Educate Now is a non-profit education reform organization founded in 2008 and based in New Orleans, Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

. Its founder is education reform advocate and former State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education

Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education

The Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education was created during the 1973 Louisiana Constitutional Convention, called by then Governor Edwin W. Edwards...

 (BESE) member Leslie Jacobs

Leslie Jacobs

Leslie Rosenthal Jacobs is an award-winning education reform advocate, business executive and philanthropist. Born in New Orleans, she built her family's small, independent insurance agency into one of the largest throughout the South, before merging the Rosenthal Agency with Hibernia National Bank...

. Ms. Jacobs was a key architect of Louisiana’s Recovery School District

Recovery School District

The is a special statewide school district administered by the Louisiana Department of Education. Created by legislation passed in 2003, the RSD is designed to take underperforming schools and transform them into successful places for children to learn...

 and is a former Orleans Parish School Board member.

The organization is chiefly focused on sustaining and enhancing the major transformation and reorganization of the previously failing public school system in New Orleans. Educate Now is a strong supporter of decentralized school administration, including the expansion of publicly-funded charter schools, and performance metrics as major components of public school reform.

In addition to its advocacy role, Educate Now also serves as a source for information on school performance and education policy, with an emphasis on highlighting innovative and effective means for enhancing and facilitating school reform. Educate NOW! has become a useful tool that provides in-depth information regarding education such as school governance, facilities, academics and enrollment. In addition to providing current news, the website also has an extensive archive of relative articles.

History

Educate Now began in October 2008 by founder Leslie Jacobs. In addition to Ms. Jacobs, Educate Now also boasts a diverse group of education, business and community leaders as an advisory board.

Stated Mission

Educate Now's self-described mission is to:

• Provide current, comprehensive information on education reform in New Orleans
• Lend programmatic support to educational reforms already underway in New Orleans
• Advocate for decentralized, quality public schools for all students in New Orleans

Current operations

Educate Now provides up-to-date information regarding school performance, facilities planning and education policy. In addition, the website features commentary from Ms. Jacobs on performance results, policy and ongoing reform progress. A parents’ guide to school choice and links to enrollment information for open-admission public schools throughout Louisiana is also available online and in PDF form.

In concert with serving as a convenient clearinghouse for Louisiana State-administered LEAP

Louisiana Educational Assessment Program

The Louisiana Educational Assessment Program is a criterion-reference testing program administered by the state of Louisiana. It is only administered in 4th and 8th grades in the subjects of ELA, mathematics, science, and social studies.It is graded on a scale with Advanced being the highest....

 testing data, Educate Now publishes its own independent analysis of school performance scores and student test results. Membership to Educate Now is free and open to the public and provides the member with email newsletter updates, Ms. Jacobs' notebook commentary, and policy action alerts.

Advisory board

The current board consists of:

• Arnold Baker, President - Baker Ready Mix and Building Materials
• Matt Candler, CEO - New Schools for New Orleans
• Mike Cowan, Executive Director - Common Good
  Common Good
  Common Good is a nonprofit organization in the United States that advocates a basic shift in legal structures "to restore common sense to American law." In June 2008, the organization, founded in 2002 by Philip K...
  
  
• Daniel Davillier, Chairman - New Orleans Regional Black Chamber of Commerce
• Nick Gross, Business Development Analyst - Greater New Orleans, Inc.
• Kira Orange Jones, Executive Director - Greater New Orleans Teach for America
  Teach For America
  Teach For America is an American non-profit organization that aims to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting the nation's most promising future leaders to teach for two or more years in low-income communities throughout the United States...
  
  
• Shannon Jones, Executive Director - The Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives, Tulane University
  Tulane University
  Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...
  
  
• Jay Lapeyre, Chairman – New Orleans Business Council & President of Laitram, LLC
• Nash Molphus, Associate Director – The Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives, Tulane University
• Dr. Brian Riedlinger, CEO – The School Leadership Center of Greater New Orleans
• Caroline Roemer, Executive Director – The LA Public Charter School Association
• Nolan V. Rollins, President – The Urban League of Greater New Orleans
• Sarah Newell Usdin, Founder – New Schools for New Orleans
• Gina Warner, Executive Director – Afterschool Partnership for Greater New Orleans