Leaders of two New Orleans K-8 schools asked the district last week to let them keep their charters, despite years of low test scores.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in the Lower 9th Ward, and Pierre A. Capdau S.T.E.A.M., in Gentilly, are two of the four schools the district is considering closing at the end of this school year.
The charter boards that run the other two schools — Fannie C. Williams and L.B. Landry — have decided to give up their contracts.
Superintendent Fateama Fulmore said she’s waiting for the state to release this year’s school grades on Dec. 1 before making her recommendations to the city’s school board.
Capdau’s charter is up for renewal, and Fulmore is reviewing King early under its new accountability system, which makes it easier for the district to close a school mid-contract.
Test scores improved at King and Capdau by a few percentage points last spring. The gain was smaller at King, which has some of the city's lowest scores. Capdau is also near the bottom, but above King.
King at-risk again
King is the only public school in the Lower 9th Ward and enrolls about 430 students in grades K-8, about 40 fewer than last year.
The next closest public K-8 school is about three miles away — KIPP Leadership in the Marigny. Morris Jeff Community School’s upper school campus is closer, in St. Claude, but only offers grades 8-12.
When King’s charter was last up for renewal in 2024, the board voted to close its high school because it had low test scores and was under-enrolled. King’s board used to run a second school, Joseph A. Craig. The district closed Craig in 2020 after it got an F grade from the state in the year its contract was up for renewal.
King’s state report card shows two Ds and two Fs in test scores over the last four years, and it will receive its first K-8 grade in December.
School leaders had just 10 minutes to tell Fulmore and the board why they should be allowed to stay open.
Gloria Miles, King’s principal, started last school year, after the school's last renewal. She said the school is closely monitoring student progress and providing more tutoring during and after school, including by partnering with local universities.
“I recognize that our students deserve stronger outcomes,” she said. “We accept the responsibility, and we are committed to improving student academic achievement results.”
She highlighted last year’s 8th grade algebra scores as an achievement for the school: Every student passed.
Board member Olin Parker asked how many students were tested. Miles said only 15 out of 38 eighth graders took algebra, and the rest took lower-level math.
Willie Zanders, an attorney for King’s board, said the school should not be judged by its past combined letter grades now that the high school is closed.
He argued the school deserves more time, since its contract doesn’t expire for another year.
“[The] contract should be honored, period,” Zanders said.
Capdau is stable, leader says
Inspire NOLA, one of the city’s largest charter operators, runs Capdau.
Wylene Soraparu, Inspire’s chief academic officer, presented on the school's behalf and gave a more detailed presentation than Miles did for King, which isn’t part of a network.
“We are stronger together, and we build on the strengths of our school system itself,” Soraparu said.
Inspire took on Capdau from another operator during COVID and merged it with McDonogh 42.
Since then, its state letter grade has improved from an F to a C, and Soraparu said she expects the school to maintain it this year based on its test scores.
She also said the school is in demand.
“Parents are still wanting the school, parents are still wanting to be a part of this community, and they're still wanting what we're providing for them,” Soraparu said.
She listed the resources Capdau has: interventionists who provide targeted instruction for struggling students in reading and math, three staff members focused on improving student attendance and a full-time social worker. Students who are behind receive tutoring from Inspire’s highest-performing teachers, she said.
Parker asked Soraparu what she’s doing about the Capdau’s lagging math scores, its weakest subject. She said Inspire is tutoring students, coaching teachers and trying to improve the quality of math teaching by providing more staff training.
Throughout both schools’ presentations, board members and Fulmore didn’t indicate where they stood, except for Gabriela Biro.
“I believe it is essential that we have an elementary school in the Lower Ninth Ward,” she said.
This story was produced by the Gulf States Newsroom, a collaboration between Mississippi Public Broadcasting, WBHM in Alabama, WWNO and WRKF in Louisiana and NPR.
