Letters: New Orleans' RSD schools an example

In a recent column, Charles Lussier compared student academic improvement in Jefferson and East Baton Rouge parish school districts with that of the Recovery School District. He noted that the RSD made significant academic gains in the past few years, but this year’s three-point growth was the same as that made by EBR and Jefferson.

For this one year he is correct. But that should in no way lead readers to infer that improvement in EBR and Jefferson is anything similar to the growth that has been occurring in the RSD. Over the past five years, the RSD has by far been the fastest-improving district in the state, more than doubling the growth seen in either EBR or Jefferson.

He also pointed out that despite the improvements over the last five years, the RSD New Orleans still lags behind urban school districts of similar size. That is also correct, but it leaves out some important information. The RSD consists only of schools that have been taken over from local districts that failed year-after-year to educate children to any minimum acceptable levels. In other words, every single school entered the RSD as a chronic failure.

EBR and Jefferson, however, are traditional systems that include a full range of schools: magnet, gifted and talented, language-immersion, as well as average and below-average schools. That is hardly a basis for comparison with the RSD.

Finally, the column neglects to provide a true perspective on the phenomenal gains made in the RSD-New Orleans. Prior to Katrina and the RSD takeover of most of its schools, Orleans had arguably the worst school system in the nation, with 78 schools that today would be labeled an ‘F.’ Since then, the RSD-New Orleans has significantly increased student proficiency, decreased dropouts and reduced the number of failing schools from 78 to 21.

We suggest parents, taxpayers, and anyone interested in Baton Rouge’s future place a sharper focus on the facts facing the EBR school system today: 53 ‘D’ and ‘F’ schools, 5,333 dropouts between 2007-2011, and a third of its college freshmen taking remedial courses. There are some very good schools in EBR, but many children are still struggling academically and need more help.

That’s why it’s encouraging to see the RSD working to create a new “Achievement Zone” in north Baton Rouge. Its goal is to turn around some of EBR’s lowest-performing schools using a model similar to what the RSD has done in New Orleans with high-quality charter schools. If anything close to the New Orleans successes can be replicated here in Baton Rouge, we will soon be wondering what took us so long.

Stephanie Desselle

education policy specialist

Council for A Better Louisiana

Comments

1) Comment by twinkie1cat - 12/06/2012

Thanks again Teacherguy. (So are you a MATH teacher?) Only a teacher can love statistics like you do. You know what strikes me. Even the KIPP schools touted by the RSD are not scoring nearly as high as the top schools in the state. And the very bottom schools-- -religious charters, the ones Jindal so desperately wants to pay so he can grow more Republicans.

2) Comment by twinkie1cat - 12/06/2012

Test scores are no measure of quality education but since Louisiana continues to pretend that they are, The Recovery District has the lowest in the state. And yet Jindal forcing more Baton Rouge schools into the RSD, including another high school, Istrouma. Yet Capitol High as an RSD was a failure. The New Orleans schools, prior to the takeover,had a severe shortage of highly qualified teachers. That is how I ended up there, when they were recruiting before Katrina. After Katrina they had a bunch of unqualified and inexperienced teachers (TFA) and were still bad. But while I was there, because I was a good , experienced, double degreed teacher, my students made a great deal of progress. In fact, all the special education students who were taught most of the day by our superb special education team passed the standardized testing. ALL OF THEM. The principal was mad and thought we had cheated. Didn't need to. We were over half of the students in the school who passed. The RSD is a complete failure. They have made little progress. A DEFINITION OF INSANITY IS DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AND EXPECTING DIFFERENT RESULTS. It is time to abandon the RSD and allowing non- educators to run the schools. It is time to have schools run only by professional, career teachers and let the non-profits mentor, tutor, or raise funds. It is time to return respect to advanced education degrees and to professional educators. IT IS TIME TO KICK OUT THE RSD AND LET THE TEACHERS RUN THE SCHOOLS. If you wouldn't let a plumber do your heart bypass, why would you let a lawyer teach your child?

3) Comment by Iamhopeful2 - 12/06/2012

Agree with the former posts. PARAMOUNT in any discussion of SUCCESS or FAILURE is the fact that the instrument used to do the measuring (LEAP/iLEAP) is so flawed that it not only doesn't measure the intended victim of "reform" - learning - but it is completely susceptible to distortion, misapplication, confusion, human and mechanical error and defies research that has proven its invalidity and unreliability. That is exactly what Ms. Desselle has capitalized on. For the public who doesn't have the educational expertise, motivation, or time to do their own math or research every time one of Jindal's mouthpieces or the press post these false statements just simply give it the KISS test - which source does it make sense to believe - qualified, experienced educators or those like our wholly unqualified young Supt. John White and the many non-educators who stand to profit financially and politically from the wholesale "transformation" and privatization of our public schools?

4) Comment by spqr - 12/06/2012

And Ms. DeSelle (years teaching?) does not tell you are that NO RSD's rank last in the state...again, despite picking and choosing students. In BR , many students were dismissed from charter schools just weeks before standardized state testing; their scores unfairly counted against the school they were transferred to. Convenient. Do the strings attached to your hands hurt, Ms. DeSelle?

5) Comment by Jack_Cause - 12/06/2012

When you hear the words “percentage growth” a red flag should go up and you should look at the raw school performance scores. After 5 years with the post Katrina students, 86% of the New Orleans RSD schools are D and F schools. It is important to consider that the New Orleans post Katrina population has a much lower concentration of poverty and the direct correlation between poverty and student achievement may account for some of the “phenomenal gains”. The 14% of the C and B schools are selective admission charter schools. If the challenge is to bring student achievement in New Orleans RSD schools up from sub-failure to failure, I will agree with you, the RSD in New Orleans has shown “phenomenal gains”. The question is, once you work up to failure, can these gains be sustained. I truly hoped we would continue to see these “phenomenal gains”, but they were only 3% between 2011 and 2012. In Baton Rouge, 6 out of 7 of the Baton Rouge RSD schools are F schools. The 7th is a D school. That being said, the students in the RSD schools face tremendous challenges. I hope for their success. If we want to improve educational outcomes, we must face the facts and address the underling problems with poor student performance, and the problems are bigger than our schools.

6) Comment by 8.3 - 12/06/2012

What should concern every American, especially conservatives, is the proliferation of sheer lies to support an agenda and ideology (i.e.propaganda), the only miracle in this state is the gullibility of its people.

7) Comment by teacherguy - 11/06/2012

grammar...the other 50 are, not is...

8) Comment by teacherguy - 11/06/2012

It looks better in a chart...try this link... click on the "chart" hyperlink http://dianeravitch.net/2012/06/11/no-miracle-in-new-orleans/

9) Comment by teacherguy - 11/06/2012

6 RSD/Voucher schools in New Orleans scored above the state average, two more were competitive, the other 50 is what we are reforming our public system to become? Authority Type % Basic or Above School Name RSD Charter 94% Akili Academy of New Orleans RSD Charter 88% Martin Behrman Elementary School Voucher Private 86% ST. JOAN OF ARC SCHOOL (C) RSD Charter 86% Lafayette Academy of New Orleans Voucher Private 82% ST. LEO THE GREAT SCHOOL (C) RSD Charter 79% Dr. M.L.K. Charter School for Science & Tech. 75% STATE AVG- all students RSD Charter 74% KIPP Believe College Prep (Phillips) RSD Charter 73% KIPP Central City Academy RSD Traditional 66% A.P. Tureaud Elementary School RSD Traditional 65% Mary D. Coghill Elementary School RSD Charter 62% The Intercultural Charter School RSD Charter 62% KIPP McDonogh 15 School for the Creative Arts RSD Charter 58% KIPP New Orleans Leadership Academy RSD Charter 58% Abramson Science & Technology Charter School RSD Charter 58% Dwight D. Eisenhower Elementary School RSD Charter 57% Arthur Ashe Charter School RSD Charter 55% Gentilly Terrace School RSD Charter 54% Samuel J. Green Charter School RSD Charter 53% E. P. Harney Spirit of Excellence Academy RSD Charter 53% P. A. Capdau School RSD Traditional 53% Benjamin Banneker Elementary School RSD Charter 52% Langston Hughes Academy Charter School RSD Charter 52% Crocker Arts and Technology School RSD Charter 52% Harriet Tubman Elementary School RSD Charter 51% Nelson Elementary School RSD Charter 51% Pride College Preparatory Academy RSD Charter 50% Arise Academy RSD Traditional 50% H.C. Schaumburg Elementary School 49% RSD AVG- All Students RSD Charter 49% NOLA College Prep Charter School RSD Charter 49% McDonogh #28 City Park Academy RSD Traditional 47% Fannie C. Williams Elementary School RSD Charter 47% William J. Fischer Elementary School RSD Charter 47% Andrew H. Wilson Charter School RSD Charter 46% James M. Singleton Charter School RSD Charter 45% Lagniappe Academies of New Orleans RSD Charter 45% Esperanza Charter School RSD Traditional 44% James Weldon Johnson School RSD Charter 44% Success Preparatory Academy RSD Charter 44% John Dibert Community School RSD Charter 42% Live Oak Elementary School (Baptiste) RSD Charter 40% Laurel Elementary School (Sci Tech) RSD Traditional 39% Paul B. Habans Elementary School Voucher Private 39% ST. ALPHONSUS SCHOOL (C) 38% VOUCHER AVG-All Students Voucher Private 37% ST. MARY'S ACADEMY (GIRLS) (C) RSD Charter 36% Miller-McCoy Academy RSD Charter 36% McDonogh #42 Elementary Charter School RSD Traditional 36% Joseph A. Craig School RSD Traditional 35% F.W. Gregory Elementary School RSD Traditional 35% Murray Henderson Elementary School RSD Charter 34% McDonogh #32 Elementary School RSD Charter 34% Benjamin E. Mays Preparatory School RSD Traditional 33% Sarah Towles Reed Elementary School RSD Traditional 32% Carver Elementary School RSD Traditional 27% Dr. Charles Richard Drew Elementary School Voucher Private 23% RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD SCHOOL (C) Voucher Private 22% THE UPPERROOM BIBLE CHURCH ACADEMY Voucher Private 21% ST. PETER CLAVER SCHOOL (C) Voucher Private 13% HOLY GHOST ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (C)