Edna Karr High School is a public, open enrollment, coeducational charter school serving students from Orleans Parish in New Orleans, Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

, USA. The school is a college preparatory high school and is a part of the Algiers Charter Schools Association

Algiers Charter Schools Association

Algiers Charter Schools Association is a group of charter schools operated in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, several schools in the Algiers area were transferred from the New Orleans Public Schools to the ACSA.- Schools :The schools operated by the...

 (ACSA) and the New Orleans Public School System (NOPS). Edna Karr High School is located in Algiers, a small community of New Orleans located on the west bank of the Mississippi River in Orleans Parish.

Students are required to take four years of math, science

Science

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

, English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, and social studies

Social studies

Social studies is the "integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence," as defined by the American National Council for the Social Studies...

, requirements above and beyond those of the state. Two years of foreign language as well as one unit of computer technology, a half-unit of ACT/SAT

SAT

The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...

 prep, and a half-unit of speech complete the required courses.

History

Edna Karr High School began operation in 1964 as a junior high school named after Edna Karr, an educator who served as a teacher and administrator in the Algiers community. From 1964 until 1990, Edna Karr operated as a typical junior high serving grades seven to nine with an academic program that included regular education, special education

Special education

Special education is the education of students with special needs in a way that addresses the students' individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials,...

, and gifted education

Gifted education

Gifted education is a broad term for special practices, procedures and theories used in the education of children who have been identified as gifted or talented...

. In 1990, the Orleans Parish School Board voted to change Edna Karr into a junior/senior high magnet school

Magnet school

In education in the United States, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities as school zones that feed into certain schools.There are magnet schools at the...

 at the behest of community activists. As a result significant changes took place: grades, courses, and high school traditions were added. In addition, policies and procedures were written for magnet school clientele. In the years since 1990, Karr completed its SACS Ten-Year Update in 1998. In 2000 and again in 2005, Edna Karr earned the National Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence Recognition

Blue Ribbon Schools Program

The Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States government program created in 1981 to honor schools which have achieved high levels of performance or significant improvements with emphasis on schools serving disadvantaged students. The program centers around a self-assessment conducted by the...

.

All of this changed in the fall of 2005 after Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

. With the creation of the ACSA, Edna Karr was one of the first six public schools to re-open in the city of New Orleans (December 15, 2005). Edna Karr reopened as a high school serving grades 9-12. Under the Algiers charter, Edna Karr once again has open enrollment and therefore is open to all students in Orleans Parish.

Student demographics

Approximately 93% of the student population is African-American and approximately 82% of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Most of the students will be first-generation college students.