New Harmony High Institute

New Harmony High Institute is a single public high school in New Orleans, Louisiana, serving grades 9 through 12 with 328 students, and it operates as its own district, New Harmony High Institute.

New Harmony High Institute presents a story of rapid academic improvement alongside persistent systemic challenges. The school has shown remarkable growth in test scores between the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 school years, with double-digit percentage point increases in Algebra I (up 17 points to 46%), English II (up 18 points to 57%), and Biology (up 18 points to 53%). However, despite these gains, the school still trails state averages in every subject, and its state ranking improved only modestly from the 15th to the 26th percentile. A notable outlier is U.S. History, which saw a 4-point decline to 40% proficiency, the only subject to decrease.

The school's most critical issues are its low graduation rate of 59.8% (25.2 points below the state average) and a high chronic absenteeism rate of 29.0% (6.5 points above the state average). These two metrics are likely linked, as students who are chronically absent are far more likely to drop out. The dropout rate of 4.6% also exceeds the state average. With a favorable student-teacher ratio of 11.3:1 and over half of students (53.66%) eligible for free or reduced lunch, the school has the resources and a clear need to focus on improving attendance and graduation outcomes to build on its recent academic successes.