Brian Robert Beabout

Associate Professor of Education, University of New Orleans

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About Brian

Beabout's research focuses on educational change and urban school leadership. Overarching themes in Beabout's writings include school-family-community relationships in urban schools and the unintended consequences of educational reform. Beabout was a founding board member of the Morris Jeff Community School in New Orleans and has served on the boards of the Coalition of Diverse Charter Schools as well as the School Leadership Center of Greater New Orleans. Beabout has consulted for the National Alliance of Charter School Authorizers, the Louisiana Department of Education, and the New Orleans Public Schools.

Contributions | No Jargon Podcast | In the News | Publications

Contributions

The Promising Launch of Community-Oriented Charter Schools in New Orleans

Joseph L. Boselovic

Basic Facts Brief, October 2014

In the News

Quoted by Elyse Carmosino in "Raffles, Extra Recess, ‘Together Tuesdays’: How Louisiana Schools are Coaxing Kids to Show up," The Times-Picayune, September 23, 2024.

Quoted by Silas Allen in "One Year Into Charter Partnership, Struggles Continue at This Fort Worth School," Fort Worth Star-Telegram, September 12, 2022.

Interviewed in "Award-Winning UNO Education Professor Sees Good, Bad in Reform," The New Orleans Advocate, April 10, 2013.

Quoted by Kari Dequine Harden in "RSD Closures Frustrating," The New Orleans Advocate, January 31, 2013.

Opinion: "What Gets Inspected Gets Done," Brian Robert Beabout, The Times-Picayune, August 20, 2011.

Interviewed in "UNO Hosts Educational Reform Research Conference," WWNO FM, November 17, 2010.

Opinion: "Magnet School Concept is Flawed," Brian Robert Beabout, The Times-Picayune, November 4, 2010.

Opinion: "New School Mirrors the Community," Brian Robert Beabout, The Times-Picayune, September 10, 2010.

Quoted by Sarah D. Sparks in "Few Studies Track Post-Katrina School Changes," Education Week, August 24, 2010.

Publications

"Constrained Collaboration between Co-located Charter and District Schools" (with Shanté Williams) in Family and Community Engagement in Charter Schools, edited by Brian Robert Beabout, (Information Age Publishing, 2024).

Examines the relationships between principals in co-located charter and state-run schools during the post-Katrina period in New Orleans. While sharing a single campus, the principals kept a largely distant relationship from each other; meeting to discuss lunch schedules and parking lot use, but rarely working together on substantive concerns. The intensely pro-charter political context surrounding their study is identified as a barrier to more meaningful principal collaboration.

Family and Community Engagement in Charter Schools (Information Age Publishing, 2024).

Examines how charter schools, the policy landscape, families, community institutions, and charter school educators both create and inhibit opportunities for effective family and community engagement. Includes data from intensely charterized school districts such as Los Angeles, Denver, New York City, New Orleans and Oakland, as well as broader state-level perspectives from California and Massachusetts.

"Parental Voucher Enrollment Decisions: Choice within Choice in New Orleans" (with Belinda Cambre). Journal of School Choice 7 (2013): 560-588.

Investigates the school choice decisions of low-income parents participating in a publically-funded voucher program in the city of New Orleans. While academic performance of the selected public school was notably not an oft-cited factor in parents decisions, a range of other options ranging from geographic location, spirituality, safety, and parent communication were mentioned. Most significant was the powerful impact of the brand power of Catholic schools in the parents’ decisions.

"Community Leadership: Seeking Social Justice while Re-Creating Public Schools in Post-Katrina New Orleans" in International Handbook of Educational Leadership and Social (In)justice, edited by Ira Bogotch and Carolyn Shields, (Springer, 2013), 543-570.

Tells the story of the rebirth of the Morris Jeff Community School between its Katrina-forced closure 2005 and its reopening in 2010. Using a framework of community leadership, the story provides an example of how the founders of this charter school successfully worked to build trust across lines of race and class and create a public school committed to advocacy, diversity, and excellence.

"Family Engagement in Charter Schools" (with Lindsey Jakiel) in Handbook on Family and Community Engagement, edited by Sam Redding, Marilyn Murphy, and Pam Sheley, (Information Age Publishing, 2011), 147-151.

Examines the key issues involved in the practice of community engagement in the context of charter schools. In addition to identifying the potential benefits of parental choice for such partnerships, some challenges related to the process of creating charter schools are discussed. A set of guidelines for schools, districts, and state education authorities is included.