A Sustainable Turnaround Strategy

Where Schools Innovate and

Children Can Grow and Thrive?
Paul Pastorek
Superintendent
Louisiana
July 22, 2009
Louisianas
Recovery School District
LA: Good News/Bad News
Good News:
Dedicated hard working educators
Academic Achievement is up dramatically
Gap closing is significant
Bad News:
50
th
in 4
th
grade ELA
16,000 dropouts per year (5% of 7
th
through 12
th
graders)
108 schools under Recovery School District;
additionally, over 100,000 more children are below
grade level (500+ schools (nearly 50 % of
schools))
Assumptions
Positive: Most kids want to be successful in school
and successful in life.
Positive: Most teachers, principals, administrators
and parents want to help children to be successful in
school so they can be successful in life.
Positive: Some of our schools successfully educate
large numbers of children who are minority, poor
and/or have inadequate parental support.
Negative: The education system is not designed to
allow schools or educators to innovate.
Negative: There are many impediments to
institutionalizing best practices in schools.
The Urgency of NOW
Far too many children are being failed by adults
complacency to figure out a solution to failing schools.
We cannot be timid or incremental about correcting
this problem.
We cannot shoot for perfect when dealing with failing
schools. We cannot let perfect be the enemy of
good.
We cannot be risk averse. We must take and manage
risk. We must have low risk and high risk portfolio.
If there is only little risk, there is little reward.
The School is the Center of
Change and Innovation
Neither state government, nor the district can fix
the problem from the top down. Doing so, drives
good leaders and educators away from schools.
Rather, the role of state government and the district
should be to:
remove barriers to change and innovation and
provide quality support for the school to fix its
own problems.
give flexibility and autonomy to the school to be
the center of change and innovation (charter or
charter-like).
hold schools accountable.
Recovery School District
A Turnaround Strategy
In its original conception, the Recovery School
District was a very modest idea that was borne
of the frustration of state policy makers with
district failure to turnaround failing schools.
The original conception has since been
shaped, molded and reconceived to respond
to different stimuli and circumstances.
Recovery School District
A Turnaround Strategy
Prior to Katrina, LA created a Recovery
School District where individual chronically
failing schools (statewide) would be turned
over to qualified charter school providers.
Why?
School Reconstitution plans were ineffective.
Traditional state takeovers were largely
ineffective.
Charter school offered important possibilities:
unfettered by state or local interference.
true reconstitution.
real local control
Recovery School District
A Turnaround Strategy
Place chronically low achieving schools under
state control. Recovery School District
becomes a turnaround zone.
State control meant that the state would
control the building and the funds for the
prior year student population.
All existing employees must re-apply for jobs
in the school (with priority).
All obligations of the district to the school or
its employees were abrogated.
Recovery School District
A Turnaround Strategy
Phase 1 - 4 New Orleans schools were placed
in Recovery School District (RSD) prior to the
storm and were chartered.
Phase 2 - Katrina released the pent up
frustration with the New Orleans Public
Schools. Chronic district failure - 90% of
schools in New Orleans to be placed in RSD.
Again, the idea was that all schools would be
Charter Schools.
Clearly, this was an anomalous
circumstance.
Recovery School District
A Turnaround Strategy
The state authorized many charter schools.
But, there werent enough quality charters to
run the number of schools needed in NOLA.
Adaptive we adopted a hybrid strategy
traditional central office running traditional
schools
traditional central office authorizing and holding
charter schools accountable.
All focused on New Orleans.
Phase 3 - we recognized that we had other
schools in other parts of the state that were
failing.
Recovery School District
A Turnaround Strategy
Over the next 2 years, first, 10 schools eligible;
then, 33 schools eligible for takeover.
We had to measure capacity to takeover.
Adaptive - Concluded to takeover some, but
place others into receivership via an MOU.
Takeover or receivership but, the key was
to:
remove the barriers to change and
allow the institutionalization of best practices.
Key Strategies
Rather than following the common paradigm
for school takeovers nationally that is,
taking over entire school districts with all
their dysfunctions, central office bureaucracy,
employees, and restrictive collective
bargaining agreements - the RSD takes over
only individual schools, their employees, their
students and their funding.
Reconstitute the school as charter or charter
like schools.
Willingness to use alternative school
management models
Key Strategies
Allow the infusion/institutionalization
of best practices.
Modify or Remove the rules.
Most importantly, the Recovery School
District is transformed from being the
top down management district office to
a support entity.
External support entities are formed to
provide alternative support to RSD.
What is Working
Expanded choice attracts national education entrepreneurs,
improving schools through healthy competition, and expands
quality options for parents and students.
Allowing schools to recruit and retain staff based on merit
and performance (site selection) is producing a higher-
quality workforce with higher expectations, a superior work
ethic and content-area mastery.
A data-driven curriculum and instructional management
system that is based on proven models.
More instructional time on task in the form of a longer school
day and longer school year.
Establishment of local school leadership teams via TAP
(Teacher Advancement Program).
Modernization of all core classrooms with tech-
nology to help deliver instruction and facilitate
interventions.
Change in Percent Basic and Above
RSD Spring 2008 to Spring 2009
Grade Test ELA Math Science SS
3 iLEAP +5 +6 +12 +6
4 LEAP +8 +1 +11 +9
5 iLEAP +7 +6 +3 +5
6 iLEAP +16 +17 +10 +16
7 iLEAP +10 +15 +13 +13
8 LEAP +6 +3 +4 +2
9 iLEAP +13 +15 -- --
10 GEE +11 +18 -- --
11 GEE -- -- +6 +10
RSD Direct-Operated and Charter Schools
Comparison of LEAP, iLEAP & GEE to State Growth
GROWTH in
Students Scoring Proficient (Basic & Above)
ELA
Math
Science Social Studies
Grade iLEAP 3 3 1 5 3
Grade LEAP 4 5 3 6 5
Grade iLEAP 5 6 5 (1) 4
Grade iLEAP 6 9 8 7 10
Grade iLEAP 7 9 7 7 (2)
Grade LEAP 8 1 2 2 (3)
Grade iLEAP 9 10 12 NA NA
Grade GEE 0 (2) (2) 8
Improvement No Change Decline
Graduation Rates by Individual School - 2007 to 2009
School 2006-2007 2007-2008 2008-2009
# eligible # graduates % # eligible # graduates % # eligible # graduates %
G.W. Carver * * * 24 20 83% 77 68 88%
Joseph S. Clark 66 26 39% 93 55 59% 113 90 80%
Walter L. Cohen * * * 53 31 58% 62 40 65%
Frederick Douglass 172 49 28% 81 42 52% 123 97 79%
John McDonogh 306 105 34% 137 105 77% 116 104 90%
L.E. Rabouin 146 73 50% 144 89 62% 223 162 73%
Sarah T. Reed 170 85 50% 132 101 77% 189 138 73%
Algiers Technology * * * 14 11 79% 38 36 95%
O.P. Walker 221 206 93% 256 244 95% 218 204 94%
1081 544 50% 934 698 75% 1159 939 81%
Note: This report only includes high schools with a senior class. An asterisk * denotes no senior class
in this year.
Fourth Grade Results: Orleans + RSD
Percent Meeting the Promotional Standard
2005 to 2009; State improved 6 percentage points; Orleans improved 15 points
2008 to 2009: State improved 1 percentage point; Orleans improved 8 points
2005 48%
2006 41%
2007 48%
2008 55%
2009 63%
Eighth Grade Results: Orleans + RSD
Percent Meeting the Promotional Standard
2006 to 2009; State improved 7 percentage points; Orleans improved 15 points
2008 to 2009: State improved 3 percentage point; Orleans improved 9 points
2006 37%
2007 43%
2008 43%
2009 52%
Next Phase Scaling Up,
Including the District Offices
Adaptive - Create district partnerships
agreements between RSD and some or all of
the 500+ chronically low achieving schools
voluntarily agree to remove the barriers and
institutionalize best practices.
Adaptive - Included in this, transform the
participating district office to become like the
RSD.
Thanks
Leslie Jacobs
Paul Vallas
LAs Recovery
School District
A turnaround zone where we:
welcome and practice innovation every
day.
respond to unforeseen or the unexpected
by adapting so that the enterprise can
meet the needs of the schools we serve.
remove the barriers to change in
schools so that schools can control their
own destiny