New Orleans Schools are, for the first time, reporting improvement since Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. In fact, many of its numbers are actually better than those before the hurricane. New Orleans Schools have improved in many of the key benchmarks that students, parents, and community members look at when assessing the strength of a school system. Below is a list of some of the important areas in which New Orleans Schools are making important strides.
Teachers- New Orleans Public Schools are going to retain 98% of its teachers into the 2007-2008 school year. This is well above the national average and a considerable achievement considering that many teachers were driven away after the storm by poor living conditions. More than 99% of those teachers are certified and a large number of those are considered highly-qualified, an important marker for No Child Left Behind directives.
School Size- New Orleans Schools have been able to keep school size appropriate. This is an achievement post-Katrina because larger schools would have been easier to build or repair instead of several smaller schools. Studies have shown that smaller schools or learning...