The New Orleans teaching force changed dramatically after Hurricane Katrina, when all public school teachers were laid off. They were mostly black, veteran educators from the area. Now, teachers are more likely to be young, white and to have grown up outside New Orleans.
Reporter Alex Neason covered the impact of these changes, and the efforts to diversify teaching staff, in a recent article for Slate Magazine. It's one of a twelve-part series on race in U.S. schools. She spoke about the story with WWNO's Mallory Falk. Neason began with the story of one of her sources, Raven Foster, a young teacher at KIPP Central City Academy.
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