New Orleans’s public schools have shown significant growth and progress in the past 13 years. This progress did not happen overnight; it took passion, leadership, accountability, funding and focus to turn our education system around. The results are impressive. In 2005, 62 percent of New Orleans students attended the lowest-performing schools in the state, compared with just 8 percent in 2018. Our college-entry rate has risen from 37 percent in 2004 to 61 percent in 2017.

How did we do it? This work has been nuanced and complicated, but when I look at what distinguishes education in New Orleans, 10 things stand out..