Eric.ed.gov – Citywide Education Progress Report: New Orleans

The Citywide Education Progress Report looks at how a city is doing across three goals: (1) The education system is continuously improving; (2) All students have access to a high-quality education; and (3) The education strategy is rooted in the community. Across each goal it presents indicators of what the city is doing and how it is doing. The reports focus on education strategies for the 2017-18 school year. The analyses reflect developments through June 2018. These are updates to the original reports from the 2016-17 school year. In July 2018, the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) will finish receiving all of the schools formerly managed by the state-run Recovery School District, making OPSB the first school system in the country comprised solely of autonomous schools. New Orleans made strong early progress closing the city’s achievement gap with the state between 2010 and 2015. Between 2012 and 2015, New Orleans’ school proficiency rates improved in reading and math, relative to the state. The city is about at the national average when it comes to how well it educates low-income students, and all students are proportionately enrolled in advanced math coursework in high school. Graduation rates remained mostly flat. State data released in November 2017 revealed a decline in the city’s test scores, highlighting the urgency to address persistently low-performing schools. This will mean doubling down on recruiting the talent the city needs to drive school-level improvement and using data to ensure new or restarted schools are in the highest-need neighborhoods and at the most-needed grade levels. Setting a clear vision for a high-quality system of schools, and involving families and schools in the process, will be key steps post-unification. [For the main report, “Stepping Up: How Are American Cities Delivering on the Promise of Public School Choice?,” see ED578178.]