A Better Education

For John, BLUF:  Radical improvement may require radical change.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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How New Orleans Is Helping Its Students Succeed

Here is the sub-headline:

The New Orleans turnaround shows the power of giving more freedom to teachers and principals — and then holding them accountable for their performance.

From The Old Gray Lady, by Opinion Columnist David Leonhardt, 15 July 2018.

For those who noted the dateline, I am cleaning up older stories I valued. Here are two key paragraphs:

After Katrina’s devastation, New Orleans embarked on the most ambitious education overhaul in modern America.  The state of Louisiana took over the system in 2005, abolished the old bureaucracy and closed nearly every school.  Rather than running schools itself, the state became an overseer, hiring independent operators of public schools — that is, charter schools — and tracking their performance.

This month, the New Orleans overhaul entered a new stage.  On July 1, the state returned control of all schools to the city.  The charter schools remain.  But a locally elected school board, accountable to the city’s residents, is now in charge.  It’s a time when people in New Orleans are reflecting on what the overhaul has, and has not, accomplished.

Based on the article I wonder if the question is, are our Lowell Public Schools at the point where the criteria for our next School Superintendent should include the willingness to decentralize our system to an almost charter school like character?

Regards  —  Cliff