Become a part of New Orleans schools’ voice of the next. OPEN is seeking a skilled Executive Director who can craft strategic issue campaigns and work collaboratively with other nonprofit leaders in New Orleans, and across the state, to build and fund a powerful education advocacy network.
Click here to access the job description and instruction applications!
It’s official: OPEN had an amazing GiveNOLA Day, with over $22,000 raised through generous donor-partners like you. We are awed, humbled and touched by your support, and solemnly pledge to put your gifts to good use.
Everything we do, we do in partnership. Thank you for not just supporting OPEN, but BEING open with your contribution of time, talent and treasure. We’re looking forward to building more excellent and equitable solutions for children and families in 2015 and beyond.
OPEN is proud to announce the publication of the first Out in the OPEN, a year-end review highlighting our successes and projects throughout 2014.
In these pages you’ll see parents fighting for their kids, data on the 2014 OPEN Public Education Award honorees, tributes to those our community has lost, up-to-the-minute information on crucial school funding issues, and much more.
Join parents, educators, youth and advocates at a special training session designed to start a movement towards ending harsh and unnecessary zero discipline policies.
The Dignity in Schools Campaign will provide training on model student codes, including the Model Code on Education and Dignity. Group participants are encouraged to continue discussions that lead to continued community dialogue in developing solutions to suspensions and expulsions, including model codes that demonstrate respect, encourage restorative practices, and ensure that children are spending time in the classroom and not on the streets, ultimately ending the “School to Prison Pipeline.”
Please register early, as space is limited. RSVP to [email protected].
Ready, Set, Go!, the Orleans Public Education Network’s (OPEN) early childhood initiative, is proud to announce the opening of New Orleans’ first ever Born Learning Trail in Village de L’est. In partnership with Entergy, United Way of Southeastern Louisiana and Vietnamese Initiatives in Economic Training (VIET), OPEN is promoting healthy child development activities and games that enhance children’s language and pre-literacy abilities, physical well-being, and motor skills.
Each stop of the Born Learning Trail presents a different opportunity for children, parents, siblings and friends to explore, play and learn together. From promoting physical activity with animal impressions to asking parents to sound out words with their child to encouraging creative imagination games, each step of the way boosts skills associated with the five domains of childhood development: Physical Health & Well-Being, Social Competence, Emotional Maturity, Language & Cognitive Development, and Communication Skills & General Knowledge.
“The idea behind the trail is to help parents and kids to think, learn and grow in a comprehensive way, instead of focusing on a narrow range of academic skills,” said Saundra Reed, Ready, Set, Go! Coordinator and spearhead of the project. “When whole-child wellness is the priority, kids can succeed in school on every level.”
The five domains of child development are standard tools of the Early Development Instrument (EDI). In 2011 and 2012, OPEN used the EDI to evaluate the needs and vulnerabilities of kindergarten-age children throughout New Orleans. This neighborhood-specific data is shared by Ready, Set, Go! to engage communities and make them aware of where local children’s vulnerabilities lie, which in turn helps to direct preventative resources and support where it is most needed.
The Born Learning Trail is free of charge and open to the public. It is set to be completed in October of 2013, with an opening ceremony and community activities in the works.
To learn more about the Early Development Instrument, click here or here.
To learn more about Ready, Set, Go!, click here.
Find out more about NOLA’s first Born Learning Trail in the September issue of The Trumpet from Neighborhood Partnership Network!
Our latest report, The Everyday Person’s Guide to Public School Funding in Louisiana is finally here! Learn about the different levels of public school funding, the details of each income stream, and the various ways in which the MFP (Minimum Foundation Program) is applied to ensure support for each student in Louisiana. Click here to download!
A new study has unexpected good news for New Orleans’ education system: Several high-poverty neighborhoods are sending a relatively low number of children to kindergarten who are considered “developmentally vulnerable,” according to data released this week by the Orleans Public Education Network. To read the rest of this article, visit:
http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2013/02/kindergarteners_in_central_cit.html
BY KARI DEQUINE HARDEN
New Orleans bureau
February 08, 2013
NEW ORLEANS — Investments to improve the school readiness of children entering kindergarten are working in many New Orleans neighborhoods, according to Deirdre Johnson Burel, executive director of OPEN (Orleans Public Education Network).
There is more work to be done, Burel said, but based on new data she said the interventions can become more targeted.
Burel presented the findings from OPEN’s “Ready, Set, Go” project at Mahalia Jackson Elementary School on Wednesday. The data was recorded by kindergarten teachers of 1,844 students at 38 schools over the 2011-2012 school year.
The Early Development Instrument Community Profile Report measures how kindergarten age children are developing in communities using the following areas: physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills and communication skills and general knowledge.
In each area, children are ranked as either “vulnerable, somewhat ready, or very ready.”
The achievement gap begins before children show up to school, Burel said, and through the data presented Wednesday, the specific needs of neighborhoods are more clear, as well as the successes.
Fourteen neighborhoods participating in the data collection project reached saturation, meaning that at least 70 percent of students in those neighborhood reported, which means the data is sufficient for drawing conclusions.
Burel said she hopes to see many more neighborhoods participate in the future.
Burel pointed to neighborhoods where vulnerabilities outpaced readiness, like the St. Bernard area where 28 percent of children rated as vulnerable in the physical health and well-being category, and 24 percent as “very ready.” She called others, like the McDonogh neighborhood on the West Bank, a shining star where the “very ready” ratings significantly outpaced the vulnerabilities in every area.
In terms of showing vulnerabilities in two or more domains, the Freret neighborhood had the highest at 33 percent, with McDonogh as the lowest with 3 percent.
In the Freret neighborhood, 40 percent of the kindergartners showed vulnerabilities in the category of emotional maturity, and 33 percent as vulnerable in social competence. However none of the students in the Freret neighborhood were vulnerable in common and general knowledge and 3 percent were very ready.
Another positive outlier Burel pointed to was the Treme/Lafitte neighborhood, where 63 percent rated very ready in the language and cognitive skills category.
Burel showed the Central City neighborhood, where Mahalia Jackson Elementary is located, as proof that programs like Head Start centers and other organizations providing support to families are making a positive impact. For the Central City students, the “very ready” ratings in every category were about double or more over the vulnerability ratings.
Burel said that children who are very ready when they enter kindergarten are more likely to reach their targeted reading level by the third grade, see a decrease in the need for special education and an increase in high school graduation rates.
“We know that the investment on the front end makes a difference,” she said.
In addition, Burel said, the data looks at a full set of needs — the whole child, and things that can be missed by focusing in only on academic standards. Burel called the data “very exciting” in laying the groundwork for working to ensure that every child shows up ready for school.
Other organizations participating in the effort included the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Baptist Community Ministries, Greater New Orleans Foundation, Institute of Mental Hygiene, and the Entergy New Orleans Foundation.
