New Orleans Public Schools to Improve Education Quality

Case Type: operations strategy; organizational behavior.
Consulting Firm: Bridgespan Group first round full time job interview.
Industry Coverage: education, training services; government, public sector.

Case Interview Question #00953: Our client New Orleans Public Schools (NOPS) is the public school system that serves all of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. NOPS served approximately 64,000 students pre-Katrina. NOPS was the New Orleans area’s largest school district before Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in August 2005, damaging or destroying more than 100 of the school district’s 128 school buildings.

The year is 2007. New Orleans Public Schools has been completely devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The school district saw most of their students leave and relocate to nearby states after the hurricane. 2 years into the disaster, the students are now slowly returning back. The NOPS school district has hired us to advise them on two things:

(1) What are the number of schools they need to immediately reopen, and
(2) What can be done to better the quality of education?

Additional Information:

Let the candidate drive the case. The candidate should, at this time, draw out a framework. Here is some of the information that a candidate may ask for. Provide this only if the candidate asks.

More about Public School System in New Orleans

* Before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans Public Schools (NOPS) ranked as one of the lowest performing school districts in the country.
* The school district faced significant financial problems and was on the verge of bankruptcy.
* There were 64,000 students that got displaced due to the hurricane.
* There were 64 schools before the hurricane struck. 18 have been reopened since.
* Approximately 24,000 students have already returned to the state.
* About 1,600 students are returning every month.

Possible Answer:

1. Suggested Framework

The candidate should, at some point, draw out the framework

Education System:

a. Number of schools
* Number of students
* Capacity per school

b. Quality of education
* Quality of teachers
* Current socio-economic needs

2. Data and Solution

Interviewer: The candidate at this point should be asked to calculate the number of schools that need to be re-opened.

Calculations:

Before the hurricane, there were 64 schools accommodating 64,000 students. Assuming the new schools can have the same ratio of students per school, there would be 64,000/64 = 1,000 students per school.

18 schools have reopened since –> 18 * 1,000 = 18,000 students can be accommodated.
However, the number of students who have returned = 24,000
–> Under-capacity for 24,000 – 18,000 = 6,000 students currently.

Also, every month 1,600 students are returning.
–> By next month there will be an under-capacity for 6,000 + 2*1,600 (current month + next month) = 9,200 students
–> By the end of next month, the school district should target to reopen 10 new schools (to accommodate 9,200 students).
–> Beyond that, the school district would need to open approximately 2 schools per month to accommodate the 1,600 students that are returning every month.

The candidate should then move to the next half of the question about what can be done to improve the quality of New Orleans schools. lf the candidate is still working on the number of schools to be reopened, guide the candidate towards the question.

The candidate can be provided with the below information if asked:

Additional Information:

Before the hurricane, the school district statistics were the following:
* For every 10 students who enroll in schools, fewer than 6 make it to graduation
* Only 2 enroll in college

Good candidates will want to go deeper into understanding this. There are no set answers here. The objective of this case is to see if the candidate can break down a problem statement to analyze the different causes that might be resulting in the problem.

The candidate should deduce that the school disirict should -

1. Attract, develop and retain quality teachers, principals and school administrators.
2. Improve the student teacher ratio to allow more individual attention.
3. Engage students better by catering to courses that are more pertinent to today’s world. For example, look to introduce courses like computer education etc. that can give the students an edge in getting jobs in high-paying sectors. Also, offer education in areas like carpentry, masonry, nursing etc. that can allow students to learn skills that can prove helpful to find jobs in the market.
4. Ensure adequate capacity in the schools.
5. Experiment with new school models by setting up a Charter system allowing private groups and corporations to be involved.
6. Benchmark best practices with other school districts.
7. Get the community involved and have parental involvement in school activities. They could also be encouraged to volunteer time that could help especially in the early days when the school system is being revamped.
8. Make information about the new changes available and advertise to ensure that the community supports and participates in the changes for the better.
9. Grant some amount of autonomy to the schools in exchange for increased accountability, encouraging sharper focus on student achievement. This will also allow the schools the incentive to find creative ways to decrease spending in utilities and instead invest the money in instruction.
10. Get local and national non-profit and/or corporate involvement. This will allow for funding to achieve the goals set.

Any other creative ideas are also to be rewarded. The idea is to see that the candidate can think on the fly and think of the potential resolutions that the school district can investigate.

3. Recommendation

Interviewer: The client has asked us for our recommendation. What would you tell the client?

Here is a possible response:

* The number of students who have returned to the state far exceeds the capacity of the 18 schools that have reopened. Investments should be made to reopen 10 more new schools on an urgent basis.

* With the rebuilding, there exists a potential to revamp the education system to make it more engaging and useful to find jobs. This can be done while ensuring the quality of education is improved by attracting and retaining high quality teachers and principals.

4. Additional Considerations

Interviewer: What are some of the potential risks?

Here are some potential answers:

* For a community that is rebuilding itself, costs can be a constraint. However, it can be also viewed as an opportunity to get endowments to fund the plans.

* The possibility that media and community might focus on the negatives especially if the school district cannot provide adequate capacity in the schools quickly enough for the returning student body. In such a case, students might be dissuaded from returning causing more harm to the school district. Forging relationships with the local media to cover the advancements and achievements of the schools will be a way to mitigate the risks.