Compare 2024 school performance scores for NOLa charters
25th November 2024 · 0 Comments
By Marta Jewson
The Lens
The Louisiana Department of Education released state school performance scores last Wednesday (Nov. 20) morning. Once again, the NOLA Public Schools district received a C.
The C seemed to stand for consistency, since the district earned the same letter grade in 2023 and 2022. But it did continue to inch up the state’s 150-point scale, when compared with last year, the district’s performance score crept up five points from 69.9 to 74.
Among school districts, the five-point improvement marked the fifth-highest increase in the state. The district got a D in assessment, students test scores. But it earned A in growth, the year over year measurement of student improvement, pulling its overall grade up to a C.
Statewide, the average score for all public schools rose from 78.5 to 80.2, staying at a B letter grade, the same as last year. But the 80.2 score is a new peak – the highest statewide average since the state implemented its 150-point scale in 2013, state officials said. Nearby Jefferson, St. Tammany and St. Bernard school districts all earned a B.
Districts are still dealing with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, including mental and physical side effects that persist in students, families, and educators. For a year or more, schools were shuttered nationwide, which forced students to attend online classes for a year or more and led to a dip in student learning coast-to coast.
But last week’s scores are a bright spot, said Louisiana State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley, noting that this year’s increases marked the third consecutive year of score growth. “Louisiana students are maintaining and accelerating academic gains made since the pandemic,” he said in a written statement released by the state.
Like the district itself, many individual schools found themselves at a C rank in the newly released school performance scores. Nearly half of the 74 public schools in the city earned a C.
Fourteen city schools fell below that mark, receiving a D. Noble Minds, a state-authorized elementary school, received an F ranking.
But across the city, there was distinct growth in some of the city’s 74 public schools, which includes 67 schools run by NOLA Public Schools and 7 authorized by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
For instance, last year, fewer than 1 in 5 schools scored better than a C. This year, nearly 1 in 4 schools received an A or B. The breakdown looks like this: out of the 74 Orleans public schools, 7 schools received an A and 11 schools received a B. That was an improvement from last year, when 6 schools received an A and 8 schools earned a B.
Among the city’s K-8 schools, there were some highpoints.
With 118 points out of 150, Lake Forest Elementary Charter School in New Orleans East received the fifth highest score of any elementary school in the state. Pierre Capdau Charter School in Gentilly had a remarkable growth spurt, with a score that rose by 16 points, the third highest growth of any school in the state. (That growth also came despite a recent merger: in 2022, operator InspireNOLA Schools consolidated Capdau with McDonogh 42.)
And with high schools, New Orleans scores include a few regular triumphs, whose Top Ten status was reaffirmed again this year: Benjamin Franklin High School ranked 5th in the state and The Willow School (formerly Lusher Charter School) ranked 9th.
Within its newly refurbished building on South Claiborne, Eleanor McMain High School had the fourth highest growth by a high school in the state. McMain earned a B at 83.8, an increase of 14.5 points from its 2023 score.
Also, on the state’s annual tests, 30 percent of Orleans students scored at the mastery level or above. On Wednesday, that gave members of the Orleans Parish School Board reasons to celebrate, for the shift upward in test scores within its charters. “Our schools have grown at mastery rates more than any other district in the state except one,” board member Olin Parker said.
Schools receiving an A: New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, Edward Hynes Charter School – Lakeview, Audubon Charter School, Benjamin Franklin High School, Edna Karr High School, The Willow School (formerly Lusher Charter School) and Lake Forest Elementary Charter School.
Schools receiving a B: International School of Louisiana, Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans, New Orleans Military & Maritime Academy, Success at Thurgood Marshall, G. W. Carver High School, Sophie B. Wright Institute of Academic Excellence, Frederick A. Douglass High School, Alice M Harte Elementary Charter School, Eleanor McMain Secondary School, McDonogh 35 Senior High School and Warren Easton Charter High School.
Grades are high-stakes for Charters
Charters are contracted for a set time – often, five, seven or 10 years – under NOLA Public Schools or BESE. When charters reach the last year of their contract, that year is described as a “high-stakes” year: they must do well enough to be offered a new contract.
Contract renewals hinge heavily on the state’s annual school performance scores and its A-F grades. The district also considers a charter school’s financial, organizational management and other academic components like special education services.
Without a renewed contract, the school will close.
During this contract-renewal year, another factor comes into play: the district’s enrollment, which is declining, mirroring national trends. To address that, the board charged the superintendent with closing schools, eliminating overhead costs and empty seats in district-owned buildings.
Last year, in one of the more dramatic closure sagas city students and families have endured, the district changed course on Lafayette Academy three times. First, the district told families that their school would likely receive an F-rating and be turned over to a new charter operator. Then, the district announced that the school would close. But in response to a public outcry, the district agreed to keep the school open – and run it directly, as The Leah Chase School.
(Among last Wednesday’s results – Lafayette Academy earned a D to close out the school’s final year. Had they had the chance to be measured by that grade, they likely could have remained open.)
Each year, a number of school communities face similar unknowns.
Of the schools up for renewal, the one that may be most at risk of losing their charter is King High School in the Lower 9th Ward, which earned an F last year, with 47 points.
At a meeting earlier this month in the King High School auditorium, King assistant principal Joe Recasner handed the microphone to a man in the middle section of the auditorium. “I was born and raised in the Lower 9th Ward. Lived here my whole life. My grandson goes to King. I sent him there because he belongs there,” the man said, describing how he’d started his own welding business in the neighborhood.
“I’m a small-business owner in the community,” he said. “Everything I do is in this community. So I know we need this school.”
From the front of the room, longtime school leader Doris Hicks thanked the man for coming to the meeting. “We need everyone who feels strongly about King to go to the next school board meeting and tell them, ‘You’re not taking this school,’” she said.
King staff had put together a school-improvement plan, Hicks said, and it seemed to be working, she said, pledging – correctly, as it turned out – that King’s school score would not remain an F. But when asked what role district staff had played in helping to assess the school’s gaps and enhance its strengths after it received an F last year, Hicks shook her head. “Nothing,” she said. “Zero.”
In late October, leaders from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School made their case to the school board and superintendent, outlining their plans and asking that the school be allowed to remain open.
Then, on Wednesday, the school received an improved score, a D.
Based on last year’s charter-renewals, the D could be enough to keep the school open. District officials could also decide to keep the elementary campus or the high school campus open and shutter the other.
Last year at this time, district leaders had pointed to Esperanza Charter School as a likely target for closure, because it had earned an F in the prior year and subsequently was facing its last contracted year, known as an extension year. Charter schools in their initial contracts are evaluated before their final year. But Esperanza eked out a D, avoiding closure.
This year, seeking a five-year contract renewal, Esperanza again earned a D, but grew by 8 points to a 58. The school also serves a unique and growing population of English Learners, another factor district leaders must take under consideration when deciding whether or not to close a school.
Other D-scoring schools up for renewal this year include Fannie C. Williams Charter School, a single-site charter school in New Orleans East, nearby Einstein Charter at Sherwood Forest. Across the river, Elan Academy also received a D.
Contracts are likely to be renewed for the schools that scored a C or above.
Schools with C scores include three that jumped from Ds last year : Foundation Preparatory Academy which is located near the Fairgrounds, shot up from 56.4 to 67.5 points; Wilson Charter School in Broadmoor, which also grew by double-digits, from 57.8 to 69.7; and Harriet Tubman in Algiers, which went from 58.1 to 64.
Some of the renewal schools had less ground to make up. Both Bricolage Academy and John F Kennedy High School held steady at a C. G.W. Carver High School maintained its B grade while improving its numerical score from 78 to 82.
Two alternative high schools are also up for renewal. Alternative schools are measured by a different set of metrics. The NET maintained a B. New Orleans Accelerated High School slipped one-tenth of a point, dropping it from a B to a C.
All of the schools that are up for renewal will likely learn their fate at the Orleans Parish School Board’s December 12 meeting. What’s unclear is how Superintendent Avis Williams’ resignation could affect the process days before the meeting. At the meeting itself, the board hears testimony from students and community members and, typically, concurs with the superintendent’s choices. Last year, however, the board voted to transfer Lafayette, then largely backtracked on that recommendation.
Next month, on Dec. 1, nine days before the committee meeting, Williams departs and Deputy Superintendent Fateama Fulmore takes the reins. So it’s unclear who will make the final recommendations to the board.
This article originally published in the November 25, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
