Summary:
The Lincoln Parish school district in Louisiana is home to two middle-level schools—Ruston Junior High School (serving grades 7-8 with 585 students) and I.A. Lewis School (serving grade 6 only with 277 students)—and the district itself ranks in the 81st percentile statewide, earning a 4-star rating.
When comparing the two schools, I.A. Lewis School stands out as the top academic performer in the 2025-2026 school year, achieving 70% proficiency in Mathematics and 75% in English Language Arts—matching or exceeding the district average and beating the state average in ELA by 5 points. However, Ruston Junior High School shows a remarkable improvement trajectory, jumping from the 43rd percentile (2 stars) in 2023-2024 to the 58th percentile (3 stars) in 2025-2026, with proficiency gains of 12 points in Math and 9 points in ELA. Notably, Ruston Junior High significantly outperforms I.A. Lewis in Social Studies (62% vs. 44%), while I.A. Lewis holds the edge in Math and ELA. Both schools serve a significant number of economically disadvantaged students (57.78% at Ruston, 61.73% at I.A. Lewis) and maintain favorable student-teacher ratios (13.3:1 and 12.3:1, respectively).
A key takeaway is that chronic absenteeism at both schools (16.6% at Ruston, 17.0% at I.A. Lewis) is below the state average of 22.5% but above the district average of 14.1%, indicating a middle-school-specific challenge. On a positive note, Ruston Junior High School boasts an exceptionally low dropout rate of just 0.2%—dramatically lower than the district (1.2%) and state (3.1%) averages—suggesting strong student support during the critical 7th and 8th grade transition years. Meanwhile, I.A. Lewis School has a clear weakness in Social Studies, where only 44% of students are proficient, a full 19 points below the district average and a prime area for instructional focus.
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