Original Research by School Decision on Homer Plessy Community School
Homer Plessy Community School is a single-school district in New Orleans serving pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. With a few hundred students spread across those grades, it is a relatively small school where most grades have a similar number of students, giving it a stable, full-throughline feel for families who might stay from early childhood through the end of middle school.
The student body is diverse. About half of the students are Black, roughly three in ten are white, and more than one in ten are Hispanic, with smaller shares of Asian, Native American, and multiracial students. The school does not report the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals, and data on students with disabilities and English learners is also absent, so a parent considering the school would want to ask the school directly about those populations and the supports available.
Academically, the available record is thin. The school did not report state assessment results, so there is no way to compare proficiency rates in reading or math against other schools or districts in Louisiana. Similarly, because Homer Plessy serves only through eighth grade, there is no four-year graduation rate to evaluate. The lack of state testing data is notable; this is not a case of a grade band that is not tested, since Louisiana tests students in grades three through eight. A parent may want to ask the school why those results are not published and what the school’s own internal measures of student progress look like.
The one academic-adjacent metric available is chronic absenteeism. At about a quarter of students missing a significant number of school days, Homer Plessy’s rate sits above the midpoint among Orleans Parish’s districts, meaning it is better than many other local schools but still indicates that a notable portion of students are regularly absent. For context, the range across the parish’s districts goes from very low to very high, so the school is not at either extreme.
Per-pupil spending is in the lower range among the parish’s districts. This is a point of context rather than a direct measure of classroom quality; spending per student varies widely in New Orleans due to the mix of charter, district, and special-purpose schools, and Homer Plessy operates as a single-school charter district, a structure that can affect budgeting and resource allocation. A parent might want to ask how the school allocates its funds, especially for special education, enrichment, and facility maintenance.
The district brief found little in the way of recent district-wide changes or strategic initiatives worth noting; the school appears to be operating steadily without major publicized shifts. Publicly reported information is mostly static directory content. That stability could be a positive for families who value consistency, but it also means there is less publicly available material to assess the school’s direction or recent improvements.
Homer Plessy Community School offers a single-campus, K-8 pathway in a diverse urban setting. The missing test data and spending and absenteeism rates that are middling to lower within the parish all suggest a parent should visit, talk to staff, and ask pointed questions about academic outcomes, attendance practices, and how the school supports all of its students. It is a school that may fit a family looking for a small, neighborhood-feel, diverse community through middle school, but the academic track record is not evident from what is reported.
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