2024-25 Citywide Survey Checks In on New Orleans Students

January 28, 2025

The Education Research Alliance (ERA) at Tulane University is launching the third Citywide Youth Survey to better understand New Orleans students' experiences, including their views on teachers, neighborhood support, and career aspirations. This year's survey, running from March to April 2025, will include private school students for the first time, providing a more comprehensive look at the city's diverse education landscape and informing policies that support youth success.

What do New Orleans stu­dents think of their edu­ca­tion? How much sup­port do they feel they have in their neigh­bor­hoods? What kinds of careers do they aspire to? The third admin­is­tra­tion of the City­wide Youth Sur­vey coor­di­nat­ed by the Edu­ca­tion Research Alliance (ERA) for New Orleans aims to answer these ques­tions to bet­ter under­stand stu­dent expe­ri­ences in the city. The ERA is a research cen­ter at Tulane Uni­ver­si­ty that col­lab­o­rates with local stake­hold­ers to pro­duce objec­tive, rig­or­ous, and use­ful edu­ca­tion research. 

The City­wide Youth Sur­vey pro­vides local com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions with valu­able data to push for vital reforms, advo­cate for his­tor­i­cal­ly mar­gin­al­ized stu­dents, and peti­tion for the expan­sion of ser­vices that ben­e­fit all stu­dents. This install­ment of the sur­vey is par­tic­u­lar­ly valu­able due to its inclu­sion of pri­vate schools. The addi­tion of pri­vate schools will pro­vide an even more robust set of data that encom­pass­es the diverse edu­ca­tion land­scape of the city. This will not only help schools bet­ter under­stand their stu­dents but will also help the city to iden­ti­fy resources our youth need to thrive. 

The sur­vey will take place from March through April 2025, with reports shared in Fall 2025. Data from pri­or sur­veys (2018 – 19 and 2021 – 2022 ), taught us how well teach­ers and stu­dents respond­ed to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and high­light­ed stu­dents’ men­tal health needs. This next round will include more detailed ques­tions to address these needs and, for the first time, include pri­vate school students. 

Sup­port­ing New Orleans youth starts with ask­ing bet­ter ques­tions, and lis­ten­ing to their per­spec­tives. The City­wide Youth Sur­vey offers a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to do that. If you are inter­est­ed in learn­ing more and assist­ing with this effort, please fill out this form or reach out via email to sgomez7@​tulane.​edu or call: 5049880089.