The Education Research Alliance at Tulane University has accomplished a spectacular feat with its latest report about the “academic progress” (or lack thereof) of the all-charter district in New Orleans. The report claims that the disruption strategy of school takeovers and closures is responsible for the academic improvements in the district, but at the same time admits “The average school improved from the first to the second year after it opened, but school performance remained mostly flat afterwards. Schools starting off above the state average saw slightly declining performance in later years.” Furthermore, “quality peaked around 2013 and has either stagnated or started to decline during 2014-2016.”
So, here is the New Orleans model: Close almost all public schools. Replace them with private charters. Fire all the teachers. Replace most of the teachers with inexperienced, ill-trained TFA recruits. Close low-performing charters and replace them with other charters. Keep disrupting and churning. In the first two years, scores will go up, then stall. By year eight, “quality” will stagnate or decline. The schools will be highly stratified and racially segregated. The few high-performing schools will have selective admissions.
Here is the report, released this morning.
This report should be read in tandem with the latest state scores, which shows the all-charter district lagging far below state average scores, actually declining. Most charter schools in New Orleans, as detailed in this link prepared by a pro-charter organization, are very low-performing. The high-scoring schools have selective admissions.
New Orleans is one of the lowest performing districts in one of the lowest-performing states.It is a model of how privatization increases stratification and segregation. It should not be copied elsewhere.
But the report claims the success of the venture in school closings and privatization! Remember that the Education Research Alliance won a $10 million grant from Betsy DeVos after its report last year claiming the success of the privatization experiment.
Here is the press release for today’s report:
Study shows average public school quality has increased in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina as a result of school closures, takeovers, and charter openings
New Orleans – The quality of New Orleans’ public schools improved considerably after Hurricane Katrina as a result of performance-based closures and takeovers, as well as charter openings, according to a new study from Education Research Alliance for New Orleans (ERA-New Orleans) at Tulane University. The study also found that variation in school quality has decreased, which means fewer students are in very low-performing schools.
Now an all-charter district, New Orleans public schools have returned to the control of the local school board. The city’s education leaders face challenging decisions about the district’s role in in school improvement, especially when and how the district should help support low-performing schools or take over these schools. This study provides insight into how these decisions can affect school quality.
“There are two main paths to improving the city’s schools: improving the ones we have or replacing them,” said ERA-New Orleans Director and lead author Douglas Harris. “Our findings suggest that we’ve been more successful with closing and taking over low-performing schools.”
The study’s authors analyzed data from 2002-2016 and found that the average New Orleans public school improved from the first to the second year after opening, but school performance remained mostly flat after the second year.
The study also examined factors beyond academic achievement to better understand how the city’s schools have evolved.
“The number of extracurricular activities that schools say they offer has increased over time,” co-author and ERA-New Orleans research analyst Alica Gerry said. “Also, there may have been a slight upward trend in the variety of school options in the city after the reforms, though this could just reflect school marketing rather than actual program offerings.”
“Students now have access to a wider range of higher quality schools than they did before, even in the first few years of reform,” Harris said. “School closures and takeovers should be a last resort, but they also show some promise when schools are consistently low-performing.”
The study’s authors are Douglas Harris (Tulane University), Lihan Liu (Tulane University), Alica Gerry (Tulane University), and Paula Arce-Trigatti (Rice University).
The novice journalist is likely to read the claims made about New Orleans—that outcomes improved because of charters and closing schools with low scores—and assume that this strategy of disruption is the key to good results. But unless they read the report closely, they may not notice that gains ended after the first or second year of an experiment now in its 15th year.
Expect more headlines about the New Orleans “miracle,” about the stagnation of market-based reforms in a city where most schools “perform” far below state averages.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Could the changing ed stats be due simply to post-Katrina changes in % child poverty? As I recall, families hardest hit were the poorest, who lived in the cheapest [below sea-level] land, & scattered to TX & other spots in LA. A Feb 2015 report comparing ’00 vs ’14 stats says “the rate of poverty among New Orleans’ youth has climbed back to pre-Hurricane Katrina levels.”
https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/health_fitness/article_fec20eae-2d4d-5ee3-bfb9-0c084fe0921a.html
There is a whole neighborhood in Houston built by Oprah that houses former residents of New Orleans. Many of those that stayed in Houston have decided to stay there as Houston is one of the leading cities for job growth. Others have also decided to remain in Atlanta where there are more opportunities for black residents.
If the new schools show gains for one or two years and then decline, then just opening and then closing schools could make it appear that there are gains systemwide in any period studied, because some are always in the first two years. The deliberate churn makes it next to impossible to measure the system as a whole, because the components of the system are constantly swapped out, which may be deliberate or may just be dictated by the ideology.
hitting the nail on the head for “reform” across the nation: THE DELIBERATE (and endless, endless, endless) CHURN makes it impossible to measure the system as a whole
Shame on Tulane for taking the money and looking the other way. Tulane’s reputation is tarnished by fronting for “reform” propaganda pretending to be research. If they believe their study is valid, they should send it out for peer review. One thing about so-called reform we have seen repeatedly is that self studies are rarely accurate and honest. The conclusions are generally spin or total fabrications.
Yes, so many academic institutions and think tanks sold out. One of the worst is MDRC but there are plenty that will do whatever research they are paid to do and highlight only the results that are positive and bury anything that shows any context or might lead to questions about the outrageous claims made about success.
I have used this analogy before, but this kind of research would get someone drummed out of science but in education the academics they are subsidized by ed reformers and understand their job is to come up with what the funders want and bury what they don’t want.
These studies are almost never peer reviewed but it doesn’t stop really ignorant journalists who have no understanding of how to evaluate studies but have much talent in lazily rewriting press releases (and getting a few quotes from their regular sources) from promoting such studies.
DIane’s first two paragraphs and her title for this post are perfect pitch and might be satire but for the hard facts of the matter. I am reminded of Goya’s “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters.”
The new charters in New Orleans are all very test preppy. Here’s the thing: If you do a LOT of test prep, you will see, initially, fairly substantial increases in your test scores simply because the kids have become very familiar with the test formats–not because they are better at reading and math, but because they are used to navigating the test, how the questions are worded, what to look for in the answers, etc. Then, thereafter, all the test-preppy format gains have been made, and in the absence of having actually improved in reading and writing and math, the test score increases stop. They level out after the first one or two years. This is just what happened in New Orleans, and it’s what happens in all schools that commit themselves to large amounts of test prep.
cx: Then, thereafter, all the test-preppy format gains have been made, and in the absence of having actually improved in reading and writing and math, the kids stop getting better test scores.
John Arnold funds Tulane’s ERA. He also funds EPIC, the education center at Michigan State University.
I have compiled a list of suspected and confirmed cheating on testing etc. in New Orleans. 2013-2014 marks more possible stringent monitoring of the testing…Much manipulation going on at state level of cut scores–every year. Help us here in New Orleans elect someone to the state board who actually cares about kids and public education….https://electdrwyatt.com/?fbclid=IwAR0aqkNZfRRroJmylPeanZlZyDSOj0Yc5whn46Ih5sWT_4d1LLegGw7kR7U
“The number of extracurricular activities that schools say they offer has increased over time,”
Who says, this slight improvement is due to charterization?
Let’s not forget Mercedes’ numbers about ACT scores in New Orleans: I think they are close to 15, which is not enough to enter a half decent college anywhere.
good point. But the charters have a list of local colleges that will admit students with no ACT scores. That’s why ERA won’t look at where graduates are five years out.
Our latest issue of Chicago magazine has come out w/its annual list “best” schools, broken down by city & counties. In Chicago, of the 40 high schools cited, 15/50 are–you guessed it–charters. 3 of them have SAT %ages in the teens/most have them at <50%. One’s graduation rate is 74%. Of the 50 top elementary schools, just 2 are charters (KIPPs), & those have much lower %ages (17 23 & 31) than the Chgo. publics.
(Of course, the elementary tests given are the PARCC, & we all know those are nonsense.) That having been said, in the suburban/county schools, guess what? NO charters! (DuPage, Will & Kane Counties valiantly fought K-12 Online from foisting their “services” upon at least a dozen schools there, & won!
(They didn’t even attempt to approach the northern suburbs.)
Just for the record, the reporter({s} on this story added a “5Essentials” to the ratings, that being results of a “teacher & student survey that assesses 5 key aspects of a school’s learning environment; figures used are the average scores for each of the 5 rubrics. This counted for 15%