Monday, October 11, 2010

BESE to Hold Public Meeting Thursday in New Orleans on Governance of RSD Schools

This week the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) will hold a public meeting in New Orleans regarding the future governance of RSD schools in New Orleans. The meeting is part of the process that BESE is undertaking as part of its review of RSD schools as mandated in Act 35, the law that enabled the RSD to take over most schools in Orleans Parish after Hurricane Katrina and the levee failures.

Last month, Superintendent Paul Pastorek presented his recommendations to BESE for these schools. The primary recommendation is for the schools to remain in the RSD for another five years, while allowing certain schools that meet prescribed standards to decide whether they want to stay in the RSD or return to local control. They would begin the process a year from now in preparation of transferring for the 2012-13 school year.

Today, the Cowen Institute is releasing our analysis of the recommendations, An Analysis of the Recommendation Concerning the Transfer of RSD Schools to Local Control. For more information on Superintendent Pastorek’s plan, on the process by which BESE determines what to do, and on school governance in New Orleans in general, click here . And don’t miss this week’s meeting: Thursday, October 14, at 5:30 p.m. at McDonogh 35 High School.

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Waiting for Superman Screening in New Orleans This Weekend

Waiting for Superman, the much-discussed film about public education in America, will be playing at the NOLA Independent Film Festival this weekend. The documentary looks at education through the stories of five young students as they enter charter school lotteries. It features several prominent education reformers, and has been somewhat controversial for the way it portrays certain issues and parties central to the debate over education reform. There are two showings on Saturday, October 16, one at 7:30 p.m. and one at 10:00 p.m., at The Theatres at Canal Place. For ticket information, click here.

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Master Plan Oversight Committee Meeting

The next meeting of the Master Plan Oversight Committee will be Monday, October 25, at 6:00 pm, at the offices of the Orleans Parish School Board, 3520 General DeGaulle Drive, Room 4050. For more information, go to this page on the Orleans Parish School Board website.

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Education Nation

In case you missed it, NBC’s recent Education Nation summit brought together many education leaders and stakeholders from around the country and generated a lot of good discussion about how to improve education. Tulane President Scott Cowen was on a panel, moderated by NBC’s Brian Williams, about the education reform landscape in New Orleans. To see the video, click here.

Also during the summit, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced a new teacher recruitment campaign to generate interest in teaching careers, especially in high-need areas. Check out the website at www.teach.gov.

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Race to the Top News

Although the U.S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top (RTTT) competition is complete and is now being implemented by the winners, the program is still in the news. Recently the Department announced that the Race to the Top Assessment program, of which Louisiana was a winner as part of a consortium with several other states, will receive an extra $31.7 million. This money will help states implement their assessment systems, and Louisiana stands to benefit as a member of the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers Consortium.

Also, Representative Jared Polis of Connecticut and Senator Joe Lieberman recently introduced a bill to authorize Race to the Top for five more years. The bill would make some tweaks aimed at improving the program, including opening it up to school districts (not just states), but the major aspects of the program would remain intact. The upcoming election and lame duck session may leave little time for significant action on this bill, but its supporters are hope to extend the program one way or another, possibly through incorporating the bill into reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

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Edujobs Funding In Question for Some Charter Schools

In August, Congress passed a $10 billion education jobs bill that aims to save thousands of teachers’ jobs across the country. The U.S. Department of Education is now distributing that money to states. Questions have recently arisen, however, over whether some charter schools and their teachers will benefit from the funding. The funding from the bill must support jobs with Local Educational Agencies (LEAs), which include traditional school districts and many charter schools. Some charter schools, however, are either not their own LEA or hire their teachers indirectly, through charter management organizations (CMOs). Since they are not employed by LEAs, teachers at these charter schools appear to be ineligible for funding under the edujobs bill.

Additionally, some charter schools in Connecticut were ineligible for the funds due to the way they are funded by the state. These schools are outside the normal state school funding formula and were thus left out of the edujobs money distribution. Louisiana was recently awarded its $147 million share of the funding. With several different types of charter schools and a complex school funding system, it is unclear as of yet whether any similar issues will impact Louisiana charter schools’ ability to access these funds.

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