‘Hope Against Hope’: A community’s painful struggle over school reform
In her new book, veteran education journalist Sarah Carr attempts to tell the controversial story of New Orleansschools post-Hurricane Katrina from the ground up, focusing primarily on affected families and educators. “Hope Against Hope: Three Schools, One City, and the Struggle to Educate America’s Children” tracks a struggling family at one school, a veteran New Orleans administrator at a second, and a young teacher at a third, alternating between their differing perspectives and experiences.Carr has followed the New Orleans school story for the last six years as an education reporter for the Times-Picayune and a Spencer Education Journalism fellow at Columbia University. She currently serves as a contributing editor at the Hechinger Report.
The following prologue sets the stage for her year spent immersed in the disparate lives of the family, the teacher, and the administrator.
By Sarah Carr
They met in the most neutral site that could be found: a New Orleans funeral home. There, just feet from caskets, urns, and rosaries, two competing visions for the future of
