of those things are as difficult as Gates makes them sound. Just look in Bill and Melinda's neighborhood. No malaria

2 by Mike Klonsky / 1h 

In the 'trenches'

At the Hideout last night. 

It was another packed house at the Hideout last night for the Joravsky/Dumke Show featuring Chicago's three best education writers, Linda Lutton (WBEZ),Lauren Fitzpatrick (Sun-Times) and Sara Karp (Catalyst). The three painfully/humorously ran through story after story about CPS' and City Hall's ongoing dis-information and obfuscation campaigns earning Rahm and his team the enmity of every reporter in town.

In response to a question from the audience, all three were united in their predictions that CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett wouldn't last through March.

BLEEDING... Rahm's infrastructure is in shambles with many of his top experienced staffers bailing on him just as election season nears. From what I'm hearing, the exodus is just beginning. Most recently it was his top deputy for education Beth Swanson using the revolving corporate-reform door between City Hall and the Joyce Foundation. Swanson is usually noted for her "pivotal role in negotiating an end to the 2012 teachers strike." But as one of Rahm's top guns, Swanson could just as easily have carried the political epitaph, "played a pivotal Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: In the 'trenches':

Karen Lewis for Chicago mayor? Laughable | Articles | News | AustinWeeklyNews.com

Karen Lewis for Chicago mayor? Laughable | Articles | News | AustinWeeklyNews.com:

Karen Lewis for Chicago mayor? Laughable

Opinion

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2014 10:00 PM

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Karen Lewis

By Arlene Jones

Columnist

Lastly why do I think a Karen Lewis candidacy is laughable? Because it stands for: Lewis' All-Chicago Unites Gays, Hispanics, Asians & Blacks: Loose Emanuel! L.A.U.G.H.A.B.L.E!

A recent poll for mayor had Toni Preckwinkle easily beating Rahm Emanuel for mayor. That is not a hard thing to imagine when one considers that the current mayor isn't popular with the majority of city residents. Truth is—he isn't a "real" Chicagoan. He spent his formative years in the suburbs, his children are too good to go to the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), and his ambitions are grander than just being the mayor of this hick town. So when Preckwinkle held a press conference and said she wasn't interested in running, I'm sure the mayor kissed the ground she walks on. 

The next person who if the election were held who could win against the mayor was Karen Lewis. She is the feisty head of the Chicago Teachers Union and the woman who the mayor once told, "F U Lewis." Something I might add that he has been doing to the rest of us in this city—but I digress. There is no love lost between the two of them. Karen Lewis was raised in Chicago and went to CPS. 

When the witty people on the mayor's staff were told of the poll results, their response was loud and clear: Laughable.

Now I must confess that I did agree with Rahm's staff. The image of a mayoral race featuring Karen Lewis vs. Rahm Emanuel did have me laughing. I was Karen Lewis for Chicago mayor? Laughable | Articles | News | AustinWeeklyNews.com:

Teacher Responds to Whoopi's Response

Whoopi Goldberg recently stood by her initial comments regarding teacher tenure. I thought it'd be helpful to ask her for another revision to her original work, to improve her understanding of "tenure."

Here are my thoughts on tenure...
What do you all think

8-4-14 Wag The Dog Week - Common Core Cheerleaders

WagTheDog | Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart. ~ Rumi:

Common Core Cheerleaders

There clearly is a lack of research and evidence regarding the efficacy of the Common Core Standards but even more troubling is the absence of local leadership. There is a great difference between a nationally recognized Common Core cheerleader and a locally respected education leader. NY Governor Andrew Cuomo and NY Education Commissioner John King should be less concerned with leading the natio

by getwhatugive / 59min 

8-4-14 Wag The Dog Week

WagTheDog | Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart. ~ Rumi: Care To LearnImage: Rutu Modan   “What does it take to be a good parent? We know some of the tricks for teaching kids to become high achievers. For example, research suggests that when parents praise effort rather than ability, children develop a stronger work ethic and be

by mike simpson / 18h 

Feds will probe firing of black school administrators | Bob Braun's Ledger

Feds will probe firing of black school administrators | Bob Braun's Ledger:

Feds will probe firing of black school administrators

Tony Motley

Newark’s state-imposed school superintendent, Cami Anderson, now armed with a new three-year contract and the unrelenting love of presidential aspirant Chris Christie, has found yet another way to waste public funds on legal fees–violating the civil rights of employees, parents and children. Just little more than a week after the US Department of Education announced it would investigate potential civil rights violations inherent in the “One Newark”  redistricting plan, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is looking into personnel actions taken against the city’s school principals.

The principals contend the Newark Public Schools under Cami Anderson’s leaders has engaged in a “practice of removing, demoting, and replacing  black tenured administrators.”

The complaint also contends:

“There has been a pattern of discrimination in rating administrators and such ratings have been utilized as pretext for the aforementioned practice.”

So far, three school administrators–Tony Motley, Fred Chatman, and Aretha Malloy–have filed affidavits in support of the complaint. But Motley says more are expected to sign on.

Motley was removed as principal of the Bragaw Avenue School so it could become a charter operation run by TEAM Academy, a privately operated but publicly funded school whose leaders have close personal and business ties toFeds will probe firing of black school administrators | Bob Braun's Ledger: