Click on the video (above) to see a complete NOW web-exclusive video profile on YouTube related to our coverage. It centers on one tragedy-tested family in New Orleans, trying to rebuild their lives and restart their education, as seen through the eyes of third-grader D'Mar and his grandmother.

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    Reading, Writing, and Reinvention in New Orleans
    NOW
    t r u t h o u t | Programming Note

    Airdate: Friday, November 24, 2006, at 8:30 p.m. on PBS.
    (Check local listings at http://www.pbs.org/now/sched.html.)

New Orleans is reinventing public education. Will it work? This time on NOW.

    Viewed before Hurricane Katrina as an institutional disaster, New Orleans' public schools got a second shot at success as a result of the devastation. City planners ran with the opportunity, deciding not just to rebuild schools, but to implement a bold experiment in public schooling. A full 60% of the city's reopened schools are now independently-run charter schools. On November 24 at 8:30 pm, NOW looks at the challenges, successes, and implications of one of these schools, Lafayette Academy, through the tragedy-tested eyes of individual students, faculty, and parents.

    "I am convinced that this is all going to be the basis for the rebuilding process in New Orleans," Lafayette Academy Principal Eileen Williams tells NOW. "I'm a firm believer that if we're going to do away with poverty in this country and do things that are right, we've got to begin with educating our youth."

    Reading, writing, and reinvention in New Orleans. This week on NOW.

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    Note: Starting this Friday, the NOW website at www.pbs.org/now will present a web-exclusive video report of life at Lafayette through the experiences of a second-grader, as well as personal perspective from one of the show's producers and an overview of charter schools in America.