Education

New Orleans' Last Traditional Public Schools May Soon Become Charters

By • Dec 14, 2016

New Orleans is often wrongly referred to as an all charter city. In fact five, traditional public schools remained in operation through post-Katrina reforms: Ben Franklin Elementary, Eleanor McMain Secondary, Mahalia Jackson Elementary, Mary Bethune Elementary and McDonogh 35.  These are high performing schools directly run by the Orleans Parish School Board.

Xavier Partners With Charter Schools To Launch New Teacher Residency

By • Dec 6, 2016

Xavier University has announced a new program, designed to get more local teachers and teachers of color into charter schools.

The Norman C. Francis Teacher Residency is the first-ever such partnership between charter operators and a historically black university.

Louisiana Releases New Education Plan

By • Sep 29, 2016

Fewer standardized tests and more arts and foreign language. Those are just some of the changes in a draft education plan the state released this week.

Like many states, Louisiana is changing education priorities because now it can. Last year President Obama signed a new education bill into law, replacing No Child Left Behind with the Every Student Succeeds Act. The new law still requires schools to demonstrate how well - or poorly - they're doing. But now states decide how to evaluate and improve schools, rather than the federal government.

School Administrators Receive Training To Support English Language Learners

By • Sep 15, 2016

Thousands of Louisiana students are English Language Learners. Many recently came here from Central America, with or without their families. Schools don't always know what they need or are entitled to receive. Now the Southern Poverty Law Center and Louisiana Department of Education are trying to change that.

Louisiana Kids Return To School, A Bubble Of Normalcy After Massive Floods

By • Sep 8, 2016

Things are far from normal for people in Louisiana hit by last month's historic flood. Thousands have lost their homes, their cars, their jobs.

But one routine resumed this week in Baton Rouge: Students are back in class after a three-week interruption.

At Claiborne Elementary in north Baton Rouge, kids are tussling on school playgrounds again, even as their families' soaked belongings lay in heaps along neighborhood streets.

Floods Disrupt Louisiana's School Schedule

By & Mallory Falk • Sep 1, 2016

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

In Louisiana's second-largest school district, all the schools are closed because of the massive flooding there. Students in the East Baton Rouge Parish were scheduled to go back this week. But the district had to delay the start of school until after Labor Day. Mallory Falk from member station WWNO reports.

Orleans Parish School Board Approves Unification Plan

By • Aug 31, 2016
Mallory Falk / WWNO

The Orleans Parish School Board approved a plan to reunify New Orleans public schools. That is, transfer Recovery School District charters back to the local school board. But this isn’t a return to the old system. It’s a new model for governing schools.

Flooding Causes Closures At Area Schools

By • Aug 16, 2016
Mallory Falk / WWNO

For many local college students, the last few days of August were supposed to be spent moving into dorms. But heavy rains and floods around Baton Rouge have put a hold on those plans.

Orleans Parish School Board Kicks Off School Year

By • Aug 12, 2016
Mallory Falk / WWNO

Over 90% of New Orleans public school students attend charters. But there are still six traditional public schools, run directly by the Orleans Parish School Board. They came together at McDonogh 35 Senior High School to kick off the school year.

Like any good New Orleans event, the OPSB convocation started out with a second line. Each school had a turn parading down McDonogh's gleaming front hall. Teachers shook bells, waved umbrellas and performed school cheers.

OPSB oversees 28 schools, but it only directly runs six. Those are the ones here today.

Changes In Store For TOPS Scholarship Program

By • Jul 6, 2016

The special legislative session is over. A budget deal has been reached. And changes are in store for TOPS, the state's college scholarship program.

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