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Greater New Orleans

Schools

Greater New Orleans corps members teach in one of four southeast Louisiana parishes (Louisiana’s term for counties):

• Orleans Parish (city of New Orleans and the Recovery School District)
• Jefferson Parish (encompasses several New Orleans suburbs surrounding the city)
• St. Bernard Parish (made up of rural communities east of New Orleans)
• St. John the Baptist Parish (made up of more rural communities 30 miles west of New Orleans)

All four of these parishes are among the lowest-performing and most impoverished districts in Louisiana. A sharp racial and socioeconomic division exists in each of these parishes between public and private schools in the region. One out of every three school-age children in Teach For America’s partner parishes attends a non-public school—three times the national average. In Orleans Parish, 40 percent of children live in poverty while over 84 percent of students who attend public school live in poverty. All of the school systems in these parishes face similar challenges, however there are unique education reform initiatives underway in each, and Teach For America corps members and alumni are instrumental in leading these initiatives.

Orleans Parish

Hurricane Katrina closed all Orleans Parish Public Schools because every school had some level of damage and 80 percent of facilities had significant damage or were completely destroyed. All 64,000 New Orleans public school students were displaced after Katrina, and many of them attended school in Jefferson and St. John Parishes during the 2005-06 school year. Orleans Parish is experiencing the most dramatic restructuring and reform movement in the region and has drawn national attention for its unparalleled efforts to build an excellent school system from the ground up. Pre-Katrina, only nine percent of students enrolled in special education graduated from high school. On the state’s 2004 high school exit exams, only four percent of Orleans Parish public school students scored proficient in English and only six percent were proficient in math.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, there was an opportunity to fix one of the worst urban school districts in America. In November 2005, the Louisiana state legislature passed a bill that enabled the state to takeover 107 of Orleans Parish’s 128 public schools. In addition, a series of state and federal legislative changes encouraged the development of independently controlled charter schools that would be held to strict standards of academic and administrative performance. Over the last three years, New Orleans has become the most chartered system of public schools in the nation. Approximately 60 percent of the city’s 79 public schools are public charter schools, independently controlled with limited oversight by either the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB), the Recovery School District (RSD), or the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. The remaining public schools are mostly in the hands of the RSD, with just a handful of schools directly managed by the original Orleans Parish school board. Fifty-three percent of all students in Orleans Parish attend a charter school. The majority of corps members are placed in Orleans Parish; corps members are impacting one in three students in Orleans Parish for the 2008-09 school year.

St. Bernard Parish
Almost all structures in St. Bernard Parish were destroyed when the eye Hurricane Katrina passed over the small Parish, sending storm surges of 20-25 feet of water into neighborhoods. While Orleans Parish schools remained closed that year, under the leadership of Superintendent Doris Voitier, a make-shift school in St. Bernard Parish opened its doors to students just weeks after the hurricane. Voitier took out personal loans to fund clean-up crews, equipment, portable classrooms, and a staff of teachers that agreed to work for reduced salaries. She enlisted the aid of former students, to cook and deliver hot meals every day to the students. For her heroic efforts, Ms. Voitier was awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, an award that has been given in the past to Kofi Annan and Gerald Ford. Three years later, St. Bernard Parish has re-opened five schools, and Teach For America is working side-by-side with Ms. Voitier to bring excellent teachers into her classrooms. Teach For America corps members currently impact 41 percent of students in St. Bernard Parish.

Jefferson Parish
In Jefferson Parish, approximately 70 corps members and 10 alumni work in clusters at a handful of the its lowest performing schools concentrated on the West Bank of the parish. Of the four Parishes, Jefferson has by far the most students; many families evacuated to Jefferson Parish following the hurricane and have remained there. In 2008, a historic desegregation law was passed, and many students and teachers were shifted to accommodate the desegregation orders. While most corps members are placed in Orleans Parish, a large amount of corps members are also placed in Jefferson Parish. Corps members in Jefferson Parish, even with the largest number of students in any of the four parishes, impact 10 percent of the student population.

St. John the Baptist Parish
Approximately 50 Teach For America corps members and 14 alumni have a significant presence in St. John the Baptist Parish. With fewer than 7,000 students, approximately one out of every two students is impacted by a Teach For America teacher. With increased numbers of Teach For America corps members and alumni leading at the classroom, school, and district level, we have the opportunity to truly transform the landscape and outcomes of public schools. In fact, in 2007 Amanda Poole (G.N.O. ’05) was named Teacher of the Year in St. John the Baptist Parish.

At a Glance

Partner School Districts:
NOLA Public Schools
Jefferson Parish Public Schools
St. John the Baptist Parish Public Schools

Ethnic Breakdown-Student Population-Orleans Parish
Total: approximately 33,000
83% African-American
11% Caucasian
3% Latino/Hispanic
<1% Asian-American
<1% Native American

Ethnic Breakdown-Student Population-Jefferson Parish
Total: approximately 50,000
50% African-American
34% Caucasian
10% Latino/Hispanic
5% Asian-American
<1% Native American

Ethnic Breakdown-Student Population-St. John the Baptist Parish
Total: approximately 6,500
78% African-American
19% Caucasian
3% Latino/Hispanic
<1% Asian-American
<1% Native American

Percentage of Students Qualifying for Free/Reduced-Price Lunch
99% Orleans Parish
66% Jefferson Parish
78% St. John the Baptist Parish

Placements
35% elementary
65% secondary
31% hold special education assignments
95% teach at a school with another corps member or alumnus