Leading up to the start of the 2026-2027 school year, I had the privilege of speaking with 520+ Crescent City Schools staff members during an all-staff gathering.
Together with Julie Lause, the co-founder of CCS and Chief of Schools, we shared how we came to found Crescent City Schools, the growth and changes that our network has experienced since its founding in 2010, and the larger story of education in New Orleans. Our city’s unique, majority charter school system has resulted in five years of consecutive growth in Orleans Parish for student mastery levels on state assessments across all grades and subjects, zero failing schools, and a college enrollment rate that has grown by nearly 30 percentage points since 2004.
As CCS enters its 16th year of operating schools it New Orleans, our organization remains committed to its founding values, and for the 2026-2027 school year, all of our staff continues to live out three guiding principles:
We Serve All Kids
For CCS, equity means that not only do we welcome all children, we also make plans to serve them well. We continue to set high expectations for our scholars, in terms of academics, behavior, and overall potential. Living out this principle means continuously working to improve academics across our network and running standalone programs like Aurora and Constellations to better serve specific student populations.
We Believe in People
Curriculum can’t hold people accountable or have high expectations for students. It’s people – the teachers and staff who interact with students every day – who do that. Every CCS staff member, whether they are in a student-facing or behind-the-scenes role, knows that they contribute to the mission of their school.
We Are Not Afraid
CCS believes that if we have the power to make decisions, we should be making them to effect change and improve lives. From re-imagining food services in order to provide students with better-quality food, to continuing to help staff members reach their educational goals of their own, CCS continues to innovatively use its resources on behalf of its students and staff.
For the 2026-2027 school year, CCS plans on building on the success of last academic year, where all CCS schools saw positive growth in student mastery levels. I invite you to follow along this academic year as our staff, students, and families accomplish great things together.
