News Intro Text
A ten year retrospective - Part 2
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<p>by Fred Kammer, SJ</p>
<p>Public Schools. New Orleans public education “can claim the most dramatic before-and-after Katrina picture.”[1] In the 1950s and 60s, whites fled integration to private and parochial schools. Middle-class blacks followed. The pre-Katrina system was 94% African-American with 73% qualifying for free and subsidized lunches. Orleans Parish public schools ranked 67th out of 68 Louisiana districts in math and reading. 62% of students attended schools rated “failing.”[2] Corruption was widespread. </p>
<p>A state takeover beginning pre-Katrina and post-Katrina “reforms” created the new Recovery School District to oversee 57 charter schools; and left the old Orleans Parish School Board to oversee 14 charters and operate five traditional schools. (The state board of education directly authorized four additional charters, and there is one independent state school.) The state fired over 7,500 public school teachers and paraprofessionals; most were African-American. [3] </p>
<p>Preliminary results of this vast experiment show markedly better test scores and higher graduation rates and enrollment in postsecondary institutions.[4] Last year, New Orleans ranked 41st out of 69 districts.[5] Post-Katrina perceptions vary significantly: only 32% of blacks believe the mostly-charter system is better versus 44% of whites “even though precious few whites attend the public schools.”[6] </p>
<p>The state has revoked or not renewed ten charters in ten years; five charter school boards voluntarily closed their schools.[7] The greatest challenge now is how to train, certify, and keep quality teachers in schools relying significantly on young and inexperienced teachers from “alternative pathway programs such as Teach for America and TeachNOLA.” [8] Teacher racial composition has changed from 71% black pre-Katrina to 49% in 2014.[9] </p>
<p><a href="https://t.e2ma.net/webview/31p9i/707cfbbce84a194b08368a5bee8fb69b">MORE>></a></p>
<p>Public Schools. New Orleans public education “can claim the most dramatic before-and-after Katrina picture.”[1] In the 1950s and 60s, whites fled integration to private and parochial schools. Middle-class blacks followed. The pre-Katrina system was 94% African-American with 73% qualifying for free and subsidized lunches. Orleans Parish public schools ranked 67th out of 68 Louisiana districts in math and reading. 62% of students attended schools rated “failing.”[2] Corruption was widespread. </p>
<p>A state takeover beginning pre-Katrina and post-Katrina “reforms” created the new Recovery School District to oversee 57 charter schools; and left the old Orleans Parish School Board to oversee 14 charters and operate five traditional schools. (The state board of education directly authorized four additional charters, and there is one independent state school.) The state fired over 7,500 public school teachers and paraprofessionals; most were African-American. [3] </p>
<p>Preliminary results of this vast experiment show markedly better test scores and higher graduation rates and enrollment in postsecondary institutions.[4] Last year, New Orleans ranked 41st out of 69 districts.[5] Post-Katrina perceptions vary significantly: only 32% of blacks believe the mostly-charter system is better versus 44% of whites “even though precious few whites attend the public schools.”[6] </p>
<p>The state has revoked or not renewed ten charters in ten years; five charter school boards voluntarily closed their schools.[7] The greatest challenge now is how to train, certify, and keep quality teachers in schools relying significantly on young and inexperienced teachers from “alternative pathway programs such as Teach for America and TeachNOLA.” [8] Teacher racial composition has changed from 71% black pre-Katrina to 49% in 2014.[9] </p>
<p><a href="https://t.e2ma.net/webview/31p9i/707cfbbce84a194b08368a5bee8fb69b">MORE>></a></p>