Cowen Institute 2021 Poll Brief 2: New Orleans Families’ Feelings Towards Public Education in the City

January 2022

 Since 2007, the Cowen Institute has conducted annual polls on perceptions of public education in New Orleans. These polls have served to provide insight on how parents, guardians, and the general public feel about the most relevant issues related to New Orleans’ highly decentralized K-12 public education system. In previous editions of the poll, we have presented all of the findings for a given year in a single comprehensive report. This year, to expedite the release of the most timely findings, we are releasing a series of briefs covering different topic areas. 

This is the second brief in that series and examines parents’ and guardians’ overall feelings about the quality and features of K-12 public education in New Orleans. To capture the experiences and attitudes of a wide range of parents, as we did in 2020, we polled 1,000 public and private school parents and guardians in Orleans Parish, as well as those who homeschool their children. This brief provides insights into how those parents and guardians feel about a range of topics related to New Orleans’ K-12 public education, including overall perceptions of New Orleans Public Schools (NOLA-PS, the local school board and authorizer for most charter schools in the city) and the performance of the city’s charter schools.