The Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) governs the

public school system State schools (in England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand) or public schools (Scottish English and North American English) are generally primary or secondary schools that educate all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in p ...

that serves

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is bord ...

. It includes the entirety of Orleans Parish, coterminous with New Orleans. The OPSB directly administers 6 schools and has granted charters to another 18. Though the Orleans Parish School Board has retained ownership of all the assets of the New Orleans Public Schools system, including all school buildings, approximately 93% of students attending publicly-funded schools post- Katrina in Orleans Parish attended

charter schools A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of autono ...

.''New Orleans District Moves To An All-Charter System.'' https://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2014/05/30/317374739/new-orleans-district-moves-to-an-all-charter-system Schools previously operating under the

Recovery School District Recovery School District (RSD) is a special statewide school district administered by the Louisiana Department of Education. Created by legislation passed in 2003, the RSD is designed to take underperforming schools and transform and make them eff ...

umbrella within Orleans Parish after Katrina were, as of the fall of 2014, publicly funded and privately operated

. The RSD returned all its schools to the OPSB in 2018. The headquarters of the OPSB is in the West Bank neighborhood of

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques d ...

History

Jim Crow Era

Like virtually all areas in the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

, New Orleans had a segregated public school system for most of its early history, as government officials (who were all

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...

, due to Black

disfranchisement Disfranchisement, also called disenfranchisement, or voter disqualification is the restriction of suffrage (the right to vote) of a person or group of people, or a practice that has the effect of preventing a person exercising the right to vote. D ...

) did not want their children in the same schools as Black children. In 1960, the schools were integrated, which caused a national scandal and crisis. Katy Reckdahl of ''

The Times Picayune ''The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate'' is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana, since January 25, 1837. The current publication is the result of the 2019 acquisition of ''The Times-Picayune'' (itself a result of th ...

'' wrote that at the time, "outside observers expressed shock that desegregation provoked such strife in heterogeneous, easy-going New Orleans."

Reorganization of school system following Hurricane Katrina

NOPS was wholly controlled by the OPSB before

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

and was the New Orleans area's largest school district before Katrina devastated the city on August 29, 2005, damaging or destroying more than 100 of the district's 128 school buildings. NOPS served approximately 65,000 students pre-Katrina. For decades prior to Hurricane Katrina's landfall, the OPSB-administered system was widely recognized as the lowest performing school district in Louisiana. According to researchers Carl L. Bankston and Stephen J. Caldas, only 12 of the 103 public schools then in operation within the city limits of New Orleans showed reasonably good performance at the beginning of the 21st century. In Katrina's immediate aftermath, an overwhelmed Orleans Parish School Board asserted that the school system would remain closed indefinitely. The

Louisiana Legislature The Louisiana State Legislature (french: Législature d'État de Louisiane) is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is a bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representa ...

took advantage of this abdication of local leadership and acted swiftly. As a result of legislation passed by the state in November 2005, 102 of the city's worst-performing public schools were transferred to the

(RSD), which is operated by the Louisiana Department of Education and was headed for a key period (2008-2011) by noted education leader

Paul Vallas Paul Gust Vallas (born June 10, 1953) is an American politician and former superintendent of the Bridgeport Public Schools and the Recovery School District of Louisiana, former CEO of both the School District of Philadelphia and the Chicago Publ ...

. The Recovery School District had been created in 2003 to allow the state to take over failing schools, those that fell into a certain "worst-performing" metric. Five public schools in New Orleans had been transferred to RSD control prior to Katrina. The NOPS system was trying to decentralize power away from the pre-Katrina school board central bureaucracy to individual school principals and charter school boards, and allow for

school choice School choice is a term for education options that allow students and families to select alternatives to public schools. The most common in the United States, by both the number of programs and by the number of participating students are scho ...

, allowing them to enroll their children in almost any school in the district. Charter school accountability is realized by the granting of renewable operating contracts of varying lengths permitting the closure of those not succeeding. In October 2009, the release of annual school performance scores demonstrated continued growth in the academic performance of New Orleans' public schools. By aggregating the scores of all public schools in New Orleans (OPSB-chartered, RSD-chartered, RSD-administered, etc.) to permit a comparison with pre-Katrina outcomes, a district performance score of 70.6 was derived. This score represented a 6% increase over the equivalent 2008 metric, and a 24% improvement when measured against the equivalent pre-Katrina (2004) metric, when a district score of 56.9 was posted. Notably, the score of 70.6 approached the score (78.4) posted in 2009 by the adjacent, suburban

Jefferson Parish public school system Jefferson Parish Public Schools is a school district based in Harvey in unincorporated Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States.Metairie, LA Secondary schools ;7-12 schools * Fisher Middle-High Schoolbr>- Jean Lafitte, Louisiana, Jean Lafitte ...

, though that system's performance score was itself below the state average of 91. The current RSD superintendent is Patrick Dobard, while the diminished, OPSB portion of NOPS has been led since 2015 by Henderson Lewis. The conversion of the majority of New Orleans' public schools to

following

has been cited by author

Naomi Klein Naomi A. Klein (born May 8, 1970) is a Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker known for her political analyses, support of ecofeminism, organized labour, left-wing politics and criticism of corporate globalization, fascism, ecofascism ...

in her book ''

The Shock Doctrine ''The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism'' is a 2007 book by the Canadian author and social activist Naomi Klein. In the book, Klein argues that neoliberal free market policies (as advocated by the economist Milton Friedman) have ri ...

'' as an application of economics shock therapy, and of the tactic of taking advantage of public disorientation following a disaster to effect radical change in public policy.

Reunification

According to Senate Bill 432, passed by the

Louisiana State Legislature The Louisiana State Legislature (french: Législature d'État de Louisiane) is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is a bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 repres ...

on May 10, 2016 and signed into law by

Governor of Louisiana A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

John Bel Edwards John Bel Edwards (born September 16, 1966) is an American politician and attorney serving as the 56th governor of Louisiana since 2016. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the Democratic leader of the Louisiana House of ...

on May 12, 2016, all public schools in New Orleans will return to supervision by OPSB by July 1, 2018.

Surveys of public opinion

A 2009 survey conducted by Tulane University's ''Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives,'' which is listed as a "Key Partner" of ''New Schools for New Orleans'', a charter school advocacy group, indicated that the state's takeover of the majority of NOPS and the subsequent spread of charters was viewed with strong approval, by both parents of students and by citizens in general. Specifically, a poll of 347 randomly selected

Orleans Parish New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

voters and 300 randomly selected parents of children in the NOPS system indicated that 85% of parents surveyed reported they were able to enroll their children at the school they preferred, and 84% said the enrollment process was easy - findings that surprised the researchers. Furthermore, 82% of parents with children enrolled at charter schools gave their children's schools an "A" or "B", though only 48% of parents of children enrolled in non-chartered public schools assigned A's or B's to the schools their children attended. According to the survey, clear majorities of parents and of voters overall did not want the Orleans Parish School Board to regain full administrative control of the NOPS system.

Curriculum

In the mid-1800s the

German American German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...

community of New Orleans attempted to have the German language supplant French as a subject in school.Merrill, p
235
The German Society made efforts to have German introduced into the school system.Merrill, p
236
In 1910 the German language was added to the NOPS curriculum, making it a regular subject in high schools and, at the elementary school, an afternoon elective. At the time, 10% of high school students selected German. In 1918, because of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

propaganda, German was discontinued. German was re-introduced in 1931. The ''Deutsches Haus'', the successor to the German society, made efforts to reintroduce German. German was discontinued in 1938 as

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

began.

Push for desegregation

In the late 1950s,

Dorothy Mae Taylor Dorothy Mae DeLavallade Taylor (August 10, 1928 – August 18, 2000), was an educator and politician in New Orleans, the first African-American woman to be elected to and serve in the Louisiana House of Representatives. From 1971 to 1980, she ...

, the president of two chapters of the

Parent Teacher Association A parent is a caregiver of the offspring in their own species. In humans, a parent is the caretaker of a child (where "child" refers to offspring, not necessarily age). A ''biological parent'' is a person whose gamete resulted in a child, a male t ...

who in 1971 became the first

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

woman to serve in the

Louisiana House of Representatives The Louisiana House of Representatives (french: link=no, Chambre des Représentants de Louisiane) is the lower house in the Louisiana State Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. This chamber is composed of 105 rep ...

, organized a march to the school board to demand equal resources for black children in public schools. The board eventually acquiesced, and the parish increased funding to

historically black Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...

schools to a level comparable to their white counterparts. Then came the national push for

desegregation Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups, usually referring to races. Desegregation is typically measured by the index of dissimilarity, allowing researchers to determine whether desegregation efforts are having impact o ...

, particularly through the federal courts and later in the U.S. Congress with the

Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requi ...

. Racial barriers were dropped, and a new generation of African American leaders won most of the public offices in Orleans Parish.

Schools

Fifty-three public schools opened in New Orleans for the 2006–2007 school year. This number included schools directly administered by the OPSB or the RSD, or schools chartered by the OPSB or the RSD. By November 2006, the system was approaching half of its pre-Katrina enrollment, with 36% of the students enrolled in independent charter schools, 18% in the Algiers Charter School Association charter network, 35% in schools directly administered by the RSD, and 11% in the few remaining schools directly administered by the OPSB. Within fourteen months of Katrina, the majority of students in the NOPS system were, therefore, attending charter schools, a condition that has persisted to the present and is cited with approval by national advocates of charter schools. For the 2013–2014 school year, the Orleans Parish School Board directly administered 4 schools and oversaw the 16 it chartered. The RSD directly administered 15 schools and supervised the 60 it chartered. Additionally, two schools were chartered directly by the

Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education The Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) is an administrative policy-making body for elementary and secondary schools in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It was created in the 1973 Louisiana Constitutional Convention, called by ...

(BESE).''Recovery School District Frequently Asked Questions.'' http://www.rsdla.net/Resources/FAQs.aspx For the 2014–2015 school year, all public schools operating under the RSD umbrella within Orleans Parish are independent charter schools.

OPSB-chartered schools

* Audubon Charter School (French Immersion & Montessori) * Benjamin Franklin High School * Edward Hynes Charter School * Encore Academy * Einstein Charter Middle School at Sarah T. Reed * Harte Elementary *

Edna Karr High School Edna Karr High School is a public, open enrollment, coeducational charter school in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The school is a college preparatory high school and is a part of InspireNOLA Charter Schools and the New Orleans Publi ...

* Lake Forest Elementary Charter * Willow Charter School (formerly Lusher Charter School) (Grades K-12) * New Orleans Charter Science and Mathematics High School *

Sarah T. Reed High School Sarah T. Reed High School is a high school in Eastern New Orleans in New Orleans, Louisiana. History Reed opened in 1988 and was directly operated by the Orleans Parish School Board and then the Recovery School District. It was named after Sara ...

* Warren Easton Fundamental High School * Robert Moton Elementary

OPSB-operated schools

* Benjamin Franklin Elementary Mathematics and Science School * Eleanor McMain Secondary Magnet School * Mary Bethune Elementary *

McDonogh 35 High School McDonogh 35 Senior High School is a charter public high school in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is a part of New Orleans Public Schools and InspireNOLA charter operator. The school was named after John McDonogh.Woyshner and Bohan, "Introduction." ...

* Mahalia Jackson Elementary

RSD-operated schools

(Outdated: For the 2014–2015 school year, the RSD directly administers no schools within Orleans Parish.) * A.P. Tureaud Elementary (Marie Couvent) * Benjamin Banneker Elementary School * George Washington Carver High School (Grades 9-12) * James Johnson Elementary * John McDonogh High School * Landry-Walker College and Career Preparatory High School (Grades 9-12, after phasing-out of grades 7 and 8) * Mary Coghill Elementary * Murray Henderson Elementary * Paul Habans Elementary * Reed High School * Schaumburg Elementary * Walter L. Cohen High School

RSD-chartered schools

* Akili Academy of New Orleans (Grades K-4) * Andrew Wilson Charter School * Arise Academy (Charles Drew Elementary campus - Grades PreK-2) * Arthur Ashe Charter School (Agnes Bauduit Elementary campus - Grades K-8) * Benjamin E. Mays Preparatory School (G.W. Carver Elementary campus) * Crescent Leadership Academy * Dr. King Charter School * Edward P. Harney Elementary * Eisenhower Elementary (Operated by the Algiers Charter School Association)
Esperanza Academy
(Operated by Community Academies of New Orleans Network) * Excel Academy (Grades 9-12) * Fischer Elementary (Operated by the Algiers Charter School Association)
Foundation Preparatory
(Operated by Community Academies of New Orleans Network) * Gentilly Terrace Elementary (Operated by the Capital One - New Beginnings Charter School Network) * Greater Gentilly High School (Grades 9-10) * Harriet Tubman Elementary (Operated by the Algiers Charter School Association) * Intercultural Charter School (Mary Queen of Vietnam campus) * James M. Singleton Charter School (Dryades YMCA) * KIPP Believe College Prep (Grades 5-8) - Ronald McNair campus * KIPP Central City Academy * KIPP Central City Primary
McDonogh 15 Creative Arts Magnet School
(Grades PreK-8)
Lafayette Academy Lower
(Operated by Community Academies of New Orleans Network)
Lafayette Academy Community Middle
Operated by Community Academies of New Orleans Network) * Langston Hughes Academy Charter (Operated by NOLA180) * Martin Berhman Charter Academy (Operated by the Algiers Charter School Association) * McDonogh 32 Elementary (Operated by the Algiers Charter School Association) * McDonogh 42 Charter School (Grades PreK-8) * McDonogh City Park Academy (McDonogh #28) (Grades K-8) * Medard H. Nelson Charter School (Operated by the Capital One - New Beginnings Charter School Network) * Miller-McCoy Academy for Math & Business (Edward Livingston campus) * Morris Jeff Community School (Grade PreK-2nd) * New Orleans Science & Math Academy (Edward Livingston campus) * New Orleans College Prep * Pierre A. Capdau Charter Elementary School (Operated by the Capital One - New Beginnings Charter School Network) * Pride College Preparatory Academy (F.W. Gregory campus) * ReNEW Accelerated High School * ReNEW Cultural Arts Academy * ReNEW Dolores T. Aaron Academy * ReNEW SciTech Academy * S.J. Green Charter School * Sophie B. Wright Charter Elementary School * Success Preparatory Academy (Wicker Elementary campus) * Thurgood Marshall Early College High (Operated by the Capital One - New Beginnings Charter School Network)

BESE-chartered schools

* International School of Louisiana (Foreign language immersion) * International High School of New Orleans( Formerly R.E. Rabouin Vocational School for Women "Founded in 1936 and Donated to the New Orleans Public School Board by Louise Jouet Rabuion" Later on a became New Orleans Public High School for all "L.E. Rabouin High School") * Milestone SABIS Academy of New Orleans * New Orleans Military and Maritime Academy * Lycee Francais de la Nouvelle Orleans (French Immersion)

Algiers Charter Schools Association

The Algiers Charter Schools Association is a system of six charter schools, all RSD affiliates. * Eisenhower Elementary Academy of Global Studies * Fischer Elementary * Martin Behrman Charter Academy for Creative Arts and Sciences (Grades PreK-8) * McDonogh #32 Literacy Charter School * L.B. Landry-O.P Walker College Preparatory High School * Algiers Technology Academy

Schools that may or may not be open in 2015

* Ray Abrams School * Avery Alexander Elementary (McDonogh #39) * Henry W. Allen Elementary (now New Orleans Charter Science and Mathematics High School) * Alternative High * Louis Armstrong School (McDonogh #19) * Israel Augustine Middle (S. J. Peters) * Agnes Bauduit Elementary (now Arthur Ashe Charter Elementary) * Andrew J. Bell Jr. High * Bienville Elementary School * Stuart R. Bradley School * Florence J. Chester School * Charles Colton Middle School * A.D. Crossman Elementary (now Esperanza Charter School) * Edward Livingston Middle - as of the 2014–15 school year, is now Edward Livingston High School. * KIPP Renaissance High School, formerly Francis T. Nicholls High School * Alcee Fortier High School * Jean Gordon Elementary * Oretha Castle Haley School (Gayarre) * John W. Hoffman School * Andrew Jackson School (now the International School of Louisiana) * Morris F.X. Jeff Elementary (McDonogh #31) * Valena C. Jones Elementary * Barbara C. Jordan School (McDonogh #40) * John F. Kennedy High * Thomy Lafon School * Lake Area Middle (H.C. Schaumburg Elementary) * Alfred Lawless High * Little Woods School * Johnson C. Lockett School * McDonogh 7 (housing Andrew Wilson charter through early 2010) * George O. Mondy Elementary * George O. Mondy School (William O. Rogers) * Ernest N. Morial Elementary * New Orleans East Educational Center * NOPS Technology Center * Mildred Osborne Elementary * Parkview Fundamental Magnet (Claiborne) * Edward H. Phillips Jr. High * Julius Rosenwald Accelerated Elementary (now Algiers Technology Academy) * John A. Shaw School * Sherwood Forest School * Mary Church Terrell Magnet * Urban League Street Academy * Village De L'est Elementary School (now Einstein Charter School) * Booker T. Washington High School (scheduled to become a vocational trade school, pre-Katrina) * O. Perry Walker College and Career Preparatory High School and Community Center—Effective with the 2013–14 school year, the school merged into the Landry-Walker College and Career Preparatory High School, on the new Landry campus. * Vorice Jackson Waters Elementary *

Phillis Wheatley Elementary School Kansas City 33 School District, operating as Kansas City Public Schools or KCPS (formerly Kansas City, Missouri School District, or KCMSD), is a school district headquartered at 2901 Troost Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. The dis ...

* Sylvanie Williams School * Carter G. Woodson Middle

Former schools

RSD chartered: * Sojourner Truth Academy Pre-Katrina: * German High School, in the early 1850s the

community of New Orleans made plans to establish the school in the Third District of New Orleans. It was

nonsectarian Nonsectarian institutions are secular institutions or other organizations not affiliated with or restricted to a particular religious group. Academic sphere Examples of US universities that identify themselves as being nonsectarian include Adel ...

and had no religious instruction. The school closed during a

yellow fever Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. ...

epidemic in 1853.Merrill, Ellen C. ''Germans Of Louisiana''.

Pelican Publishing Pelican Publishing Company is a book publisher based in Gretna, a suburb of New Orleans. Formed in 1926, Pelican is the largest independent trade book publisher located in the U.S. South. Pelican publishes approximately 60 titles per year an ...

, 2005. , 9781455604845

References

External links

NOLA Public Schools

Old Orleans Parish School Board site

EducateNow! website

Louisiana Recovery School District

- January 2006 publication of the Urban Institute
Historical Orleans Parish School Board Minute Books
in the Louisiana Digital Library
New Orleans School Integration
Civil Rights Digital Library. {{Authority control School districts in Louisiana Education in New Orleans 1841 establishments in Louisiana School districts established in 1841