[CharterSchools] Recovery Schools District chief Patrick Dobard touts progress

[charterschools at LACharter.org]

Recovery Schools District chief Patrick Dobard touts progress


NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – A recent report by Tulane University gave high marks to public education in New Orleans.  This is a far cry from 10 years ago when both our schools and a significant number of our children were failing.

This is the first week of school in New Orleans, and we sat down with Recovery Schools District Superintendent Patrick Dobard to get an update on the RSD.
HOW HAS GROWING UP IN NOLA HELPED YOU AS RSD CHIEF?
Dobard: “I think one of the most important things to understand — and I always share this with my colleagues — New Orleans is, we’re rich in heritage and culture, and so it really matters. So for me being in this role, I felt like I could take my experiences, from being a native son, but also somebody that, I’m unapologetic about the expectations for our children, particularly our minority kids in wanting to see them and making sure that I could do everything within my power to see them do well.”
WHAT HAS BEEN THE IMPACT OF ALL THE NEW SCHOOL FACILITIES?
Dobard: “Right now our plan is through the Master Plan, that by 2018, all students will be in a new renovated or refurbished building. Man, I tell you it’s one of the most incredible things, if you haven’t yet, and I would encourage anyone, to contact our charter school, and try to go on a day when kids are going into a new building for the first time. It’s amazing, and it’s just heartfelt when you can look in their eyes and they’re like wow, this for us? Yes!.”
WHAT’S THE BEST NEWS ON ACADEMICS?
Dobard: “2005, 23% of our students were scoring at a proficient level, today it’s almost 60%, and of those kids, they’re almost 100% African American, so you take that same core of kids, and they have surpassed their AA counterparts statewide over that same time frame, and closed the achievement gap between non-African American counterparts. ACT scores have steadily increased, since we’ve been doing this movement, and we have an on-time graduation rate of 71% now. That’s up from like the low 40’s, as well now we have the highest on-time graduation rates for black males in the nation, so it’s like significant progress, but we still have a lot of work to do.”
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