When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, it caused a devastating impact on the Crescent City's public education system. The devastating storm and its aftermath completely wiped out the educational infrastructure of the New Orleans Public Schools, making one of the country's largest metropolitan school districts virtually disappear. Two years later, the journey to rebuild continues, and although in some ways the New Orleans Public Schools district is a shell of its former self--down from 124 schools after a state takeover to 17 facilities operating at the end of the 2006-2007 school year, and down from a student population of 56,000 before the storm to 15,000 in the state recovery district and 10,000 students in New Orleans Public Schools today--in other ways, most noticeably the enhanced quality of the technology infrastructure and the progressive science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curriculum, the old New Orleans Public Schools district has vastly improved. This article discusses how Hurricane Katrina cleared the path for implementing more progressive approaches to curricula, like STEM-based education in the New Orleans Public Schools.