La. to use fund to boost low-rated schools

The state hopes to attract visionary teachers, principals and others to reshape D and F schools used by nearly 200,000 students, state Superintendent of Education John White said Wednesday.

“We are seeking the educators who want the biggest challenge and have the best vision,” White told reporters.

A $5 million fund — all federal dollars — will be used for training, and those picked will have flexibility over hiring and firing, control of budgets and curriculum.

About 63,000 students attend F-rated public schools in Louisiana and about 135,000 are enrolled in D-rated schools.

Those students represent about 28 percent of the state’s public school enrollment.

White said the state has shown some progress in turning around troubled classrooms.

He said 29 percent of New Orleans students attend schools with failing marks, down from 77 percent in 2006, but that improvements are coming too slowly.

“If we are really going to deliver on the promise we made to children, we have to accelerate the pace of change,” White said. “We have to accelerate creating a new vision where there are struggling schools.”

The grants will be available to local school districts, non-profit groups, teachers and principals.

One type of grant will allow educators to create a new or alternative school for the 2014-15 school year.

The other assistance will fund the expansion of high-performing schools for certain students who would otherwise attend a D or F school.

Under one scenario, a school district could designate a teacher or principal to lead turnaround efforts.

After a year of training, White said, that educator could be placed in charge of a new or alternative school.

Applicants who lack the support of a local school district could go through national and local training and then be placed in a troubled traditional or charter school, which are supposed to offer innovative education methods.

The list of F-rated schools in the East Baton Rouge Parish school district includes 20 of 85 schools with about 9,000 students.

White said the grants will typically total about $50,000, and in some cases will be matched by local school districts.

He said the $5 million has previously been employed for more generalized efforts to improve low-performing classrooms.

“These funds were used to make grants to school systems that were helpful, but have obviously not drawn down the number of D and F schools,” White said.

He said part of the aim of the grants is to take advantage of talent within the public school system.

“There are great leaders with creative ideas within our schools,” White said.

Comments

1) Comment by Iamhopeful2 - 20/03/2013

At the same time, Supt. Taylor, in cahoots with the RSD, is closing at least one school that has already entered the exact same turnaround process with a multimillion dollar SIG grant, a principal who is nationally certified and hand picked teachers many of whom are also National Board Certified. This their second yer of a three year turnaround contract being broken by Taylor to close the neighborhood school and bus kids out to his new configuration of charters in North Baton Rouge. The U.S.Ed refused to intervene with this State decision even though the money invested in this rapidly improving school (taxpayer money) is being lost. Now the community that has increased its support and involvement in this school will lose its center. When will all of the educators and parents in EBR (and the state) have enough of this scam and call for the resignation of White and some of the BESE members with their hands in this mess? These schools belong to us -the taxpayers, parents, community members. . . The children.

2) Comment by Ohsofedup - 18/03/2013

A quick peek indicates that some of the unclassified salaries seem to proliferate in the Department of Education: • John White, Superintendent: $275,000; • Michael Rounds, Deputy Superintendent: $170,000; • Howard Drake and Gayle Sloan, Liaison Officers: $160,000 each; • Kerry Laster, Executive Officer: $155,000; • David Lefkowith, precise title still a mystery: $146,000; • Kunjan Narechania, Chief of Staff to John White: $145,000; • Gary Jones, Executive Officer: $145,000; • Deirdre Finn, part time PR Director (working from home in Tallahassee, FL.): $144,000; • James P. Wilson, Director (of what?): $142,000; • Melissa Stilley, Liaison Officer: $135,000; • Elizabeth Scioneaux, Deputy Superintendent: $132,800; • Debra Schum, Executive Officer: $132,000; • Hannah Dietsch, Assistant Superintendent (someone please explain the difference between an assistant superintendent and a deputy superintendent.): $130,000; • Nicholas Bolt, Deputy Chief of Staff (as opposed to assistant chief of staff): $105,000. Perhaps you may have noticed in that lengthy laundry list of high-paying position, there was not a single name followed by the title “Instructor” or any other title that would indicate classroom experience. But even with all the featherbedding at DOE, there’s one appointment in particular in the Division of Administration (DOA) that stands out as the poster child for Jindal cronyism.

3) Comment by teacherguy - 14/03/2013

the low rated schools need the best teachers, right? You get what you pay for...at $60/hour (cheap mechanic's wages), pay these low rated school teachers for time "on the clock" (7:00-2:30 = 7.5 hours) [$60x7.5=$450/dayx180=$81,000/school year], and I'll let you add bonuses for teachers whose students blow the top off the tests!!! ......and watch the BEST of the BEST teachers begin to flock to these schools. But as spqr points out below, it wouldn't matter...but the best of the best would be fighting to get in for those salaries! I'd do it...

4) Comment by spqr - 14/03/2013

“We are seeking the educators who want the biggest challenge and have the best vision,” White told reporters. He is too stupid and inexperienced to know he has that now. "About 63,000 students attend F-rated public schools in Louisiana..." Nope. About 63k students CHOOSE to make Fs making the schools look badly. 135k are enrolled in schools with Ds and REFUSE to work harder to change their fate. The opportunity is there. If you do not teach and your only information comes from newspapers, then you do not know and will never know.

5) Comment by e.ducator22 - 14/03/2013

What else is not known or talked about is the what the charter schools do with the "problem" students. After the Oct. 1 MFP is received, they kick them out. The next batch is kicked out after the Feb. 1 MFP is received........and guess where they go right before state mandated testing. This is not rocket science people...and ya know what else; you would think that the head men of education/state would know what is constitutional or not. White and Jindal need to go far, far away.

6) Comment by Ohsofedup - 14/03/2013

Charter schools are not what John White and Gov. Jindal are selling them to be. They are corporations that make millions of dollars of of the taxpayers of every state. They do not disclose their score and failures because they don't want people to see how they are failing and the teachers and children are leaving these schools everyday and returning to the public schools. These are the true facts but why don't they come clean? Because it's a money maker for these corporate run schools, it's not about the children, remember this when you put your child in one of these Charter Schools. I will bet you that when not if John White is removed from his position, he will be employed by the Charter Schools of America or one of the other ones as soon as he can sign on the line. He is in it for himself and the money. He has a huge ego, listens to no one and is a complete failure as a leader. Get him out of our state ASAP.

7) Comment by Ohsofedup - 14/03/2013

The main reason Louisiana is heading in the wrong direction even faster is because of John White. He needs to be removed from his position and replaced by someone with some experience and actual professional time in the classroom and administration in the schools. He is the perfect storm for our Public Education System in Louisiana to be destroyed under his poor leadership and dishonesty and one that does not listen to the very ones that know. Everything he has done that Jindal wanted him to do is unconstitutional and he continues to pursue the use of our tax dollars to pay for his ignorance of going against what the constitution states. This appointment proves once again that you can not take someone from another state without experience and thinks that he knows it all and let them continue to ruin not only the teachers lives but also the children;s lives. He does not have the interest of the teacher nor the children at all. It's all about his ego and with just a little more of his poor leadership he will be replaced, if the BESE board would only stand up and admit they made a huge mistake. But then again Louisiana is still the most corrupt state in the nation.

8) Comment by tradewinns - 14/03/2013

squiggly, there's an old saying, "figures don't lie, but liars figure". your comment is simplistic in itself. your reasoning would be to correlate crime and criminals. if it wasn't for crime there would be no criminals. i am also tired of hearing the myriad of basically what are lies concerning the working habits of the parent(s) of our "D" and "F" school students. the truth of the matter is the average "parent" of our failing student doesn't work the god awful hours liberals love to quote if in fact they work at all. the truth is they don't do a single thing to assist their children in education. the truth is the children are undisciplined (i know the parents are again working those horrible hours at those 3 or 4 jobs they have to have to but make NO money so they cain't pay their bills so the kids can not do their homework, behave in class, arrive fed/clothed and ready to learn. IF our judicial system was woth a tinker's dam, there would be severe penalties for useless parents that were so severe that even the hard core useless breeding welfare crowd would shiver at the thought they would be punished for their NON-ACTION! the current crop of adults are "done" they are nothing and will live as nothing and die as nobodies. the only hope society has to stop our continuing decline in education is the kids that are entering the school system in the first few years of elementary education. and because they CAN be saved, society should MAKE the useless adults cater to the kids educational needs. once intertwined in education so learning is not only inspirational but fun, the kids will improve themselves and become productive members of society.

9) Comment by Vernonbrew22 - 14/03/2013

thank goodness I pay an arm and leg to have my kids raised by the poor Catholic Church. Our education system has always been perceived as low. These kind of random acts of foolishness just keep them down longer. the division of haves versus have nots will increase here.

10) Comment by jwarren - 14/03/2013

mikedeshot, your blog post was great and explains this problem is wonderful detail. Most people in the state have no idea that schools have to report discipline actions on line directly to the state, and there are state bureaucrats who monitor such actions and then threaten sanctions against schools that are trying to get discipline under control. They don't know that there are schools where teachers are told they CANNOT send problem students to the office. They are told that if there is a problem student, that the teacher must be at fault. Teachers are threatened with various forms of action like extra training in classroom management if they get cussed out and dare to send the student to the office, for example. Then these principals go to school boards and brag on their low discipline rates, and the school boards tell the public that discipline is fine at this school, when what is really happening is chaos in classrooms. And all this is the fault of Bobby Jindal, who, as mikedeshot points out, somewhere along the line decided to make good teachers the enemy by discouraging schools from dealing with the small percentage of students who create chaos in classrooms. It is as if Jindal believes that the barrel unspoils the rotten apple. Or maybe this is just a way for him to lower teacher morale and make things worse in public schools.

11) Comment by e.ducator22 - 14/03/2013

jwarren is exactly right! I beg anyone who thinks they have what it takes to endure 1 day, just 1, in any classroom within a D or F school in the ebrpss. I dare ya! Until you have walked in the shoes of a teacher who endures the unspeakable disrespect from students who have been given the right of passage to do whatever they choose without any concern of a consequence, please do not speak or state an opinion about something of which you know nothing! The infant running the LDOE wants instant gratification. Really! It wasn't broken over night and it can't be fixed that quickly, especially when the real problem is consistantly ignored. If we talk about that, we might get sued. Grow up little boy and deal with the real issues of why our school system is failing. Oh, that's right. I keep forgetting the part about you, the bully of the state, and the dictator in ebr having the goal of making all schools charters! I hate it when that happens!

12) Comment by mikedeshot - 14/03/2013

I believe the comments by jwarren and ovation are on target. John White is an amateur educator who still believes there are miricle solutions to our low performing schools if we can just find the right Superman who has the answers. There is a way to improve low performing schools but it does not produce overnight results as White continues to believe. Our LDOE is systematically counteracting the efforts by solid educators to improve schools in EBR. The DOE has appointed a special master that has the authority to overrule the actions of our principals in enforcing the discipline laws in our schools in an effort to keep disruptive students in class at all costs. So while White is looking for miracle solutions and wasting our tax dollars, his own Department of Education is preventing our local schools from operating effectively. If you would like to learn more about this matter, just go to my blog today at louisianaeducator.blogspot.com.

13) Comment by jwarren - 14/03/2013

This proposal is nonsense. There is nothing new or innovative needed to turn failing schools around. There must simply be a commitment to some very basic things. The first is supporting teachers in providing safe and orderly classrooms. Talk to teachers in failing schools and they will tell you that is usually the biggest problem. And the entire system is usually arrayed against the effort to provide safe and orderly classrooms. This goes right to the state, where White's minions monitor and question efforts by schools to make classrooms safer by removing dangerous and disorderly students so the rest can learn. Make schools safer and more orderly and then provide a solid grounding in the fundamentals that is often missing, and positive change starts to happen. But principals, school boards, and the state will resist efforts to do the very first step, making classrooms safe and secure.

14) Comment by squiggly - 13/03/2013

@tradewinns, money IS the problem ! Have you ever bothered to take a look at the stats. There is an extremely high correlation between poverty and low standardized test scores. The solution is to pay the people who are in poverty a livable wage. Most of the kids who are scoring low on the tests have parents who work for minimum wage or a little above. When the household has more money, the test scores will rise. Taking money from people who don't have it, will not increase test scores, it will lower them. Maybe the kids are not prepared for school, because their parent has to work the night shift and is not home to make them do their homework. Maybe the kids are not prepared because their lights got turned off for not being able to pay the bill. The problem is not as simplistic as you want it to be.

15) Comment by tradewinns - 13/03/2013

money IS NOT THE PROBLEM!!! why throw money at something that giving more money WILL NOT HELP!!!. what will help is taking m oney away from parents/guardians for their charges NOT being ready for school the next day. politicians all ove to say look at all i've done, when in fact they have done nothing. they have thrown other's money at a non fiscal problem and talk about wish they could give more. please politicians go home and retire forever. you are part of the problem and you have no idea what the solution may be. you have done the same thing for many years and the only change is downward. congratulations. LOSERS!!!!

16) Comment by ovation - 13/03/2013

@morellok2: When looking at the LDOE data on Ascension Parish schools as a whole, it is not all that rosy. Did you know 11 of their 27 school are scored as FAILING under the LDOE definition of a failing school? Did you know that as a whole, almost 24% of the elementary students in Ascension schools are below grade level in ELA? Did you know that as a whole, over 27% of the middle school students in Ascension schools are below grade level in ELA? Did you know that as a whole, 29% of the high school students in Ascension schools are below grade level in ELA? Looking at the date, it becomes quite evident that it all depends on where you live in Ascension parish. There are some areas that are more affluent than others and those areas are scoring much higher with A and B schools, but there are also areas that the population is not as affluent, such as the Lowery area, Gonzales, Donaldsonville, and Sorrento, where their school scores are much lower. This is true for EBR. In the more affluent areas, the school scores are higher and more students are on or above grade level. In those areas that aren’t as affluent, the school scores are lower or being labeled as failing by the LDOE. Now, try to explain to me that it doesn’t have something to do with poverty and the notion of what constitutes parental involvement.

17) Comment by bourbon-soda - 13/03/2013

Money for failure, money for failure; follow the pied piper.

18) Comment by morellok2 - 13/03/2013

How about using the model developed and implemented in Ascension parish for which they won a national award? Seems if there is a proven program it would be smart to use that rather than "trying" all manner of projects.