Orleans Public Education Network equips and inspires the people to support Black and low-income children through excellent public education and equitable public policy.
OUR WORK
Education Policy & Advocacy Communications
Commentary, resources and local events on the latest developments in educational justice.
Data Collection & Analysis
Measuring and reporting on the outcomes of the #nolaed "experiment."
Policy Development Training
Building local leadership pipelines through civic capacity training, professional development, and program incubation.
OUR POSITIONS
Orleans Public Education Network equips and inspires the people to support Black and low-income children in public schools through policy training, advocacy, and civic action.
We believe in supporting kids by enhancing the capacity of the adults in their lives — so when they go to the ballot box, the city council or school board meeting, they have the skills and information to effectively go to bat for children, and ensure systems are accountable, transparent and represent community priorities in public school matters.
OPEN’s work includes producing accessible self-advocacy and civic education programs, gathering and unpacking high-quality data, and working with school systems to adopt policy that reflects community priorities. The work’s ultimate goal is an education system that brings people, data, and lived experience into policy and practice.
Our concerns are not primarily about the data points found in education — which are usually about numbers — but about the entire experience that informs those numbers.
We focus on addressing the inputs, attitudes and behaviors that subtly inform racial, gender and socioeconomic inequities in public education and beyond.
OPEN's programs work with adults — including system-level actors, parents, teachers, faith leaders, policymakers and more — as the primary change drivers for child wellbeing. As an organization, we directly advocate for systemic measures that push forward population-level improvement in life outcomes.
That being said, we will never hesitate to recognize schools, charter or not, that are doing right by children — as seen in the yearly Orleans Public Education Awards, which routinely honors many charter schools achieving for NOLA kids.