State’s “gold standard model” could be emulated nationwide

Tenure reform should be linked to a new teacher evaluation system set to go into effect later this year that makes use of student test scores, according to Gov. Bobby Jindal and top figures in education and business who back his reform package. Otherwise, the current system will remain on autopilot to the detriment of students who are deprived of quality education and the more effective instructors who deserve recognition, they argue.

The idea does not sit well with the state’s teachers unions, which released an alternative reform package on Friday. Gov. Jindal’s proposal, which has not yet been enshrined into legislation, calls for the use of new a new education evaluation system, which evaluates teachers based 50 percent on student growth  to be used as a key metric in determining tenure eligibility. The idea behind the new evaluation system is to review student test and assessment scores to determine whether or not they have made the expected amount of academic progress as they move up in grade levels and then use the same methodology to asses the impact a teacher has had on student preparation and performance.

Jindal’s plan does not eliminate tenure, but it would use student growth, which is now required to be 50 percent of a teacher and leader’s evaluation. These policy changes became law last year under Act 54 in an effort to “end blanket job protection in the form of tenure to teachers who are ineffective after one year,” a “fact sheet” from the governor’s office explains.

This means after being rated as ineffective after one year a teacher would lose tenure and become an “at will” employee. The “ineffective” designation established by The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) applies to the bottom 10 percent of teachers statewide.

Districts could start dismissal proceedings for teachers who are assessed as being ineffective over a two-year period. After three-years of ineffective ratings, a teacher could lose their certification.  Moreover, teachers would not be eligible for tenure until after they have earned high performance marks over a five year period. Under current law, they receive automatic tenure after just three years.

Moreover, nearly 99 percent of teachers are receiving satisfactory evaluations within the current system, which means earning tenure and keeping their job are virtually automatic. Unless a district actively dismisses a teacher, the teacher receives tenure automatically by law on the first day of his or her fourth year in the classroom.

A pilot program that includes nine school districts and the International School of Louisiana, a charter school based in New Orleans that utilizes the value-added system is up and running. Beginning in the 2012-2013 school year, 50 percent of evaluations for teachers in academic classes will be based on the LEAP and iLEAP test scores, while the other 50 percent will be based more on subjective criteria built around classroom observations to determine how effective instructors are in motivating students.

“By changing the way that tenure works, changing the way compensation works, we want to make sure we are rethinking, identifying and keeping the best teachers in the classroom,” Jindal told listeners during the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) annual luncheon on Jan. 17th.

The idea is to “make granting of tenure an active process rather than an automatic one so that tenure becomes a recognition given teachers who have demonstrated excellence, rather than merely surviving for three years,” according to the fact sheet.

A new teacher evaluation system that replaced ineffective teachers with just average instructors would have a measurable influence on the U.S. education system, which now lags behind internationally, a recent study from the Hoover Institution at Stanford University shows. Author Eric Hanushek claims that teacher quality has a much greater influence on student achievement than other factors such as classroom size, curriculum changes and technology.

“At a minimum, the current dysfunctional teacher-evaluation systems would need to be overhauled  so that effectiveness in the classroom is clearly identified,” Hanushek recommends. “This is not an impossible task. The teachers who are excellent would have to be paid much more, both to compensate for the new riskiness of the profession and to increase the chances of retaining these individuals  in teaching. Those who are ineffective would have to be identified. Both steps would be politically challenging in a heavily unionized environment such as the one in place today.”

Philip Martin, the superintendent of Terrebonne Parish school system, would go beyond what Gov. Jindal has proposed to abolish tenure all together.

“We no longer need tenure,” he said. “It is an obstacle to student achievement and I don’t think the unions speak for the majority of teachers.”

Martin’s district is part of pilot program experimenting with the new evaluation, which also includes the city of Monroe and the parishes of Jefferson, Lincoln, Orleans, St. Bernard, St. James, St. Martin and West Baton Rouge.

“I view the value-added method as a very exciting instrument that has untapped potential and provides an objective means of measuring teacher effectiveness,” Martin said. “It has enormous potential, and is light years ahead of what we have been doing.”

To be meaningful, any tenure reform package should include the new evaluation system in some form, he added.

Dr. Michael Walker-Jones, executive director of the Louisiana Association of Educators (LAE), disagrees.

“What the public needs to know is that the tests used with the value-added assessments do not apply to 100 percent of the teachers,” Walker-Jones said. Using a test score to try and predict something that that the test was not designed for, and then trying to evaluate the effectiveness of the teacher from this, is not something we view as a fair measurement.”

Moreover, after the LEAP tests now administrated at the high school level are replaced with end of year examinations, a change that will be instituted at the end of this year, Walker-Jones, expects that percentage of teachers impacted by the new evaluation system will decline further. He also said it was possible teacher evaluation system would need to be put on hold for a period of two years if the I-LEAP and LEAP tests were revised. This is because the individuals responsible for creating the new methodology concluded that two of data gathering is needed for the results to be meaningful, Walker-Jones explained.

Rayne Martin, executive Director, Stand for Children and former Deputy Superintendent of Innovation responsible for implementing the new evaluation system, points to statistical data from the state department of education that shows a sizable percentage of teachers will be assessed based in part on student test scores.

“Currently 35% of teachers in Louisiana receive a value-added score, however that number will increase to approximately 50% through the expansion of state summative tests in 2nd grade and additional high school courses,” she said.

The union plan, which de-emphasizes test scores, calls for “revamping the current teacher evaluation system – brought forth in ACT 54 -by incorporating multiple data sources and student growth plans when evaluating teacher performance. LAE’s agenda also focuses on using student achievement to inform teacher evaluation decisions,” a  press release from the organization explained.

Walker-Jones said his organization is opposed to using the value-added assessments for the purposes of tenure reform.

“We are going to fight it because tenure is being portrayed as something it is not,” he added. “At the K-12 level, tenure refers to your right to due process if you are challenged with dismissal, that’s all it means.  The politicians lead the general public astray because they confuse the tenure in higher education with the tenure in our public school system.”

In response, Martin acknowledged that the pilot program should address some of these concerns. But he also insists the test scores do convey valuable feedback that are indicative of teacher performance.

“Part of the puzzle is how do you deal with non-tested grades and subjects,” he said. “I agree with the unions that this does create an inequity in the system.”

Going forward, Martin recommends that the teachers in core-subject areas where tests are used to measure student programs receive higher compensation. The Hoover study concurs on this point.

“Salaries several times higher than those paid teachers today would be economically justified if teachers were compensated according to their effectiveness,” the study says.

Anything less than “drastic change,” will not suffice, Martin said.

“There’s a reason Drew Brees gets paid more as the quarterback for the Saints than the place-kicker,” he observed. “The success of the team depends more on his day to day performance.”

Other teachers and administrators taking part in the pilot program also view the value-added method as a positive change, but also see the next few months as being very critical to the success of the program.

Susan Benedetto is a library media specialist for the St. Charles Parish School Board who has been assigned to the work group responsible for designing teacher assessments in non-tested subjects such as physical education, art and music. Her group is also charged with making recommendations that are reported back to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) . Over the long-term, she anticipates that policy changes flowing out of Act 54 will work to the advantage of teachers and students.

“What I’m seeing so far is a rubric that is both realistic and fair,” Benedetto observed. “This is not an adversarial system and it does not ask teachers to jump through hoops and perform in an unrealistic way, but we do have to set goals. Once the public understands what has been put into place, they will be supportive.”

Gov. Jindal’s reform package would also give districts the flexibility to reward teacher performance with higher salaries. Moreover, teachers that consistently earn high marks will be able to maintain tenure status.

“Our plan to empower teachers has new components for current and incoming teachers,” Jindal said during his LABI address. “But they all boil down to two very simple ideas. We are going to create a system that pays teachers for doing a good job instead of for the length of time they have been breathing and we’re going to give districts the tools to recognize and keep the best teachers.”

The narrow implementation period for the new evaluation method is a cause for concern for Sean Wilson, the executive director of the International School of Louisiana, in New Orleans. But the concept is valid, and with proper training use of student test scores as part of teacher evaluations could produce meaningful dividends for the state’s education system.

“This is a way to ensure that teachers and the school leadership are inextricably focused on the process of student learning and achievement,” Wilson said. “It is important to have student success as part of our overall evaluation system.”

Brigitte Nieland, vice-president and communications director of the Education and Workforce Development Council for LABI, is unmoved by the union criticism. Louisiana now has a “gold standard model” for teacher evaluations that could motivate other states to advance similar reforms, she said.

“We are the national leaders, we are leading the way,” Nieland continued. “There is tremendous interest in this model. I agree that a lot of components go into making an effective teacher that don’t get reflected in the test scores. But having the evaluations split 50-50 between the tests and other subjective factors is more than fair.”

Walker-Jones views proposed connection between tenure and value-added assessments as “nothing more than smoke and mirrors” that make for “great public relations soundbites” without producing meaningful performance measurements.

But the fact the union members are willing to incorporate testing in some form, even if it is just 20 or 30 percent of the equation [as some union representatives have suggested]  as opposed to 50 percent, is very suggestive, Nieland countered.

“That’s a capitulation on their part,” she said. “It’s easier to kill off 20 percent than 50 percent. This is just another delay tactic.”

Kevin Mooney is  the Capitol Bureau Reporter with the Pelican Institute for Public Policy. He can be reached at kmooney@pelicaninstitute.org and followed on Twitter.

Louisiana recognized as an incubator for reform

Lakefront Arena at the University of New Orleans will be at the focal point of national attention this coming Saturday as it plays host to an event that marks the beginning of National School Choice Week.

As Gov. Bobby Jindal prepares to advance an ambitious education reform agenda in anticipation of the legislative session that begins in March, state officials will be in a position to highlight key innovations that have already been set in motion.

The Jindal Administration has continued to expand the revolutionary charter school program that began in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It also secured approval for a limited voucher program in the city. Over 1,600 voucher recipients were enrolled in private schools as of last Spring.

Gov Jindal now favors making these scholarships available statewide. He also called for revising teacher tenure rules and giving school superintendents and principals greater authority over hiring and firing decisions.

The New Orleans celebration will include live musical entertainment from The Temptations and Ellis Marsalis starting at 10:30 a.m. at the Lakefront Arena located on Franklin Avenue. For more information visit http://www.SchoolChoiceWeek.com.

Elected officials, celebrities,  students, parents, and teachers are expected to take part in the event and to discuss their experiences.

Kevin Mooney is the Capitol Bureau Reporter with the Pelican Institute for Public Policy. He can be reached at kmooney@pelicaninstitute.org and followed on Twitter.

New model seeks to account for divergent student backgrounds and learning environments

Test scores that measure the progress students make each year will now be used as part of a new evaluation system that determines how effective teachers are in the classroom. But not everyone with a stake in the public education system is pleased with the change.

The new methodology divides some of the candidates seeking open seats in the Nov. 19^th run-off elections for the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE). The state’s teachers unions have also expressed opposition to the changes.

Beginning in the 2012-2013 school year, 50 percent of evaluations for teachers in academic classes will be based on the LEAP and iLEAP test scores, while the other 50 percent will be based more on subjective criteria built around classroom observations to determine how effective instructors are in motivating students. A pilot program that involves nine school districts and one of the charter schools is already underway.

“This is historic change and an important step forward for our education system,” said  Brigitte Nieland, vice-president and communications director of the Education and Workforce Development Council for Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI). “For the first time, teachers will be evaluated based on how their students perform. This is about transparency and accuracy.”

The 33 member Advisory Committee on Educator Evaluations (ACEE), which includes teachers, administrators, elected officials and union representatives, is charged with making recommendations to BESE, which is guiding the program’s implementation.

The committee is considering a series of proposals for the non-test portion of the evaluation that examines how well teachers integrate lesson plans with the curriculum and how well their instructional strategies lead to student mastery of the subject matter. Another committee proposal calls for teachers to be assessed on how effectively they communicate with family members and colleagues as part of ongoing efforts to advance academic achievement.

BESE is also responsible for approving the evaluation formula that will be used to evaluation teachers in non-academic subjects without testing such as music, art, physical education and library instruction. A series of workgroups have been set up that includes instructors from non-academic classes. They are expected to submit their recommendations to BESE between now and the end of the year.

The “value-added teacher evaluations,” which were enshrined into law under Act 54 during the 2010 legislative session drew intense opposition from top figures within the Louisiana Federation of Teachers (LFT) and the Louisiana Association of Educators (LAE). Instead of mandating test scores as part of the evaluation, some union officials preferred a “mentoring system” that was already in use in some districts known as the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP).

Chas Roemer, the District 6 BESE incumbent (who is also the son of the former governor and current presidential candidate)  is unimpressed with the union position.

“What they are talking about is more of the same and that just doesn’t cut it anymore,” he said. “I support the value-added model because it gives us valuable information and it tells us how much progress a teacher is making with their students. It is not meant to be punitive because it can lead to merit pay for teachers who are doing an outstanding  job and we can also use the evaluations to see where we need to offer better support and training.”

Roemer has been endorsed by the LABI in his re-election effort. His opponent, Donald Songy, a former principal and superintendent of schools in Ascension Parish, has been endorsed by the Coalition for Public Education, which includes the Louisiana School Boards Association, the Louisiana Association of Superintendents, the state’s teachers unions and other public education stakeholders.

Songy views the value-added system as a flawed model that does not properly measure all the factors that go into effective teaching.

“In my opinion this is not the best way to evaluate teachers,” he said. “The best way to evaluate teachers is with a trained professional who understands the function of observing the teacher in action. The other problem I see here is that the majority of teachers do not teach in a subject where tests are given. I don’t have a lot of confidence that the methods that are being developed now to measure teachers in these areas will be very meaningful.”

Les Landon, the director of Public Relations for LFT, a Coalition member, also has misgivings about the value-added method and the measurements that will be used for teachers operating in non-academic areas. He points out the majority of teachers fall into “non-core” areas that do not involve tests. Sixty-five percent of Louisiana teachers oversee classes without the standardized tests, according to the Louisiana Department of Education.

“Nobody was satisfied with the way teachers were being evaluated, that’s where we are in agreement because it was entirely subjective,” Landon said. “But the idea that everything can be quantified and measured in this way is something that a lot of researchers do not support.”

Landon also said that his organization is not irrevocably opposed to the inclusion of testing as a part of the evaluation picture. But at the same time, he is concerned that Louisiana officials have over-weighted the use of tests in comparison to other states that are also experimenting with the value-added approach.

“Having the tests score set at 50 percent of the value-added evaluation is something that was done without any data ,” Landon said. “That’s why we didn’t want to see this put into law. Fortunately, the legislature did put some brakes on and this program will be revisited once it is piloted.”

Roemer, the BESE member from District 6 disagrees. He views the 50 percent threshold as very “restrained, moderate and balanced.”  He also credits education officials for including teachers from non-academic classes to be involved with the work groups making evaluation recommendations to BESE.

Union critics who suggest that teachers may be unfairly judged overlook some key factors, Rayne Martin, deputy superintendent of innovation for the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE), said. The new model, for instance, does take into account the fact that not every teacher begins from the same starting point in their classrooms,  points out. The student’s background and learning environment factor into the assessments, she said.

“There is an understanding here that schools start in different places and the new system is very intuitive to that because it is based on student growth and that is what is really being measured,” Martin said. “Every student starts at a different place based on their academic history and other indicators and characteristics. The system acknowledges this reality. That’s why each year we look at how much students grow from where they started. This is something I think the critics need to step back and consider.”

One key advantage of having teachers involved with the work groups is that they see where assessments should be tailored and crafted to fit the unique needs of each and each district, Susan Benedetto, a library media specialist for the St. Charles Parish School Board, said. She is a part of the work group for educators working on the non-tested subjects.

“When we started our goal was to come up with a common assessment and share our package with all librarians in grades K-12,” she said. “But after our initial study we found we couldn’t do this because every district is different and there are certainly differences between what’s happening at the elementary and the high school level. But we can set goals for student growth and we are going to back at which ones are rigorous and which ones can be improved.”

The pilot program includes the International School of Louisiana, a charter school, and the following school districts: City of Monroe Schools, Jefferson Parish Schools, Lincoln Parish Schools, Orleans Parish Schools, St. Bernard Parish Schools,  St. James Parish Schools,  St. Martin Parish Schools,  Terrebonne Parish Schools and   West Baton Rouge Parish Schools.

Kevin Mooney is an investigative reporter with the Pelican Institute for Public Policy. He can be reached at kmooney@pelicaninstitute.org and followed on Twitter.

Despite criticism, state sparks valuable discussion about federal education programs

In a decision sparking heated debate and condemnation, the state has turned down a federal grant opportunity for early learning because it is not adequately organized to administer these funds. While many are expressing outrage over this decision, it raises important questions about the value of federally funded education programs such as Race to the Top.

Under the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge, states can apply for up to $100 million in funds to increase access to quality early education for low income school children. However, Acting State Superintendent of Education Ollie Tyler announced that Louisiana would not compete because the state essentially has its hands too full already in red tape and lacks any “clear governance structure.”  Furthermore, Tyler contested that a federal handout “will not effectively meet the needs of our children.” This admission speaks volumes about the need to downsize consolidated control over education and transition towards local autonomy, efficient spending, and vouchers, rather than relying on arbitrary spending to achieve educational progress.

The efficacy of Race to the Top and similar programs has come under heavy scrutiny, especially since Louisiana was ignored earlier this year when the Obama Administration announced the “winning” states, despite exhibiting progress superior to those winning states. Critics of Race to the Top pointed to the dubious results as evidence that states were being baited with financial incentives to fall in line with uniform federal policies for education, which may potentially be adverse to an individual state’s needs.

What the state should do is replicate the successful formula of public education in New Orleans post-Katrina by increasing autonomy on the local level and reducing the congested, unresponsive control of centralized bureaucracy. School systems should administer early education according to their needs and not be held hostage to the mass confusion referenced by Tyler, nor should they view federal outlays as a prerequisite to progress.

As frustrating as Louisiana’s bureaucratic incompetence is, this ordeal opens up an important dialogue. National standards are not imperative for success, and neither is doling out hundreds of millions of dollars for conforming to the wants of a program with a dubious success record. There is inherent danger in states conditioning their policies to government money, rather than developing self-sustaining programs of their own.

‘Roadmap for Reform’ contains detailed recommendations for state policymakers on digital learning

This past week, former Florida Governor and chairman of Digital Learning Now! Jeb Bush and former West Virginia Governor Bob Wise unveiled an expansive plan for utilizing technology to achieve educational progress entitled the “Roadmap for Reform: Digital Learning.” The detailed 72-point plan aims to bridge the considerable gap between student needs and available state resources using technology and digital learning.

Currently, less than 10 percent of the nation’s students experience the benefits of digital learning, while a far greater percentage are in failing schools with ineffective and inadequate teachers. The Roadmap for Reform is designed to customize education for the individual student so he can learn at his pace whether in school or at home, an opportunity currently not afforded to the average student.

According to the Roadmap, ten elements are necessary for High Quality Digital Learning: 1) Student Access 2) No Barriers To Access 3) Personalized Learning 4) Advancement (According to progress achieved) Quality Content 6) Quality Instruction 7) Quality Choices (access to multiple digital learning providers) 8)Assessment and Accountability 9) Funding and 10) Infrastructure. These elements are then subdivided into 72 specific guidelines by which elected officials and lawmakers can advance digital learning.

The ideal benefits yielded by digital and online learning are profound. Students are no longer restricted by time, nor are they confined to the classroom. They can engage in learning outside of pedagogical methods of teachers which may fail to meet the unique demands of individual students. Furthermore, emphasizing technology will alleviate the strained resources of public schools.

Both full-time and part-time online learning engages students in ways that classroom instruction sometimes fails to do, whether due to poor instruction or overburdened class sizes. Evolving and innovative methods are needed to garner student interest, and the array of interactive programs and software technology providers should be taken advantage of in public education.

Also included is a state-by-state report card, which comprehensively assesses the progress of every state on each individual metric of the ten Roadmap elements. According to the results, Louisiana appears poised to make significant progress if it continues to embrace digital learning, though it needs improvement especially in areas of funding and infrastructure. This year brought the arrival of Louisiana’s first online charter school, Baton Rouge’s Louisiana Connections Academy, with others slated to follow. For a state roundly criticized for its public education, digital learning is an important component with potentially transformative implications.

School board association executive says new method will distract principals from primary mission

Strong performing charter schools in the Recovery School District (RSD) make a compelling case for even greater decentralization in Louisiana’s education system, according to the proponents of student based budgeting.

Last November, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) began studying the new budgetary concept at the behest of the state’s Streamlining Commission.  Under current policy, state money is allocated to each school district and the district officials determine how much money each school receives. But there is a better way to maximize resources and direct money into the classroom, Lisa Snell, the director of Education and Child Welfare at the California-based Reason Foundation, said.

“We’ve learned from the charter school movement that decentralization has its advantages,” Snell explained. “One of the problems we see at the federal, level and district level is that there are a lot of rules about how to spend money and principals are held accountable for student achievement. But the principals have very little input how resources are directed in specific instances. They should have more autonomy over how resources are aligned toward their school’s instructional goals.”

The idea behind student based budgeting (SBB) is for school dollars to be dispersed on a per-pupil basis and to follow individual students into schools where the principals determine how the money is best spent. Snell made the case for SBB last year before a BESE task force. She was joined by three other presenters from across the country who have successfully implemented the new budgetary method in their districts.

Matt Hill, an administrative officer for the Los Angeles Unified School District, told task force members that assigning financial resources directly to schools had allowed for each school to have greater flexibility to make specific decisions in spending, which in turn improved student performance. Jason Willis, a former budget director with the Oakland Unified School District, said some tasks are better suited to “economies of scale” at the central office, but most duties associated with “enhancements to learning” were better dealt with at the school level.

BESE has authorized a pilot program set to go into full effect next year that includes at least six different parishes: Jefferson, Sabine, Terrebonne, Assumption, Lafourche and Iberville. Officials with St. John the Baptist indicated earlier this year that they may not take part in the pilot after initially signing up, but the parish has not officially withdrawn, Penny Dastugue, the BESE president said. She anticipates the pilot program will yield useful information for school officials over the next several months.
“This is a voluntary way for districts to explore new concepts and new practices,” Dastugue said. “The idea here is to empower local school leaders and to shift the decision-making over to the local schools where there is a firm understanding of student needs.”

School districts that have embraced SBB throughout the country find that it translates into greater transparency, heightened flexibility and greater equity, Dastugue noted. She also said that the overall success of the charter school program suggests that SBB can be made to work in a larger scale.
“A one size fits all approach does not work,” she said. “We need to be student specific and let principals address the individual needs of their schools. In a way, we already have a successful for student based budgeting with our charter schools.”

Snell, the Reason education analyst, points out that SBB has produced encouraging results in other parts of the country in large school districts. The LA Unified district in Los Angeles, Calif. currently has 110 schools involved and will include all 900 of its schools next year, she said. Snell also cited programs in Boston, Mass. And Newark, N.J.

The outcome of this Saturday’s BESE school board elections could have a significant impact on Louisiana’s pilot program, Dastugue, the board president acknowledged.  Top officials with Louisiana School Boards Association (LSBA) and the Louisiana Association of Superintendents (LAS) have been critical of SBB. Both organizations are part of the Coalition for Public Education, which also includes several teachers unions.

Lloyd Dressel, the interim executive director of LSBA, expressed concern that SBB could distract principals from their primary responsibility. He also said the pilot program is much more “open-ended” than what has been set up in California.

“We have some misgivings,” Dressel said. “We think the spigot has been opened too wide and too much authority is being moved away from superintendents. We don’t have principals at each individual school with sufficient training to administer the books in way that would be necessary with this kind of budgeting. This can get too open-ended in our view. The principal’s chief job is academic performance and if he has take time away to handle budget questions this would lessen the time devoted to academic performance.”

Russell Armstrong of Baton Rouge, who is running for the open BESE seat in District 8 also sees a danger that SBB could become “too open ended,” but he does support the pilot program..

“We need to make sure our principals are trained to handle this new approach, so we do have to be careful about making this too widespread at the outset,” Armstrong said. “But I like the idea of allowing local officials to have more autonomy so they can improve outcomes for our students. The pilot program is very worthwhile and we should be open to new ideas. Part of our job is to make sure this is implemented in the right way.”

Snell, the Reason Foundation analyst, expects SBB to become more widespread over time in Louisiana and in other parts of the country.

“The central office that has control is always going to be resistant,” she said. “They do want to tell principals how to spend the money, and they do think they know best. But we’ve already seen some successful implementations that have become very empowering to principals, teachers and students. The idea is catching on.”

SBB can be viewed as an extension of charter school movement, Snell added. The concept has already moved beyond theory and into practice in the Recovery School District where local officials are delivering a quality education without centralized control, she said.

The Pelican Institute did try contacting several of the Coalition-backed candidates including Sharon Hewitt, Louella Givens and Lottie Beebe, but did not receive a response.

Kevin Mooney is an investigative reporter with the Pelican Institute for Public Policy. He can be reached at kmooney@pelicaninstitute.org and followed on Twitter.

Drastic reforms implemented post-Katrina credited with sparking growth

The progress seen in post-Katrina New Orleans education received glowing commendations from the New York Times this week, continuing the spate of national recognition the city has received since overhauling the education system.
Prior to the storm, roughly 60 percent of New Orleans public school children attended failing schools. Now, this number has drastically shrunk to 18 percent – progress described by Education Secretary Arne Duncan as “stunning.” Likewise, nearly half of Recovery School District (RSD) students are now performing at the ‘basic’ level on state tests, double the rate from five years ago.

The editorial accurately credits drastic measures implemented on the state and local level with charging this revival. One of the particularly controversial reforms cited is the complete overhaul of the city’s teaching corps following Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent implementation of skill tests and higher performance standards.

The creation of the Recovery School District is also attributed with giving individual schools greater autonomy and reducing the stagnant central bureaucracy which plagued the prior school system, as well as the influx of energetic young teachers recruited from around the country. The RSD’s decision not to engage in collective bargaining with teachers unions is also noted.

Of all the reforms instituted, arguably the most notable is the preponderance of charter schools versus traditional public schools in the city, which far outpaces the ratio around the country. The correlation between charters, which employ more flexible and student-tailored teaching methods, and progress is hard to ignore. While charters are “often accused of siphoning off scant resources and taking the best students from traditional schools,” the Times points out that accountability measures have ensured that this is not the case in New Orleans.

While the progress in New Orleans is garnering national media attention, as evinced by this editorial, it is far from complete. Many schools are still failing and are rife with underperforming and troubled students. However, the upward trajectory of student and school achievement indicates that they are finally being given a chance to succeed.

As BESE elections loom, Coalition warns against privatization while business leaders point to the cost of failing schools

Are business interests plotting to take over the public education system and turn a profit at the expense of the public?

That is the charge leading figures within the Coalition for Public Education have aimed against Gov. Bobby Jindal and the candidates pursuing seats on Louisiana’s top school board who favor expanding the number of charter schools. The Coalition includes the Louisiana School Boards Association, the Louisiana Association of Superintendents, several of the state’s teachers unions and other public education stakeholders.

But business industry representatives counter that these same coalition officials fail to acknowledge that the public school system has been draining Louisiana taxpayers while delivering an inferior product. Moreover, the coalition members have failed to explicitly identify which individuals and which organizations are actually turning a profit as a result of their affiliation with the charter school system, Brigitte Nieland, vice-president and communications director of the Education and Workforce Development Council for Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI), said.

“We are talking about a union-led coalition that does not like to be described as union-led, that gets paid by the taxpayers to work on public time and to work against the interests of taxpayers,” she said. “That irony can only exist in public education.”

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, state officials created the Recovery School District (RSD) in New Orleans Parish and took control of schools that were viewed as failing. Charter schools, which are governed independently by a board of directors, figure prominently within this equation.

Charter schools are part of the public education system, but they are permitted to operate with a certain degree of autonomy and they are not subjected to all the rules and regulations that govern traditional public schools. The idea is to provide charter operators with room for creativity and innovation in lesson planning. The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), which oversees the RSD, authorizes charters for a five-year period, with a performance review every three years. Statewide, there are 101 charter schools now up and running with over 70 in New Orleans.

Lee Barrios, a retired middle school teacher from Abita Springs, and a candidate for the BESE seat in District 1, is ardently opposed to an expansion of the charter school system. The “capitalist theory” standing behind privatization efforts undermines a quality education, she argues.

“There are some high performing charter schools,” Barrios acknowledged. “But there is very little accountability and some have done very poorly. The privatization that [Gov.] Jindal has planned goes too far. I’m dead set against expanding charters, they’ve been expanded too much already. There is a capitalist theory that says there is money to be made in schools, but that’s wrong. Public schools are not set up for the purpose of making a profit, they are a different kind of animal.”

This assessment is well off the mark, Nieland, the LABI representative said in response.

“Charter schools are best described as public schools with an additional layer of accountability,” she observed. “They have to perform in a five year period, and if they don’t they are shut down. BESE has shut down charter schools that are not working. How many other public schools get shut down when they are not working?”

Nieland continued:

“There is a model still in place for public education that has not worked in decades,” she said. “Isn’t it terrible that we are now offering more choice to parents and students, instead of letting the education bureaucrats exercise total control.”

LABI has endorsed Jim Garvey of Metairie, the incumbent BESE member in District 1, who Barrios is challenging. Garvey said Louisiana residents should be encouraged by the progress charter schools have made in just a short period of time. He also points out that the overwhelming majority of charters are operated by non-profit organizations.

“The argument about a profit motive is bogus,” he said. “Who exactly is making money here? When you look at the charter school boards, and the organizations running the schools, they are almost all non-profits.”

There are only eight charter schools out of 101 that have contracted with for-profit groups, according to LABI. But instead of fixating on whether or not a particular organization is non-profit, or for-profit, education officials should look the results charters are delivering, Garvey argued.

“The place where charter schools have had the biggest impact is in turning around failing schools and that’s what we see in New Orleans,” he said. “We have seen real gains in school performance scores and they compare favorably with the rest of the state. If the charters are producing good results why should anyone be concerned if a small percentage are operated by for-profit companies. We should care more about the results we are getting for our children. If they [the charters] don’t get results, BESE will shut them down, and BESE has.”

The concept of “failing schools” has been oversold to the public in an effort to create an opening for the charter school movement, Barrios claims. Moreover, she suggests that parents may not have as much control and latitude within the charter school system as they may think.

“It’s very easy to go into big cities and high poverty areas and present charters as being innovative and autonomous and it’s very easy to create this picture where the schools are failing,” Barrios said. “But that’s not the reality. You are not going to turn out a good product if the money is going toward profit, and not toward the children. Also, parents don’t have any real control in the charter schools because they have to sign a contract.”

While charter school proponents are quick to point out that they are largely non-profit outfits, the professional management companies standing behind them use “code words” like “free market system for schools” and “schools must compete against each other” that point to “a perspective which establishes schools as markets rather than a public trust,”  Dr. Michael Walker-Jones, executive director of the Louisiana Association of Educators (LAE), a Coalition member, said. “We believe the business interests have an agenda to privatize the public schools for profit.”

When asked to name which business entities are out to turn a profit at the expense of public education, Walker-Jones cited Teach for America, a non-profit group that recruits college graduates to teach in urban and rural settings for a two-year period.  Barrios, the District 1 candidate, pointed to prominent business leaders including Michael Milken and the Walton family.

“Here is where I get into a real heavy debate with the conservative viewpoint,” Walker-Jones said. “If you look at education strictly from the viewpoint of economics, I think you lose the art and craft and science of the practice. If we believe that the capitalism overrides everything else then we are missing out on the complexity that goes into an effective education.”

He added:

“Our schools are not a business, they are public trusts, and if we operate them like a business then I think this destroys the whole democratic underpinning of what it is that we have schools for in the first place. They are here to train and teach citizens to be critical thinkers and part of the intelligent decision making and democratic structure of this country.”

Robert Evans, a board member of the Choice Foundation, which runs the Lafayette Academy and Esperanza Charter Schools, advises the voting public to be wary of the information Coalition members are putting into circulation in the run up to Saturday’s elections.

“There is no individual profit motive involved in the running of these schools,” he said. “Charter school board members get paid nothing for the time that they spend working for their schools. In fact, most board members donate money, and in many cases, significant amounts of money to their schools. The reason that the individuals I know get involved in the governance of charter schools is because they genuinely want to be a positive force to help transform the historically horribly under-performing schools of Louisiana.”

Garvey, the BESE 1 incumbent, sees a deliberate effort at work on the part of Coalition members to misrepresent the goals of Teach for America.

“The union members are not giving us an accurate picture of what Teach for America is all about,” he observed. “It is non-profit group that is recruiting highly qualified teachers to go into challenging areas where they are producing above average results. They are only required to stay two years, but they usually stay longer. Teach for America has been very effective.”

Union officials are making a concerted effort to “vilify the word profit” because they recognize that average citizens are asking serious questions about how their tax dollars are being spent on schools that are not delivering an effective education, Nieland, the LABI representative said in response.
“It is a fallacy to say there is no profit in public education,” she pointed out. “The current system cuts too much money out of the classroom. Tell the school boards they can no longer do contracts and we’ll see if they put their money where their mouth is.”

Most school boards are the largest employers in their parish and most have budgets that are larger than the city or municipal budget, Nieland explained. The boards purchase and contract out for many items including capital construction, textbooks, vehicles and improvements to the buying and selling of land.

“To say there is no flexible money which equals a profit in public education is not true,” she continued. “If there was no profit in the system, all of the money would be going into the classroom, and no district would have a central office building. The superintendents are paid as well as CEOs, and have benefits that rival or exceed the private sector.”

The progress charter schools have made in a short period of time should be cause for encouragement and continued support, Evans, the Choice Foundation board member, said. Since the movement was initiated in the 2006-07 academic year, the School Performance Scores (SPS) in New Orleans have improved by almost 50 percent, he said.  Specifically, in the first school that the Choice Foundation chartered, Lafayette Academy, the SPS has gone from 58.8 in the 2007-2008 school year to 88.5 in the 2010-2011 school year.

“The school reform movement in New Orleans is considered one of the most promising examples in the country of what can be accomplished if new approaches are taken,” Evans said. “I have always felt that the key to economic prosperity, lower crime rates and self realization is a good educational foundation. This was lacking in our state.”

Kevin Mooney is an investigative reporter with the Pelican Institute for Public Policy. He can be reached at kmooney@pelicaninstitute.org and followed on Twitter.

Union-led coalition warns against Jindal agenda, while business group says unions fear transparency

Letter grades that show a sizable percentage of Louisiana public schools are either failing or under-performing continue to generate controversy. Officials representing a coalition of teachers unions, superintendents and school board associations claim that they were set up to advance a political agenda built around the expansion of charter schools and privatization initiatives.

While many of the schools in the New Orleans state-run Recovery School District (RSD) and the local Orleans Parish School Board showed measurable improvement, a majority received a letter grade of D or F when the Louisiana Department of Education released the letter grades for the first time earlier this week. Statewide, 44 percent of Louisiana schools received D’s or F’s. Even so, there were visible signs of improvement.

If the current letter grade system had been in place back in 2007, 55 percent of Louisiana schools would have earned D’s or F’s.  The means the number schools that failed to achieve at least a C grade fell by 20 percent from just a few years ago. Moreover, the number of schools that received a grade of B or A almost doubled from 14.9 percent in 2007 to 28.4 percent in 2011.

“We see the letter grade system as an attempt to make more of the schools to appear as failing schools so the [Jindal] administration can make the case for more companies to come in and open charter schools,” said Jack Loup, founder of the Coalition for Louisiana Public Education. “We are already dealing with cutbacks in funds and the school boards are being asked to do more with less. There is an effort here to make the school system look bad to advance a political agenda.”

The Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), which formally approved the new letter grade program last December, set up a 200-point scale based on student test scores for the individual schools. A school is considered top performing if it reaches a mark of 120 or higher, while schools that fall below 65 are considered failing. District Performance Scores and State Performance Scores intermix standardized test scores, attendance rates, graduation rates and dropout figures.

In June, Rep. Jonathan Perry (R-Abbeville), with the support of the teachers unions, introduced a bill to delay the new system, but the Senate Education Committee voted it down in a 5-4 vote. Stafford Palmieri, an education policy adviser to Gov. Jindal, described Perry’s bill as “an attack on accountability.”

The letter grade system sharply divides candidates competing for contested BESE seats in the Oct. 22 elections. Those in favor of the letter grades view them as a distinct improvement over the “star system” that had been in place, which they described as “vague” and “ambiguous.”

“The idea here is to provide clear communication,” said Holly Boffy, who was named as the 2010 state teacher of the year. “The letter grades will help us to understand where we are failing and how we can better deliver resources to the schools that need it most. This is a system everyone can understand. If we are assigning letter grades to students, then why not to schools?”

Boffy is looking to unseat incumbent Dale Bayard in the 7th district, who has been endorsed by the coalition.

“The letter grade system will be eye opening for the public, we need to see where our schools fall in comparison to each other and how we look nationally,” Boffy added. “The star system was always a bit vague and didn’t tell us very much.”

All eight of the elected seats on the 11 member Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) are being contested on Oct. 22. Only one incumbent, Linda Johnson, has announced that she is not seeking re-election. Thus far, incumbent Walter Lee is running unopposed in District 4 with the endorsement of Gov. Jindal.

Gov. Jindal has weighed in favor of several BESE candidates. In addition to Boffy, he has endorsed incumbent Jim Garvey in District 1, incumbent Glenny Lee Buquet in District 3, incumbent Chas Roemer in District 6 and newcomer Jay Guillot in District 5.

The Tea Party of Lafayette has also interjected itself into the race endorsing Boffy.

Gov. Jindal and former Superintendent Paul Pastorek frequently secured 6-5 votes on BESE to advance school choice initiatives and other policy changes that attracted opposition from union officials.  The governor would need eight votes on BESE to gain approval for John White, the RSD superintendent, as his preferred successor to Pastorek.

With the exception of BESE member Johnson who is running unopposed, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) has issued endorsements to all of the candidates backed by Gov. Jindal.

Kira Orange Jones, who is challenging incumbent Louella Givens has also been endorsed by LABI and strongly favors the letter system, but said it should not be seen as a panacea.

“I think this does foster transparency and transmits a clear message to parents,” she said.

“But we need to revisit the issue of student growth, because that is not being measured and I’m concerned that a lot of remarkable stories are getting lost. We have to remember where students started from and how far they have come. But I do see the letter grades as a helpful change. The star system to me was a little too ambiguous.”

Michael Walker-Jones, executive director of the Louisiana Association of Educators (LAE), a coalition member, has misgivings about the letter grading system because it omits key pieces of information.

“I think the simplicity is the danger of it,” he said. “What happens when you have an A school? Does that mean the school is perfect? When we are talking about the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of teachers and administrators I think that’s ill-defined. The real concern we should have is with resources and we have to ask if we are equating the resources to all of our schools in a fair and equitable way.”

Walker-Jones also said that the assignment of an “F” grade to a school can be misleading and drive people away from a community that may have valuable assets.
“There could be unintended consequences here,” he added.

Les Landon, director of public relations for the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, has his own misgivings.

“The letter grades are not helpful,” he said. “If you assign one letter grade to a school that implies that same sort of rigor that goes into grading a student in all the different subjects they are taking, but it does not include the same kind of information. So I don’t see this letter grade system has necessarily being so easy to understand and discern.”

Guillot, who is challenging incumbent Keith Guice in District 5, disagrees and views the letter grade system as a promising new start.

“This is not about being punitive, it is about establishing a baseline and putting down markers that can serve as the basis for improvement,” Guillot said. “I’m sure there is room for improvement in how we make these measurements, but this does bring transparency and openness to our education system. All of the stakeholders – parents, teachers and administrators – will see this information put out there in a way that it hasn’t before and I see that as a step forward.”

The upshot of having candidates in the race who are sharply divided over policy is that it has helped to generate more interest in the BESE elections, which are typically overlooked, Guillot observed.

In a letter addressed to Vermillion Parish School Board employees that took aim at Gov. Jindal and his school choice initiatives, Superintendent Randy Schexnayder expressed his support for union-backed BESE candidates. He wrote: “Please be on guard and forewarn your family and friends against falsehoods and half truths which will be coming out in the near future against any of these candidates through paid advertisements, phone surveys and in newspaper articles. While it is hard to believe, the truth is… these ‘special interest’ groups will use the lowest level of gutter politics in order to affect this election to suite their own policy motives.”

A new political action committee (PAC) called The Alliance for Better Classrooms or ABC PAC has entered the fray as a counterbalance to the coalition. ABC will spend at least $1 million on “reform candidates” who support its policy objectives, Lane Grigsby, a Baton Rouge contractor who helped form the PAC, has told members of the press.

Brigitte Nieland, vice-president, communications director, of the Education and Workforce Development Council for LABI, is unmoved by the arguments from union officials.

“Sometimes the truth hurts and this is turning into a public relations nightmare for them,” she said. “For them to say that a clear, understandable grading system is not valuable in comparison to what we had before is just not convincing. Only in public education can taxpayer funded employees come out and talk about how citizens and taxpayers don’t deserve transparency. This is the dividing line; this is the coalition versus taxpayers and this is about hiding the truth from taxpayers.”

LABI announced two additional endorsements this week: Russell Armstrong and Carolyn Hill, who are both seeking the open seat in District 8. Jim Guillory is the other candidate.

The Pelican Institute also sought interviews with the coalition backed candidates including BESE incumbent members Guice, Bayard and Givens, but did not receive a response.

Kevin Mooney is an investigative reporter with the Pelican Institute for Public Policy. He can be reached at kmooney@pelicaninstitute.org and followed on Twitter.

Minor slip ups should not distract from commendable student progress

An audit of the state’s Recovery School District (RSD) 2010 fiscal year, issued by the Legislative Auditor’s Office, found impressive gains in the student performance of district schools, particularly charters. While the report did determine that the RSD needs to improve several aspects administrative oversight, the drastic improvements in student progress outweigh the negatives.

The tangible gains in student achievement are extremely heartening and are by far the most important finding of the audit. Between 2008 and 2010, the RSD’s performance score increased by nearly 18 percent, while the graduation rate leaped by 19.5 percent since 2009. Charters, which constitute the vast majority of RSD schools, demonstrated the greatest gains. Overall, 60 percent of RSD schools have improved to the point that they are no longer considered failing.

An editorial about the audit in the Times-Picayune also noted that it discredited a favorite accusation of charter opponents that the RSD receives a disproportionate and unfair share of state funding. In actuality, the RSD ranked 21^st out of 57 districts in per pupil spending. These statistics point to a higher level of efficiency among charters than many of their traditional counterparts.

As noted by the audit, though, the RSD still has work ahead, notably in oversight. Turning in annual reports late is hardly scandalous, but concerns over evaluating the progress of younger students are valid. It is also imperative that the RSD be consistent in monitoring charter schools for adherence to the requirement mandated of all public schools, which the audit finds that it has not been.

Charters, and as a whole the RSD, are held to a higher standard of accountability than the failing, inert pre-Katrina system. Failing schools and offenders, as evidenced by the Abramson case, are shut down, something which never occurred prior to the RSD despite the abysmal state of public education. For this system to succeed, it needs to be self-correcting, and that requires consistent performance monitoring. However, the substantial, documented gains are the real story here and need not be overshadowed by administrative inconsistencies.