Publicly-Funded New Orleans Center for Creative Arts Enrolls 636 Students From 15 Parishes; Every Student In First Senior Class Graduates

The publicly-funded arts high school where musicians Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford, Wynton and Jason Marsalis attended has graduated its first four-year high school senior class with a 100 percent graduation rate, according to an informational report made public Monday. New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) saw all 44 of its first senior class graduate, as its total enrollment reached 636 students from 15 parishes.

Despite NOCCA’s emphasis on 11 different arts disciplines, 92 percent of its students scored “good” or “excellent” on the typical end-of-course academic tests for the 2013-2014 school year. Statewide, 62 percent of Louisiana’s students scored “good” or “excellent” on the same tests.

“Clearly this public school is investing our state’s dollars to reach beyond New Orleans and attract those students from around Louisiana who, as a result of their education at NOCCA, may well one day be leaders in our creative and cultural economy,” said Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera.

NOCCA educates 242 students full-time in its four-year Academic Studio and 394 students in its Monday-through-Friday half-day Arts Program. From 2011 through 2015, 96 percent of NOCCA’s 630 graduates went on to college and conservatory programs across the country. Over those same five years, NOCCA reported that its students earned awards, grants or scholarship offers totaling more than $51 million dollars – a two-to-one return on the $25 million in direct state general fund dollars NOCCA received over that same time period.

“I want to highlight and thank the legislative auditors for stepping out of their traditional reports and taking on this ambitious attempt to capture what is working well and functioning at the highest possible level in state government,” said NOCCA President and CEO Kyle Wedberg.

The state auditor noted that NOCCA is funded mostly through direct annual appropriations of $5.6 million in state general fund dollars and $2.1 million in Minimum Foundation Program dollars from the Louisiana Department of Education.

While community activists founded the school in 1973 under the Orleans Parish School Board, in July 2000 the Louisiana legislature established NOCCA’s current Chartres Street riverfront campus near the French Quarter as a state agency under Louisiana’s Special Schools and Commissions. Today, NOCCA operates under the direction of a 13-member appointed board – independent of the control of the state education superintendent or any local or state education board.

During the 2014-2015 school year, NOCCA’s non-profit support organization, the NOCCA Institute, raised an additional $415,632 in private donations to support NOCCA. This included more than $150,000 the NOCCA Institute awarded directly as student financial aid.

Of Louisiana’s 148 high schools, NOCCA was one of only 14 that received an “A” letter grade from the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for the 2013-2014 school year. NOCCA was also one of only 19 schools in the country (two in Louisiana) to receive the “Exemplary School Designation” from the Arts Schools Network.