For the second consecutive year, The Learning Collective is conducting the third-party evaluations of all applications for new schools submitted to New Orleans Public Schools (NOLA PS). New Orleans is the only public school district in the country comprised entirely of charter schools. Here are some lessons we have learned from this important work:
New Orleans is a unique city, culture and educational system. For that reason, we always have a local reviewer as part of our larger review team.
To date, all of this work has been done remotely as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, we have learned that we have to be even more deliberate and thorough in our planning.
Relatedly, we have also learned through our work in New Orleans and Washington that video-based (rather than in-person) applicant capacity interviews can produce sufficiently robust information to enable us to fully vet applicants. In 2022, we are now in our third year conducting remote capacity interviews with groups applying to start new, or transform currently existing, NOLA PS schools.