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The New Orleans Post-Katrina School Reforms: 20 Years of Lessons

The report synthesizes findings from over a two-decade period of research. It provides a comprehensive assessment of the nation's most dramatic educational overhaul, where nearly all public schools were converted to charter schools.

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The New Orleans Post-Katrina School Reforms: 20 Years of Lessons

Published
by Douglas Harris, Jamie Carroll

Hur­ri­cane Kat­ri­na made land­fall in New Orleans on August 29, 2005 and was one of the most dev­as­tat­ing dis­as­ters in Amer­i­can his­to­ry. Even two decades lat­er, its after-effects are felt here on a dai­ly basis. The storm”, as we call it, also shaped many of the city’s core insti­tu­tions — none more so than our K‑12 schools. Almost all New Orleans pub­lic schools were tak­en over by the state and even­tu­al­ly turned into autonomous char­ter schools. All edu­ca­tors were fired, and the union con­tract was allowed to expire. Almost all atten­dance zones were elim­i­nat­ed so that fam­i­lies, in prin­ci­ple, could choose any pub­licly fund­ed school in the city. By the end of the state takeover 13 years lat­er, all of the city’s schools were con­vert­ed to char­ter schools, and New Orleans schools were reuni­fied into one dis­trict gov­erned by the local school board and super­in­ten­dent. While oth­er cities in the U.S. have expand­ed their char­ter school offer­ings dur­ing state takeover peri­ods, no city has gone as far as New Orleans. The key con­clu­sion report is based not only on our indi­vid­ual find­ings, but also on pat­terns across our stud­ies and analy­ses by oth­er researchers.

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