Today (Nov. 8), the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) released the 2017-2018 School Performance Scores (SPS), school letter grades, and progress index scores. Scores revealed that nearly 80 percent of district schools received a progress index score of “A” or “B” for the 2017- 2018 school year. “This year’s School Performance Scores, particularly the newer Progress Index Score, reflect the hard work of our teachers and students in Orleans Parish. Progress is being made and we need to continue building from that foundation,” said Orleans Parish School Board Superintendent of Schools Dr. Henderson Lewis, Jr. “This is a new day and a new district, and these scores will serve as the new baseline for our unified district.” Of the schools in the district, not including those that were recently closed or are alternative schools, 61 percent received a score of “C” or better. “These gains are modest, but important because they tell us that we are headed in the right direction. We know that we still have a long way to go, but this board is committed to doing what is necessary for the students and families of our city,” said OPSB President John A. Brown, Sr. OPSB’s rank amongst other Louisiana parishes has risen four positions this year from 59th last year (2017) to 55th this year (2018). The new School Performance Score formula goes a long way to holding schools and districts accountable for student achievement, as well as rewarding them for helping students make progress toward mastery. As a still very new, unified district, OPSB achieved a letter grade of “C” – while this is the same letter grade OPSB received in 2017, it is worth noting that under the “old” formula OPSB would have shown a 10-point improvement. The Louisiana Department of Education specifically recognized fourteen OSPB schools that showed significant improvement since last year with Top Gains Honoree status and eleven OPSB schools that made significant progress with their English Language Learners, students with disabilities, or economically disadvantaged students with Equity Honoree status. We are also excited to celebrate the hard work done by these school communities. Orleans Parish Public Schools 2018 Top Gains Honoree Sites: Orleans Parish Public Schools 2018 Equity Honoree Sites: OPSB is also very focused on the schools that have been flagged by the LDOE for specific types of improvement. These schools will be developing appropriate plans depending on the type of improvement needed and detailing how they plan to improve. All schools in this category will also use the LDOE’s new application to access funding to support that improvement. The OPSB has already begun to implement several major strategies to elevate the performance of schools. In 2018, OPSB restructured creating a new division solely dedicated to the support, development and oversight of schools. The Charter Portfolio Division now includes the Office of Innovation and Planning, the Office of Equity and Accountability, the Office of School Support and Improvement, as well as the Office of Citywide Education Initiatives. Additionally, the district is maintaining the integrity and transparency of the approval of new charter operators through its charter Request for Applications (RFA) process. Lastly, OPSB continues to work to expand access to high quality schools by supporting the replication and expansion of strong operators, while also closing failing schools. A collection of great CSS tools and resources can be found at html-css-js.com: code beautifier, cheat sheet, style generators, useful links and more.