Cowen Institute 2021 Poll Brief 3: A Deeper Look at New Orleans Parents’ Opinions on Public K-12 Education

March 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. However, this year, to expedite the release of the most timely findings, we released a series of briefs covering different topic areas covered by the polling. 

This is the third and final 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 in our 2021-2022 series provides insights into how those parents and guardians feel about a range of topics related to New Orleans’ K-12 public education, including standardized testing, One App, communications, unions, school closures, and transportation.