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School reformers love to talk about the charter-dominant Recovery School District in New Orleans as an example of how great the charter sector is. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal talks about it on his travels around the country, including on a recent trip to Virginia, where he attended a fund raiser for charter schools for Rep. Eric Cantor, the House Majority Whip. According to this Associated Press story about the trip, Jindal said that before Hurricane Katrina, 77% percent of students in New Orleans were attending failing schools but that the percentage has been reduced to 29%. Jindal said:

We’re not where we want to be but have made great progress in seven years.

Unfortunately for Jindal, the progress he cited as being made in the last seven years isn’t supported by the facts. I asked Charles Hatfield, co-founder of Research on Reform, a non-profit organization that conducts research on New Orleans school reform, to analyze Jindal’s statement. Hatfield said the governor has his facts wrong.

Here is Hatfield’s full report:
*After seven years of operating, the Recovery School District in New Orleans (RSD-NO) had a 2012 District Performance Score (DPS) of 76.7, which was equivalent to a letter grade of D. The RSD-NO ranked among the lowest of the 71 school districts in Louisiana, i.e. 4th from the bottom. It slightly surpassed the performance of the Recovery School District outside of New Orleans that ranked last, with a District Performance Score of 58.9 and a letter grade of F.

*The following results are based on 60 of the 67 RSD-NO schools that were assigned a 2012 Baseline School Performance Score assigned by the Louisiana Department of Education:

1) 55% of the 60 RSD-NO schools received an F

2) 28% of the 60 RSD-NO schools received a D

3) 52% of RSD-NO students attended F schools

4) 27% of RSD-NO students attended D schools