Good day, CharterFolk.
Today we are pleased to continue our “Contributor Jubilee” by sharing a Column by By Ronald Evans, a teacher at George Washington Carver High School in New Orleans.
We provide a bio for Ronald below.
Ronald Evans was born and raised in New Orleans and graduated from George Washington Carver High School in 2017, where he played football. His senior year, Carver finally moved from trailers into its brand new, post-Katrina building. He went on to earn his degree from Grambling State University in 2022 before returning to Carver, where he began his teaching career in Reading Intervention. He currently teaches English III and serves as an Assistant Football Coach. He is the first graduate of Carver’s charter era to join its faculty.
What Happens When a Charter School Embraces Its Traditional Roots
Carver wasn’t my first choice.
I wanted to go somewhere else, a more selective school. Instead, after failing my eighth-grade state exam, I had to settle for Carver. I didn’t know it then, but that was the beginning of the best thing that ever happened to me.
I graduated in 2017, part of the second class to come through under the Collegiate Academies charter network. I attended Grambling State University, played football, and came back to intern during my final semester of college. After receiving my degree, my former principal, Jerel Bryant, hired me as a full-time teacher and assistant football coach. I am the first alum from Carver’s charter era to join the team.
I’m not yet an excellent teacher. But I will be. The playbook is clear, and I am uniquely positioned to see how the same habits, mindsets, and beliefs that fuel my instructional growth also make me a stronger and more effective football coach. After school, we still talk about core values, agreements, and academic results. It’s this consistency from the “front of the school to the back of the school” that makes Carver different. We use sports, band, and support teams to drive investment in academic goals. But it wasn’t always this way.
Two Visions, One School
When Collegiate Academies took over Carver in 2012, the tensions were real and, as Ravi Gupta documented in his essay in The 74 on the “inconvenient success” of New Orleans schools, they were about more than discipline policies or test scores. The alumni community had a different vision, a return to the Carver they remembered, with its proud traditions of football, marching band, and community connection. Collegiate Academies was focused primarily on academic excellence, data-driven results, and an unrelenting commitment to college-prep. These ideals were bound to clash.
The breakthrough came when the school stopped resisting and started embracing. As Mr. Bryant reflected: “Even when I didn’t agree with their tone or tactics or priorities, I didn’t doubt that they wanted the school to be great. And finding that common ground — that’s the challenge, and the opportunity.”
As a result, Carver worked with families and members of the alumni community to find a new path, one that elevated academics and embraced the programs and teams so deeply rooted in the school’s identity. More alums joined the teaching staff and coaching rosters, more resources were invested in instruments and practice equipment, more time was spent developing coaching practices rooted in Carver’s vision and values. As a result, the gap between Carver’s past and present began to close, opening more doors for kids.
What It Actually Looks Like
What happened next is the transformation that set Carver apart. Suspension rates dropped by nearly two-thirds in a single year. And rather than hurting academic performance, the changes seemed to enhance it. Walk through Carver’s hallways today, and you’ll find state-championship trophies alongside college acceptance letters. Profiles of recent grads cover the walls, connecting co-curricular participation with matriculation to top-tier colleges or universities. The connection is undeniable and deeply ingrained in the identity of every scholar transitioning to class.
This was my experience. During my years as a student at Carver, I saw an increased investment from coaches in my GPA and college pathway, more and more teachers at Friday night football games, and an uptick in values-aligned language during practices. The same thing was happening on the court and in the band room. What I know now, as a teacher and a member of the team, is that none of this happened by chance. It was the result of a lot of intentional planning.
What the Results Show
This year, Carver was the top open-enrollment high school for growth in the entire state of Louisiana. Dana Peterson, CEO of New Schools for New Orleans, put it plainly: Carver is “moving the needle for kids furthest from opportunity.”
That’s not in spite of the football team and the marching band. It’s because of them.
Recently, NBC News profiled our marching band in a piece that perfectly underscores this balance, this mutually beneficial relationship between co-curricular programming and academic success. They both build pride, identity, and a sense of belonging. It’s why kids come to school on days they’d rather stay in bed; they don’t want to miss the game or the parade. It’s why kids work so hard to learn music or study film; they want to ensure they have the best shot at a band or athletic scholarship. The choice to embrace the programming of a traditional New Orleans public school is what has allowed Carver, as a charter school, to thrive.
I’m not a data point in that argument. I’m a person who lived it. And now I’m one of the adults charged with continuing it, shaped by the same vision and values I ask my scholars to embrace every day. I am constantly reminded that the work isn’t just about test scores or trophies, it’s about making sure the next Ronald Evans doesn’t have to settle. It’s about making sure that when a kid ends up at Carver, whatever the reason, they know they landed exactly where they were supposed to be.