[LA Education Superintendent Paul Pastorek said:] “While the governor’s proposed budget does not dedicate state funding to support teacher stipends... [2theadvocate.com, 3/7/2010]
...our Nationally Board Certified Teachers will receive their annual $5,000 stipend through their local school districts.”[2theadvocate.com, 3/7/2010]
Local school board officials counter that without the traditional annual cost-of-living bump, Jindal’s proposed standstill MFP saddles them with increases in a variety of costs such as health care and retirement... John Dilworth [Superintendent of the East Baton Rouge Parish School System] wrote a letter to The Advocate’s editor Thursday challenging the validity of Pastorek’s numbers. He says declines in revenues, such as sales taxes from which the public schools receive much of their money, are being offset by the surplus. Dilworth does not commit to paying the stipends. [2theadvocate.com, 3/7/2010]
For this gem, I give all credit to our wonderful young people at Lusher Charter School in New Orleans!If Louisiana is selected by the U.S. Department of Education for the grants, about half the money would be distributed to districts to help with programs aimed at helping the poorest performing schools improve their rankings and student test results. Stronger accountability measures and teacher evaluations would be part of the process. [T-P, 1-9-2010]
"We actually have not downsized staff as much as some of our budget and finance people would have liked," he said. The district had a pot of one-time federal recovery money three years ago that is now largely gone. [T-P, 12/26/09]Funding shouldn't be the main barrier because in July 2009, the state enthusiastically announced the dedication of stimulus funds to servicing at-risk students:
The flow-through funding that will be dispersed to Louisiana through stimulus funds over the next two years almost doubles the funding that districts would have received for at-risk students. This funding represents a significant increase for local districts, and I know we are all eager to see that we take full advantage of this opportunity.”
In addition to the recommendations developed by the Tiger Team, the Department has also developed an Accountability Document, which it will utilize to track the use of ARRA funds in each district. Each district’s Accountability Document will be updated and published by the Department on a quarterly basis.[LA Division of Administration press release, 7/7/2009]
Our state will receive almost double the regular federal allocations through ARRA. More than 372 million dollars will flow through to districts to help improve student achievement, statewide. [Tiger Team Recommendations]Those recommendations also said: something, something, "Recruit and retain teachers," something, something, whatever.I'm paraphrasing, of course. Hey, Mr. Vallas, would you mind checking your notes and getting back to us with another excuse? Here, I'll even help. Look in the file labeled: "Meetings, Tiger Team."
My 17-year-old son shared with me Thursday a letter distributed in school from Gayle Sloan, superintendent of St. Tammany Parish Schools. The letter explains that President Barack Obama will address schoolchildren nationwide next week, and that "he will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning."From Sen. Mary Landrieu, seemingly the last "Democrat" remaining in public office, to St. Tammany Parish Schools Superintendent Gayle Sloan, it seems like no one we've put in charge of looking after our best interests has the leadership ability to do so. They'd rather take the easy way out and kowtow to the ignorant screams of those hellbent on screwing themselves out of what is in their and in their children's own best interests.
The letter also adds the following: "If you prefer for your child not to participate, please contact the school principal so that an alternate assignment can be provided outside the classroom." (Times Picayune Letter to the Editor, 9-4-2009)
The group says 74 percent of those polled said they hope leaders continue with the changes they've made in the school system.(T-P 8/27/09)I really do hate to piss in anyone's cornflakes, especially since hope and satisfaction are rare in this town, and the opinion of voters DO reflect some truth, but this was not a survey of parents with children in these schools. So really, this is nice to know, but it's hardly solid evidence of how good our schools are.
That's when I wondered whether a survey of parents of schoolchildren would produce similar numbers. I went to the LA Dept. of Education website which has a plethora of performance data, but it's all test scores, and technology surveys, and every "accountability" measure you could think of -- except parent and student satisfaction surveys. At least not that I could find. Just to be sure, I called the Division of Standards, Assessments, and Accountability in Baton Rouge and asked the nice lady who answered if she knew of any state evaluations of parent and student satisfaction with their schools. She said not that she knew of.
That was by no means a thorough investigation (I do have a day job, people), but enough to indicate to me that this very important piece of information -- what the parents and students experiencing the changes in our schools think of them -- either doesn't exist or is nowhere as easy to find as LEAP scores and graduation rates.
I'm hoping someone tells me that I'm wrong and points me in the right direction.
One intriguing hint of what researchers led by Ray Friedman of the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management calls the “Obama Effect” suggests that maybe, just maybe, Obama will do more for the scholastic achievement of African-Americans than anything since Brown v. Board of Education.Apparently, a mere four days into Obama's term, the recalcitrant Black-White test score gap may have all but disappeared:
The results varied according to when the students took the test. Before the convention and in early October, the performance gap was as wide as ever: white students got a median score of 12.1 compared to blacks’ 8.8 before the convention; the scores were 12.9 and 8.4, respectively, in early October. But just after Obama’s convention speech, and just after election day, “when Obama’s stereotype-defying accomplishments garnered national attention,” as the researchers put it, there was a remarkable effect. Among students who watched Obama’s speech, blacks’ and whites’ scores were statistically equal (10.3 vs. 12.1) after the acceptance speech and 9.8 vs. 11.1 after election day. The difference is considered statistically insignificant--that is, likely due to chance.If I didn't know any better, I'd immediately write off this study as containing a fatal flaw. But I do know better. I know that there is an extensive body of research experiments that supports the theory that a significant portion of the Black-White test score gap has to do with stereotype threat, as explained in this article.
Every year 14,000 high school students drop out of school. Every year we lock up about 14,000 people in our prisons. I don't think that's a coincidence. -Gov. Bobby Jindal on his initiatives to reduce Louisiana's dropout and recidivism rates. [Times Picayune, 1/4/09, p. A-13]I was not so pleased to read on the very same newspaper page your plans to stave off a projected $341 million budget shortfall by delaying the opening of a mental health crisis center in New Orleans and by canceling plans to add 6 inpatient beds to the N.O. Adolescent Hospital. You should be aware that a recent study shows that children in LA impacted by Hurricane Katrina currently suffer from physical and mental health problems at rates double that of homeless children in New York City.
NY Times 12/5/08:Governor, these are the children most likely to not finish high school and then end up in jail, and these are the very children that your budget cuts will hurt most. I think that the Obama administration and Congress would be hard-pressed to hand over $450 million for a new Charity hospital to a state that won't even spend $4.25 million to address the dire needs of its own citizens, needs which should have been addressed 3 years ago now.
...41 percent under age 4 had iron-deficiency anemia -- twice the rate for children in New York City's homeless shelters. Anemia, often attributable to poor nutrition, is associated with developmental problems and academic underachievement.
More than half of those ages 6 to 11 had a behavior or learning problem, yet in the East Baton Rouge School District children can wait for as long as two years to be tested for learning disabilities.
...many of the children of Hurricane Katrina are behind in school, acting out and suffering from extraordinarily high rates of illness and mental health problems. Their parents, many still anxious or depressed themselves, are struggling to keep the lights on and the refrigerator stocked.
From a Dept. of Education press release today:The School has hired Dr. Alan Cohen, Medical Director and Founder of the National Deaf Academy, in Mount Dora, Florida. "Dr. Cohen is an expert in dealing with social and behavioral issues facing deaf and hard-of-hearing children," said Kenneth David, Director of the Louisiana School for the Deaf. "We're honored that he would work with us to improve how we serve our students."...
I must have missed the press releases announcing that Pastorek took behavioral and social problems in New Orleans schools seriously enough to hire 3 doctors (can't be cheap and is the statewide hiring freeze over?) and call a closed door meeting with parents here. I do, however, recall a friend who is a charter school principal expressing exasperation that staff were even more confused about how to help their special needs students (you know, including the hearing ones with behavior problems) after state education officials "explained" the special education process to them -- 3 months into the school year, I might add. Actually, that meeting made them aware of more barriers they'd have to cross to provide the federally mandated services that are alledgedly a civil right. Maybe if our public school students were deaf instead of just impoverished, abandoned, written off, and traumatized by exposure to violence and NOW by disaster too, Mr. Pastorek would do the same for them...Also brought on board to assist is Dr. Cynthia Ashby, School Director of the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf, and Dr. Reginald Redding, Director of the Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf.
Superintendent Pastorek has scheduled a closed-door meeting this Tuesday with parents to receive their concerns and suggestions on how to provide the supervision needed at school and at home to improve student safety.
In February of this year, Mr. Pastorek was inspired by the doubts of a local elected official to find schools that served high minority/high poverty students and were achieving academic success. The Department of Education was able to identify 21 such schools...It occurs to me that the top dog in state education, one who has really tried to find ways to help such schools, would have already identified most of the exceptions to the rule of the minority/poor failing school. To perhaps, I don't know, figure out how they defied the odds -- other by being located in the country (as if there's anything to do there besides studying).
