Marta Jewson

4 days ago | thelensnola.org | Marta Jewson

The number of Louisiana kindergarteners reading at or above grade level doubled during the 2024-25 school year, Louisiana Department of Education officials reported Thursday. That data comes from the state’s early literacy screener — a test to measure whether kindergarten through third/grade students are reading at grade level. “We’re extremely thrilled,” said Danny Bosch, the director of advocacy at The Center for Literacy and Learning.

3 weeks ago | thelensnola.org | Marta Jewson

A young New Orleans child is caught in the crossfire as the city’s school district and its largest charter operator argue over the kindergartener’s special-education services. While NOLA Public Schools officials allege that KIPP New Orleans Schools failed to educate the child last school year, the KIPP charter group contends it couldn’t educate the student at home without a doctor’s note. The family wanted the child to be educated within a home setting, but was unable to make that happen.

1 month ago | thelensnola.org | Marta Jewson

The Orleans Parish School Board will meet Monday morning to consider a settlement offer from the city of New Orleans in a six-year-old legal battle over property taxes. School leaders hope to add money to their strained coffers, though they don’t yet know the offer’s details, they said. Getting to this point has been a political rollercoaster.

1 month ago | thelensnola.org | Marta Jewson

After missing a crucial step in the renovation of its Leonidas campus, Lycée Français de la Nouvelle Orléans ended up paying more than $408,000 in property taxes — even though public schools are exempt from such charges in Orleans Parish. Footed by taxpayers, the costly error is the kind of problem that can occur when novice boards – like those that commonly oversee charter schools in the city’s decentralized system – are in charge of multi-million projects, experts say.

2 months ago | thelensnola.org | Marta Jewson

The Louisiana Department of Education and Orleans Parish School Board have asked a federal judge to release them from a decade-old judgment, instituted on behalf of special-education students who weren’t receiving services from charter schools in the early days of New Orleans’ decentralized school district.