Our Story
In the summer of 2007, our founding team of 12 teachers and administrators met for three weeks on Tulane University’s campus to form our vision for New Orleans’ newest college preparatory charter school, Langston Hughes Academy. Given the school’s namesake (renowned Harlem poet, Langston Hughes), we decided that the school should have a communications focus and offer instruction in poetry, debate and creative writing to all students. The school’s four core values, Leadership, Hard Work, Respect and Critical Thinking) were chosen and the school slogan, “Dream it. Do it. Be it.” was coined by our founding fifth grade reading teacher. We all agreed that all teachers would use data to guide their instruction and that teaching new behaviors and habits would be a priority when the students arrived. Summer school was held at Tulane University for all students in August to teach expectations and to assess where our students were academically. In September, our school moved to the recently renovated Thurgood Marshall campus where the school finish out the 2007-2008 school year.
In August 2008, our school will relocate to the original Langston Hughes Elementary school site in Gentilly where a new modular building campus has been constructed to house our school. In 2009, our school will move into a newly designed facility which will be built adjoining the temporary modular campus.
