Bossier High School

Bossier High School in Bossier City, LA, serves 654 students in grades 8-12 and is part of the Bossier Parish school district, which ranks in the top 42% of districts statewide, yet the school itself has consistently earned a 1-star rating and ranks in the bottom 15-20% of high schools in Louisiana over the past decade.

The most pressing issue at Bossier High is a chronic absenteeism crisis, with nearly half of its students (48.8%) chronically absent in the 2024-2025 school year—a rate nearly double that of in-district peers like Parkway High School (37.1%) and Airline High School (39.8%), and more than double the state average of 22.5%. This attendance problem is strongly linked to low academic performance; for example, only 38% of students are proficient in Algebra I compared to 65% at Parkway and 70% at Airline, and just 36% are proficient in English I versus 78% at Parkway and 73% at Airline. The graduation rate has also declined sharply, dropping from 90.8% in 2021 to 78.3% in 2025, well below the district average of 90.7% and the state average of 85.0%, while the dropout rate of 3.8% is more than double that of Parkway (1.5%) and Airline (1.1%).

Despite these challenges, there is a notable bright spot: English Language Learner (ELL) students at Bossier High ranked in the 54th percentile statewide in 2025-2026, earning a 3-star rating and showing significant improvement from the 10th percentile two years prior, suggesting a targeted program may be working for this group. However, the school's overall stagnation is concerning when compared to similarly high-poverty schools like Green Oaks Performing Arts Academy, which has dramatically improved its state ranking from the 7th to the 33rd percentile in two years and outperforms Bossier in Algebra I (58% vs. 38%). This shows that high poverty does not have to be a barrier to progress, making Bossier High's persistent low performance and absenteeism rate—which has remained above 48% for four years—a critical area for parent attention.