Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans in September 2005. That means we will see much celebrating or bemoaning the transformation of the New Orleans public schools. The sponsors of the district from a public school district to an all-charter district celebrate the amazing progress that followed the elimination of public schools and the teachers’ union. Because so many hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent to “prove” that privatization works, we will see many more such declarations of success.
On the other hand, critics say that none of the data is trustworthy. They say the state department of education and the Recovery School District (the all-charter district) manipulate statistics.
Mercedes Schneider, a Louisiana high school teacher with a doctorate in research methods and statistics, has been relentless in dissecting the narrative produced by apologists for the RSD. In her latest post, she looks at the tale of graduation rates.
She writes:
The Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) hides information and releases delayed or partial information in an effort to keep the public ill-informed regarding the state of education in Louisiana and especially as concerns the now-all-charter Recovery School District (RSD) in New Orleans, which White and other well-positioned, well-financed privatizing reform cronies actively endeavor to market as a national model.
What the RSD is best at, she says, is marketing and sales.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Its Not trustworthy and it has only gotten worse . I have a 20 year old ,so I’m new to all of this. My son he is 9 . I am beside myself they created a disability ,pressured me for a year to get him tested ADHD. He is far from it. He was a good student , this started in 2013 he went from good to horrible, I am currently studying up on my homeschooling options. He was going to have a chance but they put him through so much now all I could do was get his self esteem back up. I gave in first visit right away medication that after two months. I could not take it he was drugged and crying himself to death it was the worst feeling.I dumped the meds never went to that Dr. Again .But teacher swore he was doing better. I recently found out about all of this and what it was for. I was told meetings were not required for me and I was discouraged from being a part of anything. Well I stomped in there and after his grades went from a,b and c to all Fs in? His i ready test was set up for him to fail. Very subject I was shocked but past him on to third grade. He came home depressed at how stupid he was compared to other kids. I had to fix it u put him back into second. We moved next city over two weeks at new school they did routine ADHD testing he was sent home with a letter no further test needed. Like I knew and get this , a reccomendation for gifted arts. Im still not secure and I feel my son has been wronged. Ten in third grade this year and he was not allowed because of his grades they created to join football so now he is insecure because yet again held back. I pulled out all of his report cards as well as school papers creating a timeline …I am sickened that he had honor roll weeks before my all of a sudden letter from school board . Out of the blue 2013 requested meeting I had no clue not one indication of any from teacher or his grades. He is a very well behavwd , empathetic lil boy very emotionally intelligent. I am so mad I did not see any of this I was just too trusting and had no clue. I’m very upset but guess low income level insures we can’t do much . I’m poor not stupid. The teachers were just as clueless as us I think, many of them are gone and we have a ton of ads for teachers. Maybe this will end if we can all bring light to this coruption . thanks for reading.
I am almost positive your correct. I do not trust those numbers. It is all about the funding. My son and I have lived a nightmare since 2013,, I was kept in the dark and I’m still not feeling secure. I wrote this May 18th I thought it was the school board please excuse my penmanship I was so upset.
Andrea Abreu clip
On May 18, 2015 1:37 AM, wrote:
My name is Andrea Abreu and I am writing to say I have just discovered answers to some many questions I have had for the past couple if years. My son has been very effected with all of these changes and I understand how crazy it was in the beginning. I witnessed the stress going on with the school and teachers also during this time. We trusted in the system and I am afraid it had failed us. My son was in first grade and had no prior indication of learning issues he had great behavior and one day 2013 going into beginning of 2014 I received a letter from Abney elem. that a meeting was requested by the teacher in St.Tammany parish at the local stsb (school board). We were in the process of moving to Alton elem. area and assumed it may be attendence .Was shocked when I was asked if Michael Abreu Jr. was ever diagnosed with ADHD. “Not at all where, did this all come from.” Why was there no prior letter for a meeting with the teacher or a phone call ? Why was all of his grades and behavior normal one day and this the next. I did not follow a suggested visit to the Dr. That was the day my innocent son who loved school had gone through what no child should and my nightmare began. We transferred to Alton and no notice as far as I was concerned followed . Until two weeks in a phone call from his new teacher with the question of ADHD and suggested I see about testing at the Dr.office. I again disregarded. He had been labeled and now I realize, no one knew where he fit into this new system that was still being structured. He needed to be considered disabled. That would explain the special ed tests that he had not qualified teacher said he was above that level , seemed he was difficult to place and it was obvious to him as well when he was coming home confused with question’s . I’m not happy now that I’m aware my son is 9 in the second grade because after being harassed and not properly tested at the Dr. He was put on those medicines he suffered and became worse. An obvious case of misdiagnosis he stopped doing anything, he was drunk half the time and we cried to sleep together numerous nights. All homework had stopped because he could not function. Changing meds became a nightmare and the teacher had said how much better he was at school and she could see improvement, but his grades that was never revealed until the end of each nine week period showed worse ever .I knew something was not right. He was taken off by me and by this time he had completely gone from A.B.C s to all D and F s the whole second grade he had not passed any subject he was passed on to third grade by my surprise. I again did not feel this was right and he started calling himself stupid with no care to even get up anymore for school, he had no happiness and was very emotional , I was told about meetings but not really expected to attend it was almost a please do not bother there was no need but I made sure I had done my homework because what ever all this was it was stopping .I had to do something for him , we needed to first address this self esteem issue then I would get to the rest. I simply in the meeting stated whatever it was that they were doing was not working and I explained what I know because I have already had a twenty year old as a single mom and school was not a new procedure for me. He should have never been passed on to third grade with the failing of all subjects especially math and reading. He had only been a little behind on reading when this entire ordeal started mind you. Throughout entire second grade he dropped all subjects only. I stated he has now low self esteem because he is seeing all the other kids in his third grade class not struggle and get the bad grades he can’t keep up but you keep him in that class and for weeks . So I need him to go back to second to relearn what he was too medicated to learn there. I now see that only concern was to fit into this disabled kids area to make it look like our education and graduation rate has risen in years to come only to get the heat off our low state funded programs I guess. So what I am thinking here and it also is factual in my conclusion is this is all about what it looks like on paper statistically,politically what have you and not what the kids are actually learning.I don’t know just how many kids have gone through emotional disgrace and continued turmoil but it is not like it was not stated if you look below for the clip I came across that gave me so many of the answers I needed. I have also posted my concerns back in those months socially on Facebook , I have had to stressfully go back and forth with my decision to home school my kids over all this. Please make sure you all understand this is my child’s future and he still has issues over this. I’m not sure I will be able to get him back where he belongs and I will not throw a bunch of work on top of what is now required because he deserves his play time, I feel its bad enough he has also not been able to join a much wanted football team due to his grades as it is. He is passing second going into third at ten years old and he will be playing football. I needed to inform someone about this testing .We are now in Pearl River in Riverside elementary and ADHD testing results last couple weeks ago concluded No further tests were needed so it shows something was really wrong with that whole system and the definition of disabled children .Teachers should not be allowed to diagnose children. They are not qualified . I am disappointed. And pray for him to succeed despite his push towards failure. I do say St.Tammany has been the worst system for I had many issues all of a sudden in eleventh grade with my oldest she was told her credits from her entire year prior were worthless so she would actually need another year she quit at that point and was a ABC student. She did get her GED but I have nothing good to say about ST.Tammany school system. Thank you for the time you have taken to read my story.
Rigor and critical thinking should give some pause to building infrastructure below sea level. I thought common core was supposed to make society smarter.
I am sorry for your struggles to get proper placement and programming for your children. I can see that you are frustrated and disappointed.