Summary:
The city of Pride, Louisiana, is served by two public schools within the East Baton Rouge Parish school district, which is ranked in the 34th percentile statewide, and both schools serve a high-poverty population with over 80% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch.
Northeast Elementary School stands out as a strong performer, achieving proficiency rates in Math (59%) and English Language Arts (71%) that meet or exceed district and state averages, despite having a higher poverty rate (86.52%) than its counterpart. The school has shown remarkable improvement, climbing from the 16th to the 44th percentile in state rankings over three years. In contrast, Northeast High School faces significant challenges, consistently ranking in the bottom 20% of Louisiana high schools with a 1-star rating. The high school struggles with a low graduation rate (76.2%), a high dropout rate (7.2%), and chronic absenteeism (41.3%), all far worse than state averages. Notably, the high school has a favorable student-teacher ratio of 7.5:1, yet it underperforms the elementary school, which has a higher ratio of 13.2:1, suggesting issues beyond staffing levels.
A critical finding is the apparent academic decline as students transition from elementary to high school, with 5th graders at the elementary school scoring 71% proficient in Math, while 8th graders at the high school scored only 26% proficient. Chronic absenteeism is a systemic crisis affecting both schools, with rates (37.6% at the elementary and 41.3% at the high school) far exceeding the state average of 22.5%. While the high school showed a brief success in Geometry in 2024-2025, that performance was not sustained, highlighting inconsistency. Overall, Northeast Elementary is a beacon of success in the community, while Northeast High School requires targeted intervention to address its persistent low performance and high absenteeism.
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