As most of New Orleans鈥� public schools were turned into charters after Hurricane Katrina, the schools saw improvements in standardized test scores, high school graduation rates, and students鈥� college performance, according to a new study from the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans.
Among the most important findings from the Tulane University-based research group is that the education overhaul following Hurricane Katrina boosted graduation rates and college attendance rates for all, including black students and those from low-income families.
The new research, from Douglas Harris of Tulane University and Matthew Larsen of Lafayette College, built on that found the post-Katrina education overhaul in the city helped boost student performance on tests by eight to 15 percentage points.
The performance of schools in post-Katrina New Orleans has been a well-scrutinized experiment, with champions and critics of charter schools and school choice closely monitoring the results鈥攁nd Harris has emerged as perhaps the most high-profile researcher documenting the change.
As my colleague Sarah Sparks reported on the Inside School Research blog, the federal Institute of Education Sciences has just to create the , or REACH, at Tulane University.
While Harris promotes his latest findings, the economist and director of the Education Research Alliance does not conclude that what has worked in New Orleans will necessarily work in other parts of the country, largely because the cities鈥� schools had 鈥渘owhere to go but up.鈥�
New Orleans was a school system 鈥渢hat, by just about any measure, was failing badly,鈥� the authors wrote. 鈥淐orruption, mismanagement, and rapid turnover of superintendents resulted in extremely poor student outcomes. Even some of the strongest critics of the reforms agree that major changes were in order.鈥�
New Orleans Schools Are 鈥楽till at the Bottom鈥�
Before the 2005 flood, that district was the second-worst performing district in one of the worst-performing states: Louisiana鈥檚 NAEP scores are among the worst in the nation, with the state coming in last place in 4th and 8th grade math, and ranking near the bottom in reading at both grade levels.
Harris鈥� critics argue that his findings paint 鈥渢oo rosy鈥� a picture of school and student performance. Among them is Barbara Ferguson, a former interim superintendent in New Orleans who co-founded Research on Reforms, a group that has publicly cast doubts on his work and the value of the state-run Recovery School District.
Shortly after Hurricane Katrina, the RSD took over most of New Orleans鈥� schools and either closed them or turned them over to charter school groups.
More than a decade later, more than 90 percent of students in the city attend independently run charter schools, by far the highest percentage of any city in the nation. In a system that once prided itself on the importance of neighborhood schools, competition now reigns supreme: a child鈥檚 parent, not their ZIP code, determine where they go to school.
鈥淪ome good has come of it, but New Orleans is still at the bottom,鈥� Ferguson said. 鈥淭he recovery has not been as glowing as some people have been led to believe.鈥�
Chief among Ferguson鈥檚 complaints is that the highest-performing charter schools . In an effort to boost and maintain academic performance, at least a third of schools in the study did not report open seats, actively recruited high-achieving students, or encouraged poor-performing students to transfer, the alliance鈥檚 research has found.
Davida Finger, a law professor at the Loyola University College of Law in New Orleans, said she has seen first-hand evidence that segregation and inequity鈥攚hite children filling seats in top-rated schools and the failing schools being filled with predominately black children鈥攃ontinue to plague schools in the city.
Finger, who oversees the community justice section of Loyola鈥檚 law clinic, will launch a educational equity project to help families grappling with special education and school discipline disputes.
鈥淚t鈥檚 important to keep sight of the broader equity issues,鈥� Finger said. 鈥淥ur system is only as strong as it is for our most vulnerable students.鈥�
Despite those challenges, the Education Research Alliance鈥檚 work, past and present, makes the case that school quality and academic progress have improved in the new system.
鈥淭he successes documented here force educators and policymakers to question assumptions about how an education system can and should be designed and operated,鈥� the authors wrote. 鈥淚t shows that, at least under certain circumstances, intensive system-wide school reform, based on principles of accountability and school autonomy, have the potential to produce large effects on student learning.鈥�
You can read the Education Research Alliance鈥檚 full study, 鈥溾��
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