WWNO skyline header graphic
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Local Newscast
Hear the latest from the WWNO/WRKF Newsroom.

Support local, independent journalism on WWNO with your Member Fest gift now! Click the donate button or Call 844-790-1094.

New Orleans Charter Schools Look To Diversify Teaching Staff

William Widmer
/
Slate
Principal Alex Jarrell talks with KIPP Central City Academy drum line members at a Teach for America event in downtown New Orleans on June 2.

The New Orleans teaching force changed dramatically after Hurricane Katrina, when all public school teachers were laid off. They were mostly black, veteran educators from the area. Now, teachers are more likely to be young, white and to have grown up outside New Orleans.

Reporter Alex Neason covered the impact of these changes, and the efforts to diversify teaching staff, in a recent article for Slate Magazine. It's one of a twelve-part series on race in U.S. schools. She spoke about the story with WWNO's Mallory Falk. Neason began with the story of one of her sources, Raven Foster, a young teacher at KIPP Central City Academy.

Support for WWNO and our education news reporting comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Entergy Corporation.