Daniele Dreilinger of the Times-Picayune reports that charter schools in Néw Orleans are ill-prepared by large numbers of new students from Central America, and the students and their families are confused by the city’s choice system.
One school saw its Spanish-speaking enrollment jump from 10 to 53 in one year, 20% of its students. “That’s a gargantuan challenge for a small school that six weeks ago didn’t have instruction materials in Spanish or a full-time English as a Second Language teacher.”
“Immigrant students are also arriving in a system under fire. VAYLA last year filed a federal civil rights complaint describing deep gaps in schools’ abilities to serve Spanish-speaking families. In one school, a 5-year-old said she had to translate for her parents at report card meetings because there was no staff member to do so, the complaint said.”
The problems are exacerbated by the city’s Balkanized school “system.” Nearby parishes with central offices and zoned schools are handling the problems of new immigrants with better planning and coordination of services for the students.
Since most of the schools in Néw Orleans are independent charters, no one has an accurate count on the number of new students from Central America.
“The rapid rise of students needing help learning English this is fall means they are spreading to many more schools, observers said. Lacking official numbers from the Recovery School District and the Orleans Parish School Board, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune contacted officials representing more than 60 of the city’s 83 schools to inquire about their enrollment.”
“Part of the reason why some schools are particularly saddled by a large number of new English-learner students, while others get a few, is the New Orleans enrollment system. The “school choice” process is complex and challenging even for families that speak English and have months to decide. Recently-arrived immigrants had neither.”
As late enrollees, the students had to go wherever seats were available. Assignments “were made regardless of whether the schools had teachers and resources available to handle ESL students.”
The downside of NOLA’s almost-all-charter system is that there is no central office to plan or coordinate the response to changing conditions. Every charter is on its own, and every student is also.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Perhaps they would be better in another place.
People hate to admit that a central administration, especially for basic demographic understanding and budget efficienies (e.g. bulk purchases) has some advantages, This provides one example.
Laura, great point! Bureaucracy isn’t inherently good or bad. It has some advantages and disadvantages.
An advantage of a so-called “bureaucratic” centralized system is that it’s easier to gather data about how schools are serving students. There is more likely to be a consistent process or common practices for gathering demographic data than when a system is heavily decentralized, such as in the almost-all-charter situation in New Orleans.
In addition, there are so many reasons why it is logical to have neighborhood schools. New immigrants often move to neighborhoods with others of a similar ethnic background. If neighborhood schools exist, it’s fairly straightforward for new immigrant parents to ask neighbors and others in the community “Where is the local school?” If a neighborhood has a large Spanish-speaking population, it’s likely that a local neighborhood public school will have some Spanish-speaking staff persons. Also, when neighborhood schools exist, services for certain populations can be concentrated in the areas of need. The school district can place programs and have positions for linguistically diverse families according to the demographics of the neighborhood in which the school is located.
This is an interesting side effect of a charter school district which isn’t a true school district. And who is outside looking in that has the authority to make the necessary changes?
If charter schools were utilized as promised, there would be a charter developed which specialized in ESL, catering to the influx of new immigrants.
But I live in the real world, so what do I know about this abounding insanity!
…and that would give TFA a whole new niche to fill – 5-weeks-of-intense-language-summer-school-boot-camp. TAGO, if I say so myself!
Seriously tho, one would think that a central bank of student information, like addresses, ages, genders, and where they are schooled, would be a good idea – but then again, charters are public when it suits them, but always, always, private.
Do private schools have to submit reports to any authority on its student makeup?
I think the problem also highlights the fact that small splinter schools cannot meet the needs of diverse learners as well as larger entities. A larger school district would be able to move resources where they were needed by simply reassigning staff. I’m a retired ESL teacher. When I first started ,i was like “endangered species.” I taught at the high school, middle school and elementary school. As numbers increased and mandates kicked in, more ESL teachers arrived. I spent the last fifteen years in an elementary school, since I was also certified in reading. A larger pool of teachers allows for greater staffing flexibility with increased efficiency. These charters are ill prepared to handle all the scenarios that public schools have been addressing for decades. While they reinvent the wheel, it’s the very needy students that will suffer.
The majority of the charters in New Orleans cannot handled the disabled students as well. One more of the problems not talked about with this “miraculous” school district.