Abstract

The New Orleans Center for Science and Math represented a successful departure from the traditional United States high school. It was founded by a small group from outside normal education circles and had no admission requirements. It established a strong track record for science and mathematics training, and for placement of its graduates in college despite drawing its population from underprivileged families with no college tradition.
 The school offered a half-day program strictly in math and science. All other course work was taken at the students’ host school. In 2005, the city of New Orleans was inundated with floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina. The collapse of the school system was followed by the replacement of traditional, centrally run schools with a variety of semi-autonomous charter schools. New Orleans Center for Science and Math no longer had an existing base of schools from which to draw its student body and had to adopt course offerings similar to larger, more traditional schools. In the highly experimental environment of the post-Katrina New Orleans public schools, the New Orleans Charter School for Science and Math represents an interesting example of science school reform. The school served as a successful model of science education, with the ironic twist that its innovative structure was lost to a spasm of experimentation.