Baton Rouge, Louisiana charter schools managed by CMOs outperform other public schools

(The Center Square) – Baton Rouge students that were in charter schools run by charter management organizations outperformed students from traditional school districts within the city in reading and math, according to a study.

A charter management organization is a nonprofit that manages two or more charter schools. The study found that students who attend independent charter schools didn’t do as well as the CMO students, but did match the performance of the average student in the state.

The Center for Research on Education Outcomes released its report on the city of Baton Rouge’s public school academic performance in May. The study reviewed academic performance from the 2016-17 through 2018-19 school years.

CREDO did a study on Baton Rouge schools in 2019. That earlier study found that students in CMO charter schools performed similarly to the average student in reading and math. Within Baton Rouge’s charter system, CREDO stated that “CMO-affiliated charters make significantly greater progress in reading than independently managed charter schools.”

There are 1,303 public schools in Louisiana and 145 charter schools in the state. There are 22 charter schools in Baton Rouge.

In Baton Rouge charter schools, 53% of the students are on free or reduced federal lunch programs and 80% of the students are minorities. Some 66% of the enrolled students were Black in 2020-21, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.