New Orleans has a very unique school system within the United States both because of the effects of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 on the school system and the unique culture of the city. After Hurricane Katrina, the school system has become increasingly privatized with independent charter management organizations managing schools instead of a traditional public school system. Like many urban school systems, many youth live in communities where gun violence is prevalent, and they are more often concerned with avoiding being caught up in violence and breaking the cycle of poverty than being able to focus on school itself. Because of the nature of the charter school system in New Orleans, youth do not necessarily attend their neighborhood school and can be bused to an area on the other side of the city to attend school, which has major implications on their community socialization and sense of home. This means that every school has students from all different parts of the city.

In addition, the New Orleans school system places more emphasis on music and arts, as well as sports, compared to others around the country. Music, particularly marching and brass band, are a very important part of the culture and youth can find genuine pathways to become professional musicians – in many ways reminiscent of a musical pathway in Europe. Many of the youth in New Orleans end up working right after high school and the majority of students who attend college in New Orleans will attend a Historically Black College or University (HBCU). While being in the band or other performing unit is perceived as “nerdy” or “uncool” in other parts of the United States, in New Orleans, people think of the band members as the “cooler” young people. Many young people in New Orleans schools also try to pursue sports scholarships for American football and basketball. The academic standards vary by state and Louisiana, like many states in the south of the United States, tends to have lower academic standards with the standardized tests consisting of more basic content compared to states like New York, Maryland, California, and Virginia. This, of course, has tremendous impact on their life outcomes and potential.

New York City has one of the strongest urban school systems in the country and is a city where teachers are paid a higher salary than average, which has positive impacts on the youth of the city. However, New York City also has a very segregated school system. There are several international high schools in the Bronx, a borough or area in the New York City school system, that has a lot of students from all over the world. The majority of these students are first-generation Americans or recently arrived immigrants. This means that the students are learning English and have a background in a variety of different languages and cultures. These schools are very diligent about making sure that all cultures and religions are honored and take Islamic and Jewish holidays into account more so than other school districts.

New York City and State has a lot of programs to support students financially with college and students have the opportunity to visit colleges throughout the state where they are able to get financial aid during their junior and senior year. Many of these students are focused on being the person in their family that can create a better life after their parents or other family members have immigrated to the United States. These schools also tend to have fewer sports and music offerings than high schools in the south and more academic and cultural extracurricular clubs for students. Many schools in the Bronx of New York City, as well as other boroughs of New York City have a very diverse student population overall.

A teacher can easily lose hope as they begin their day. In the classroom, they can be confronted with the reality of trying to educate a child who is two or three grades below the grade level where they are supposed to be in terms of academic capabilities. They are also concurrently trying to keep the child motivated who is highly intelligent and bright, but may also face a learning disability that they cannot get psychological treatment for. The only thing that unites all of their students is that each is impacted by poverty, because they teach at a Title I school, which is a designation for schools with the highest amount of poverty. They won’t necessarily be able to have enough food to eat during the day if they don’t attend school. If they miss their school bus, they won’t be able to get to school because their single parent is stuck at work and can’t take off to bring them to school. All the while, the administrative demands of a school district are increasing every year. High stakes testing demands that teachers teach towards the test and not for general education. If classroom scores don’t meet a certain threshold, a teacher faces being fired – even if there aren’t enough pencils to give the students to write with for the day. It is not uncommon for teachers to move onto a different profession after 3-5 years because of the increasing role of testing and administrative tasks they must complete that take away from teaching. It is also not uncommon for teachers in Title I schools to become burned out by the workload and lack of support and resources.