Original Research by School Decision on Rooted School
Rooted School is a public charter high school in New Orleans that operates as its own school district, serving students in grades nine through thirteen. The school has moved to the campus of Southern University at New Orleans, situating its students on a university campus with access to college facilities as part of their regular day. This relocation is a defining feature of the school environment.
The school is small, with a student body that is predominantly Black, joined by a sizable Hispanic contingent and a small number of white, Asian, and multiracial students. A relatively small share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, a data point that reflects the school’s particular demographic mix rather than the broader city pattern. The school does not report counts of students with Individualized Education Programs or English learners in the available data, so those dimensions of student support are not captured here.
Rooted School has been designated an Early College Academy by the Louisiana Department of Education. Its grade span extends through grade thirteen, a fifth year meant to allow students to earn college credit and potentially an associate’s degree alongside their high school diploma. This early-college pathway is central to the academic offering. No state assessment results were available in the data reviewed, and no four-year graduation rate was reported. A parent looking at this school would want to follow up directly with the school about academic performance measures, as the data does not provide a basis for comparison with other high schools in Orleans Parish or beyond.
The school also participates in a publicly reported randomized control trial that provides direct cash transfers to graduating students, using the school as the disbursement vehicle. This guaranteed-income program is an unusual and distinctive addition to the student experience, though the available data does not detail eligibility or scale.
New Orleans is a dense urban city-parish and a major port and commercial hub, known for its music, Creole cuisine, annual festivals including Mardi Gras, and a growing film industry that has earned the city the nickname Hollywood South. The historic French Quarter anchors a downtown commercial core, and the city’s cultural and civic life spans neighborhoods from the Central Business District to Uptown university areas. The school’s zip code shows home values that are in line with the Louisiana state median, with rents that are moderate; both home values and rents have seen a slight decline over the past year. The city’s population has been shaped by the catastrophic effects of Hurricane Katrina and subsequent redevelopment, with recent estimates indicating a modest decrease from the 2020 census count.
Because Rooted School serves a specific early-college mission, it is not a general-purpose high school. It will appeal most to families looking for a small school environment where students can begin college coursework while still in high school, and to students who are motivated by the prospect of earning college credit and an associate’s degree at no additional tuition cost. The university-campus setting and the guaranteed-income study are distinctive program features that further set the school apart from other charter options in New Orleans. The absence of state testing data and graduation rate in this review means that a parent looking for benchmark academic comparisons will need to seek that information directly from the school.
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