Original Research by School Decision on Livingston Collegiate Academy
Livingston Collegiate Academy is a regular public charter high school in New Orleans, serving grades nine through twelve. It sits on Dwyer Road in a city that functions as a dense urban port and commercial hub for the Gulf Coast, shaped by its cross-cultural heritage, distinct music and Creole cuisine, and annual celebrations such as Mardi Gras. The historic French Quarter, with its French and Spanish Creole architecture and nightlife along Bourbon Street, is the best-known part of the city, but the school is located in a residential area outside the tourist core. New Orleans operates as a consolidated city-parish government and has a streetcar system that includes the iconic St. Charles Avenue line. The city was severely affected by Hurricane Katrina, which flooded a majority of the city and displaced much of its population, and has since undergone major redevelopment, with population recovery and ongoing concerns about gentrification.
The school enrollment is moderate for a high school, with students roughly balanced across all four grade levels. The student body is predominantly Black and Hispanic, with a very small share of White students and a small share of students identifying as two or more races or Asian. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic context of the area. Data on students served under an Individualized Education Program or classified as English learners was not available in the information we used.
State testing results were not available for this school in the data we reviewed, and no graduation rate or chronic-absenteeism rate was reported either. Because these are core academic and outcome metrics, a parent or guardian would need to seek them directly from the school or from the Louisiana state education agency. The school is a charter, meaning it operates independently under a charter authorizer, which is part of New Orleans’ citywide portfolio of autonomous public schools. We found no publicly reported recent changes at the district level, such as shifts in curriculum, policy, or spending, that would be relevant to families.
We looked for information on program offerings such as Advanced Placement, career and technical education, or dual-credit courses and found none in the available data. Without that detail, a family interested in pathways after graduation should ask the school directly about its academic course sequence, elective options, and any partnerships with local colleges or employers.
The comparison of schools available to us was relative to other districts in Orleans Parish, but the standard metrics we use — overall proficiency, graduation rate, and chronic absenteeism — were all absent for Livingston Collegiate Academy, so a relative placement against its neighbors was not possible. That absence likely reflects data that the school has not reported to the systems we draw from, rather than a judgment on the school itself.
In summary, Livingston Collegiate Academy is a New Orleans charter high school serving a predominantly low-income, Black and Hispanic student body in a city with a complex recent history of disaster, recovery, and redevelopment. The lack of publicly available results in the data we used means that a family’s decision will depend heavily on information obtained directly from the school: its graduation rate, test performance, discipline climate, and what academic and extracurricular paths it offers.
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