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Transforming Public Education in New Orleans
August 20, 2008
Yesterday, the New York Times Magazine published a cover story on education reform in New Orleans. The article focuses broadly on the reform efforts here in the city and features one of New Schools for New Orleans’ incubated schools, Miller McCoy Academy.
The article also highlights the work of Teach For America, teachNOLA, and New Leaders for New Schools and shows incredible images of students of Langston Hughes Charter School.
We applaud the tremendous effort of New Schools for New Orleans and its supporters to further the transformation public schools in New Orleans.
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In the News, Innovations in Education, Social Entrepreneurism
August 14, 2008 Newsweek’s reporter Donna Foote recently spent a year following four Teach For America Corps Members from their training stage to the end of their first school year. In addition to writing a book about it, she also wrote a article for Newsweek about what she learned.
Plus, Foote cites some impressive stats, for example that about 10 percent of Yale, Georgetown and Harvard seniors apply to be a part of Teach For America’s corps of world-changing teachers. She also writes about the realities of the challenges facing America’s education system and how Teach For America is offering solutions.
Encouragingly, the article notes that many of Teach For America’s alumni are inspired by their experience to do more. Foote points out that KIPP, whose impressive education successes we recently blogged about, was started by Teach For America alums.
Comments (0) In the News, Innovations in Education, Social Entrepreneurism
August 14, 2008 Achievement First’s mission is to close the achievement gap and deliver equal educational opportunity for all children in America. Thanks to support from public, private, and individual donors, Achievement First’s new school in Hartford, Conn. is able to open in time for the new school year.
Due to lack of state funding, the school’s future was uncertain just a few weeks before it was to open. Fortunately for Hartford and its students, local figures like Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell, Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez, and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving came forward to champion Achievement First’s cause and energize donors to help get the schools ready for the fall.
With Achievement First’s success in education, it’s no wonder so many in Hartford were ready to step forward to support the organization. A recent report shows that students at a similar school in New Haven, Conn. performed an average of 56 percent higher on all sections of the state test than their peers in non-Achievement First schools in that city. Now that’s putting achievement first!
Comments (0) In the News, Innovations in Education, Social Entrepreneurism
August 04, 2008 KIPP works to prepare students in underserved communities for success in college and in life through a national network of free, open-enrollment, college-preparatory public schools. Their results have been inspiring, setting students up for all kinds of success, including a 90 percent high school graduation rate and an 80 percent continuation of KIPP grads on to college.
Washington Post education columnist Jay Mathews recently wrote an article about KIPP’s focus on finding the cause for any drop-outs from its schools and its continuing research on learning how its graduates are doing once they reach college. He highlights the importance of KIPP’s dedication to looking at the data to achieve results.
And achieve they do. The article also notes that in addition to being much more likely to graduate high school and go to college than their non-KIPP school peers, middle school students who completed four years at KIPP increased their average math achievement level from the 40th to the 82nd percentile and their reading level from the 32nd to the 60th percentile. Dare we say “KIPP up the good work”?
Comments (0) In the News, Innovations in Education, Social Entrepreneurism
August 01, 2008 BELL, a nonprofit organization that offers after school and summer educational programs for children living in low-income, urban communities, was recently awarded a three-year $500,000 grant by New York Life.
The grant will allow for at least 500 students in 2008, 750 in 2009, and 1,000 in 2010 to participate in the BELL’s highly effective Summer program in New York City. The program, which helps to strengthen reading, writing and math skills, has been so successful that over 95 percent of children enter their program at the “failing” level advance to a higher academic performance category and at least 75 percent of them go on to achieve “proficient” or “advanced” levels in core skills.
Plus, Earl Martin Phalen, Co-founder and CEO of BELL, notes that the students on average gain four to six months worth of education during BELL’s six-week program. What student wouldn’t want the equivalent of six month summer vacation? With growing support, learning programs like BELL make summer a great time to achieve.
Comments (0) In the News, Innovations in Education, Social Entrepreneurism
June 23, 2008 DonorsChoose.org is enriching education by connecting donors with teachers who need funding for their school projects. This has some of its supporters from San Francisco blooming into lovely young philanthropists.
Neil Armstrong Elementary’s 4th and 5th grade students grew over 5,000 marigolds from seeds that they planted at school. By growing and selling the marigolds in the past year, the Neil Armstrong Elementary students funded over 20 teacher proposals on DonorsChoose.org, resulting in over 2,500 hours of instruction to over 600 students.
This coming year, they are hoping that their efforts will have an even greater impact. So far, they’ve met over half of their $10,000 goal. Visit their challenge page to see their progress, an adorable photo of the class, and how you can help them out!
Comments (0) In the News, Innovations in Education, Social Entrepreneurism
June 01, 2007 We recently had the opportunity to visit New Orleans and meet with a number of social entrepreneurs who are instituting amazing innovations to rebuild the city, especially its education system. In the period since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, an amazing number of public schools have been reopened as charter schools, supported by the outstanding work of New Schools for New Orleans. Additionally, Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu has opened an Office of Social Entrepreneurship in his staff, which is believed to be one of the first government offices in the country at any level to be devoted to promoting this field. Teach for America, New Leaders for New Schools, and City Year are also doing amazing work in a vibrant city that is very much on the path to rebuilding things even better than they were before the storms. In fact, many people we met felt that there were more job opportunities for social entrepreneurs to make an impact in New Orleans right now than in any other city in America.
Are you one of those people? Contact us and we may be able to help connect you with some local opportunities.
Also, we are curious, what are the factors that would pull you toward New Orleans right now and what are the concerns that would make you hesitate? What type of assurances and/or support would you need to consider relocating to New Orleans if the right opportunity was available? What other aspects of life in New Orleans could benefit from an entrepreneurial approach? What innovative models from other organizations or cities could help? Leave a comment and let us know.
Comments (0)A Year with Teach For America
School is in Session for Achievement First
KIPP’s Commitment to Evaluation Gets Noticed
BELL Rings in an Educational Summer
Philanthropy in Full Bloom
Will It Take Social Entrepreneurs to Rebuild New Orleans?