Cohort 6
New Orleans
Principal, Arthur Ashe Charter School
“I work in urban education because you can actually change a child’s destiny. That’s why I do what I do, and I wouldn’t want to do anything else.”
In 2007, Aqua Stovall came to New Orleans through New Leaders. She became principal of Arthur Ashe Charter School, an open admissions fourth to sixth grade school that had the lowest fourth grade scores in the city and was under “academic watch.” In her first year at the school, she moved the scores from lowest in the city to 11th of all K-8 schools. Over the past four years, she and her team have made steady gains in math and reading proficiency, climbing an average of 18 percentage points a year – all while growing the school from a fourth to sixth grade school into a K-8 school and becoming a school with one of the highest populations of special needs children. Partly because Arthur Ashe quickly got a reputation as doing well with special needs students, it drew more and more of them. Aqua commented that, “We proved that you can have a high special needs population and still make achievement gains across the school. Just because students have labels does not mean they can’t learn, it just means we haven’t cracked the code yet.”
A few years in, Aqua hired Sabrina Pence, another New Leader, to be her assistant principal, and together they have worked hard to hire and develop strong reading and math teachers, scheduling 150 minutes of literacy and math every day for students. They held professional development every Friday focused on how to use data to improve instruction as well as ways to enhance the culture of the school. They also made the choice when expanding to the early grades, K-4, to have two teachers in every room so as to have early intervention for reading, math and behavioral issues.
Aqua remarks that the aftermath of Katrina has been a constant since her time at Arthur Ashe, with many children still recovering from the trauma and the disruption to their families – and a high number of emotional disabilities among the students. Many parents and family members are now living elsewhere, and many struggle to find work when they do get back. The students at Arthur Ashe are also living in poor and often violent neighborhoods.
Despite all of this, Aqua says she remains inspired and moved by her students’ resilience in getting dressed every morning in their uniforms and coming to school, believing that it can help them make a better life for themselves and their families. In her words, “When I see them coming in the door in the morning, I’m reminded of how very much we cannot let them down.”
