Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

The school reforms put in place in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina represent the most intensive test- and market-based school accountability system ever created in the United States. All the hallmarks of traditional school districts and Tiebout competition were ended, including eliminating attendance zones and turning over almost all public school management to outside non-profit organizations. This study provides the first rigorous examination of the effects of this package of reforms on student achievement. Identification will be based on a difference-in-difference (DD) and comparative interrupted times series analyses, comparing outcomes before and after the hurricane and reforms in New Orleans and a matched comparison group that experienced hurricane damage but not the school reforms.