Today, the Cowen Institute released our annual poll on public education in New Orleans.

The Cowen Institute has conducted annual polls on perceptions of public education in New Orleans since 2007. These polls have served to provide insight on how parents and the general public feel about the highly decentralized K-12 public education system in New Orleans. Over time, we have monitored views on a wide range of topics, including school quality, governance, and the prevalence of charter schools in the city. Additionally, each poll has included questions specific and relevant to the particular year in which it was conducted.

Given the ongoing tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s poll includes questions on how the pandemic has impacted New Orleans families and their ability to access education, including their experiences…

As part of the Cowen Institute’s ongoing efforts to provide the New Orleans community with information and resources throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, this interactive map shows testing and food resources in Orleans parish.

This new map displays both COVID-19 testing and food resources in Orleans Parish. It was compiled by Margaret Kassel, a Tulane University student and intern at the Cowen Institute this past semester.

With the Category filter, you can modify your search depending on your needs. Using the “Days of Operation” filter, you can select resources by day of the week. …

Ahead of the election on November 3, we created an interactive map of all districts and candidates for the Orleans Parish School Board election. Click on your district to see a list of candidates and websites.

Click here to start exploring the map!

This morning, the Cowen Institute’s Policy Director, Vincent Rossmeier, joined WBOK’s “The Good Morning Show” with host Oliver Thomas to discuss our “Life After High School” report from last year. The hour long conversation featured a conversation about the economic and educational outlook for public high school graduates in New Orleans.

You can listen to the full discussion here.

Following the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, a number of universities, school districts, public bodies, and private organizations began gauging the pandemic’s possible impact on potential and current college students. The Cowen Institute reviewed 45 surveys of college students about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on their lives. The reviewed surveys were released between March 19th and June 17th of 2020 and covered a range of topics including college enrollment, online learning, financial circumstances, mental and physical health, and school support.

This is the first in a series of posts summarizing the findings from these surveys. This post includes results from all 29 surveys reviewed that have survey questions related to college enrollment and online learning. …

This is the 14th in a series of interviews and Q&As conducted by the Cowen Institute with New Orleans educators to highlight how schools and programs are managing with the current COVID-19 outbreak.

In this edited Q&A, we continue our updates on how schools in New Orleans are responding to the COVID crisis. This is an interview with Kate Mehok of the School Leaders Forum and Crescent City Schools, a Charter Management Organization that operates three schools in the city.

Can you explain your role at Crescent City Schools, as well as your work with other CMO and school leaders?

I am the co-founder and CEO of Crescent City Schools. We serve 2500 students across three PreK-8th grade charter schools. I am also the president of the School Leaders Forum.

We wanted to focus this Q&A on the re-opening of schools this fall. So firstly, will all schools be required to reopen in the fall? …

Last week, the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) released “Strong Start 2020”, a resource document with guidelines for K-12 public and private schools across the state about how to re-open as safely as possible this fall. The guidelines were created in conjunction with the Louisiana Department of Health and are structured around the different phases of re-opening that the state can progress through in response to the COVID pandemic. The document includes a list of best practices and a re-opening checklist as resources for schools.

Importantly, the document offers recommended guidance to schools about how to re-open, but does not include requirements schools must follow. Based on the document, it is clear that districts and schools will have a great deal of autonomy in what guidance they actually follow and what precautions they take. To this point, in the introduction to the plan, new state LDOE Superintendent Cade Brumley writes that, “This is not a one-size-fits-all approach. We know there are vast differences between schools, systems, and communities across the state. It’s our responsibility to develop guidance in conjunction with public health officials, then allow local leadership to make decisions based on the unique needs in their community.” This means that at this time, the LDOE is not intending to mandate schools follow certain protocols, which mirrors the bottom-up approach of the federal government to COVID, in which cities and states have all enacted a wide array of responses and restrictions (or lack thereof) to the crisis. …

The COVID-19 pandemic has radically altered almost every facet of American society — including higher education. Most college, university, and community college campuses closed early this spring to try to help limit the spread of the virus and to keep their students, faculty, and staff safe. Many moved courses online to allow students to finish the semester.

Now, as the number of COVID cases nationwide has remained steady, and even climbed in some states, higher education institutions are in the process of disseminating their plans for the fall. …