Public education in New Orleans has long labored under the shadow of high dropout rates and a failure to meet the profound needs of a disadvantaged student population. Too often, the success stories, and the professional educators who make them happen, get marginalized amidst the bad news. Barbara MacPhee and the science and math school she has championed may be the quintessential success story in New Orleans public schools over the past decade and a half.

Beginning in the early 1990s, Ms. MacPhee sought to break through the bureaucratic crust of public education. Her goal was to create a school dedicated to improving the science and math education for public school students citywide. After securing a site at Delgado Community College, the New Orleans Center for Science and Math was born, with Ms. MacPhee as director. With her philosophy that "Talking is not teaching," Ms. MacPhee inspired faculty to take a new, hands-on approach. For 12 years, the half-day school was a success. In 2005, 95% of its graduates, most of whom come from low-income families, were accepted into college.

When broken levees left the Lakeview campus submerged and all its equipment destroyed, Ms. MacPhee saw not a dead end, but an opportunity to move forward. Relocating the school to an Uptown campus, she was able to persuade faculty and the families of students to return. While much of the system was still contorted in chaos and helplessness, Ms. MacPhee in January 2006 resurrected her school as the New Orleans Charter Science and Mathematics High School, now a full-time school with an open enrollment of 300 students.