After the levees broke in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, 7,000 New Orleans teachers lost their jobs, paving the way for a massive change in the city’s teaching force.
Now, a study by Nathan Barrett and Douglas N. Harris of the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans, paints a picture of how different the city’s teachers look today from a decade ago.
Among the key trends:
• The city’s teaching force is now 49 percent black, compared with 71 percent in 2005.
• About 60 percent of teachers in 2005 were trained in New Orleans colleges; in 2014, fewer than 40 percent were.
• The percentage of teachers with five or fewer years of experience has increased from 33 percent to 54 percent since 2003.
• The percentage of certified teachers fell from 79 percent to 56 percent.
