Can School Reform Hurt Communities? - NYTimes.com

Can School Reform Hurt Communities? - NYTimes.com:

Can School Reform Hurt Communities?

William Widmer for The New York Times

Jeri Hilt taught students about copyright law at ReNEW Cultural Arts Academy, a charter school in New Orleans, last week.

By SARAH CARR

Published: June 15, 2013

NEW ORLEANS — BEFORE Hurricane Katrina, about 74 percent of this city’s schools were considered “failing,” based mainly on their standardized test scores. By 2012, that figure had dropped to 42 percent, even as the bar for passing was raised. Average ACT scores for the city’s public school students have inched up. In 2011, black students in New Orleans outperformed their peers in the rest of Louisiana for the first time since the state test scores have been tracked.

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There are multiple explanations for the improvements. The schools spend more per pupil on average than they did before Katrina, for example. But most explanations have focused on the radical overhaul of the city’s education system: the expansion of independent charter schools (which more than 80 percent of New Orleans public school children now attend); a greater reliance on alternative teacher training programs like '