Five years after the hurricane devastated the region, New Orleans schools emerge changed--and challenged. New Orleans finds itself with a transformed educational system and one that continues to evolve. This new reality comes as the city's public school population stood at about 38,000 as of February, well below the estimated 65,000 before the levees failed and the floodwaters rose. Charter schools, only a small presence before the storm hit on Aug. 29, 2005, now are ascendant, representing about 70 percent of the city's 88 public schools. At the same time, the state of Louisiana has become a major player, having assumed control of most of the city's public schools. School choice has become a central and defining characteristic of public schooling in the city. Early state test returns suggest that, on average, the city's public school students are doing substantially better than before Katrina. The author reports on how New Orleans schools seize post-Katrina momentum.