Concordia Education Center

Concordia Education Center in Ferriday, LA, is a small alternative school serving just 26 students in grades 3 through 12, operating as a specialized intervention center for students who have not succeeded in traditional school settings. As part of the Concordia Parish school district, the school faces significant socioeconomic challenges, with 84.6% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch, and it offers an exceptionally low student-teacher ratio of 4:1—far lower than nearby schools like Monterey High School (9.2:1) or Harrisonburg High School.

Despite this intensive resource, academic proficiency rates are dramatically lower than surrounding schools. In 2025-2026, only 5% of students were proficient in math and social studies, and 16% in English language arts—compared to Monterey High School’s 75% math proficiency and 82% English proficiency. Even Sicily Island High School, which has a similar high poverty rate (93% free/reduced lunch), outperforms Concordia significantly. The school’s graduation rate has improved from 50% (2021-2022) to 72.7% (2023-2024), but remains well below peers like Sicily Island (93.8%) and Monterey (93.5%). The dropout rate, while down from a crisis-level 18.5% in 2019-2020, is still 5.1%—higher than the district (4.5%) and state (3.1%) averages, and far above the near-zero rates of nearby schools.

Chronic absenteeism is a widespread community issue, with Concordia’s rate at 29.2% (2023-2024), similar to Sicily Island (27.8%) and Delta Charter School MST (22.5%). However, there are fragile signs of improvement: the school’s chronic absenteeism is projected to drop to 22.8% in 2024-2025, and performance on End of Course exams (30% proficient in English II) suggests that students who persist to graduation may receive focused support. Concordia is not a typical school—it is a critical safety net for highly at-risk students, fighting an uphill battle against deep-seated challenges that a low student-teacher ratio alone cannot overcome.