Lipstick On A Pig
For the past seven years state education officials, market model
education reformers and politicians have gone to great lengths to claim
unprecedented success of charter schools in New Orleans. Barely a 24hour period goes by without someone bragging about the remarkable
turnaround of the public schools. These claims of success have appeared
and print, TV, documentaries, press conferences and presidential
debates. However just a cursory look at the reformed school district in
New Orleans reveals a much different story.
The Lipstick
“It took the storm of a lifetime,” said Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, “to create the
opportunity of a lifetime ... that the state take control and re-create” the New
Orleans public schools.
Former Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco,
2005
A more hopeful New Orleans means replacing a school system that didn't work with
one that will…….. I'm excited for you about the innovative charter school system you
have put in place. I applaud you for thinking differently. I can't thank you enough for
seizing the moment
President George W, Bush 2006
The results thus far are compelling. In the four years since Hurricane Katrina
devastated the city, New Orleans has shown more growth in student achievement
than any other district in the state. The percentage of failing schools is down
significantly, and student test scores are up in every grade and subject. Some of the
gains are dramatic. The 10th grade math proficiency rate has jumped from 39
percent to 58 percent, and the senior graduation rate from 79 percent to 89
percent.
Paul Vallas and Leslie Jacobs,
Education Week, 2009
The successful methods we're using in New Orleans--charter schools and
scholarship programs--could serve as a model for other cities looking to secure a
good education for their poorest, most vulnerable kids. I'm for what works.
Gov. Bobby Jindal, 2010
Choice and competition amongst schools is one of the key elements that’s already
been proven in places in like New Orleans and New York City and other places,
where we have charter schools
Presidential Debate October 15, 2008 John McCain,
2008
We have tended as a country to solve problems like this more through generating
energy by way of our entrepreneurs………. The approach [in New Orleans] is just
government facilitating an entrepreneurial solution to this inequity.
Recovery School District Superintendent John
White Wall Street Journal, 2011
But, by nearly every measure, success is unparalleled. Take two measures: academic
achievement as measured by state standardized tests has doubled in New Orleans
(though still not nearly enough); parental satisfaction with schools and choice has
also doubled. Or consider that New Orleans is a mecca for educators with an
entrepreneurial spirit.
Former Louisiana State Superintendent
Paul Pastorek, The Seattle Times 2012
The Pig
Recovery School District (RSD) 2012 LEAP, state mandate test, results:
 100% of the 15 direct-run RSD schools assigned a letter grade received a `D'
or`F'.

79% of the 42 charter RSD schools assigned a letter grade received a `D' or
`F'.

Of the RSD students attending direct-run schools with letter grades, 100%, or
5,422, are attending schools with assigned letter grades of either `D' or `F'.

Of the RSD students attending charter schools assigned a letter grade, 76%
or 15,040, are attending schools with assigned grades of either `D' or `F';
Although the RSD's public relations machine glorifies the tremendous gains made
over 6 years, the overall performance of the RSD in New Orleans remains at or near
the bottom in Louisiana.
Hatfield, Recovery School District in New
Orleans: National Model for Reform or District in
Academic Crisis, 2012.
Despite the data to the contrary, the State Department continues to encourage the
myth that the Dept. of Education and its favored charter schools can take over and
correct poor student performance….when comparing students in the RSD and
students from across Louisiana….students in the RSD high poverty schools scored
lower on the 2011 LEAP test than the high poverty schools in the rest of Louisiana.
DeShotels, ‘Louisiana Turnaround Zone’, 2011.
The Louisiana Department Of Education just released the 2011 School Performance
Data. As New Orleans has been hailed as a ‘miracle’ district, I was eager to see the
results. As you might know, after Katrina the lowest performing schools were
assembled into a district known as ‘The Recovery District’ (RSD) which has become
a grand experiment in what would happen if an entire city was taken over by
charter schools with a high number of Teach For America teachers.
When I downloaded the data I learned that 87% of the 68 schools in the RSD got
either a D or an F on their State Report Card. This did not seem very impressive.
The corporate reformers are desperate. They have no proof that any of their
theories about how to improve education are working. They have been given the
power to experiment with needy kids and they should be ashamed of themselves.
Their arrogance to ignore all statistics that prove they don’t know what they are
doing is awful and if we stand back and let them continue, we share, a bit, in the
blame.
Rubenstein, New Orleans RSD - the
miracle district, 2011
Public education in post-Katrina New Orleans held the promise of providing
superior educational opportunities to New Orleans children. Unfortunately, that
promise is not equally available to all students. Despite the fact that federal law
requires publicly funded schools to educate students who may have disabilities,
many New Orleans schools are closing their doors to these students. The results are
perverse: students with the greatest needs are denied the rich educational
opportunities that school reform was intended to provide.
According to state data, the Louisiana Department of Education (LDE) has
systemically failed to fulfill these obligations to New Orleans public school students
with disabilities. The results are abysmal.
• The graduation rate for RSD students with disabilities is less than half of the
overall graduation rate.
• Only 6.8% of RSD students with disabilities exit with a high school diploma, while
across the state, the average is 19.4%.
• In the 2008-09 school year, RSD schools suspended nearly 30% of all students
with disabilities — a rate that is 63% higher than the state average.
• During the 2007-08 school year, 94.6% of eighth grade RSD students with
disabilities failed the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) exam.
For the same year, 78.3% of all eighth grade charter school students with
disabilities failed the LEAP.
Southern Poverty Law Center, Special
Education in New Orleans Public Schools
2010
In 2005, before the schools were divided between the RSD and the OPSB,
approximately 4,200 10th graders took the Graduate Exit Exam (GEE). The schools
that were transferred to the RSD received about 3,000 of the testers, while 1,200
remained with the OPSB. Over the years, enrollment declined and is now increasing.
But, no matter what the enrollment, one should expect that the RSD would test
about 3 times as many 10th graders as does the OPSB.
This is not so. In 2009-10, the RSD and the OPSB each tested approximately 1,200
10th graders. The RSD should have hundreds more 10th grade students to test.
There are serious implications in this data. Large numbers of high school- aged
students in the RSD did not make it to 10th grade to take the test; and at the same
time, crime rates in New Orleans continue to explode. There is a strong relationship
between these two factors, and there must be an urgency to address this issue.
Ferguson, RSD High School Test Results
Show Alarming Trend, 2010