NOLA: Charter Issues 2.0
Guest Post by Sarah Newell Usdin and Neerav Kingsland, New Schools New Orleans
Five years ago, New Orleans was perhaps America’s worst schools system. The FBI convicted over twenty district officials for stealing from kids. A valedictorian of a local high school failed the high school exit exam. Five times. Her school had failed her. Her district had failed her. Her school board had failed her. At every level, the system was broken.
Five years later and the results in NOLA are incredible:
Five years ago, New Orleans was perhaps America’s worst schools system. The FBI convicted over twenty district officials for stealing from kids. A valedictorian of a local high school failed the high school exit exam. Five times. Her school had failed her. Her district had failed her. Her school board had failed her. At every level, the system was broken.
Five years later and the results in NOLA are incredible:
- We’ve out paced the state’s growth by nearly a factor of 4 over the past four (growth of about 12 pts. vs. 3 pts)
- We’ve halved the percentage of failing schools (about 60% to 30%)
- Our highest-performing open-enrollment schools are out-performing selective-admission magnet schools.