Ten years ago this Saturday, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans, breaking levees and devastating the city. A million residents were displaced and the school system was shuttered. In the decade since the largest natural disaster in US history, New Orleans has made a comeback, and perhaps its most dramatic changes are seen in its K-12 school system. These changes are the topic of a one day event at AEI on Wednesday, September 16, “Ten years after Katrina: Education reform in New Orleans,” which will be hosted jointly by AEI, the Center for American Progress and the Education Research Alliance at Tulane University.
Melvin Patterson (C), 7, listens to a lesson during seventh grade class at Samuel J. Green Charter School in New Orleans February 22, 2006. Hurricane Katrina gave New Orleans chronically underperforming school system a fresh start. REUTERS/Lee Celano.
The essential backdrop to the New Orleans story is the deplorable condition of the city’s public schools before the storm. In 2004, New Orleans was the second worst performing school district in the second worst performing state. The school system’s governance was dysfunctional enough to garner multiple indictments from the FBI in 2004. Graduation rates were slightly better than even odds (at 56%), and the average student performed at the state’s 30th percentile on standardized assessments.
Since the storm, New Orleans schools have been completely overhauled. Louisiana took control of New Orleans schools, turning more than 100 schools over to the state’s Recovery School District and creating a new charter driven school system. These charter schools have proved so successful that last year, 93 percent of New Orleans students attended them. Multiple education organizations, like New School for New Orleans and Teach For America, funneled primarily outside teaching talent into the new system. New Orleans now has city-wide school choice via a unified application system. At the same time, multiple advocacy organizations, like the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO), the American Federation for Children, and the Friedman Foundation, have organized families and lawmakers to support other systemic changes such as creating the first citywide school voucher program in the southern United States.
The results of these changes are nothing short of extraordinary. The graduation rate in all New Orleans schools was 73% last year, near the state average. Student achievement in New Orleans schools has also dramatically improved system-wide when compared to a control group of other hurricane-affected districts (See figure). While the district still scores below the state average, its progress is remarkable.
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