CA IN THE NEWS

2nd Annual "Battle of the East" is a HUGE Success!

Abramson and Sarah T. Reed (formerly Livingston, following last year's rebranding) faced off in a reinvigorated "Battle of the East," with both schools' coaches and administrators framing it as a celebration of New Orleans East. Reed coach Devon Francois and Abramson coach Gil Chartian each emphasized the family-style spirit of the matchup now that both schools operate under Collegiate Academies. The game took place on Friday, September 4th at 7 p.m. at Joe Brown Park, with Reed taking home the victory.

Links to 9/2/26 Article: Times-Picayune (Nola.com - may need subscription, PDF, PDF of Digital Article) + Crescent City Sports Article

CharterFolk Contributor Jerel Bryant – The Mindsets Behind School Transformations

CEO Jerel Bryant's CharterFolk column lays out three key mindsets he believes fuel the success of Collegiate Academies: collaboration, radical openness to feedback, and mission discipline. He credits these mindsets with producing CA's strongest academic results to date, with nearly 70% of scholars currently attending a B-rated school. 

Links to 8/28/26 Article: CharterFolk (PDF)

Educator who relocated to New Orleans after Katrina helps students find success

More than two decades after arriving in New Orleans, Jerel Bryant leads a network of thriving schools that supporters say are transforming lives. This piece highlights his path from teacher, to school leader, to Collegiate Academies CEO.

Links to 8/12/26 Article: WWL TV

New Orleans students start returning to school: ‘It’s going to be a fantastic year’

Freshmen at Abramson Sci Academy were greeted by cheering alumni and a "Welcome class of 2030" banner when they started school on August 3rd. School Leader, Principal Sasha Myers set expectations for the new freshman class while NOLA-PS Superintendent Fateama Fulmore visited classrooms. Abramson was one of the city's top-performing open-enrollment high schools last year, and this is a nice first-day feature that puts Abramson's culture and academic standing front and center.

Links to 8/4/26 Article: Times-Picayune (Nola.com - may need subscription, PDF, PDF of Digital Article)

College-bound students are 'melting.' Here’s what colleges, high schools are doing to help.

Nola.com highlights Collegiate's summer melt prevention efforts, spotlighting Skyi' Lewis and three other alumni-turned-college-students who are calling recent grads to check on housing, schedules, and enrollment logistics before the fall semester starts. The piece notes that up to 20% of college-intending students nationally never make it to campus, a gap the organization's alumni-staffed outreach is working to close. Good visibility piece on the alumni support pipeline. 

Links to 7/26/26 Article: Times-Picayune (Nola.com - may need subscription, PDF, PDF of Digital Article)

New Orleans schools saw big gains in student LEAP scores. Here’s how some schools improved.

Since 2021, NOLA Public Schools' combined LEAP scores have jumped 12 percentage points — the second-largest gain of any district in the state and double the statewide growth rate, marking a fourth straight year of NOLA outpacing the state. Livingston Collegiate Academy lands among the district's top-improving schools with a +4 percentage-point gain, while Abramson Sci Academy is highlighted as one of three schools driving the district's math surge, reaching 39% math mastery, up 15 points. Good context piece for how two of our schools are contributing to the citywide trend.

Links to 7/12/26 Article: Times-Picayune (Nola.com - may need subscription, PDF, PDF of Digital Article)

Long-awaited 9th Ward stadium breaks ground: ‘The realization of a dream’

In June, business and civic leaders from across the city and state gathered in a lot behind Carver's campus to celebrate a major milestone — the groundbreaking for the 9th Ward Stadium. The moment was bigger than one school or one neighborhood. When we deliver excellent academic results for kids who deserve them, we build the kind of community confidence that attracts investment, partnership, and possibility — and those ripple effects can be transformational. Carver and the 9th Ward are showing us exactly what that can look like.

Links to 6/22/26 Article: Times-Picayune (Nola.com - may need subscription, PDF, PDF of Digital Article

These New Orleans kids built a model of the city's pumps. Then they watched it fail.

Livingston Collegiate Academy ninth-graders in Deandria Barnes's science class built a physical model of New Orleans' pump-and-canal drainage system, only to watch it fail under simulated heavy rain. This hands-on lesson from Ripple Effect's flood-education curriculum, is now being implemented in CA schools. Scholars connected the exercise to real flooding they'd experienced and dug into the city's flood-control contradictions.

Links to 3/15/26 Article: Times-Picayune (Nola.com - may need subscription, PDF)

This New Orleans high school sets the bar for student growth. Here’s a typical day.

This nola.com feature follows a typical day at Carver, from Victor Jones's morning hallway check-ins through Nell Lewis's culture conversations and Jerel Bryant's reflections on leading the school for over a decade. It highlights some of the features of the school's academic growth model: fast-paced classes, reading intervention, public recognition for honor roll and GPA milestones. It also names some of the challenges, most notably the number of students who enter reading below grade level. it's a strong, textured profile of Carver's day-to-day culture.

Links to 3/15/26 Article: Times-Picayune (Nola.com - may need subscription, PDF)