Louisiana’s “inexplicable” failure to make top 12 raises questions about Obama administration’s commitment to reform
Louisiana’s education leaders are wondering what more they can do to outperform other states in terms of reform. Louisiana failed to receive any funds in the federal “Race to the Top” program, and the lack of correlation between successful reform and monetary awards raises questions about the judging process.
While State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek is forced to put a positive spin on the minute improvement on statewide test scores this year, there is a silver lining in the form of astonishing charter school success.
A small percentage drop in state-wide LEAP scores, accompanied by a single percentage point improvement when all three tests (LEAP, iLEAP, and GEE) are averaged, is hardly a triumph, especially when English scores declined despite a $13 million investment in literacy programs. Furthermore, test results in St. Helena exhibit all the makings of a scandal, and are already an embarrassment. One percent of St. Helena passed the LEAP test this year, down just so slightly from 64% last year.
In contrast, test results from Louisiana charter schools indicate the necessary direction for the future of Louisiana public education. Within both the Orleans Parish School District and the Recovery School District, the average LEAP scores of charter schools trounced those of traditional state public schools. In the troubled RSD, charter students had a 50% higher pass rate than students in traditional public schools. Less drastic, but still impressive, the pass rate of OPSD charter students was 13% higer than their colleagues in standard public schools. This is another ringing endorsement for charter schools and a strike against the homogeneous and ingrained methods in public schools.
In the Louisiana State Legislature, two bills in particular are poised to build on the success of the charter school model and expand it to general public education. HB 1033, introduced by Rep. Frank Hoffman (R- District15), recently cleared the Senate floor and now awaits Governor Jindal. HB 1033 would essentially revamp the teacher evaluation process, judging teachers on effectiveness and not on seniority. Though dropouts in Louisiana’s public schools are endemic, and progress is generally lacking, 99% of tenured teachers continue to receive the “satisfactory” evaluation necessary to retain tenure.
Under this bill, teachers would be evaluated every year, rather than every three, and 50% of their evaluations would be based on objective, quantifiable academic progress, while the other half would be based upon traditional methods of oversight. Teachers marked as ineffective would be able to undergo professional training to hone their teaching skills, while teachers designated as ineffective for three consecutive years would be terminated. HB1033, when passed, will foster unprecedented accountability within Louisiana’s public schools.
Another essential bill is HB 1368, authored by Rep. Jane Smith (R-District 8). Smith’s bill would enable latitude in educational methods in public schools which request it. Under HB 1368, local school boards can apply to BESE for waivers from typical rules and regulations regarding public schools, such as classroom size, curriculum, funding, personnel, student support, and instructional time. The school district must demonstrate to BESE how the waiver will increase the quality of education and improve student achievement.
If implemented, HB 1368 has the ability to grant public schools the freedoms and flexibility which have enabled charter school’s in Louisiana to attain such visible success. It is necessary to incorporate unique and innovative classroom methods, as it is extremely difficult to effectively institute top-down standards and rote techniques on schools representing different demographics and different needs.
Hopefully, the passage of HB 1033 will facilitate the path into law for this necessary piece of legislation. The advantages offered by charter schools in Louisiana are clear in a comparison of this year’s test scores. Please contact your local legislator and help ensure that these advantages are available to every student.
It’s been an uplifting legislative session in many ways for advocates of school choice and education reform in Louisiana. The Senate Education Committee shot down HB 658, proposed by Sen. ‘Butch’ Gautreaux, which would have required charter schools to place their teachers under the TRSL program. The Pelican Institute has previously documented the failings of TRSL in an extensive report, so the bill’s defeat was welcome news. In addition, HB 1033, introduced by Rep. Frank Hoffman (R-West Monroe), which would allow for teachers to be evaluated in part on student test performance, cleared the House.
The most recent good news was the House approval of HB 1368, authored by Jane Smith (R-Bossier City). The crux of Smith’s bill is that it gives public schools freedoms and flexibility normally associated with charter schools. Within the bill, school superintendents would be able to request waivers for one or more schools, exempting them from certain state laws regulating public schools, such as instituting unique standards of accountability, teacher evaluation, standards, classroom size, and curriculum, among others. As Smith’s bill would give individual schools the option of breaking away from the monolithic status quo of public education, expect the process to provoke a furious reaction from teachers’ unions. However, if implemented efficiently, this process will be a boon for public education in the state of Louisiana.
The fact that this bill passed with such relative ease (68-20) is especially heartening considering the besieged state of school choice around the country. With the Obama administration’s complicity in drying out the funding for Washington D.C.’s successful voucher program, coupled with the transformation on teachers unions into implacably greedy juggernauts in California and New York, school choice is being put on the defensive. Fortunately Louisiana is doing the right thing by focusing on the interests of our students and promoting competition in our schools. Hopefully, other parts of the country can stand up to the unions and do the same.
As mentioned in a previous post, Andrew Coulson of the Cato Institute, in his fine obituary for Jaime Escalante, wrote that the best way to preserve Escalante’s legacy is to “understand why our education system destroyed rather than amplified his success—and then fix it.” Coulson then goes on and accurately presents the success of today’s charter schools as the prime example of promoting innovation and creativity in today’s public schools. Coulson contrasts the burgeoning success of charter networks such as KIPP with the failure of centralized education and its obsolete and out of touch standards.
Despite the astounding success rate of charter schools relative to centralized public schools, not everyone is convinced, and some are ardently resistant. Diane Ravitch, in a recent op-ed in the Washington Post, laments the failure of No Child Left Behind and dismisses charter schools as unsuccessful in reaching their goals. Instead, Ravitch promotes a new set of standards to regulate public school teachers and administrators. Though well-intentioned, Ravitch’s position is wrong.
First, the Cato Institute offers a couple of strong rebuttals to the notion of further centralized standards. Regarding her dubious claim about charter schools, Ms. Ravitch must be oblivious to the well-documented revitalization of education in New Orleans thanks to innovative charter school programs. The solution is not to impose a new set of standards, but to encourage innovative and progressive teaching methods, reward good teachers, and fire bad teachers.
Ms. Ravitch complains that the disparity between public schools students and charter schools students is emblematic of their failure. In fact, it is testament that not enough young children are in charter schools. The facts are ineluctable; charter schools work and are the best bet for public education.
A disturbing report in the Washington Examiner disclosed that, since August 2007, a dozen Washington, D.C. public school teachers have been fired for a litany of nausea-inducing incidents including corporal punishment, physical abuse, threats of bodily harm, and even sexual abuse.
As if this behavior is not sickening enough, even more distressing is that there were 67 substantiated offenses over this time period, and “half of the incidents did not result in a resignation or the loss of a job, either immediately or by the end of the school year.” Instead, the culprits were briefly punished under the pretense of some inane “progressive discipline” program.
This unnerving revelation reiterates one of the intrinsic flaws plaguing public education, and that is the lack of accountability for bad, and even criminal, teachers and administrators.
Sure, one could say “well stuff like this happens all the time in private schools.” But when it does, the guilty parties in question are more likely to be fired or prosecuted. Unlike in public schools, they aren’t reinstated after an investigation or ten day suspension. Further, private schools understand that they will go out of business if they lose the confidence of their customers. Public schools face no such market discipline.
One of the solutions to this problem will be continuing the movement away from a centralized bureaucracy towards a more decentralized model where teachers and schools are accountable for their performances. Charter schools are enabling private interests to operate public schools with relative independence from state control. Meanwhile, programs such as Teach for America and Teach Nola invigorate some of our roughest public schools with fresh, educated young minds who are eager to teach. This puts pressure on the education establishment to deal with the abusive and unqualified teachers who have not been held accountable for their performance.
The future of our public schools needs to be out of the hands of unionized and bureaucratic special interests and in the hands of those who demonstrate the ability and dedication to educate the young.
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