2022 City Studies
Summary of Findings
This summary highlights major findings about students’ academic performance in public K-12 schools in New Orleans, Louisiana. Performance is measured by one-year learning gains or growth students made from one school year to the next. We benchmark New Orleans students’ growth against the state average growth and then compare the progress of charter and selective school students with that of similar traditional district school students within New Orleans, accounting for student characteristics.
Overall:
Students in New Orleans posted similar growth throughout the 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years compared to the state average in reading. In math, New Orleans students exhibited stronger growth in 2017-18 and similar progress in 2018-19 than an average student in the state.
Sector:
In both reading and math, academically selective charter school students in New Orleans made stronger gains than the state average over the two growth periods. Students in New Orleans charter schools were on par with the statewide average in reading across the two years, while showed greater learning gains in math in 2017-18. Students enrolled in New Orleans district schools exhibited similar academic growth in both subjects across the two growth periods.1
Comparisons of sectors within New Orleans indicate charter schools exhibited similar learning gains in both subjects in 2017-18 and 2018-19 than district schools. In both years, New Orleans students enrolled in academically selective charter schools showed stronger growth in reading and math when compared to the district schools, as well as the charter schools.
A deeper dive into New Orleans student growth for the period ending in Spring 2019 reveals the following findings:
Charter School Type:
New Orleans charter schools grow on par with the state average in both reading and math, regardless of whether they are affiliated with a Charter Management Organization (CMO) or independent charter schools. There is no significant difference in gains between CMOs and independent charter schools within the New Orleans charter sector in either subject.
Race/Ethnicity:
Overall, New Orleans black students make similar learning gains in both reading and math compared to the state average black student. Breakout analyses by sector suggest that black students enrolled in academically selective charter schools show greater growth in both subjects than the average black student in the state. New Orleans charter and district school black students grow similarly in both subjects compared to the state average. Shifting the focus to sector comparison within New Orleans, black students enrolled in charter schools post similar growth than district school black students in both subjects. Black students enrolled in academically selective charter schools outperform district school black students in reading and math.
New Orleans Hispanic students overall do not perform differently in reading and math compared to the average Hispanic student in the state. Sector breakout analyses reveal that Hispanic students in New Orleans charter and district schools make similar progress in both reading and math relative to the average Hispanic student statewide. New Orleans Hispanic students enrolled in academically selective charter schools make stronger learning gains compared to the average Hispanic student in the state in both subjects. Cross-sector comparisons within New Orleans indicate similar growth among charter school Hispanic students as well as academically selective charter school Hispanic students than growth among district school Hispanic students in both subjects.
Poverty, ELL, and Special Education:
New Orleans students living in poverty overall post similar learning gains in both reading and math compared to the average student living in poverty in the state. Sector breakout analyses show stronger growth in both subjects among students in poverty enrolled in New Orleans academically selective charter schools relative to the state average of students living in poverty. New Orleans charter and district school students in poverty demonstrate similar growth in both subjects compared to the average student in poverty statewide. Comparisons of sectors within New Orleans demonstrate charter school students in poverty perform similarly to the district school students in poverty in both reading and math. New Orleans students in poverty enrolled in academically selective charter school outperform district school students in poverty in both subjects.
English Language Learners (ELLs) in New Orleans as a whole demonstrate similar learning gains in reading and math relative to the average ELL student in the state. School sector breakout analyses indicate that when compared to the statewide average ELL, New Orleans ELLs in charter schools, as well as academically selective charter schools make similar progress in both reading and math, while ELLs in New Orleans district school post greater learning gains in math. Comparisons of sectors within New Orleans show ELL students in charter schools exhibit similar gains in both subjects compared to the district school ELL students, and ELL students in academically selective charter schools also grow similarly compare to their district school counterparts.
New Orleans students receiving special education services overall exhibit similar growth in reading and stronger growth in math when compared to an average student receiving special education services in the state. Breakout analyses by sector suggest that special education students enrolled in New Orleans charter schools outpace the average special education statewide in math, while no significant difference in learning gains in reading is found. Special education students attending academically selective charter schools outperform the average student receiving special education services in the state in both subjects. Special education students enrolled in district schools show similar growth in math and reading compared to the average special education student in the state.
Cross-sector comparisons within New Orleans shows that special education students in charter schools make similar learning gains in both subjects than the special education students in district schools. Special education students in academically selective charter schools outperform district school special education students in both subjects.
Gender:
Both male and female students in New Orleans overall post similar reading and math growth than the average student of the same gender in the state. The patterns of learning gains for students by gender mirror each other when broken down by school sector. Male and female students studying in New Orleans charter and district schools grow on par with the average student of the same gender statewide in both reading and math. Male and female students studying in New Orleans academically selective charter schools outperform the average student of the same gender statewide in both subjects. Comparisons of sectors within New Orleans reveal that male and female students enrolled in academically selective charter schools show stronger gains in both subjects compare to their counterparts in district school. There is no significant difference in learning gains between the charter students and the peers in district school in both subjects.
1 The New Orleans school district had been poised to become an all-charter system in recent years. During the 2017-18 and 2018-19 growth periods, approximately 7.2 percent of overall test takers were enrolled in traditional district schools, while 83.4 and 9.4 percent of overall test takers belonged to charter and selective charter schools, respectively.; Type 2 charter schools that enroll students from any parish throughout the state are excluded in the analysis.
Presentation of Findings