Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Says He’s Inspired by New Orleans Schools (LA)
April 11, 2011
On a visit to New Orleans on Friday, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan repeatedly used superlatives to describe the strides the city’s schools have made since Hurricane Katrina, saying he draws inspiration from the dynamism o f local school reformers.
Duncan called New Orleans the most improved school district in the country, terming its progress “remarkable” and “stunning.” While other cities have had trouble implementing major changes, Duncan said, New Orleans educators have shown “amazing courage and no complacency” in radically remaking the public schools.
“I continue to be in awe of the sense of urgency, the sense of commitment, the entire community getting behind the schools,” said Duncan, who led the Chicago public schools before being appointed education secretary by President Barack Obama.
After Katrina, most of the city’s schools were seized by the state-run Recovery School District, with fewer than 20 relatively high-performing schools remaining with the Orleans Parish School Board. The teachers union has become largely irrelevant, and nearly three-quarters of schools are now independently managed charters, giving rise to the first majority-charter city in the country. With neighborhood attendance zones abolished, students can theoretically attend almost any school in the city.
Test scores have risen rapidly, but some schools, particularly those directly run by the RSD, are still performing abysmally. The changes have been controversial, amid complaints that the most vulnerable students, including those with special needs, are being left behind. In December, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved a plan that will allow a few high-performing schools to decide whether to return to the local school board, with the rest remaining under state control.
It works for New Orleans
New Orleans is a positive example for the rest of the country, but the answer for other school districts is not necessarily to adopt the same charter-heavy structure, Duncan said.
“Good charter schools are part of the solutio n, and bad charters are part of the problem,” he said. “It’s about great teachers and great principals. You have a charter school here, a district school here. No second-grader knows whether I go to a charter school or a traditional school or a gifted school. Does my teacher care about me, are there high expectations, am I safe, is my principal pushing me?”
Duncan began the day at KIPP Believe College Prep, a charter elementary school on South Carrollton Avenue, where he discussed the $28 million Investing in Innovation grant awarded in August to the nonprofit New Schools for New Orleans to turn around up to 19 failing schools.
Under Duncan, the Department of Education has launched several high-profile competitions that award money to states or school districts based on how well they will implement a slate of reforms. Louisiana was considered a front-runner for a Race to the Top grant, since many of the post-Katrina changes in New Orleans parallel Duncan’s agenda. But the state lost, a result Duncan has publicly bemoaned. On Friday at KIPP, he reiterated his disappointment, saying Louisiana’s failure “broke his heart.”
On Friday, Louisiana received an $11.6 million School Improvement Grant, awarded to states based on their student populations. While the initial grant was not competitive, each state will allocate the funds to the school districts with the best plans for either closing low-performing schools or implementing major changes at those schools.
Change at the top
Duncan’s visit came at a time of transition for New Orleans’ schools. Earlier this week, Louisiana Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek announced that 35-year-old John White, a deputy chancellor in the New York City schools, will take over for Paul Vallas, who is leaving to work on school reform in Chile and Haiti.
After deli