NOLA by the Numbers: Then and Now

In October 2010, the Cowen Institute launched the NOLA by the Numbers series to provide journalists, policymakers, community leaders, and the public with a comprehensive report on the latest numbers and data about public schools in New Orleans.  On the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and with the school year just beginning, we thought it made sense to take a quick look back at the changes that have occurred across the public education landscape in New Orleans since August 29, 2005.  Here is NOLA by the Numbers: Then and Now, which uses state-released data from the 2004-2005 school year as well as the latest available data we have to describe the general state of public education before and after Hurricane Katrina.  For information on other indicators that affect – or are affected by – the quality of public education, check out the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center’s New Orleans Index at Six, which measures growth and change in the economy, housing, safety, transit, quality of life, and other indicators since Katrina.

School Governance

• At the start of the 2004-2005 school year, there were 129 public schools in New Orleans.  There were 2 Type 2 charter schools, 1 Type 5 RSD charter school, 2 OPSB charter schools and 124 schools operated by the OPSB.
• In 2010-2011, the school year began with 88 public schools operating in New Orleans.  There were 3 Type 2 charter schools, 12 charter schools overseen by the OPSB and 46 Type 5 RSD charter schools.  The RSD operated 23 schools and the OPSB operated 4 schools.
• The 2011-2012 school year, which just began, saw 87 public schools open in New Orleans: 5 Type 2 charters, 49 Type 5 RSD charters, 11 OPSB charters, 6 OPSB-run schools, and 16 RSD-run schools.

Student Enrollment

• In 2004-2005, there were 66,371 students enrolled at the start of the school year.  Only 1,683 students were enrolled in charter schools, 2.5 percent of the total.
• By 2010-2011, total public school student enrollment was 39,877.  Charter schools enrolled 71 percent of students.  Charter schools are expected to enroll an increased percentage of students for the 2011-2012 school year.
• Special education students comprised 10 percent of the total student population in 2004-2005.
• In 2010-2011, the special education population was 9 percent for all public schools in New Orleans.

Personnel

• In 2004-2005, the OPSB employed 8,412 staff members, including 3,790 teachers.  The student to teacher ratio was about 18:1.
• By 2009-2010, there were a total of 2,545 teachers employed by public schools in New Orleans.  The student to teacher ratio was about 15:1.
• In 2004-2005, 40 percent of teachers had more than 20 years experience.
• By 2009-2010, 23 percent of teachers had more than 20 years experience and 23 percent had zero to one year of experience.

Finances

• In 2004-2005, the OPSB spent about $7,893 per-pupil in current expenditures, compared to the Louisiana average of $7,630.
• The average current per-pupil expenditures for all New Orleans schools in 2009-2010 was $13,040 compared to a state average of $10,745.

School Performance

• For the 2004-2005 school year, 61 percent of schools received the label Academically Unacceptable.
• By 2009-2010, the percentage of schools considered Academically Unacceptable fell to 26 percent.
• In 2004-2005, less than half of students passed any one of the state’s high-stakes standardized tests, the 4^th and 8^th grade LEAP and the high school GEE.  Orleans Parish lagged 18 to percentage points behind Louisiana averages with passage rates ranging from 36 to 48 percent.
• By 2010-2011, test passage rates rose and the performance gap between the local and state averages was reduced to 3 to 9 percentage points.  Passage rates ranged from 54 to 67 percent.
• For the first time in 2010-2011, African-American students in Orleans Parish out-performed African-American students across the state on Louisiana’s high-stakes tests.