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This is part of a series covering the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, its effects, and the recovery of New Orleans鈥� schools. Read all our coverage and essays here.

蜜桃影视 is partnering with The Branch in promoting , a limited-run podcast series that revisits the sweeping changes to New Orleans’ public schools after Hurricane Katrina came ashore 20 years ago last month. Listen to the final episode below and .

Two decades after Hurricane Katrina, the legacy of New Orleans鈥� radical education experiment is still contested. Was it a success? The final episode of Where the Schools Went grapples with this question head on.

Doug Harris, chair of Tulane University鈥檚 Department of Economics and founding director of the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans, has led the team studying the city鈥檚 schools for years. Their findings show both real progress and persistent gaps: higher graduation rates, more students going to college, stronger test scores, but uneven results and questions about whether the momentum can last. 

We talk with Doug about how to make sense of this data and what lessons other cities might take from it:

But of course, data can only go so far. In the second half of this episode, we return to voices you鈥檝e heard from throughout Where the Schools Went to test those findings. 

Chris Stewart reflects on how New Orleans became the center of a national fight over education policy, with critics and champions battling on social media and in statehouses over whether the 鈥渟ystem of schools鈥� model would spread. 

Former principal and school founder Alexina Medley, who led a school both before and after Katrina, describes her pride in how far the city has come, but also cautions that the impact of COVID means it now faces a new crossroads. 

Dana Peterson, CEO of New Schools for New Orleans, calls accountability the city鈥檚 greatest legacy while cautioning that progress should not be mistaken for success. 

And John White, the former state superintendent, argues that the deepest lesson is about the importance of coherence and its ability to empower educators, hold them to clear standards, and resource schools fairly.

Finally, I share some of my own reflections. As a veteran of the education wars who left school leadership burned out, I found that reporting for this series helped me to reconnect with the purpose of schools and the people who run them. This story, and the city of New Orleans more broadly, offers a lesson not only in how to build better schools, but also in how to practice a better kind of politics.

Listen to the final episode above. 

Where the Schools Went is a five-part podcast series from The Branch, produced in partnership with 蜜桃影视 and MeidasTouch. Listen at or .

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