re: Half of LA Voucher Students at D or F Schools

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You're only a failing school because you have failing students. It's much more about the parents and students than it ever was about the schools.

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Sssshhh, don't let the secret out. It's much more fun to bash schools and teachers.

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Then think of this as an experiment with MUCH less fallout on the back end as compared to Judge Parker's forced integration of the EBRPSS.

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Then think of this as an experiment with MUCH less fallout on the back end as compared to Judge Parker's forced integration of the EBRPSS.

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I'm not familiar with that. I will say that if it's only been a year I think it will take more time for them to see significant improvement.

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To explain my comment, Parker was over the federal desegregation order starting in the late 70s / early 80s and continued to do so until the late 90s when he retired, at which point the order was ended by the next judge assigned to it.

It was a massive clusterfrick every step of the way and pretty much destroyed public schools in EBR outside of the magnet system while simultaneously building up the private schools and the school systems of Livingston Parish and Ascension Parish.

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The truth is that most public schools are pretty much the same. The teachers are generally equally skilled, the administration runs in similar ways. Funding is the same. A public school is a public school.

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Well, not exactly. There can be differences between different public schools, most usually, the quality of the principal makes a huge difference. Those differences may not show themselves so easily on school grading matrices, since there are so may other factors.

What vouchers can do, even in the limited way in which the programs are administered currently, is that you are giving a choice to parents to move their child from one school to another for whatever reasons they deem is best for their child.

The fact that 50% of voucher students left a "failing school" and the made it to a school that is not failing is actually a GREAT success. How this stat is being flipped around to criticize the concept of vouchers is absurd. Especially considering the very limited population that has access to vouchers and their limited choices even then.

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i want to say it but I can't

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Say it or I'll post the picture of your wife again

Wish they'd break down the scores racially. This is one very important aspect in this whole voucher program./

How do you know students left a "failing school" to attend one that's not failing if private schools do not use the same metrics to measure success that public schools are forced to use?

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nd even is the school accepting the voucher students is able to make an impression on these troubled students, it's not like they can give them a daddy, a mom that gives a shite, parents that even graduated from high school themselves, or a home life conducive to raising kids to become successful adults.

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First of all, this is not anywhere close to a sentence, and was hard to even read. Before you comment on these "riffraff" kids and their poor upbringing and intelligence, maybe you should take a look in the mirror.




On another note, these kids need to be given a few years to show actual growth. You should not expect them to show A-B work within one to two years of being in a new environment, when they are used to years and years of D-F expectations.

And teachers think they are underpaid.

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How do you know students left a "failing school" to attend one that's not failing if private schools do not use the same metrics to measure success that public schools are forced to use?

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Perhaps you misunderstand a fact about the program, and also the intent of my words.

Under the current rules of the program in Louisiana, only children who are attending certain schools that are deemed to be failing and generally are the worst of the worst are eligible to apply for a voucher. Therefore, ALL of the students with vouchers were coming from failing schools - by definition.

The system used to grade the schools (a factor of the educational success of the students) is the same for the original failing school as well as for those students who transferred to the voucher schools. The grades assigned to the voucher schools only applies to the educational success of those students using vouchers.

What we don't know - WHICH IS THE PIVOTAL STATISTIC - is how well each particular "voucher school" did in making improvements for the particular students who transferred in using a voucher.

One voucher school might have received a majority of students who are really low achievers from other failing schools, and although they may have made significant progress with them, their voucher school grade could still be a D or F.

Another voucher school might have received the best students from the other failing schools. Their original schools might have been terrible, which made them eligible for a voucher, but the students who transferrd to that particular voucher school might be average or above average, and the voucher school would recieve a passing grade regardless of how well they helped those students.

These scenarios are actually to be expected. Parents will consider many factors in deciding which school is the best fit for their child. Some of the voucher schools might be generally (and accurately) perceived as being more challenging and for higher achieving students.

Let's give this school a hypothetical name - St. Andrews Elementary. St. Andrews might be considered a good match for a relatively higher achieving student from a failing school. The parents are happy to get a voucer and use it to send their student to St. Andrews. Now, however, that school may or may not have the proper resources to help that student achieve, and the grade the school receives by the state will be affected accordingly. THAT DOES NOT NECESSARILY MEAN THAT ST. ANDREWS IS A BAD SCHOOL, or that a particular student isn't doing better overall at the new school, in spite of the faat that the school got a bad grade.

Another voucher school, let's call them, Pennypincher Math Academy, has a reputation for taking problem behavior students and kids with Learning Disabilities. They are not as challenging academially, but they do a fine job helping low achieving students show some improvement. Nevertheless, the students who chose to go there with a voucher might be hard luck cases, and the state still gives them a failing grade.

My point in all of this is to say that the article mentioned above, and that single stat line, DOES NOT GIVE MUCH USEFUL INFORMATION regarding the merits of the voucher program in general or the relative effectiveness of the participating schools.

The only thing we know from that statistic is that before the vouchers, those students attended 100% failing schools, and now, of the students who accepted vouchers, only 50% are now attending schools whose voucher kids are failing overall.