Where The Schools Went, Episode Two: The Battle for Carver

25:47You know, we've seen Kennedy get changed to Lake Area. And not only did the name change, the colors change. So Kennedy colors was blue and gold. And then when Lake Area took over, then the colors were really white and blue. So I think those things was happening across the city. And I think it was people saying, wait, hold up, hands off Culver. Like, we want the green and orange. It's very distinctive. You know, when people see those colors, they tend to know that you're from Culver.

26:20It was a learning moment for Jarrell. That was really the first time I had a clear understanding of expectations here. My relative success is not going to be just indexed to what the organization has said is good. right? There are going to be some other arbiters here. At the end of the year, Jarrell and his team celebrated their strong Algebra 1 scores, some of the best in the city. They saw it as a sign that their model was working, but the achievement didn't seem to make a difference in the broader community. They wanted what Carver had always meant. Rituals, pride, enrichment, sports, Friday night lights, a homecoming game, a marching band.

27:04When I asked Jarrell if they even had a marching band in their first year, he paused. We did, but remember, you had this 10 through 12 recovery school district, and so the fact that I really can't even answer you conclusively, what did we have? What were our kids doing in year one, right? Jarrell couldn't even remember if they had a band. It tells you that in those early years of the new Carver, academics weren't just the top priority. They were almost the only priority. While the community was hungry for extracurriculars, it doesn't mean everyone ignored the academic growth. Carl Washington noticed.

27:43I would say Jarrell, I was impressed with his ability to manage a school from an academia perspective, engaging in the students. And I told him I was with him for that. When I'm with him, I'm with him. He just didn't understand why collegiate seemed to care so little about the importance of co-curriculars. If you didn't understand Carver, Ram, the mighty Ram Nation with basketball, football, and band in the community, you shouldn't even took that job. You shouldn't even took that job because that's big, that's big, big, big, not just in the area, in the whole city of New Orleans and probably in other areas.

28:23The year ended much like it started, with strong academics but a growing chorus of outside critics calling their very legitimacy into question. Before long, those questions started coming from inside the building, too. By the winter of 2013, the pressure finally boiled over. On November 20th, close to 100 students walked out of Carver in protest. That year, over half of Carver's students had been suspended at least once, and they were frustrated by what they saw as an excessive discipline and an overly strict school culture. They were made to walk on tape lines in the hallways. A student said he'd been sent home for wearing the wrong shoes.

29:05Another, for chewing gum. One student told a reporter, I'm tired of school rules and walking on lines. You get suspended for coughing. You get suspended for sneezing out loud. The Southern Poverty Law Center wrote a letter to the school, criticizing the suspension rates and warning that the discipline policies may be discriminatory. Three parents held a press conference announcing they were withdrawing their children from Carver. Enough is enough. Standing at the gate of Psy Academy and George Washington Carver School on Reed Boulevard in New Orleans East, parents, teens, and activists speak out against what they call oppressive...

29:40Students issued a list of demands. They wanted more lenient disciplinary rules and better lunches.

29:49Carver's leaders sat down with parents, community members, and elected officials. Here's how Jarrell Bryant remembers that time. It was, I mean, confluence of events, some national backlash against no excuses broadly, some forces here locally. Carver was always going to be a hotbed because of what it meant to the Ninth Ward, what it meant to the city. It was one of the historically Black high schools. I had no sense of the depth of expectations, real or perceived or intended or unintended promises made to stakeholders about what they would control. He says there wasn't a single spark, but rather a slow build of frustration.

30:30Emotional, cultural, political. I am laser-focused on trying to keep my staff together, trying to make sure kids are safe. You have some kids who, maybe their mom or someone at church or someone else is telling them, these people don't treat you right, you don't need to go in here, I'm telling you that. You have some kids saying, Mr. Bryant, I don't know these people, I'm absolutely coming into my building. In June 2014, the advocate published a graphic that laid it all out. Suspension rates, test scores, side by side. For readers, it confirmed a troubling tradeoff. Academic results at the expense of student dignity.

31:07Among those speaking out was Reverend Willie Calhoun, Carver alum and one of the community leaders who had applied unsuccessfully for a charter to run the school. He told the advocate, quote, I think some of these acts are criminal, And some of these things need to be litigated. News of the controversy at Carver spread far and wide, making headlines across the country. I even heard about it back in Nashville. One of the most persistent critiques hanging over that period had nothing to do with discipline policies or test scores. It had to do with representation. Elizabeth Robeson was an outside organizer who questioned the legitimacy of the staff.

31:46All these white people are coming into the city through Teach for America, they have no experience teaching whatsoever. And they start these ridiculous salaries,$50 ,000 a year, whereas you had NOPS teachers work a whole career and never see that kind of money. I mean, it was just a taking, a mass taking of public money. For what it's worth, Elizabeth herself is white and not from the Ninth Ward. But it doesn't change the fact that Ben Markovitz and the majority of the collegiate staff were also white, and from either outside of the neighborhood or the city. Elizabeth also seemed to believe that collegiate was deeply unpopular in the Ninth Ward.

32:26I never met a parent who was on board with the program. Never. Of course, I didn't meet every single parent. I can just speak from my experience that I never met a parent who was enthralled or in favor of what their children were forced to experience every day. It's hard to imagine she didn't find a single parent on board with the program. According to reporting at the time, out of the more than 800 students enrolled in collegiate-run schools, only three parents actually withdrew their children in the wake of the protests.

33:03Jarrell was trying to keep those parents front of mind, but he couldn't help but feel the sting of the outside criticism. He wasn't just defending a school. He was defending his own identity. A lot of the folks who were most vocal at the time, they were folks of my parents' generation. So that was a little bit strange for me too, to hear and feel like, whoa, some of your greatest critics are people that you grew up with as your elders, your mentors. You're taking me to a dark time, Ravi. This is probably part of my leadership journey that I don't share often anymore. It was a collision of values.

33:39Academic performance versus cultural continuity. Outsider urgency versus local tradition. The promise of future results versus memory of the past. Fights along these battle lines were playing out all across New Orleans. And Carver just happened to be the most vivid. And the most volatile. In some ways, Carver became a proxy for the city's larger identity crisis. For opposing camps, the stakes weren't just the lives of the city's children. Though they were that too. The fight was about what kind of New Orleans would emerge from the floodwaters.

34:18It had been nearly a decade since I stepped foot in a collegiate school. But one morning this past spring, I drove over to the Ninth Ward to see for myself how things had changed. I arrived just before the staff's morning circle. And almost immediately, I could tell I was walking into something different. The first thing I passed was a trophy case. Inside, a recent state championship basketball trophy, photos from the last year's homecoming, team pictures, student celebrations. In prior versions of Carver, the same hallway space would have been reserved for something else. Quotes about grit, posters about college, charts tracking academic data.

34:58Now, pride in culture lives right alongside pride in academics. And to be clear, they still had visuals celebrating academic achievement too. On that recent visit, I pulled Jarrell aside and asked him to chronicle for me how this all changed. We sat in his office and he walked me through his transformation as a leader, starting with those walkouts and headlines years ago. The protests and criticism helped Jarrell realize that many of the people who had been the loudest critics of Collegiate weren't trying to tear the school down. They just had a different vision of what greatness looked like. And so, he was going to collaborate with them.

35:34Whether I agreed with their tactics, whether I agreed with their tone, whether I agreed with their conclusions, I didn't doubt that they wanted the school to be great. In October 2014, NOLA.com reported that Carver and its sister school, Psy Academy, were moving toward a zero-suspension goal. One year earlier, Ben had talked with PBS about why Psy had decided to shift its discipline model. We found ourselves sort of tragically stuck with nothing more than stuff like suspension, stuff that got kids out of school. We took a look at that this summer and said, that's just not what we want to do. It's not what we want to be.

36:10So what used to be a demerit is now a ton of praise in the opposite direction. So the actual path to something like suspension or expulsion is much, much longer. And that's something we thought we had in place. We thought we had a long path to those things, but we really didn't. Cy had actually reached zero suspensions before that 2014 article, and Carver was close behind. Here's Jarrell again. I often think that discipline and conversations around discipline are, they're really lazy. Right? Like, there's so much about discipline that's rooted in history and culture, and I think most importantly, intention and identity.

36:51But on paper, we were sending a lot of kids home. Or let's say a high percentage of kids who attended our school had been suspended at some point in time. That was a matter of concern. Jarrell remembered seeing kids standing at the bus stop midday, holding suspension slips. I'd rather have you here learning than home out there or out in the street. The school began to build out a variation of restorative practices. They created new systems, new training, and even physical spaces designed to help students resolve conflict without being pushed out of school. They trained staff to lead mediations and healing circles.

37:29They started to connect student discipline to other programmatic decisions. They built programs, funded the band, revived the spirit gear, and leaned into rituals. Engaging lessons help with suspension rates. Strong sports teams help with suspension rates. connecting before you correct help with suspension rates. A kid has to really believe I want to be a part of that community. Otherwise, we lose a really powerful lever to change behavior. Suspension rates dropped nearly threefold in a single year. This was a wildly different carver.

38:05During my visit this spring, I also wandered into the cafeteria where the staff had gathered for their morning circle. Who's in court? Christine and Nikki! Christine and Nikki!

38:20On previous trips to Cy and Carver, the staff had been overwhelmingly white and young. Energetic, committed, but also clearly outsiders to the community they served. This group was different. Still energetic, still mission-driven, but older, more grounded, mostly black, more men. Here's Jarrell. It is a team that is far more generationally inclined, I'll say. We have far more people who see their charge, yes, in the goals that are ambitious that we're setting right now, but also in the, I'm going to be a part of this community for years, years, and years. And people I care about are going to be a part of this community for generations.

38:57When you look at our leadership ranks, a high volume of TFA alums, but these are also folks who have been here at this school in many cases for seven, eight, nine, ten plus years. So you have people still who were there for those trailer days, right? Who were there for some of those crucible moments with community and outcomes and results and who can speak to that, which is important.

39:31More than once in our conversation, Jarrell made clear that this wasn't just about finding people in the community. there can be a narrative that's lazy there. And as a black educator, I don't think it's a benefit to land with, well, culture improved when there were more black folks there. All right. Culture improved when you had more people from the community there. Now, culture improved when we had great people who got clearer on the targets and our development improved and our alignment improved, and we became better at the craft of teaching and learning. and we have benefited from Black excellence and folks who are of the community who can tell a story about what we're doing and how we're growing and can speak a language that maybe we weren't always speaking before, that now all of us speak with far more fluidity than we used to.

40:26As the morning circle began in the cafeteria, the assistant principal kicked things off. Good morning to you. Morning, Mr. Elliott.

40:46One by one, staff members, about 100 in total, stepped forward to share announcements, shoutouts, and intentions for the day. Snap when you hear the teammate. Snap when you hear the action that is starting. Ms. Thomas. Brett, good morning. Hi. I've seen these morning circles on past visits, and I've always found them impressive. They require real discipline, training, consistency, and trust among colleagues. They're more than a ritual. They're a sign of strong staff culture. culture that values communication, that starts the day with intention.

41:34Carver had changed. The staff looked different. The building looked different. There was pride in sports and spirit and tradition. But Carver had also stayed the same. That morning circle, that was collegiate to the core. And as I listened, I heard the familiar reform DNA, talk of assessments, data cycles, progress monitoring. But it didn't sound cold or mechanical. It sounded focused, grounded, like a team that knew exactly what they were there to do. After the staff circle, I talked with school principal Victor Jones as he observed morning student arrival. Victor recently took over as school leader for Jarrell, who now runs the entire collegiate network.

42:13It's a beautiful day. One of my favorite things about Carver's is a lot of things, but it is the fact that to work at a school where teachers who work at that school will bring their kids to learn at that school, that is rare. The fact that so many of our teammates actually bring their kids to go to school here and that I've got to teach them. That they wanted me to teach their kids how you doing school, you good? Good to see you. It's like an amazing, like, we're doing something right. Later, I sat in on one of Victor's classes, and what I saw felt familiar.

42:48Victor was using teaching techniques I remembered from the old reform days. One in particular, no opt-out. The idea that students can't simply choose not to participate. Another, right is right, meaning the teacher doesn't round up or settle for a partially correct answer. If you got further than yesterday, give us a snap. Cool, that is the goal. Victor called on a student who didn't know the answer. And then Victor turned to another student and asked a related question, something that could help unlock it for the first student. Finally, he came back to the first student, patiently prompting, supporting, guiding, until the student arrived at the correct answer.

43:31It was the kind of moment that's easy to overlook, but it captured something essential about what Carver has become. A school shaped by the DNA of reform, structure, rigor, clarity, but deepened, adapted by time, experience, and care. Victor Jones is the principal, so one might expect him to say glowing things about the school. But what struck me most during my visit wasn't just Victor's passion. It was how consistent it was. Conversation after conversation. Custodians, coaches, teacher, culture leads. Many of them from the neighborhood. Many of them alumni, parents, or longtime community members.

44:09Sometimes all of the above. All of them mission-driven. Take Nell Lewis, Carver's Director of Culture. I grew up in this community right across the tracks. I've been working at Carver for a total of 18 years. My son graduated from Carver in 2022. He was Mr. Carver. She had lived through the transitions, seen the protests, heard the skepticism. The community didn't believe who are these people? They're coming from out of town. They're white. They don't care. And I mean, this school never had the data it's had now. Yes, we had sports championships, but the number of scholars that are enrolling in college and actually finishing is really amazing.

44:59Let me put some numbers to the academic success Nell mentioned. Last year, Carver earned an A for academic growth from the state and a B for overall academic performance. For the more wonky education stats folks, Carver ranked second in the city for open enrollment high schools, all non-magnet schools, for students receiving mastery or advanced performance on the state exams. The year before, they had the highest student academic growth in the city. They've been able to keep growing academically, even as they continued to expand their extracurriculars. Ronald Evans Jr. graduated in 2017. He came back to work at Carver in 2022, got his master's, and now teaches English and coaches football.

45:42The enthusiasm and everything that was going on, like I walked into a teaching meeting, it was like 50 teachers in a circle, and all of them was like, enthusiastic about what they're doing. I'm like, it don't even matter what school, I want these teachers, like I don't want these teachers. they take pride in what they have. And I think that's the, really, all you can ask for teachers, like to give their all and have pride in what they have. And then there's Nathaniel Roche, the network's athletic director and longtime Carver staffer. Going through the orientation that Carver was giving me, the vision that the school had for the kids and the values, choices that we choose to make daily that directly impacts the culture of the building and the culture of the kids and also, you know, serves the community.

46:22I found myself like super aligned with that. And finally, Sandra, the custodian. The teachers are marvelous. You see her very beautiful in and out. The principal is excellent. The whole, actually everybody in here is loving and kind. And they're trying their best. I hear him talking to the kids. They're trying their best to make the kids learn. When I asked Victor what's the difference now compared to 10 years ago, he didn't hesitate. You do not work harder than you ever work. and then you choose to stay with us. Well, you're obviously choosing to grow in those moments. That's what they're also choosing.

46:56When people come to Carver, they tend to stay with us. And they tend to grow. I remember kids could only wear all-black shoes. And how much time we were spending on kids, trying to correct kids for their shoes. I had the same policy. We used to have the black magic marker, black tape. Yeah, yeah, we used to do all that. And that was wild to me. That was crazy to me. Of all the people we met at Carver, the one who stood out the most was Eric French, the school's band director. He's also an alum, from the pre-collegiate days. After graduating, Eric returned years later to lead the very program that had once shaped him.

47:31Under his direction, the Carver Band has become one of the school's most visible sources of pride, performing across the city, drawing in students, and helping to reroute the new Carver in its old community. It was like a dream come true to even go on this interview. When I was in the interview, man, I almost broke down, you know what I'm saying? Because it was like a reality, like, wow, I'm about to get this opportunity. And I know once I get my foot in the door, it's going to be up from here. So now I'm going into year eight here and just how I imagined it. A new generation of Carver staff, many of them alumni, have stepped into the story, not just to teach, but to mentor, coach, and inspire.

48:16The building may be different, but the legacy? It lives on in the hands of those who once walked these halls and now lead them.

48:27The Carver fights inspired many leaders across the city to take a different approach in their collaboration with the surrounding communities. They watched Carver's early stumbles and worked hard to avoid them. Rhonda Kalifi-Aluiz is the CEO of KIPP New Orleans, the city's largest charter organization. She says it took time for them to find their footing. There was a much broader political context that had not wrapped our heads and hearts around in terms of, you don't know everything. You should connect with the people who actually have been here for many, many years. That learning changed how they reopened Booker T.

49:01Washington, one of New Orleans' most storied high schools. This time, the new operators didn't just announce their presence. They co-planned the school with its alumni association, from uniforms and colors to governance and staffing. There wasn't a lot that we actually didn't agree on. What we learned is there's a Venn diagram and in the center is students and things like the color crimson, like it has to be the right shade, and the name and things like that that preserve their legacy. Citywide organizations like New Schools for New Orleans and even the RSD eventually began providing more support to leaders.

49:39That included an effort to more effectively matchmake between prospective charter organizations and community groups. That process has led to much more positive partnerships than what we saw at Carver in its early days. Today, the legacy high schools of New Orleans are led in many cases by people from the neighborhoods or people who've earned their place through years of service. They've embraced academic rigor and band culture, college prep, and Friday night football. Carver showed the city what happens when you try to rebuild a neighborhood without its traditions. And then they showed us what's possible when you bring those traditions back and build on them, rather than around them.

50:19Next time, on Where the Schools Went. Every teacher in New Orleans is fired. You lost your house, you've lost everything. You don't have a job, but it was just nothing to come back to. When you think about the loss of health insurance that accompanied that, as people are literally trying to rebuild their lives. That's next time on Where the Schools Went. Where the Schools Went is an original podcast from the branch in partnership with Midas Touch. I'm your host, Ravi Gupta. This show is executive produced by me, Ravi Gupta. Our senior producers are Kate Malikoff and Pallavi Katamasu. Research and fact-checking by Ethan Macy Cushman and Katie Nelligan Additional support by Liz Smith and Leah Sutherland Post sound and music by Chapter 4 Sound design and mix by Sarah Gibalaska And sound editing by Natalie Escudero Original music by Kareem Duane With Kevin Merringer on trombone and tuba And Eric Biondo on trumpet

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