John White (Louisiana politician)

John C. White
Louisiana Superintendent of Education
Incumbent
Assumed office January 2012
Preceded by	Ollie Tyler (interim)
Personal details
Born	November 1975 Washington, D.C.
Political party	Independent
Residence	Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
Alma mater	St. Albans School University of Virginia New York University
Occupation	Educational administrator

John C. White (born November 1975)^[1] is the Louisiana state superintendent of education. A political Independent,^[1] White was appointed to his current position in January 2012 by Republican Governor Bobby Jindal, with the goal of improving state schools and educational performance ratings. The state has 700,000 public school pupils and 50,000 teachers.^[2]

Background

White was born at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C., and reared in the capital city, the son of a lawyer-father and a television journalist-mother. He has one younger brother, an officer in the United States Navy. In his youth, White had also considered becoming a Navy officer.^[3] He graduated in 1994 from the exclusive private St. Albans School in Washington, D.C.^[4][5]

White then received a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1998 from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. He later received a master's degree in public administration from New York University.^[6] He attended Eli Broad's Superintendent's Academy, based in Oakland, California, which produces identifies and prepares experienced leaders to successfully run urban public education systems. White completed the program in 2010.^[7]

In Louisiana, White was appointed superintendent of the Recovery School District in May 2011. Following that role, he later succeeded the interim State Superintendent, Ollie Tyler, an African-American from Shreveport, who was acting state superintendent from May 2011, when the previous appointed state superintendent, Paul Pastorek, resigned, until White assumed duties in January 2012.^[8]

Educational and professional career

After his time at the University of Virginia, White signed up with the non-profit organization Teach For America, headquartered in New York City which places high-achieving recent college graduates and professionals to teach for at least two years in low-income communities.^[9] TFA sent him to teach English for three years at the large William L. Dickinson High School in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was thereafter the Executive Director of TFA in Chicago, where he met the current United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.^[3] In 2006, White joined the leadership team of then chancellor of the New York City Department of Education Joel Klein. In the New York City Department of Education, White served first as deputy chief operating officer, then as CEO of the Portfolio Division, and finally deputy chancellor for talent, labor and innovation. As deputy chancellor, White led the attempt to revive more than one hundred failing schools and to establish new charter schools. In this position, he also led negotiations with the United Federation of Teachers.^[6]

In May 2011, Jindal named White to head the Recovery School District in New Orleans (RSD), a state agency created in 2003 to supervise those public schools declared failures based on recurring poor pupil performance over a four-year period. White reorganized the RSD central office, launched "12 commitments to the city of New Orleans," and included neighborhood groups in the decision-making process.^[10] Through a $2 billion school rebuilding plan pushed by White, pupils by the year 2016 in the RSD were expected to benefit from new or renovated campuses.^[2]

In January 2012, White was named Louisiana State Superintendent. White's appointment was approved by the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), an elected and appointed body that sets state educational policies. Confirmation was assured by a nine-to-one vote, with one abstention. The lone dissenter to White's confirmation, Lottie Beebe, a conservative Republican, is the school superintendent in St. Martin Parish in south Louisiana. According to Beebe, a critic of Jindal's educational policies, "Credentials and experience do matter. The governor's nominee [White] lacks a great deal of both in my opinion."^[8] During the roll-call vote on White's appointment, Beebe said "emphatic 'No.'" Other board members spoke highly of White and cited his "ability to bring disparate groups together and his track record around the country."^[8]

White's appointment was endorsed by U.S. Secretary Arne Duncan, a Democrat and former Chicago superintendent, who describes him as "a visionary leader who has done great things in New York City and New Orleans ... and will do the same for the whole state of Louisiana."^[11] The Louisiana Association of Educators, a teachers' union, voiced objections to White's appointment, having called for a broader search for qualified candidates. LAE president Joyce Haynes said that White's support for additional charter schools, the institution of educational vouchers, and a revised teacher evaluation model are troubling to many educators.^[11]

White soon unveiled the "Louisiana Believes", program designed to put each child on a path to college and career.^[6] He announced $5 million in federal "Believe and Succeed" professional development funds to train educators on the proper methods to reverse failing schools. The grants cover a year of advanced training for new school leaders.^[12]

In May 2013, White admitted that that letter grades awarded to high schools in the past had been inflated by as much as 7.5 percent. However, he repudiated claims that his office was responsible for the misleading information. White told a Louisiana State Senate committee that the problem had resulted from a flaw in the grading formula, with letter grades based on end-of-course examination scores. White said that a different formula has been implemented to correct the problem.^[13]

Under White's tenure, Louisiana has seen an improvement in student learning outcomes. For instance, the state's average ACT (test) score increased slight to 19.2 on a 36-point scale. Additionally, nearly 39,800 members of the Class of 2014 took the ACT, which is an increase of 7 percentage-points from 2013. ^[14] Furthermore, Louisiana's graduation rate has been on the rise under White, with a 73.5% cohort graduation rate for the Class of 2014, and the Louisiana Department of Education has identified clear steps to continue improving the graduation rate.^[15]

Common Core

In 2013, White took steps to ensure Louisiana remained within the Common Core State Standards Initiative, and reaffirmed the state's commitment to the standards. Proponents of the common standards argue that they provide higher standards and will help students graduate prepared for college and compete for better jobs.^[16] Critics of the common standards claim that insufficient time has been given for teachers to prepare for the new approach. Some oppose common standards, which have been supported by the federal government, arguing that they prefer educational administration be left to the individual states or the school districts, which falsely assumes that adopting Common Core does not allow for revisions or adaptations of the standards; additionally, the standards are often conflated with a "national curriculum," of which they are not.

When Governor Jindal questioned whether Common Core should go forward in Louisiana, White stood by his position and downplayed any differences that he may have with Jindal.^[17]In June 2014, however, White called upon Jindal not to engage in any last-minute retreat which he claimed would create confusion among teachers, pupils, and parents. Speaking to a teachers' conference in Baton Rouge, White said: "You deserve clarity, you deserve a long-term plan, you deserve not to have standards and curriculum and assessments tossed about in the morning headlines like they can be changed with the waving of a magic wand."^[18]

Despite White's urging, and despite the fact that Jindal initially supported the Common Core, Jindal filed a lawsuit against President Barack Obama's administration alleging that the U.S. Department of Education had "effectively force[d] States down a path toward a national curriculum" through Race to the Top, which does not require adoption of the Common Core State Standards. ^{[19] [20]}

White and BESE board president Chas Roemer have confirmed that Common Core will proceed with the August 2014 school year, despite court challenges from seventeen conservative state legislators and Jindal's lack of support for the standards. Roemer said, "The message to teachers and districts in this state to be clear [is]: Common Core is law in this state and what’s what we’re going to move forward with."^[21]

Questions about White's tenure

In July 2014, questions arose about White's acceptance of reimbursement for expenses accrued while he attended various functions sponsored by organizations holding state contracts, including Teach for America. White said that he usually pays such expenses and then files for reimbursement from the state. The organizations then pay the state. He filed two such statements with the Board of Ethics for travel and lodging in the first half of 2014 and thirteen requests in 2013.^[22]

References

Preceded by Ollie Tyler (interim)	Louisiana State Superintendent of Education John C. White 2012–	Succeeded by Incumbent