Charters Give ‘Lagniappe’

Here’s a story that passed us by just days before we started this website, but it remains relevant. It concerns the transformation of public education in New Orleans in the four years since Hurricane Katrina.

In late August Rick Jervis of USA Today wrote a profile on the city and the influx of charter schools that filled the void in the Big Easy. Nearly 60 percent of the city’s public school students now attend charter schools and there is a desire to see that number rise to 75 percent.

While Louisiana’s measurements of state achievement have remained flat, even before Katrina hit, in New Orleans there has been a considerable bump with test scores, raising 16 percent since 2004.

In assessing the progress on a visit to New Orleans, Tony Miller, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, said, “If these types of practices can be taken across the country, especially in some of the more challenging urban environments, that would make a difference in improving education. You’re seeing some of those results here.”

For the full story, from about five weeks ago, please click here.

Note: Lagniappe is a word used in Creole, meaning “something given or obtained gratuitously or by way of good measure.”