Educational Trek at New Orleans Charter School System

I have never been to New Orleans before, so this trek was a really great opportunity for me to not only learn about different educational organization in New Orleans, but also experience a unique culture in the city. New Orleans is an interesting place to visit regarding education because of its structure which had been changed radically after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. A majority of schools in the cities was destroyed by the hurricane, but instead of rebuilding every school to be in the same conditions as they were before the hurricane, the city and The Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) used this opportunity to create an entire new school system which based on the charter school model in order to progressively improve the education system in New Orleans. Because of this vision, most schools in New Orleans are currently charter schools and a majority of students enroll in charter schools. Specifically, only 6 out of more than 80 schools in New Orleans remains traditional public schools. This allowed us to study the possibility of creating the entire education system based on charter schools. The result was incredible which leaded Arne Duncan, the Education Secretary, to call Hurricane Katrina “the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans.”

Holy Cross High School, a catholic private school in New Orleans