The top reported proficiency rate is 28% in English language arts. The lowest is 16% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Kipp Believe
KIPP Believe sits in New Orleans, a dense urban city-parish that operates as a major port and commercial hub for the Gulf Coast region. The city is shaped by its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage, its distinctive music and Creole cuisine, and annual festivals like Mardi Gras. The historic French Quarter anchors the downtown core, while the Central Business District, the Caesars Superdome, and the New Orleans Morial Convention Center form the commercial and civic heart. Uptown neighborhoods like the Audubon and University areas, home to Tulane University, offer a different feel. The city was catastrophically affected by Hurricane Katrina, which flooded more than half the city and caused a population decline of over half. Major redevelopment efforts since then have led to a population rebound, but the 2025 estimate shows a decrease from the 2020 census count. Gentrification and displacement remain live concerns in redeveloping neighborhoods.
The school itself, serving grades PK through 8, is a regular public school operating as a charter school under the KIPP Believe district, which is a single-school district. It is a regular school by type, not an alternative or special-purpose campus. The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. Because the grade band stops at 8th grade, there are no AP, IB, or career-and-technical pathways to evaluate at this school; those offerings typically appear in high school, so their absence is expected here and is not a mark against the school.
On state assessments, the school’s results show attainment below the midpoint relative to districts in Orleans Parish across the subjects tested. The school placed in the bottom quartile among its peer set for overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades. Specifically, in English language arts the share of students scoring at proficient or above was a minority, roughly a quarter of test takers. In math, the figure was lower, and in science and social studies it was lower still. The school’s participation rates were essentially universal, so the results reflect nearly the entire tested population. The trend over multiple years was not available, so it is not possible to say whether these results are stable, improving, or declining.
The student body of this school is over nine-tenths Black, with a small Hispanic share and a minuscule number of white and multiracial students. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available; a parent looking for specific supports in these areas may want to ask the school directly. The school’s enrollment is moderate for a school serving these grades, spreading across classes of generally similar size from kindergarten through 8th grade.
The wider housing market in the school’s zip code has seen home values decline in the recent year, with a similar trend in rents. The national 30-year fixed mortgage rate has been hovering in the mid-six percent range early in the year, and the unemployment rate has been steady at a moderate level. None of these economic data points are unusual for the city or the region.
No recent district-level changes affecting families were found through a public search, so there is nothing to report about new programs, boundary shifts, or leadership transitions at the charter level.
For a family considering this school, the picture is straightforward. It is a midsize PK-8 charter serving a near-uniformly Black student population from a low-income catchment in a large, historically significant city still navigating post-Katrina redevelopment. Academic proficiency rates are lower than those of most other Orleans Parish districts, a fact worth weighing carefully. The absence of high school grades means families will need to plan ahead for what comes after 8th grade. The school’s charter status within a single-school district gives it a defined operational structure, but does not itself tell you much about academic outcomes or the day-to-day experience. A parent would want to visit, talk to current families, and understand what the school sees as its strengths and what academic growth looks like in practice, since the state test results alone raise clear questions about whether students are on track for the academic demands of high school and beyond.
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