Louisiana's Jefferson Parish Schools Raise the Bar in Education as They Recover Post-Katrina

April 20, 2006

By Jenny Carless, News@Cisco

Many months after Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc in the U.S. Gulf region, the affected areas are working hard to pick up the pieces and move forward. Schools, which are often focal points for their communities, feel a particular urgency to get back on their feet and serve their students, parents and community members.

With the help of Cisco Systems and others participating in the Cisco 21st Century Schools ("21S") program, Jefferson Parish is going beyond simply restoring its schools to their previous state-it is dramatically raising the bar in the quality of education.

The 21S program is a US$80 million multi-phase, long-term effort to help with redesign and restoration activities post-Katrina. Cisco recently announced the second phase of 21S, in which the company is specifically committing $20 million for the Louisiana Education Initiative (LEI).

"Our intent is to work hand-in-hand with some of the hard-hit communities and to help lead a coalition of public, private and non-profit organizations in a holistic approach to rebuilding the local schools," explains Bill Fowler, 21S project executive. "We are using the Cisco Connected Learning for Schools model as a blueprint to help rebuild and connect the schools to student, parents and the community to enable education transformation," Fowler adds.

Leadership and Drive in Jefferson Parish

In the first year of the LEI, US$10 million will be invested in baseline technologies and pilot strategic initiatives for eight schools in Jefferson Parish, touching 5,200 students. For example, Cisco is installing networking technology that will serve as the foundation for these connected schools. Advanced applications layered on top of that foundation will then help facilitate connected learning and connected communities. Companies including IBM, Promethean and Berbee and non-profit organizations such as One Economy and Digital Opportunity Trust are important contributors to the initiative.

The remaining US$10 million investment will be reserved for maintenance and expansion of the program into other schools in Jefferson Parish, to support state-wide Louisiana Department of Education programs (examples may include Louisiana Teacher Advancement Program; LINCS, the Learning-Intensive Networking Communities for Success program; Intech, a professional development program; and Louisiana Virtual School) and to help replicate successful programs in other parishes around the state.

Jefferson Parish was selected in large part because of its strong leadership, resiliency and drive for constant improvement. "Despite suffering major damage, they managed to re-open 80 out of 84 schools by October, 2005," says Fowler.

"Further, prior to Hurricane Katrina, Dr. Diane Roussel, superintendent of Jefferson Parish Schools (who was recognized as the Louisiana Superintendent of the Year for 2005) and her leadership team had engaged on an extensive school improvement program to overcome the status quo," he continues. "So our next steps are to look at those efforts and determine how to introduce and implement technology to make those changes even better."

Overcoming Hurdles

Even though Jefferson Parish suffered less physical damage than some other areas, its schools have had significant hurdles to overcome.

"Four of our schools were destroyed 50 percent or more; another 26 were damaged significantly. In some cases, we were able to isolate a particular wing or building and still open partially," Roussel explains. "The remainder had slight to moderate damage - such as broken windows, damaged roofs and rain and wind damage." Roussel's own office was destroyed; she now works out of a warehouse.

But things are turning around.

"At one of the destroyed sites, we're putting up temporary prefabricated concrete classrooms," she notes. "It's important to do this as soon as we can, so that families and neighbors will know the schools are coming back, and they can bring the children back."

These schools have worked tremendously hard. "We were positioned a little better, in terms of taking some kids back, than others were, but everyone has put in so much effort. We're really becoming a hub of redevelopment in southern Louisiana," says Roussel, who reports that the parish feels very lucky to have the help of Cisco and the other organizations through the 21S program.

"Teachers say things like, 'I can't believe this is happening' or 'this is the most exciting thing that's happened in a long time'," Roussel comments. "It's like when you can surprise your kids with a Christmas present that they always wanted but never expected to get."

Amid all the recovery efforts, Roussel and Jefferson Parish are still pursuing important educational initiatives, based on community needs and interests, that they had begun before Katrina. These include a science and technology magnet school and charter schools.

The parish was also intent on installing networking equipment by 2010. "So we were already thinking along these lines, but the Cisco 21S Program helps us bring it all together faster and more completely," Roussel explains.

A Sustainable Model of 21st Century Education

What makes the Cisco program particularly important, according to Roussel, is that it doesn't just install the equipment and leave.

In fact, a critical part of the 21S program involves '21S Fellows' - Cisco employees who have moved to the Gulf Coast region for a year and are working closely to understand the needs of each school and develop programs and practices that are scalable, replicable and sustainable. (Ten 21S Fellows will participate in each of the next three years.)

"With all the new technology and applications, we'll be like children on bicycles: we'll need training wheels at first. But because of the 21S Fellows, by the end of the third year, we'll be able to ride the bikes by ourselves," Roussel points out.

The vision for the 21S program is to transform learning - developing a 21st century education model that improves the quality of education, prepares students with 21st century skills and creates a foundation for economic opportunities and community-wide success.

"This is a model we can duplicate. And if we can get the model right, our schools will not only have much better academic achievement, but they and the community will be better connected and more empowered," Roussel adds. "If we can give this community 84 places to turn to in good times and in times of crisis - we'll have done something very important."

Jenny Carless is a writer based in Santa Cruz, CA.