Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-2018

Keywords

New Orleans charter schools, student achievement growth, outcomes, open-enrollment, math and science, English language arts

Abstract

For decades education policymakers and practitioners have been concerned about improv ing student achievement in New Orleans, Louisiana. After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the public school system in New Orleans, already one of the lowest per forming in the United States, was reorganized, and most schools became charter schools (Harris & Larsen, 2016). As a result, the number of charter schools in New Orleans expanded rapidly. Charter schooling is now the primary governance structure for public education in the city, making New Orleans unique among U.S. school districts. During the 2012/13 school year (the period covered by this study), 75 of the 85 public schools in New Orleans were chartered, enrolling more than 84 percent of public school students in the city in 92 school campuses. Public charter schools operate outside the traditional public school district system accord ing to provisions of their organizational charter. The charter typically sets performance goals for the school but leaves school leaders free to determine the best means to achieve those goals. This arrangement provides charter schools with the flexibility to innovate in both their features and their operation. Therefore, charter schools provide an opportuni ty to explore what school characteristics are potential indicators of school effectiveness (Maranto, Milliman, Hess, & Gresham, 2001). The Louisiana Charter Schools Research Alliance of the Regional Educational Laborato ry (REL) Southwest requested an exploratory analysis of the distinctive features and poten tial indicators of charter school effectiveness in New Orleans. The alliance was organized as a source of information on projects and studies that would be useful to charter school operators and overseers in the state.1 Structural features of schools, such as entry grade and grade span, long have been thought to affect student achievement (for example, Purkey & Smith 1983), by either facilitating or hindering student learning. This study explored the association between various organiza tional, operational, and instructional features of charter schools in New Orleans and their students’ achievement growth. Charter school features correlated with student achieve ment gains are described in this study as “potential indicators” of charter school effective ness. This study builds on prior research identifying a variety of school features that are potential indicators of charter school effectiveness.

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