Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association

Arne Duncan Addressed Two of our Program’s Most Pressing Issue

Huong N. — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 20:20:47 +0000

In yesterday’s New Orleans news conference, Arne Duncan addressed two of our program’s most pressing issues:
1) community enfrachisement in school restructuring/ closure process
2) inclusion and equitable treatment of special education and limited-English students at New Orleans charters.

Congratulations to all of our youth leaders for their amazing work holding Duncan’s feet to the fire, adding complexity and nuance to the dominant narrative on New Orleans’ education reform.

The Advocate reports:

“Duncan was also asked about holding charters accountable for ensuring that the requirements of special needs and non-English speaking students are met. Every public school must serve all students, he said, and it’s incumbent on the chartering authority to make sure the school is inclusive.

“If they are being selective, that flies in face of everything they are supposed to be for,” Duncan said. Charter schools need to stay with the kids for “the long haul,” he said.

http://theadvocate.com/news/neworleans/4598451-148/schools-progress-touted

MEDIA RELEASE: Youth-Led OPSB Candidate Forum — Oct. 30, 2012

Huong N. — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 19:53:28 +0000

For Release on October 25, 2012
Contact: Jacob Cohen (jacobcohen@vayla-no.org; 415-577-1590)

One Week Before Election, Impacted Students to Question 11 Orleans Parish School Board Candidates on Education Equity Issues

The Largest Youth-Led Candidate Forum Since Hurricane Katrina will Shift the Discourse, Placing Student Voices at the Center

What: The Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association, in partnership with Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools and Orleans Public Education Network, will be mobilizing students and families from all across city to engage school board candidates on the issues that passionately concern them. A candidate forum of this scale, placing student voices at the center of the discussion, has not taken place in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. From food access, discipline policies, and transportation, to charter governance, school closures, and counseling services, student leaders will share testimony and ask the candidates to lay our their plans for addressing systemic barriers to achievement, democratic participation, and equity.

When: Tuesday, October 30^th at 5:30 pm

Where: Ashe Cultural Arts Center, 1712 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., New Orleans, LA 70113

Who: The Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association, Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools, Orleans Public Education Network, Fyre Youth Squad, Young Adults Striving for Success, Puentes New Orleans, and students from McMain Secondary, Warren Easton, Benjamin Franklin, and Sarah T. Reed.

Why: Past candidate forums and events have not heavily featured student voices or perspectives, despite the fact that students are the stakeholder group with the greatest first-hand experience of present schooling conditions and the most at stake in the school board election.

Media Visuals: Students speaking at a lectern to present issues and questions; students moderating the event; students submitting comment cards; a room with 100-150 community members and youth from all over the city representing over a dozen organizations and schools.

###

The Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans (VAYLA) is a youth-led community-based organization that empowers Vietnamese American and underrepresented youth through supportive services and organizing for cultural enrichment and positive social change.

Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools (Rethink) is a youth leadership and civic engagement organization that supports young people as they “rethink” the public school experience and push for school-specific as well as systemic change. The idea is simple: students are experts on their school experiences and deserve a voice in education reform.

Orleans Parish Education Network (OPEN) is a New Orleans-based nonprofit committed to ensuring that there is an informed and engaged community that exercises influence on policy and programs to realize excellence and equity for every child in public schools in New Orleans.

New Orleans Boasts Rising Test Scores: Critics Ask, Who’s Left Out?

Huong N. — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 00:02:30 +0000

NEW ORLEANS — Good news seems hard to find these days, but New Orleans has plenty right now. The most recent test scores for the city’s schools show students steadily improving. Widely considered one of the nation’s worst school districts for years, New Orleans’ schools have been showing remarkable gains.

The most recent data on school performance in the 9-year Recovery School District (RSD) (that was designed to take underperforming schools and transform them into places for children to learn) indicate a 28% performance increase in students testing at the “basic” level since 2007. “Basic” is the minimum standard acceptable for passage to the next grade. Graduation rates have also gone up according to state data — from 49.7% in 2009-2010 to 57.3 in 2010-2011.

Read more on: www.news.newamericamedia.org

Reed students present turnaround plan

Huong N. — Wed, 30 May 2012 00:00:58 +0000

Helium balloons bobbed in the Sarah T. Reed auditorium, pulling on strings that held them tied to seats and forming an arch on the stage. A group of 11 students comprising the Reed Renaissance Initiative had decorated the hall in preparation for their public presentation of their blueprint for the school’s transformation. They, and many others in the audience work red t-shirts promoting the Initiative.

Removing the mask of chartered schools

Huong N. — Mon, 21 May 2012 23:58:56 +0000

The city’s charter schools are continuing to show their true colors…or lack thereof.

Last week, families of color at Ben Franklin protested the school’s refusal to provide bus transportation for students who live long distances from the school. The issue is critical because a large number of Franklin’s student population is Black and Vietnamese. About 25 percent live in New Orleans East alone. Many of these are low-income families who need the transportation assistance to get their children to the school. Families are reporting spending $200 per month just getting their children to school. Some have even withdrawn their children due to the financial hardship.

N.O. East residents picket outside Ben Franklin High School

Huong N. — Mon, 21 May 2012 23:58:22 +0000

Roughly 30 students, parents and advocates representing both the Vietnamese and African-American communities gathered in the sun on the neutral ground across from Benjamin Franklin High School on May 17 for the school’s final board meeting of the year. They chanted and held signs with slogans like “beep, beep for the bus.” Passing drivers responded with supportive toots.

Eastern New Orleans students want more reliable, faster bus service

Huong N. — Fri, 18 May 2012 23:50:53 +0000

Benjamin Franklin students who live in eastern New Orleans have made their voices heard – they want a more reliable form of transportation to and from school, and they want it soon.

Ben Franklin High School bus service in eastern New Orleans requested

Huong N. — Thu, 17 May 2012 23:54:17 +0000

The Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association plans to hold a protest this afternoon outside a meeting of the board that governs Benjamin Franklin High School, one of the city’s magnet schools. The group says it has gathered “hundreds” of signatures from families in eastern New Orleans asking the school to begin offering bus service for the 2012-2013 academic year.

Video: Building community – W.K. Kellogg Foundation

VAYLA-NO — Sat, 05 May 2012 06:38:21 +0000

Before Hurricane Katrina struck in 2004, ‘The East’ community in New Orleans was an ethnically diverse neighborhood of African Americans, Vietnamese and Latinos and highly-divided. When Katrina struck and devastated the community, this once splintered neighborhood knew it had no choice but to come together to revitalize and rebuild.

View the video

Parents: The Missing Engine Behind School Reform

Huong N. — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:12:02 +0000

A series of first-ever forums brought front line education reformers and community media representatives together in Atlanta, Memphis, Miami and New Orleans. The consensus was clear: improving schools is a civil rights issue but will become a movement only when parents are fully involved — and a movement in which media must play a more compelling role.

Read more on: www.nolabeez.org
Watch video here