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The Stories behind the Statistics: Why a Report on 'Large Achievement Gains' in Charter Schools Harms New Orleans' Black Students

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Bibliographic Details
Title: The Stories behind the Statistics: Why a Report on 'Large Achievement Gains' in Charter Schools Harms New Orleans' Black Students
Language: English
Authors: Kristen Buras, Network for Public Education (NPE)
Source: Network for Public Education. 2025.
Availability: Network for Public Education. 225 East 36th Street, Apartment 10-O, New York City, New York 10016. Tel: 646-678-4477; e-mail: info@networkforpubliceducation.org; Web site: https://networkforpubliceducation.org/
Peer Reviewed: N
Page Count: 48
Publication Date: 2025
Document Type: Reports - Research
Descriptors: Charter Schools, School Districts, African American Students, Research Reports, Review (Reexamination), Ethics, Deception, Achievement Gains, Selective Dissemination of Information, Data Use, Institutionalized Persons, At Risk Students, Grants, Educational Finance, Reputation, State Standards, Academic Standards, Scores, Compliance (Legal), Institutional Evaluation, Cheating
Geographic Terms: Louisiana (New Orleans)
Abstract: For the 20-year memorial of Hurricane Katrina, Tulane University's Education Research Alliance (ERA) for New Orleans widely disseminated a policy brief entitled "The New Orleans Post-Katrina School Reforms: 20 Years of Lessons," which lauded "large gains in achievement" in the city's all-charter school district. This critique offers an in-depth analysis of this claim by examining how the state has continuously altered the school performance metric to advantage charter schools and contrive "success" in New Orleans. It also raises questions regarding the integrity of the data analyzed by ERA researchers based on allegations, lawsuits, and violations involving grade-fixing and mismanagement in the New Orleans charter school sector, and flags concerns about the performance data by highlighting the lack of charter school accountability and oversight by the state. The paper also turns to the brief's student surveys on teaching quality and charter school climate, revealing that the experiences of black students at the school level are more troubling than ERA suggests. [This article was created by the National Center for Charter School Accountability, a project of the Network for Public Education, and the Urban South Grassroots Research Collective (USGRC).]
Abstractor: ERIC
Entry Date: 2025
Accession Number: ED677395
Database: ERIC
Description
Abstract:For the 20-year memorial of Hurricane Katrina, Tulane University's Education Research Alliance (ERA) for New Orleans widely disseminated a policy brief entitled "The New Orleans Post-Katrina School Reforms: 20 Years of Lessons," which lauded "large gains in achievement" in the city's all-charter school district. This critique offers an in-depth analysis of this claim by examining how the state has continuously altered the school performance metric to advantage charter schools and contrive "success" in New Orleans. It also raises questions regarding the integrity of the data analyzed by ERA researchers based on allegations, lawsuits, and violations involving grade-fixing and mismanagement in the New Orleans charter school sector, and flags concerns about the performance data by highlighting the lack of charter school accountability and oversight by the state. The paper also turns to the brief's student surveys on teaching quality and charter school climate, revealing that the experiences of black students at the school level are more troubling than ERA suggests. [This article was created by the National Center for Charter School Accountability, a project of the Network for Public Education, and the Urban South Grassroots Research Collective (USGRC).]