New Orleans: From Recovery to Renaissance
As we approach the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I find myself bracing for a different kind of unwelcome deluge: commentators who reduce our complicated reality to lopsided praise or polemic. The truth is that New Orleans is neither a miracle nor a failure; it is a city where a group of committed leaders and […]
What’s the Next [R]evolution for New Orleans Schools?
Here is a question that I don’t know the answer to: what will be the third groundbreaking regulatory innovation born out of New Orleans? The first groundbreaking innovation was moving from a government-run system to an educator-run system. This innovation put power in the hands of great educators. The second groundbreaking innovation was creating an […]
A Culture of High Expectations in New Orleans
I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. —Martin Luther King, Jr. King’s words are a challenging reminder of our responsibility to each other in achieving our potential. […]
Do Charters Cause Portfolio or Does Portfolio Cause Charters? Chickens and Eggs Revisited
Last week, Neerav Kingsland made an important argument in his blog about charter market share and cities adopting the portfolio strategy. He wrote: “I think charter growth begets portfolio more so than portfolio begets portfolio.” and “…without charter market share in the 20-40% range, I don’t think we’ll see many cities adopt [portfolio strategy elements […]
Changing the Narrative in New Orleans: Sarah Newell Usdin Talks with Adam Hawf
Sarah Newell Usdin is District 3 Representative of Orleans Parish School Board and founder and past CEO of New Schools for New Orleans. Adam Hawf previously served as assistant superintendent of Portfolio at the Louisiana Department of Education, and deputy superintendent of Portfolio at the Louisiana Recovery School District. He spoke recently with Usdin about […]
A Renewed Sense of Hope in New Orleans: Jamar McKneely Talks with Adam Hawf
Jamar McKneely is the Chief Executive Officer of InspireNOLA Charter Schools. Adam Hawf previously served as assistant superintendent of Portfolio at the Louisiana Department of Education, and deputy superintendent of Portfolio at the Louisiana Recovery School District. Hawf spoke recently with McKneely about what the past 10 years have meant, and what the next 10 […]
New Orleans: Building a Strong Teacher Pipeline for Tomorrow’s Schools
New Orleans is in uncharted territory. As recently as 2010, just three non-selective admissions schools had strong enough academic programs to earn an “A” or “B” from the state. A student in an open-enrollment public school had about a 1 in 20 chance of attending a high-quality school. Today, 1 in 3 New Orleans students […]
New Orleans: A City That Works—Together
Imagine a city where all high school students have had a series of job experiences by the time they graduate. When many of us think back to some of the essential lessons we learned growing up—lessons around hard work, reliability, punctuality, a service ethic—we find that we developed many of our habits of mind through […]
Brand Name Reforms in Rural Education
This is the last in series of four blogs originally published on eduwonk.com. Brand-name reforms common in urban education reform – e.g. alternative sources of teachers, technology-based instruction, family choice, charter schools – can have promise in rural areas. But these ideas need to be adapted to the circumstances of rural places and subjected to […]
Resource Constraints in Rural Education
This is the third blog in a four-part series originally published on eduwonk.com. Rural schools are highly constrained, both in the resources that receive from state and local sources and in the ways they are required to spend money. As a result schools have difficulty recruiting all the teachers they need, especially in science, mathematics, […]
