Overview

Benjamin Franklin High School, founded in 1957, is a selective charter and magnet high school in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans, overseen by the Orleans Parish School District. As with nearly all New Orleans public schools since the district's near-total conversion to charter status after Hurricane Katrina, it operates independently within the parish's charter framework rather than as a traditional zoned district school.

Academics

No independently verified Louisiana state assessment or letter-grade data (via the Louisiana School Finder) was located specifically for this school for this profile; check the Louisiana Department of Education's site directly for current results. As a selective admissions school, Franklin's outcomes are likely to differ substantially from citywide New Orleans averages cited elsewhere (one source put citywide New Orleans school proficiency at a district-wide 29%) -- that citywide figure isn't specific to Franklin and shouldn't be read as describing this school.

Neighborhood

The school sits in Gentilly, a New Orleans neighborhood on relatively high ground compared to some other parts of the city, encompassing several sub-neighborhoods including Gentilly Terrace and Gentilly Woods.

Crime & safety

Citywide New Orleans crime data is consistently elevated across every source checked: estimates range from 60% to 162% above the national average, with a D- overall grade at roughly the 10th safety percentile nationally, and New Orleans specifically flagged for a high motor-vehicle-theft rate. One source reports meaningful year-over-year improvement (homicides down 40%, armed robberies down 52% in a recent period), while another shows an earlier year's rate falling more modestly (4%). Neighborhood-specific data for Gentilly's sub-areas is more favorable than the citywide picture: resident-survey grades of B-, B+, and C+ were found for different Gentilly sub-neighborhoods, distinctly better than New Orleans's citywide D- crime grade.

This is a useful case for the general pattern seen throughout this directory: citywide New Orleans crime data is bad by almost every measure, but the school's actual neighborhood (Gentilly) has resident-survey grades in the B/C range rather than the city's overall D-. Resident surveys and FBI-derived indices measure different things (perceived safety vs. reported incident rates), so we're presenting both rather than treating either as the final word.

Our calculated rating

We don't publish a single proprietary score. Given verified academic data is unavailable and the safety picture mixes citywide FBI-based figures with more favorable but methodologically different neighborhood resident surveys, we're not showing a rating for this profile. See our ratings methodology.

Sources

  1. Wikipedia, "Benjamin Franklin High School (New Orleans)," cross-checked against NCES ID 220029900888.
  2. Nextdoor Neighbors resource page, New Orleans crime and safety, 2026.
  3. AreaVibes, New Orleans crime data, citing FBI UCR data, 2026.
  4. CrimeGrade.org, New Orleans overall-crime analysis and SchoolGrade estimate, 2025.
  5. NeighborhoodScout, New Orleans crime data, 2026.
  6. FreedomForAllAmericans.org, "New Orleans Crime Rate: 10 Key Facts About Safety in 2026."
  7. City-Data.com, New Orleans crime statistics, 2026.
  8. Niche.com, Gentilly Woods and Gentilly Terrace crime and safety, resident survey data.