Democracy Prep Baton Rouge, Baton Rouge LA

Original Research by School Decision on Democracy Prep Baton Rouge

Democracy Prep Baton Rouge was a charter middle school in north Baton Rouge that closed at the end of the 2022-2023 school year after its board voted to surrender the charter. The school had been running for several years under the Democracy Prep network, but state academic ratings slid from a D to an F, and the charter was not renewed. This means that for families looking at this campus today, the school itself no longer exists under this name or operator.

Baton Rouge, where the school was located on Prescott Road, is Louisiana’s capital city and a consolidated city-parish. It functions as a state government center, a university town anchored by Louisiana State University and Southern University, and an industrial and petrochemical hub along the Mississippi River. The city is largely car-dependent, with walkable pockets near downtown and around the LSU campus, and its neighborhoods range from historic districts near downtown to sprawling suburban-style development outward. The local economy draws on state government, petrochemical operations, healthcare, logistics, and higher education. The everyday texture blends government offices, university life, riverfront industry, and a food and culture scene rooted in Cajun and Creole traditions. This school sat in a part of the city that has seen significant economic and demographic shifts over time.

Academically, state testing data from the school’s final year shows that across all tested grades and subjects, the share of students reaching proficiency was very low. In reading and math, in most grade levels the proportion of students scoring at the proficient level or above was small, with some grades showing essentially no students reaching that bar. In science and social studies, results followed a similar pattern, with proficiency rates remaining low across grades three through eight. The school did not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to consider. A parent looking at these results would see that the academic outcomes during the school’s final year were well below what most families would consider acceptable, and the state’s own letter-grade system reflected that.

The school environment data, including enrollment counts, demographic breakdowns, free-or-reduced-price lunch rates, and staffing ratios, were not available in the records we examined. This gap often reflects the fact that the school was already in closure proceedings and may not have submitted full data for that final year. Civil rights indicators and program offerings, such as advanced coursework or extracurriculars, were also absent from the data.

Looking at the district brief, the most lasting fact for anyone researching this school is that it closed. After years of poor academic performance, Democracy Prep Baton Rouge’s board voted to surrender its Type 5 charter, effective at the conclusion of the 2022-2023 school year. The state board of education did not renew the charter. Following the closure, the campus at 4055 Prescott Road was transitioned to a Recovery School District direct-run school operated in partnership with Third Future Schools, starting with the 2023-2024 school year and serving grades K-8. That means a family looking at this address today would find a different school with a different operator and governance structure.

For a parent or resident, the takeaway is straightforward: Democracy Prep Baton Rouge no longer exists as a charter school. The academic record from its final years was weak, and the campus has since been taken over by a different operator under the Recovery School District. Anyone considering options in this part of Baton Rouge would need to look at the current school at that address rather than the one described here.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 69%

School 9% · district not reported

▼ 11 pts below state median

Grade 819%

School 19% · district not reported

▲ 4 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 37%

School 7% · district not reported

▼ 23 pts below state median

Grade 47%

School 7% · district not reported

▼ 24 pts below state median

Grade 513%

School 13% · district not reported

▼ 15 pts below state median

Grade 615%

School 15% · district not reported

▼ 11 pts below state median

Grade 716%

School 16% · district not reported

▼ 17 pts below state median

Grade 820%

School 20% · district not reported

▼ 7 pts below state median

Science

Grade 77%

School 7% · district not reported

▼ 15 pts below state median

Grade 814%

School 14% · district not reported

▼ 1 pts below state median

Social studies

Grade 75%

School 5% · district not reported

▼ 19 pts below state median

This schoolDistrict average, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income4%Higher-income50%46 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income13%Higher-income20%7 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income14%Higher-income50%36 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income20%Higher-income0%20 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income9%Higher-income0%9 pp gap