A School Lesson from Atlanta
Bayou District Foundation has a stated commitment to introduce world-class educational resources into the Bayou District Foundation neighborhood development. Our commitment stems from the example set at East Lake Foundation in Atlanta where Drew Charter School, within the mixed income East Lake Villages, has become one of the city's premier K-8 schools. One of the lessons from East Lake is that strong neighborhoods need good local schools to attract and keep families.
To this end, Bayou District Foundation has several opportunities in the educational arena to be a part of the complete rebuilding of public education in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The timing for this effort couldn't be better. By all accounts, New Orleans was one of the worst public school systems in the United States prior to Hurricane Katrina. Seventy percent of eighth graders were not proficient in math, 74 percent in English. Nearly every school in the public educational system in New Orleans was struggling to meet state proficency standards.
Post Katrina Education Changes in New Orleans
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed most of New Orleans' public education system. In the Orleans Parish schools, fewer than 20 of approximately 120 school buildings remained usable. The storm also destroyed much of the state and local tax bases from which the school district drew its revenues. All students, teachers, and administrators were forced to evacuate. Many have not returned.
Given the new post-Katrina realities, the State of Louisiana took over the Orleans Parish school district and formed a new entity called the Recovery School District (RSD). State superintendent Paul Pastorek then appointed Paul Vallas as head of RSD to enact a shared vision of a "world class education system” in New Orleans.
Under the leadership and vision of these two educators, significant state and federal recovery dollars are now in place to put toward school construction and repair. The RSD is operating under a Phased Master Plan for school rebuilding. Schools in Phase 1 have dedicated funds set aside for construction and improvement.
Meanwhile, the elected Orleans Parish School Board has been rebuilt with a new reform agenda.The school board owns the property on which many of RSD controlled schools operate, so the two systems must work in concert with one another.
The Bayou District Foundation educational plan has a 3 point vision:
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To build a world class early education center, K-8 charter school and college prep high school within the Bayou District neighborhood.
- To partner with educational foundations and public resources to fund and sustain these schools.
- To ensure that the K-8 and early learning center have rigorous curriculums that promote literacy and life skills as part of a cradle to college philosophy.
These goals were born out of meetings spanning the better part of three years. The most impactful of these meetings was a two day literacy summit in June 2008 that was hosted at Drew Charter School in Atlanta by Comer Yates; the head of the Atlanta Speech School. Participants included national charter school and literacy advocates such as Chuck Holland, Board Chair of the Hansen Initiative for Language and Literacy, Dr. R.W. Kamphaus, Dean of Education at Georgia State, Dr. Deborah Knight, Co-Director of the Rollins Center for Language and Learning, Dr. Susan McClendon, Alonzo Crim Center for Urban Education Excellence at Georgia State and Carol Naughton, Executive Director of Purpose Built Communities.
Bayou District Board members and staff were exposed to several new concepts including how literacy taught as a pre-K class can improve language and speech ability to the point where Pre-K students are ahead of non literacy trained kindergartners. This was of particular interest to Bayou District Foundation since the Foundation is aware that by age 3 children from lower socio- backgrounds have heard an average of 30 million fewer words then their more affluent peers. (Hart & Risely 2003).
We know this word gap is a reality here in New Orleans. Bayou District is also concerned with adult education and financial literacy courses as they are integral to any effort to bring families off of public assistance and into home ownership. These programs will be funded by a small portion of the revenues produced by recreational operations and will be used to fund early learning, adult literacy, vocational training and other community building initiatives that should ensure a vibrant and sustainable community for generations to come.
