Education

Some recent reporting from The Lens and other outlets have highlighted a rapid rate of turnover in New Orleans school staffing. It’s a trend seen in the ranks of teachers and school administrators, and not just in New Orleans.

Sarah Carr is an education reporter for the Hechinger Report, an education news nonprofit, and a frequent contributor to WWNO. She sat down with News Director Eve Troeh to talk about the impact of high rates of  staff turnover in city schools.

Louisiana's state school board has backed a two-year delay for some consequences tied to the phase-in of more rigorous educational standards, called Common Core, at public schools.

Members of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on Tuesday overwhelmingly supported the changes pushed by Superintendent of Education John White.

The plan will raise accountability standards — like the grading of students, schools and teachers — to match the Common Core in 2015, with a slow adjustment to toughen school grades set to phase in through 2025.

As school days get longer and family budgets grow tighter, more students are eating all three meals — breakfast, lunch, and dinner — at school.

The Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana recently released one of the first reports to examine New Orleans-specific data on out-of-school suspensions. It's called Suspensions Matter: 2011-2012 Year in Review.

The Common Core standards teach classroom fundamentals in new ways, with a goal of deeper understanding. Sarah Carr, who covers education for the Hechinger Report, has followed the adjustment to Common Core in Louisiana, including at Belle Chase Primary in Plaquemines Parish.

WWNO News Director Eve Troeh talked with Sarah Carr about how parents feel the Common Core changes, as they help their children with homework.

New Orleans parents with children in public schools already have to think about where they will send their students next year. That's because it's time to fill out the One App.

Short for "one application," the One App is a streamlined process for admissions at 74 New Orleans public schools. Parents and students can list up to eight schools they'd prefer to attend.

The application deadline is December 20 for the schools with selective criteria, which are new to the One App system. But not all selective schools are yet included in the One App.

When a group of Mid-City residents proposed opening a school four years ago that would be racially and economically diverse, they were greeted with doubt. Skeptics thought Morris Jeff would end up like most other public schools in the city: almost entirely African American and low-income.

“The understanding (was) that you guys are delusional. Once the school is open (it) will look the same way that all public schools who are open access look,” said Celeste Lofton-Bagert, one of the founders.