Best Public Schools in Zip Code 70117

The four schools in New Orleans' 70117 zip code serve a diverse range of students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, with a total enrollment of about 2,524 students and a high average rate of economic disadvantage, as three of the four schools report free or reduced lunch rates above 87%.

The standout school in the area is New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), a selective-admissions arts high school that ranks in the top 2% of Louisiana high schools. NOCCA boasts exceptional academic performance, with U.S. History proficiency at 95% and Biology proficiency between 84-91%, far exceeding state averages. It also has a remarkably low chronic absenteeism rate of 3.6% and a 0% dropout rate, supported by an extraordinarily low student-teacher ratio of 3.4:1. In stark contrast, Dr. Martin Luther King Charter School for Sci Technical, an alternative school serving a highly vulnerable population with a 100% free/reduced lunch rate, faces significant challenges. Its academic proficiency rates are well below state averages—21% in Mathematics versus the state's 62%—and it has a high chronic absenteeism rate of 41.8% and a dropout rate of 8.3%, though it still graduates 55.6% of its students. KIPP Leadership is the largest school with 890 students, serving a predominantly low-income population (90.67% free/reduced lunch), while Frederick A. Douglass High School, with 658 students and an 87.39% poverty rate, has no available test scores, graduation rates, or absenteeism data, creating a significant gap in the analysis.

The data reveals a tale of two extremes within the same zip code, where NOCCA's elite outcomes are likely influenced by its selective admissions process, making direct comparisons with other schools that serve all students in their attendance zones fundamentally unfair. The average free/reduced lunch rate across all four schools is 80.2%, but excluding NOCCA, it jumps to 92.7%, highlighting the systemic challenge of providing equitable education in high-poverty areas. The average student-teacher ratio is 10.8:1, though this is heavily skewed by NOCCA's low ratio; the average for the other three schools is 13.3:1. Dr. Martin Luther King Charter School, as an alternative school, plays a critical role by serving students who have struggled in traditional settings, and its 55.6% graduation rate, while low, reflects the difficult work of supporting a highly vulnerable student population.