Summary:
Bastrop High School is the sole high school in the Morehouse Parish school district, serving grades 7 through 12 with a total enrollment of 794 students in a high-poverty area where 84% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.
This school faces significant academic challenges, with proficiency rates dramatically below state averages. In the 2025-2026 school year, only 8% of students were proficient in Mathematics compared to 62% statewide, and just 25% were proficient in English Language Arts versus 70% statewide. The school ranks in the bottom 4% of all Louisiana high schools, placing 313th out of 325 schools. A critical concern is the chronic absenteeism rate of 44.2%, which is nearly double the state average of 22.5% and likely a major factor driving the low test scores. The dropout rate of 3.7% also exceeds both district and state averages.
Despite these struggles, there is a notable paradox: the graduation rate of 86.7% is slightly above the state average of 85.0%, suggesting students may be earning diplomas without achieving expected academic mastery. Performance varies inconsistently across subjects and years—for example, English II proficiency dropped from 39% to 22% between school years, while U.S. History proficiency improved from 13% to 27%. With a student-teacher ratio of 13.3:1, the school has manageable class sizes, but the combination of extreme poverty, high absenteeism, and low proficiency indicates that Bastrop High School is in urgent need of comprehensive intervention to address these systemic issues.
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