Four months after Hurricane Katrina wiped out large sections of New Orleans, an early outline of a newly configured school system is beginning to emerge鈥攁nd it looks unlike any other district.
The plan under consideration inverts the typical arrangement, in which schools make up the bottom of the organizational chart, with a broad middle-management layer above them, and the superintendent and school board on top.
Scheduled to be put in final form this week by an education committee of the mayor鈥檚 rebuilding commission, the plan envisions a district composed of clusters of schools, each run by a network manager who provides needed support and services. The clusters would be overseen by a chief executive officer and a school board whose job is to serve the schools.
Administration would be pared to a minimum. A 鈥渟ervices group鈥� would provide financial, transportation, and other key services. A 鈥渟trategy group鈥濃�攖he CEO and a handful of other employees鈥攚ould be in charge of academics, finances, accountability, and communications.
Principals would have the power to hire whom they chose, and would control 80 cents of every budgetary dollar. Schools would have to use the district for a few essential services, such as financial systems, but could choose the district or outside providers for the rest.
The arrangement is an attempt to create 鈥渁 bottom-up focus on schools rather than dictating from the top down,鈥� and a 鈥渇ocus on strategic management vs. comprehensive control,鈥� says a draft of the plan being discussed by the education steering committee of Mayor C. Ray Nagin鈥檚 Bring New Orleans Back Commission.
The steering committee expected to complete its report this week and to present it to the mayor鈥檚 full commission on Jan. 17.
Tulane University President Scott Cowen, who chairs the steering committee, said last week he was talking with Louisiana鈥檚 state schools superintendent, Cecil J. Picard, and with Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco鈥檚 Louisiana Recovery Authority, to align the various plans under development as the vision for New Orleans schools evolves.
Mr. Cowen said he also hoped to coordinate with the local school board, which has a vastly reduced zone of authority now that the state is in charge of most of the district鈥檚 schools. (鈥淟a. Lawmakers OK Plan to Give State Control of Most New Orleans Schools,鈥� Nov. 30, 2005.)
A Work in Progress
More than 5,000 children were enrolled in one regular school and nine charter schools in New Orleans as of last week, less than 10 percent of the district鈥檚 pre-Katrina enrollment, but climbing. Another seven schools were scheduled to open by the end of the month.
The image of what the city鈥檚 school system will look like is still far from clear. The steering committee鈥檚 plan, for instance, suggested abolishing New Orleans鈥� elected school board in favor of an all-appointed panel. But a later version of the plan prepared for presentation to state officials softened that approach, and included the possibility of a mixture of appointed and elected board members.
A plan under consideration for New Orleans would emphasize networks of schools, not bureaucracy.
SOURCE: Boston Consulting Group
The committee must remain open to various possibilities, Mr. Cowen said, to manage potential legal and logistical difficulties. On the school board鈥檚 makeup, for instance, state law would need to be changed to permit appointed members.
The steering committee believes strongly that 鈥渙ne single, aligned governing body鈥� is crucial to the success of the New Orleans schools, said Mark R. Hoffman, a Boston Consulting Group vice president who is coordinating the committee鈥檚 efforts. Exactly how to ensure such governance in a district where most of the schools will answer to state-contracted groups, and a minority will answer to the local board, is unknown, Mr. Hoffman acknowledged.
Paul T. Hill, a University of Washington professor of public affairs who has studied district design, called the steering committee鈥檚 plan sensible and an idea that 鈥渃ould be a model for struggling urban districts elsewhere.鈥� But he cautioned that personnel choices could buoy or sink the concept.
鈥淓verything depends on who the people are and how they perform,鈥� he wrote in an e-mail last week.
In building their plan, steering-committee members sought the views of more than 1,000 principals, teachers, students, and parents through town hall meetings, focus groups, surveys, and interviews, even traveling to Baton Rouge, La., and to Houston to seek out displaced residents. They reviewed research on best practices in urban education, and received advice from school leaders in Chicago; New York City; Norfolk, Va.; Oakland, Calif.; and Philadelphia.
But to some, the result doesn鈥檛 feel like a good fit for New Orleans.
Phyllis Landrieu, a New Orleans school board member who also serves on the steering committee, said she doesn鈥檛 think the plan takes into account factors about the city鈥檚 unique situation, such as its profound financial problems.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a great idea, but it doesn鈥檛 apply to us,鈥� she said.
But Mr. Cowen of Tulane sees the plan as a good approach for the city, given the unprecedented scale of the rebuilding task for its school system.
鈥淭he network model is a vision for farther out, as well as closer up,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 flexible enough that we can start moving in that direction right now. We can organize the schools we have into networks鈥� and build from there, he said.
Marla R. Ucelli, the director of district redesign at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform in Providence, R.I., said she was impressed that the New Orleans plan is 鈥渁 real effort to bring best practice to a new district.鈥�
But she was also skeptical that it would survive in its original form when implemented, because it fails to consider certain key challenges, such as collective bargaining agreements, attracting and compensating high-quality staff, and ensuring equitable distribution of resources for schools and options for children.
