For five consecutive years, The Learning Collective has conducted the third-party evaluations of all applications for new and transformation schools submitted to New Orleans Public Schools (NOLA-PS). New Orleans is the only public school district in the country comprised almost entirely of charter schools. We have run the entire process each year which includes collaborating with NOLA-PS annually to revise the evaluation rubric based on the state’s revised application, update NOLA-PS’s application to in part reflect that of the state, assembling a team of expert reviewers who evaluate each application, conducting capacity interviews of each applicant, and generating detailed reports on each application submitted to the superintendent and board of directors.
In urgent need of an experienced evaluator, in 2017 Jefferson Parrish Public School System of Louisiana turned to The Learning Collective to assess the proposal for a new charter school. The Learning Collective ran the entire process, including developing a rubric, interviewing the applicants and writing the final report with recommendations submitted to the board of education.