The Cowen Institute at Tulane University has been promoting the New Orleans Charter Miracle since 2007. Cowen Institute has been trying since then to sell the “transformed” post-Katrina education system in New Orleans.

The results are tepid. Still, Cowen tries to sell this New Orleans. Consider this excerpt from Cowen’s history:

[Following Hurricane Katrina] the majority of schools reopened as charter schools, which are publicly-funded and operated by nonprofit organizations or universities, giving New Orleans a greater percentage of students in charter schools than any other district in the United States.  Education entrepreneurs and veteran educators from around the country flocked to the city to participate in the greatest public school renaissance in the country. …

…the new model of delivering education to the city’s youth has begun to yield results.  Parental involvement, teacher quality, and community engagement have all improved.  Between the 2006-07 and the 2007-08 school years, student…