Louisiana Board of Regents gives $900K to The University of New

New Orleans CityBusiness, Jul 6, 2006 by CityBusiness Staff Report

The University of New Orleans College of Education and Human Development has been awarded a $900,000 competitive grant by the Louisiana Board of Regents to help improve elementary and high school student achievement through education partnerships with underperforming schools.

The K-16 Partnerships for School Reform program was judged by a panel of independent, external evaluators to have the strongest potential for improving student and school performance, said Jim Meza Jr., dean of the UNO College of Education and Human Development and the project's principal investigator. The goal of the K-16 Partnerships for School Reform is to provide quality education for students from kindergarten through the college or university level.

The UNO College of Education will launch four initiatives with the grant money to help schools:

- build family bonds and community partnerships;

- use innovative methods to address school improvements;

- strengthen leadership; and

- implement a schoolwide behavior support model to increase positive student behavior and academic participation.

This program responds to the immediate need to establish and reopen effective public schools in the City of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Meza said.

The grant was one of four awarded statewide by the Board of Regents following a review of proposals by a national panel of education experts. Funding comes from the Board of Regents Support fund, Louisiana public postsecondary education's portion of the Louisiana 8(g) fund, which is constitutionally dedicated to improving education.

Much of Louisiana's progress in education reform in recent years is a product of the unprecedented cooperation between the state's postsecondary education community and our colleagues in elementary and secondary education, said Joseph Savoie, commissioner of higher education. The K-16 Partnerships for School Reform program is a prime example of this kind of cooperation. The program makes it possible for many of our state's ablest education experts to have a direct impact on the schools and districts with the most critical needs.

UNO also recently received a $1-million donation from Capital One Financial Corp. to support its Charter School Center.

The University of New Orleans, the urban research university of Louisiana, was established in 1956 as part of the Louisiana State University System.

Today, UNO offers 121 degree programs, including 50 undergraduate; 58 master's and 13 doctoral programs. The 340-acre main campus sits on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain.