From LABI: Successes in post-Katrina schools

Saturday marks the 10th anniversary of New Orleans’ direct hit from the now infamous Category 5 megastorm, Hurricane Katrina.
Of course, the business community had a number of priorities in the months following Katrina’s landfall. Locating employees, restoring power and repairing buildings in order to return to business were all matters of urgency. Also at the top of the priority list was creating a new education system in New Orleans.
With 261 school buildings damaged, facilities alone were a major challenge. But just as important was the critical need to design a system that could improve student performance in a city that had trailed both the state and nation in student performance for decades.
Before the hurricane, the system was a model of dysfunction. Student failure was prevalent and tolerated, as leaders looked away as long as certain adults benefitted from the system. A few notable examples:
—There were over 24 cases of legal actions (including indictments and plea agreements) that involved Orleans Parish School Boardstaff, outside contractors and one school board president who pleaded guilty to a bribery charge.
—In 2004, after setting up an on-site office at the school board office, the FBI indicted 11 people for financial mismanagement crimes. The FBI had come in as a response to the system’s inability to account for a missing $70 million in tax dollars.
—The district operated under a suffocating union collective bargaining contract, which made dismissal of employees, even on grounds of incompetency, very difficult.
—In the 1990s-early 2000 years, Orleans Parish had nine school superintendents in 10 years. Most of them had about an 11-month tenure.
—The leadership quagmire and rampant corruption reduced student achievement. The district’s dropout rate was high, and few minority students went on to higher education. In 2004-05, Orleans Parish ranked 67 out of 68 Louisiana school districts. The high school graduation rate was 56 percent, 10 points below the state average.
In 2003, the Legislature passed business-backed legislation that allowed the state to take over chronically failing schools and move them into a Recovery School District. The RSD could operate these schools directly or allow them to contract with a charter school operator. Before Hurricane Katrina, five Orleans Parish schools had been transferred to the RSD.
Clearly, the goal of most state leaders and the business community was to develop a new, student-centered system of education, not replicate a failed model. (It is important to point out that no one wanted to “start from scratch.” Residents of the region were not given a choice. And, arguably, it is more difficult to create something of quality from nothing than to reform organizations and structures that are already in place.)
A number of things had to happen before a new educational delivery system could be imagined. In November 2005, business once again backed proposed RSD legislation that, for a specific time period, allowed the state to redefine “failed” schools and school districts to facilitate the state’s transferring most of the schools in New Orleans into the RSD. The higher performing, selective admission magnet schools remained with the school board. With limited tax dollars flowing into the system, the school board dismissed 7,500 of the system’s teachers and school employees. The teacher union contract expired and was not renewed nor replaced.
Ten years later, with total focus, commitment and enormous amounts of sheer hard work, the transformation of schools in New Orleans has been nothing short of phenomenal.
Astounding improvements are being attained in New Orleans, which was once Louisiana’s lowest achieving school district. For example:
—The number of failing schools decreased from 117 in 2004 to eight in 2014. The percentage of students enrolled in failing schools decreased by 66 percent and the percent of students enrolled in “A” or “B” rated schools increased from 13 percent to 37 percent.
—The percentage of students scoring at “Basic” or above on state tests rose from 37 percent in 2007 to 63 percent in 2014.
—The high school graduation rate improved from 58 percent in 2008 to 72.7 percent in 2014. (The graduation rate for black students exceeds the national average.) This cannot be attributed to counseling at-risk students to leave school, as expulsion and suspension rates have plummeted (expulsions from the 2013-14 to 2014-15 school years alone decreased by 14 percent).
—Elementary and middle school student scores increased by 8 percent to 15 percent. Even with a high child poverty rate, the percentage of students who are deemed to be “Proficient” on state tests increased from 25 percent to 56 percent, over three times the state average for improvement on this indicator. Additionally, the percentage of black students’ proficiency increased from 21 percent to 59 percent, five percentage points higher than the state overall.
—ACT scores have increased from 17 to 18.8 (the state average is 19.4). Results for black test-takers are higher than the national average for black students.
—Every New Orleans school is now a charter school with a local governance board, allowing for maximum citizen and parent input.
—The percentage of students enrolling in college doubled and the percentage of students earning TOPS awards increased by almost five times. (TOPS is Louisiana’s merit-based, state-funded college scholarship program.)
—Differentiated funding for students with special needs that addresses the real costs of providing services per special education exceptionality was implemented. Before Hurricane Katrina, 11 percent of students with disabilities performed at the “Basic” level on state tests. In 2014, that number had increased to 39 percent, and high school graduation rates for students with disabilities exceed the state average by 17 percentage points.
—A career education focus has been introduced, with at least 25 percent of high school juniors enrolled in Jump Start coursework for the 2016-17 school year.
—Attendance zones were eliminated, allowing students to travel across the district to attend the school of his or her choice.
The new, decentralized education system in New Orleans is benefiting students and families in ways that once were barely imagined. Other education initiatives, such as a scholarship program that allows students to attend participating nonpublic schools, a tuition rebate program, and Course Access, which offers students courses that may not be available in their schools, are rounding out what many call a portfolio of educational options.
And the improvement that is being demonstrated cannot be denied. At a recent presentation to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education by RSD Superintendent Patrick Dobard, he said, “… There’s no denying, unless you’re in the denial business.”
The traditional delivery system of public education has been expanded in New Orleans and in the state. The business community’s involvement in the creation of the new paradigm, which includes a transition to an all-charter system, has been instrumental to its success.
Some call the New Orleans experience a miracle, but there is nothing supernatural about it. It is the result of the hard work and dedication of the people who made it happen. Some call it an experiment, but there is nothing experimental about employing proven strategies to help poor kids learn, when you believe that poor kids can learn and you do not use poverty as an excuse for failure.
Some ask why it matters to the business community. Business owners and operators live and work in New Orleans, and understand that poor quality education impacts every quality of life indicator.
The business community has tremendous appreciation and admiration for the achievements made as the result of re-creating a broken education system that served few into one that offers hope and optimism for the future for every student.
God bless New Orleans.
Brigitte Nieland is the vice president of education and workforce development for the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry.