Staff

Photo of Sarah Carr

Contributing Editor

Sarah Carr

Sarah Carr is a contributing editor who also oversees the Teacher Project at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. She has reported on battles over school vouchers, efforts to educate China’s massive population of migrant children, and the explosion of charter schools in New Orleans. Sarah is the author of Hope Against Hope, a nonfiction account of New Orleans schools post Hurricane-Katrina, which she reported as a Spencer Education Journalism fellow. Sarah has contributed to the Atlantic magazine, Slate, New Orleans public radio and numerous other media outlets, winning several national awards. She is a graduate of Williams College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Sarah attended the Nauset Regional School District in Massachusetts, and got her start in journalism interning at the Cape Cod Times newspaper. A local high school kicked her out for trying to cover a student protest rally her first day as an intern, and Sarah is grateful to the many schools since then that have let her stay.

Recent Stories

A group of 2- and 3-year-olds enjoy a lunch of fish, ratatouille, fresh bread and fruit at a preschool program in Lormont, a suburb of Bordeaux.

What France can teach us about how to to educate the most vulnerable 2-year-olds

A new program in France aims to close the achievement gap by sending underprivileged toddlers to school as early as possible. Will it work?

Early Education

by  Sarah Carr  – November 30, 2017

Eighteen-year-old Wellington Coleman studies at Southern University of New Orleans through a special program, and hopes someday to become a software engineer.

New policies close off opportunities to college applicants in need of extra help

Where some once got a chance, many now diverted to the lowest-funded schools

Divided We Learn

by  Sarah Carr  – July 10, 2015

A new way to evaluate teachers: Let them set their own standards

Last spring, as the school year was coming to a close, most of Michelle Breitenfeldt’s kindergarteners were not reading at grade level. But that did not stop the Wisconsin teacher…

Partners

by  Sarah Carr  – January 22, 2015

Erin Lockley, 12th grade student at Cohen High School. (Photo: © William Widmer 2014)

The painful backlash against ‘no-excuses’ school discipline

NEW ORLEANS — From the moment Summer Duskin arrived at Carver Collegiate Academy in New Orleans last fall, she struggled to keep track of all the rules. There were rules…

New Orleans

by  Sarah Carr  – November 17, 2014

Common Core math standards add up to big money for education companies

The politically controversial standards known as the Common Core have been in the headlines for months, in Louisiana and across the country. But for most teachers and educators the standards…

Common Core

by  Sarah Carr  – September 15, 2014

Elizabeth Marcell, executive director of intervention services at New Orleans' ReNEW Schools, works with a student in the charter network's therapeutic program. (Photo: Sarah Carr)

In New Orleans, a case study in how school, health care decentralization affect neediest children

NEW ORLEANS —One New Orleans 15-year-old with explosive disorder felt abandoned after the only therapist she trusted left town. A 14-year-old diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, who became suicidal…

New Orleans

by  Sarah Carr  – July 3, 2014

What will New Orleans’ move to an all-charter school district mean for the city’s schoolchildren?

This fall, New Orleans’ state-run Recovery School District will become the nation’s first big-city school system comprised entirely of charter schools. (A few non-charter schools will continue to operate outside…

New Orleans

by  Sarah Carr  – June 2, 2014

In their own words

As part of a collaboration with Bard’s Early College program in New Orleans, The Hechinger Report has been asking teenagers to share their opinions on everything from discipline in…

Student Voices

by  Sarah Carr  – May 22, 2014

At the Kids of Excellence child care center in New Orleans the children learn largely through play. (Photo: Sarah Carr)

Accountability comes to the nursery

Across the country, states are starting to rate early childhood programs. But Louisiana is taking that movement a step further, requiring all publicly funded programs to “test” their youngest learners,…

New Orleans

by  Sarah Carr  – May 16, 2014

As study abroad becomes more crucial, few low-income students go

TOKYO — When Ricardo Parras flew across the Pacific to study in Japan, the turbulence he encountered was of the emotional variety. Having grown up in predominantly Hispanic Los Banos,…

Divided We Learn

by  Sarah Carr  – May 8, 2014

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