Charter Schools Good News for New Orleans Post-Katrina
New Orleans is now the first major U.S. City with a majority of their students in charter schools (61% of all students in 2009-2010), according to U.S. News & World Report. The New Orleans public school system was devastated in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and needed to be rebuilt from scratch. Since the pre-Katrina New Orleans school system was one of the worst in the nation, this has presented an opportunity for a vast experiment in education.
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Looking at test scores, the new structure of the public school system seems to be succeeding. “New Orleans’ school district’s performance score — a tally of test scores and other performance measures — jumped from 56.9 pre-Katrina to 66.4 last year, according to state Department of Education figures. Statewide, the average during that same period stayed roughly the same: 87.4 pre-Katrina and 87.2 last year.” (USA Today).
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The experiment with charter schools in the city is not without it’s critics. Some have noted that charter schools do not have the same percentage of special need students; “[t]he average special education population in traditional schools is 12 percent, but at charter schools, it’s less than 8 percent.” (PBS Newshour). This has led to charges that charters discriminate among the students they accept.
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To read more about this unique situation. See the articles below.
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Charter Schools Rise in New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina, U.S. News & World Report, Jan. 5, 2010
High marks for New Orleans’ charter schools, USA Today, Aug. 27, 2009
New Orleans Charter Schools Produce Mixed Results, PBS NewsHour, Originally Aired May 6, 2009
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