New Schools for New Orleans (NSNO) was created in 2006 to provide public schools, with an emphasis on charter schools, with the support they need in order to succeed in the new world of New Orleans public education.

As NSNO celebrated its first anniversary on June 11, one year after we officially attained 501(c)(3) status from the IRS, we are excited to share the following highlights from the past two months. A major focus has been providing new 2007-2008 school leaders and board members with critical training and development activities to prepare for the upcoming school year:

-- School Leader Training: Leaders from 8 public charter schools participated in a three-day training this June with Nancy Euske, well-renowned Haas School of Business (Berkeley) professor and designer of the KIPP leadership training program. This intense training program focused on the development of school culture, leadership, and authority, and allowed NSNO to demonstrate our core values and expectations to new school leaders for the 2007-2008 school year.

-- Business Manager Training: Business managers from 6 public charter schools participated in a thorough training at the beginning of June with Raj Thakkar, President and CEO of Charter School Business Management. This training provided business managers with a detailed step-by-step guide to preparing their charter schools for opening and enabled these leaders to network and share best practices and concerns with each other in preparation for the upcoming school year.

-- NYC Site Visits: NSNO led 3 incoming school leaders on a site visit to high-performing schools in New York City at the end of May, where New Orleans school leaders toured top public charter schools including KIPP schools, Community Roots, and a school for autistic and learning disabled children. Focused on data-driven instruction, school culture, and teacher coaching, this visit exposed the school leaders to some of our nation’s highest performing public charter schools.

-- Board Training: Marci Cornell-Feist, principal of the board consulting group Meetinghouse Solutions, conducted one-on-one trainings with five start-up schools this past May. Focusing on board duties in charter schools’ pre-opening phases, these trainings have helped to prepare 2007-2008 charter school boards for the start of the upcoming school year.

Incubation of New Schools
We are thrilled to announce that NSNO has accepted its first school founders to incubate for the upcoming school year. Kristen Moody and Channa Cook, two outstanding teachers from Los Angeles, California, are relocating to New Orleans this summer to develop an open-enrollment charter high school which will begin serving New Orleans students in the fall of 2008. Given the overwhelming shortage of high-performing public high schools in New Orleans, we are particularly excited that the first school leaders to be accepted into NSNO’s incubation program will be serving this need.

NSNO is continuing to accept incubation applications from aspiring school leaders, and we are in the midst of conducting numerous interviews. To strengthen the efficacy of incubation program, NSNO is cultivating innovative partnerships with New Leaders for New Schools, Building Excellent Schools, and Teach For America to further develop the new school pipeline in New Orleans.

TeachNOLA
TeachNOLA has already matriculated 215 teachers into its school referral pool for the 2007-2008 school year, selected from an initial pool of over 2,000 applicants. These teachers have passed teachNOLA’s rigorous selection process, chosen to enroll in the program, and are currently being placed in teaching positions for the fall. New Schools for New Orleans and the Recovery School District are both working with teachNOLA to match these 215 new teachers with open positions in public charter schools and RSD public schools. TeachNOLA is accepting applications from certified teachers and is continuing to screen potential candidates.

New Leaders for New Schools
In just six weeks, the partnership between New Schools for New Orleans and New Leaders for New Schools is already making an impact on the future of New Orleans public schools. New Leaders for New Schools received over 170 applicants for its New Orleans program and has selected a total of 8 New Orleans New Leaders for the upcoming school year. During their first year, the New Orleans New Leaders will complete an intense training program in residency at local schools, while they prepare to lead their own schools in the following academic year.

NSNO in the News
New Schools for New Orleans has enjoyed a flurry of recent press. Highlights include:

-- Big Easy, Bigger Test, Wall Street Journal (June 9, 2007) by Tom Bethell. Exploring the impact of charter schools on the future performance of New Orleans students, the article references NSNO’s support of high standards.

A proven superintendent and a hotshot group of educators are inspiring others to bring their skills to New Orleans, Times-Picayune (May 25, 2007) by Steve Ritea and Darran Simon. The article showcases NSNO’s efforts to take advantage of this “unprecedented opportunity to turn around one of the worst public school systems in the nation.”

In New Orleans schools, it’s like starting over, USA Today (June 7, 2007) by Greg Toppo. TeachNOLA, the teacher recruitment partner of New Schools for New Orleans, was featured in this piece.