New Orleans’s Unique School Reform Effort and Its Potential Implications for Special Education

Abstract

Four years following the decimation of the New Orleans Public Schools by Hurricane Katrina the city has been described as the center of a unique urban public school reform effort. This effort is a combination of events that transpired just before the storm and those that have occurred as a result of it. In particular some claim that the emerging public school configuration seeks to be one that is comprised entirely of charter schools, thereby allowing public schools in New Orleans to become a “system of schools” as opposed to a traditional school system. While a fundamental operating principle of charter schools is increased student academic achievement in exchange for school autonomy and innovative practices, an additional responsibility of the charter schools in New Orleans is identical to that of their counterpart traditional public schools: the provision of special education services in accordance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act. Accordingly, this article presents an overview of the seminal reform events that have occurred to date and discusses the potential implications of this reform effort with respect to the provision of special education services.

Exploring the Use of the Interactive Systems Framework to Guide School Mental Health Services in Post‐disaster Contexts: Building Community Capacity for Trauma‐Focused Interventions

“…To date, nearly 60 % of youth attend charter schools in New Orleans. These charter schools present with an open-choice patchwork of schools: chartered and non-chartered schools in the recovery school district and in the Orleans public school system, with two additional charter schools run by the state board of education (The Cowen Institute 2010), which has led some to refer to the emerging organizational structure as a system of schools rather than a traditional school system (Morse 2010).…”

“…While there are benefits of school autonomy, some have implicated the lack of centralization across public schools as a factor contributing to inequity in serving student mental health needs, and advocate cross system collaboration to mobilize resources and facilitate services (Mock 2010). Centralization needs are particularly salient given that the rush to open schools through charter arrangements resulted in deficits in general capacity related to rushed planning (e.g., insufficient staffing, and poorly planned and uncoordinated services, especially health and mental health, see Morse 2010). While this is clearly not the case for all charter schools in New Orleans, minimally staffed schools may present with reduced general capacity to execute interventions, and may rely more heavily on support from community partners.…”

Addressing the inclusion imperative: an urban school district’s responses

“…Despite long-standing special education failure in urban public school districts, researchers have rarely examined district-level policies regarding special education and inclusion (MacKenzie, Skrla, Dickinson, & Joseph, 2011;Morse, 2010;Nilsen, 2010;Watnick & Sacks, 2006). Instead, researchers have focused on other important aspects of inclusion, such as school leadership (Billingsley, Gersten, Gillman, & Morvant, 1995;Guzman, 1997;Hasazi, Johnston, Liggett, & Schattman, 1994;Mantle 2005;Walther-Thomas & DiPaola, 2003;Will, 1986), teacher perceptions and preparation (Hersman & Hodge, 2010;Tankersley, Niesz, Cook & Woods, 2007;Watnick & Sacks, 2006), and small learning communities (Duke & Lamar-Dukes, 2007).…”

Response To Intervention: Research And Practice

“…RTI is supported through the Individual with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) (Hollenbeck, 2007;Koutsoftas, Harmon, & Gray, 2009;Morse, 2009;Reutenbuch, 2008;Shinn, 2007;Zirkel, 2009;Zirkel & Thomas, 2010). The RTI model merges educational accountability practices of general education and special education teachers to meet the needs of students by ensuring students do not continue to struggle and are making academic progress (Nunn et al, 2009;Truscott, Catanese, & Abrams, 2005;Silberglitt & Hintze, 2005;Zirkel & Thomas, 2010).…”

“…Early identification is key to facilitating interventions and remediation to students before referring students for special education services and placement (Batsche et al, 2006;Gersten & Dimino, 2006;Harrison, 2005). Keeping learning disabled students in the general education classroom alongside non-disabled peers and providing them with specialized academic services coincides with the goals established in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and IDEIA (Batsche et al, 2006;Bowen & Rude, 2006;Hollenbeck, 2007;Morse, 2009;Shinn, 2007;Zirkel, 2009).…”