Since 2022, New Orleans K–8 schools have led the state in academic growth and ranked #5 out of 1,000 districts nationally for growth.

Our high schools have also seen remarkable gains over the past twenty years. Now nearing the state average for students achieving Mastery in English and Math, New Orleans high schools have risen from 2nd-to-last in Louisiana to outperforming Jefferson Parish, Baton Rouge, and Shreveport.

So, what is the key to NOLA’s success? At Educate Now!, we see four primary drivers:

1. Strong School & CMO Leadership

Leadership matters, and New Orleans is home to an exceptional cohort of school and Charter Management Organization (CMO) leaders. A major research synthesis from the Wallace Foundation found that replacing a below-average principal with an above-average one adds nearly three months of learning per student, per year in both math and reading.

Strong leaders are also the primary reason great teachers stay. Studies show that when teachers leave, they cite school climate and leadership support far more often than pay. Great leaders build environments where educators thrive.

2. School Autonomy

Autonomy is what enables New Orleans to attract and retain top talent. Our leaders select their teams, choose their curriculum, control their budgets, and shape their school culture. They have the freedom to innovate and the flexibility to respond to challenges in real time.

3. Rigorous Accountability

This operational freedom is paired with high-stakes accountability. Schools that persistently fail students are closed or restarted—and research proves this approach works. Tulane’s Education Research Alliance (ERA) found that when low-performing elementary schools were closed or taken over, students moved to higher-performing schools and experienced significantly better academic outcomes.

4. Mission Alignment

Our schools are united by a shared conviction: that every student can and will achieve, and that the adults in the building are deeply responsible for delivering on that promise. This shared belief creates a powerful culture across the city.

These Factors in Action

Want to see how this plays out in practice? Jerel Bryant, CEO of Collegiate Academies, recently wrote a column for CharterFolk that captures the true essence of New Orleans’ charter ecosystem:

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Stanford’s Educational Opportunity Trends Project has released updated Education Scorecard data covering grades 3-8 from 2022-2025.

GROWTH

• New Orleans’ 3-8 grade performance ranked #1 among all Louisiana school districts in academic gains in reading and math since 2022.
• We are leading in Louisiana, and last spring Louisiana was ranked #2 among states in reading growth and #3 in math growth.
• Among the 1,000 largest districts the report included, New Orleans ranked #5 nationally in growth.
• From 2022-2025, New Orleans public school students in grades 3-8 gained 1.34 grade levels of learning in math and reading per year – a third of a grade more each year than the national average. Stanford (and Educate Now!) considers learning rate a better measure of school quality than absolute test scores, as it measures what schools add to the students they enroll rather than the academic level students arrive with.

CLOSING THE GAP

• Stanford calculates that New Orleans 3rd-8th graders’ performance is 1.9 grade levels below the national average. Unfortunately, this is a blended number that uses the test results across all six grades. We know many of our students enter school far behind their peers nationally.  
• The more relevant question is how far behind are our 8th graders when they leave middle school. According to Claude’s analysis of the detailed data charts in the study, the gap narrows significantly in reading – to about 1.0. Math, however, remains more challenging for our schools, with a 2.1 gap.
• Closing the performance gap is a 13 year marathon that requires our schools to outperform and continue to deliver more than a year of growth each year and across all grades. A typical American school delivers 13 years of teaching in 13 years; ours must deliver several years more in the same amount of time. This report shows our K8 schools are doing it. And, as Educate Now! reported last month, our high schools are also showing strong growth. They are taking the handoff from our middle schools and continuing the work to close this performance gap. 

New Orleans Public High Schools: 2005 to 2026​

No long post this time around.

The transformation of New Orleans public high schools since 2005 is best seen, not summarized.

Seven slides. Twenty years. See for yourself.

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4-Peat! New Orleans Outgrows the State Again

The Louisiana Department of Education has released the 2026 LEAP results, and for the fourth year running, New Orleans grew its share of students at Mastery or Above faster than the state. This year’s 3-point gain is the 4th-highest among Louisiana’s 70 school systems.

Performance Gap in K-12 % Mastery or Above, New Orleans vs. Louisiana

New Orleans is Closing the Performance Gap with the State

New Orleans’ 10-point gain since 2022 is the 2nd-largest of all districts in the state and double Louisiana’s overall improvement.

Year-Over-Year Change in K-12 % Mastery or Above, New Orleans vs. Louisiana

For the First Time, New Orleans Outperformed All Three of Its Peer Districts

New Orleans now ranks 35th out of 70 school districts in the state in the percent of students achieving Mastery and above. For perspective, just four years ago in 2022, New Orleans was tied for 52nd, with only 16 school systems ranked lower.

New Orleans High Schools Led the Way

While our K8 schools showed solid growth, the engine behind this year’s growth was our high schools:

• New Orleans tied the state in Algebra I at 43% Mastery, erasing a 4-point gap in a single year.
• The Geometry gap narrowed from 5 points to 2 (28% vs. 30%).
• Three schools drove the math surge: Frederick A. Douglass High School reached 45% math Mastery (up 16 points), Abramson Sci Academy 39% (up 15), and Livingston Collegiate Academy 27% (up 13).
• New Orleans beat the state in Civics (42% vs. 38%) and US History (30% vs. 28%).
• High schools grew 2 points in English while the state was flat, but English remains a challenge. We lag the state by 5 points in English I (36% vs. 41%) and 7 in English II (41% vs. 48%). There is momentum to build on, though: Edna Karr High School (+7), Eleanor McMain Secondary School (+6), and New Orleans Charter Science and Math High School (+6) led the city’s English improvement this year.

Every Subgroup in New Orleans Grew

This year, New Orleans gained 2 points with every subgroup, matching or beating the state’s growth across the board.

And the growth is adding up.

New Orleans exceeds the state in the performance of Black/African American students by 3 points (25% vs. 22% statewide). Our students with disabilities (13%) and English learners (8%) have pulled even with the state. Economically disadvantaged students still trail by 3 points (24% vs. 27%).

2026 New Orleans LEAP Performance by School

The following rankings provide only a snapshot of school performance. School Performance Scores, due in late fall, are a much more robust evaluation of school performance and will incorporate achievement on all tests, student growth, and more.

Educate Now! Is just looking at English and Math and including how schools did on both Mastery AND Basic.

While Mastery is Louisiana’s proficiency goal, when Louisiana launched school accountability in 1999, the state’s goal was for every student to reach Basic.  We still have a long way to go in reaching that original goal. In New Orleans, 4 out of 10 students are still performing below Basic and statewide, a third of students perform below Basic.

Congratulations to These Schools for Achieving the Biggest Gains in % Mastery or Above!

New Orleans K-8 Schools Ordered by % Mastery or Above in ELA and Math

Schools are listed in order from highest to lowest by 2026 % Mastery and Above, with % Basic and Above breaking ties.

New Orleans High Schools Ordered by % Mastery or Above in ELA and Math

Not every school moved forward. These schools lost ground this year, but one year does not make a trend. Here’s hoping 2026-27 is a better one.

Biggest Losses in % Mastery or Above, 2025 to 2026 (ELA & Math)

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In 2009, the State stopped increasing the Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) to account for inflation. Since that time, the value of State support for Louisiana’s students and teachers has steadily eroded. While funding has nominally increased, in 2026 dollars, the Base Per Pupil has decreased by $1,806 – losing close to one-third of its value.

Inflation’s Impact Since 2010, inflation has risen by 51% percent. This means that a dollar in 2010 would require roughly $1.51 in 2026 to maintain the same level of purchasing power. $10,000 in 2010 requires $15,100 today.

 

This gap shows up in real ways:

• Teacher pay has gone from above the Southern Regional Average to far below it. 
• Districts are struggling financially, even though they have fewer students. 
• In 2010, the state covered an average of 55% of funding for public schools. Today, it shoulders less than half of the burden at 44%.  

This is not a New Orleans specific issue. Rural districts who have less taxing capacity are likely taking an even bigger hit than cities.

The State can reinvest the savings from the decline in student population and dedicate it to teacher pay to begin addressing this problem.

 

Louisiana’s Public School Funding Formula: The MFP

Louisiana’s school funding formula, the MFP, is designed to guarantee a baseline level of education for every child. The formula is complex, but at its core is the Base Per Pupil (Level 1).

Base Per Pupil (Level 1): Intent vs. Reality

When the formula was first developed, the Base Per Pupil amount was a calculation intended to cover the essential “Net Instructional Expenditures” of a school district. This included:

• Teacher and Support Salaries: The baseline pay required to staff a standard classroom.
• Instructional Materials: Textbooks, paper, and basic classroom supplies.
• Administrative Support: The “back-office” costs at the school and district level necessary to keep the doors open.

For years, the MFP contained a cost-of-living clause that automatically upped the Base Per Pupil. In 2009, this provision was removed from the formula and since then the increase has been minimal.

In 2026 dollars, the Base Per Pupil has lost 31% of its purchasing power.

The bottom line: The Base Per Pupil has not remotely kept up with the cost of a minimum foundation of education.

The Result: Teachers are not getting the pay raises they deserve. Louisiana has gone from paying teachers above the average salary reported by the Southern Regional Education Board to almost $6,000 below.

The Southern Regional Education Board aggregates data from 16 states for these calculations: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.

State Funding vs. Student Enrollment

Opponents of increasing MFP funding argue that the state’s contribution has increased despite declining student enrollment. While it is true that state spending on the MFP has grown from $3.31 billion in 2010 to $4.41 billion today, when adjusted for inflation, the value of the state’s contribution has fallen 1.8x times faster than the decline in student enrollment, creating a defunding gap.

The Gap: While the number of students (blue line) has gone down slightly, the actual value of state funding (green line) has fallen almost two times faster. The shaded area is the state’s “Defunding Gap” that results from not adjusting its funding for inflation.

Local Districts Now Carry the Greater Share

In Louisiana, funding of public education is a shared responsibility between the State and the local school districts.  

Louisiana adopted the first version of this student-based MFP formula in 1992. In this inaugural formula, the State contributed 57% of the total costs and local school districts contributed 43%. This split remained fairly constant for many years.

As the State stopped increasing funding for the MFP, the burden has shifted to the local school districts. Looking at funding for public schools, including state-funded pay raises, the State share of total spending has declined from 55% in 2010 to 46% in 2025.

Local districts now fund more than the state.

AND LOCAL DISTRICTS HAVE INCREASED THEIR FUNDING BY MORE THAN THE INFLATION RATE.

While the state has a defunding gap, local districts are contributing $820 million more than needed to keep pace with inflation.

So, What Do We Do?

We can lessen the teacher pay gap by simply keeping education dollars in education. Local communities are doing everything they can to support their schools and teachers. If Louisiana wants to pay our talented teachers appropriately and keep them in Louisiana, it’s time for the state to step up! 

The Down Payment: If Constitutional Amendment #3 is approved, teachers will receive a permanent $2,250 pay raise (replacing the current one-time stipends.) However, it still leaves our educators nearly $3,700 behind our Southern neighbors.

The Next Step: We should reallocate the resources that are freed up by a declining student population to address the teacher pay gap.

• Since 2019, public school enrollment has declined from 683,967 to 628,479; a decrease of 55,488 students. If enrollment had remained steady, the state would be spending at least $300 million more annually through the MFP.

• While it is not practical to recapture these savings by asking the legislature to increase the MFP by $300 million, Louisiana is projected to see a continuing decline in student enrollment. It is realistic to amend the MFP formula now to reinvest the future savings of fewer students into teacher pay raises.

Our teachers deserve it!

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Note: cumulative inflation rate calculated based on Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) CPI-U data finalized through March 2026.

Fair or Excessive?

In February, the City proposed that schools pay a whopping 7.5%, or $11.5 million sales tax collection fee. The School Board rejected that proposal because it was unfair, unreasonable, and a threat to the sustainability of our public schools.

Sales taxes are part of the school financing formula and, by law, schools get 98% of the 1.5 pennies of sales taxes dedicated to public schools. Any collection fee charged by the City truly comes directly at the expense of students and teachers.

The City is now pursuing legislation that could impose an excessive fee (up to 5% or $8 million) via Landry HB 795.

Schools have offered to pay their fair share – their proportional cost to collect sales taxes (up to 1.5%).

30% of the sales taxes collected by the City are dedicated to schools. The City spends between $5–7 million each year to collect these taxes; schools’ proportional cost would be 30% of the collection expense, or $1.5–$2.1 million (less than 1.5% of their share of the sales taxes).

Most school boards pay 1% or less for sales tax collection.

So, why has the City filed this bill?

The back story:

The City and OPSB reached a settlement in fall of 2024 over a lawsuit alleging the City has unlawfully charged the school district tens of millions of dollars in collection fees, siphoning off taxes dedicated by the voters to schools. As part of the settlement, the City agreed to cease charging schools for tax collections.

While Mayor Cantrell backed out of the agreement, City Council vice president and mayoral candidate Moreno pledged to honor the deal if she was elected and not charge schools collection fees.

Now that the City is facing financial challenges, Mayor Moreno’s administration is backing out of the deal and wants schools to pay excessive collection fees to help the City with its budget deficit.

The City is using Jefferson Parish as the rationale for charging a high fee. A statute permits the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s office (JPSO) to charge Jefferson Parish School Board schools a 9.5% collection fee.

Jefferson Parish is the outlier: not a valid justification.

In 1982, it appears the Jefferson Parish School Board (JPSB) struck a deal with Sheriff Harry Lee to pass a half penny sales tax to avert a teacher’s strike. JPSB agreed to a large collection fee to help fund the Sheriff’s office. The measure went before the voters and was approved. JPSB and Sheriff’s office then entered into a cooperative endeavor agreement codifying the terms.

• The ballot proposition approved by the Jefferson Parish voters contained a provision allowing the School Board to pay collection fees out of the sales taxes collected.
• However, in Orleans Parish, voters did not approve a provision for sales tax collection and the School Board and the City have never had a cooperative endeavor agreement for the City to charge schools for sales tax collection.

Schools support a fair fee – not an excessive fee.

New Orleans schools are willing to pay their fair share of the cost of collecting sales taxes and maintain that any collection fee should be transparent, reasonable, and limited to the city’s true cost of collection – nothing more.

Charging schools millions of dollars beyond the actual cost of collection is taking away money that was dedicated by the voters for teachers, classrooms, and students.

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An even better solution: have the state collect the sales taxes for free.

Under state law, the Louisiana Department of Revenue can collect sales taxes on behalf of the City free of charge, and the law requires the Department to remit the collected taxes to the City no later than the 10th day of the month following their collection.

If the City is concerned about the cost of sales tax collection, it can agree to let the state Department of Revenue collect on its behalf and save $5-7M a year.

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New Orleans births declined by 25% between 2014 and 2024 and this has translated into a direct loss of students in our classrooms.

Between 2019 and 2025, the number of K-8 students enrolled in Orleans Parish public schools dropped from 34,007 to 29,793—a reduction of more than 4,200 children.¹

This isn’t just a local trend; across the nation and the world, birth rates are hitting historic lows. For example, South Korea’s fertility rate has plummeted to roughly 0.75, a third of the 2.1 needed to maintain a stable society.² Closer to home, the U.S. fertility rate fell to an all-time low of 1.6 in 2024.³

A National Wave of School Consolidations

Districts across the country are being forced to merge or close campuses, including:

• Jefferson Parish: Consolidated several schools in 2024, including Grace King and Helen Cox High.
• Baton Rouge: Currently enacting a plan to close 9 schools.
• Austin: Will close 10 schools in 2026.
• San Antonio: Shuttered 15 schools in 2024.
• Jackson: Has closed or consolidated 13 schools since 2024.
• Denver: Closed 7 schools in 2024 and restructured 3 in 2025.

New Orleans must do the same…and soon.

The Financial Reality of “Empty Seats”

Our K-8 schools are currently grappling with 2,000 to 3,000 empty seats. When a school is under-enrolled, it creates a structural deficit. The Leah Chase school’s recent deficit was driven not by any financial mismanagement or over-spending, but under-enrollment.

Let’s take a closer look at how under-enrollment impacts school finances with a simplified example in which we assume open enrollment K8 schools average around $15,000 per student, including state, local and federal funds.

Suppose there are 7 schools that would be fully enrolled at 700 students but are all under-enrolled by 100 students. Each of these schools has 600 students and receives $9,000,000 in funding.

If one of these schools were to close and each of the remaining 6 enrolled 100 more students, they would each receive $1,500,000 of additional funding. However, the cost of adding these additional 100 students would be significantly less than $1,500,000 because:

• There is no cost to fill empty seats in classrooms that already have a teacher;
• The administrative staff is already in place;
• The building occupancy costs (insurance, utilities, maintenance, grounds, custodial) remain the same;
• The increase in cost is mostly focused on adding teachers and paraprofessionals to serve more special education students and some increased transportation costs—the total cost would likely be no more than $500,000.

The bottom line: Fully enrolled, these six schools would each have about $1,000,000—$1,400 per student—in additional funding to spend.

These additional dollars would allow the school to provide the supports and opportunities our students deserve—things like additional extracurricular and specialized course options, staff to support mental health needs (social workers and counselors), and much-needed teacher pay-raises to allow our best teachers to stay in the classroom longer.

Why We Must Act Now

For the past few years, pandemic-era federal funding and rising local revenues masked the financial pressure of declining enrollment. Those buffers are gone. This year, many schools have been forced to cut staff and spend money from their reserves to maintain sufficient supports for their students. This is not sustainable. And the outlook for 2026 is even more challenging.

Revenues will plateau or decline while expenses continue to rise:

• State Funding: It is unlikely the state will be a source of new money. It has not increased the base per-pupil amount of $4,055 since 2019. (Adjusted for inflation, it should be $5,227 today.⁴)
• Local Sales Tax: The city expects a 2.5–3% reduction in sales tax revenue compared to 2025, a total decline of 6.8% since 2024. (See below.⁵)
• Property Tax: The recent fire sale of some landmark hotels suggest future assessments may be lower.

Without a plan to consolidate 3 to 4 schools very soon—and likely 3 to 4 more over the next five years—our schools will be forced to cut “to the bone.” This means losing social workers, art, music, and academic supports. 

Academic achievement and student well-being will suffer.

Our Challenge as a City

How do we support the NOLA -PS in confecting a plan? Inaction will force too many of our schools to sink from the weight of empty seats. No one wants to see a neighborhood school close its doors, but there is not a silver bullet that makes this problem go away. Fewer students = fewer schools. And as fewer babies are born, the problem will only get worse.

The Superintendent and the school board need to spearhead a process where various opinions are heard, options weighed and then adopt a set of criteria to guide their decisions on consolidation. Now is the time to begin this incredibly difficult task so we can continue to have thriving schools and thriving classrooms.

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Sources

¹CDC WONDER Natality Statistics; 2024 LDOE 10/1 Multi-Stats, includes all public schools and sites located in Orleans Parish (Type 2s, etc.).

²Korea Ministry of Data & Statistics.

³Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

⁴Calculated based on the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which estimates a cumulative inflation rate of approximately 28.9%.

⁵New Orleans Revenue Estimating Conference

The Success Story You Haven’t Heard Enough About

There is a quiet revolution happening in New Orleans public schools, and it is changing the trajectory of our students’ lives. It’s called Career-Connected Learning.

At its core, Career-Connected Learning links education with real-world career experiences. For those of us in earlier generations, “VoTech” or “Shop” may come to mind, but today’s version is vastly different. It serves as a vital bridge between high school and what comes next—whether that is college, a career, or a combination of both.

Powered by a robust ecosystem of schools, families, employers, and training providers, YouthForce NOLA has led a citywide effort to establish this approach as a core pillar of the city’s education and workforce strategy. Career-Connected Learning focuses on a “trifecta” for student success: Industry-Recognized Credentials, Soft Skills, and Work-Based Learning.

Technical Skills: Earning Credentials of Value

A key focus is providing interested students the opportunity to earn Industry-recognized credentials in high wage, high demand career pathways. Credentials validate that a student has mastered technical skills that employers value, helping to bridge the gap between the classroom and the workforce.

The growth in credentials has been explosive. In 2014, fewer than 50 graduating seniors held an industry credential. Last year, the graduating class of 2025 earned over 1,100 credentials.

A major driver of this success is the New Orleans Career Center (NOCC). In March 2023, NOCC opened a state-of-the-art facility at the former McDonogh 35 site (after having operated in various sites since their first cohort in fall 2018). Students spend half their day at their home high school and half at NOCC, training in high-demand fields and earning credentials and pre-apprenticeships in areas like nursing, medical assistant, certified nurse assistant, HVAC, carpentry, electrical, culinary arts, and engineering. In 2017, NOCC began with 129 trainees from 7 high schools. Today, it is training 670 students from 23 high schools.

“I now see a future I didn’t believe was possible.”

– Paul J., Sophie B. Wright Senior and NOCC Student

Soft Skills: The “Secret Sauce”

Technical skills get you the interview, but soft skills get you – and keep you on – the job. Often called “employability skills,” these transferable traits increasingly rank above technical training for entry-level applicants. In an age of AI and automation, the human element—collaboration and adaptability—is more valuable than ever. Top executives recognize the growing importance of these skills in the face of job losses tied to AI.

“My advice to people would be critical thinking, learn skills, learn your EQ [emotional quotient], learn how to be good in a meeting, how to communicate, how to write.”

– Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan Chase CEO

Through federal grants and City support, YouthForce NOLA and providers like NOCC and Operation Spark are integrating these six core skills directly into technical training and classrooms:

As a bonus, NOLA-PS school leaders are increasingly adopting soft skills programming in general subject areas—and seeing improvements in student attendance, academic engagement, and test scores.

Work-Based Learning: Bridging Skills to the Workplace

Everyone has to have their first job at some point, but few employers want to be anyone’s first full-time job. Paid internship programs fill in this void – creating a structured on-ramp to work for young people while also supporting employers as supervisors.

YouthForce NOLA’s paid summer internship program is a cornerstone of this citywide effort. The experience begins with 60 hours of intensive training in soft skills and business etiquette, followed by 110 hours of work experience. This is the critical step where young people practice and internalize their technical skills and soft skills in a real-world setting, all while evolving their plans for post-high school. 

Last year, more than 250 rising seniors participated in YouthForce NOLA’s summer internship program. In total, close to 1,900 public high school students in New Orleans have completed an internship in partnership with more than 250 local employers.¹

“I love how [my summer internship] helped me grow as a young professional… To see how it would even be to be on my own, going to a job, arriving on time. For the first time outside of school, I was creating my own self as a young adult.”

– Nathaniel K., YouthForce Internship Alum, Edna Karr H.S.

Early Outcomes Signal Powerful Impact

Young people who complete YouthForce NOLA’s Internship and/or participate in technical training consistently stand out from their peers. In a 2024 survey of alumni, the results were telling:²

• Next-Step Success: 97% of alumni continued to higher education or obtained a job.
• Higher Earnings: Alumni earned an average of $3.10/hour more than their peers statewide, totaling roughly $6,500 more annually.
• Local Talent Retention: 75% of alumni choose to stay and work in the Greater New Orleans area.

Career-Connected Learning is clearly a powerful catalyst, showing what can happen when students are connected to real skills, real work, and real opportunity.

The Goal: Future-Ready Graduates

We’ve known for years that a high school diploma alone is no longer enough. The work now is to have our graduates future-ready, leaving high school with a diploma in one hand, and in the other, a resume filled with credentials, soft skills, and real work experience, ready for whatever comes next.

Career-Connected Learning isn’t just preparing students for careers; it is empowering them to thrive in life. Educate Now! salutes the businesses, schools, families, and training providers who make this work possible.

Want to host an intern, help fund an internship position, or otherwise get involved? Contact Tori at YouthForce NOLA.

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As we head into the New Year, I want to wish everyone a happy holiday season and the very best in 2026!

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Note: Leslie Jacobs is a co-founder and currently serves as board chair of YouthForce NOLA.

Sources

¹YouthForceNOLA.org

²Conducted by Delivery Associates and paid for by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the 2024 survey tabulated responses from 667 YouthForce NOLA and/or training provider alumni.

The state has released the 2025 School Performance Scores. It was a good year!

District Performance

New Orleans Earns a B for the first time EVER!!!

Congratulations to everyone for a milestone accomplishment

The District Performance Score (DPS) is the most comprehensive measurement of student performance. It rolls up the data on all students, all grade levels, and all measurements used in the accountability system into one number.

Over the past four years, we have grown more than twice as much as the state.

Subgroup Performance

The state also ranks districts on performance by subgroup, creating a subgroup performance score that is analogous to the DPS – it simply isolates performance for each subgroup. 

NOLA-PS outperforms the state and peer districts in outcomes for Black/African American students, ranking 32 out of 69 school districts. 

And we rank in the top half of districts in outcomes for Students with Disabilities, right behind Jefferson Parish.

4-Year Cohort Graduation Rate

This metric measures the percentage of high schoolers who graduate within four years of entering as freshmen. 

The NOLA-PS cohort graduation rate grew from 78.6% to 81.7%, surpassing peer districts and narrowing the gap with the state.

School Performance — More Good News!

• The percentage of students attending an A rated school grew from 14% to 23% 
• The percentage of students attending a D or F school fell from 19% to 8%

Student Distribution by Letter Grade

Includes all NOLA-PS and Type 2 Charter Schools in Orleans Parish

Congratulations to these fifteen schools that improved their grade!

Special shout out to ReNEW Moton, which improved by 2 letter grades!

These five schools went down a letter grade.

NOLA-PS has 3 schools ranked in the top 15 in the state.

These New Orleans high schools are among the highest performing high poverty (80% or more economically disadvantaged students) schools in the state.

Highlighting High School Performance

Next year, the state implements a new, more rigorous accountability system for the high schools to better reflect the challenges graduates will face in the coming years, emphasizing stronger academic performance and more career and college readiness. Across the state, high schools will see their letter grades go down, including most open admission high schools in New Orleans.

This year, Educate Now! wants to celebrate the accomplishments of our high schools.

A LOOK BACK

Cohort Graduation Rate

In 2005, the NOLA-PS cohort graduation rate was 53%. Today, it is 81%.

For every 100 freshman, 28 more are graduating now than in 2005!

School to School Comparison

To appreciate the real improvement of our high schools over the past two decades, Educate Now! went to data archives — back to Spring 2005.

In 2005, there were 13 open enrollment (non-selective) district high schools: all were failing (SPS <60) and among the very lowest performing high schools in the state. Seven of these thirteen schools will still be open next year. While the accountability system has changed, eligibility for TOPS has been constant. 

Comparing TOPS attainment is illuminating and Educate Now! wants to applaud the hard work of so many extraordinary educators, leaders, students, and families.

At these seven high schools, for every 100 seniors, 22 more earned TOPS scholarships in 2024 than in 2005!

• Of the class of 2005, 5% of graduating seniors earned a TOPS Scholarship
• Of the class of 2024, 27% of graduating seniors earned a TOPS Scholarship

Same profile of student….much stronger results….better life outcomes for so many more students

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Links to Source Data – also available at https://educatenow.net/data-and-analysis/2025 District Performance Scores (xls) – LDOE 2025 District Performance Scores by Subgroup (xls) – LDOE 2025 School Performance Scores (xls) – LDOE 2025 SPS by Score (pdf) – Educate Now! 2025 SPS by School Name (pdf) – Educate Now! 10/1/2024 Louisiana Public School Enrollment (xls) – LDOE 10/1/2023 Louisiana Public School Enrollment (xls) – LDOE 2025 Statewide Performance of 80%+ Economically Disadvantaged High Schools (pdf) – Educate Now! 2005 TOPS Eligibility (pdf) – LA Office of Student Financial Assistance 2024 TOPS Eligibility (pdf) – LA Office of Student Financial Assistance

In February 2024, the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) directed the superintendent to open a District-operated elementary school, The Leah Chase School, starting with grades K-5. Now in its second year, the school serves around 340 students in grades K-6. Prior to this Board action, all schools in the District (NOLA-PS) were charter schools.

So…how’s it going? Not so good.

Finances: Operating at a Loss

The District projects an operating deficit of more than $500,000 for Leah Chase, equating to a loss of over $1,400 per student.

To put this in perspective: if every charter school operated at a $1,400 per student deficit, the city’s public schools would overspend by more than $50 million annually.

What’s more, even the $500,000 deficit is understated. The District does not charge the school for the central office support it provides (e.g., accounting and finance, legal, the superintendent’s time, human resources, etc.).

Exacerbating the District’s Overcapacity Problem

The Board has known for years that the District needs to close some elementary schools due to a declining birth rate and under-enrollment. It even adopted a policy to encourage existing schools to consolidate or turn in their charter.

When the District closed Lafayette Academy, it had the opportunity to lessen the problem of over-capacity and lessen the financial burden it has created for schools. It failed in its responsibility to do so.

The notion that there was pent-up demand for District-operated schools was misguided. Despite an aggressive six-figure marketing campaign, The Leah Chase School fell short of its 2024-25 enrollment target, with only 284 students enrolled. For the most part, parents do not care who operates the school; they just want a good one for their child.

Huge Consumption of Administration and Board Time for 1% of the District’s Population

Operating The Leah Chase School distracts from the District’s ability to be an effective authorizer, supporting schools and the other 99% of students in the District.

For example: In spring and summer of 2024, it was all hands on deck to open the school – including the Finance Department. During this time, the District failed to accurately project revenues, and its 2024 annual audit was eight months late.

Academic Performance: Mediocre

Out of NOLA-PS’s 44 elementary schools, The Leah Chase School ranked 30th in the percentage of students scoring Basic or above and ranked 33rd in the percentage scoring Mastery or above in English and Math.

When School Performance Scores are released in November, The Leah Chase School will likely receive a D rating, placing it around the bottom third of K-8 schools

Predictable and Preventable Problems

Former Louisiana superintendent John White and former NOLA-PS superintendent Henderson Lewis both pushed to convert all schools under their control to charters. Their reasoning was sound:

•  It is inefficient and costly for the District to operate only a small number of schools.
•  Charters had demonstrated they could do as good of a job or better than the District.
•  District operation of schools consumed way too much of the superintendent’s and key executives’ time and focus, diverting attention from more important functions.
•  District operation of schools created inherent conflict and distrust, with charters believing—rightly or wrongly—that the District would favor its directly operated schools over the charter schools.
  • To see this conflict in action, go to NOLA-PS’s website. The Leah Chase School is the only school on the About page; go to the “Schools” tab, and when you click on it, the Leah Chase School is the only school on the dropdown menu.

Strategic Rationales for Direct Operation

While NOLA-PS may need to directly operate a school, the decision to do so should be based on a compelling rationale, such as:

• Addressing an unmet need (e.g., serving a specific student population, offering a unique program, or filling a gap in a particular geographic area).
• Managing a failing school when a qualified charter operator is not available, and the school is needed to meet student enrollment demands.

The District’s Options for Next Steps

1. Continue to operate the school, but on a “level playing field,” playing by the same rules as every other school: no deficit spending; charge the school for central office services as you would any other school; no special positioning on the website or other marketing preferences; and operate in a manner that consumes less of the administration’s time and energy.

2. Relocate a school currently in a substandard facility to the Leah Chase building: NOLA-PS ranks its buildings by capital repair needs: Tier 1 facilities are in excellent condition and require the least investment, while Tier 4 facilities have many more needs. In practical terms, this means that students in Tier 3–4 schools are in older, more deteriorated facilities with significantly greater deferred maintenance.

The Leah Chase facility can house 700+ students and is a fully renovated Tier 1 facility. It is one of the few renovated school buildings along the “River Sliver.”

Operating The Leah Chase School in a Tier 1 building at under 50% occupancy, while other fully enrolled schools are in Tier 3 and Tier 4 buildings, is simply poor facility management.

There are a number of schools located in reasonable proximity that have low-quality facilities that could benefit from the Leah Chase facility. Audubon Middle School (Tier 4), ReNEW Laurel Elementary (Tier 3), Green Elementary School (Tier 3), Benjamin Franklin Middle School (Tier 4), Willow elementary (Tier 3), and Willow middle (Tier 3) are all potential candidates.

3. Expand High-Demand Schools: Explore whether high-demand schools like Hynes, Willow, Lake Forest, or Audubon would be interested in expanding into The Leah Chase School building, particularly if data indicates they would attract new students and families to the District.

Conclusion

The District should not be spending $500,000 of its fund balance to operate a D school serving less than 1% of students, when there are higher-performing schools with available seats.

The District should not be operating a school in a Tier 1 facility at less than 50% occupancy when there are many schools in Tier 3 and Tier 4 facilities that could make better use of the space.

It is time for OPSB to remedy this situation.

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 Additional Sources

NOLA Public Schools. (2024, June 6). Facility utilization by geographic area: NOLA-PS five- year portfolio plan technical report (pp. 53-56).

Facility quality tiers can be found for individual schools on the NOLA-PS Data Dashboard at data.nolapublicschools.com; select a school and navigate to the “Quantity” tab and scroll down to “Facility Information.”