Creating and sustaining a new kind of education system after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans

Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath disrupted every element of life in the city of New Orleans, but no sector was affected as much as education. Almost all New Orleans public schools were taken over by the state and eventually turned into autonomous charter schools. By the end of the state takeover 13 years later, all of the city’s publicly funded schools were converted to charter schools. Now, New Orleans schools are reunified into one district governed by the local school board. While this is consistent with school reform approaches in other cities, no city has gone as far as New Orleans.  

Part of that work was necessary, as 110 school buildings (87 percent of those in operation)¹ were damaged by the storm, and students, teachers, and staff were evacuated without a clear path to return home. Education leaders did not know when or where families would return, but they did know that they had to get schools opened quickly to ensure residents could return. Other aspects of the New Orleans school reforms focused on pursuing radical changes to the education system.  

The state leveraged existing takeover and charter school policies already in place to build a new kind of school system in New Orleans.  

Instead of having a few charter schools in a sea of traditional public schools, roles have reversed so that only one school today is not a charter school. Instead of mainly being controlled by the superintendent and local school board, New Orleans schools are run by about 30 nonprofit organizations. There are no schools receiving an “F” letter grade, 79 percent of students graduate on time, and 65 percent of graduates continue to college.² Students can attend schools across the city, as there are no more zoned public schools, but almost a quarter of students choose to attend private schools. The number of K-12 schools and students has dropped by almost half, largely due to population decline.³

In this report, we describe how these reform efforts affected student learning and outcomes, the teaching workforce, and school and district operations by comparing the students of New Orleans to similar ones in other districts that did not experience the school reforms. Education systems are a critical component of building the capacity for resilience in communities, as they train productive citizens who contribute to the workforce and community problem solving.⁴ In New Orleans, over the first decade after Hurricane Katrina, we find that these reforms led to large gains in a wide range of student outcomes. These improvements were due to the reforms themselves, especially the ongoing process of taking over and replacing low-performing schools, and not due to outside factors such as the changing population.  

Over the second decade after Hurricane Katrina, those gains have mainly been sustained. There has been some improvement in equity and no negative effects on crime or student mobility. However, there are fewer experienced, certified, and Black teachers and less of a focus on the arts than before the 2005 storm. We supplement these analyses with a description of the private school sector, which has enrolled a large and growing share of students over time. We end with insights into how the New Orleans model helps and hinders ongoing improvements, and what other parts of the country can learn from the city’s unprecedented school reforms.