Summary:
St. Helena Parish is served by a single high school, St. Helena College and Career Academy, which enrolls 435 students in grades 7 through 12 and operates within the St. Helena Parish school district, a district ranked in the bottom 1% of all districts in Louisiana.
As the only high school in the area, St. Helena College and Career Academy faces significant challenges. The school has a 100% free/reduced lunch rate, indicating that every student comes from a low-income household, which is a critical factor in understanding its performance. Academic proficiency is well below state averages, with only 31% of students proficient in Mathematics and 36% in English Language Arts, compared to state averages of 62% and 70%, respectively. The graduation rate is 76.5%, notably lower than the state's 85.0%, and the chronic absenteeism rate is a severe 43.6%—nearly double the state average of 22.5%. Despite a favorable student-teacher ratio of 13.7:1, which suggests smaller class sizes, the school struggles to overcome the impacts of poverty and attendance issues.
There are a few notable points within the data. The school has shown a slight upward trend in its state ranking over the past three years, moving from the 2nd to the 6th percentile. A relative bright spot is the 42% proficiency rate in English I, the highest for any subject and closest to the state average. However, a concerning "middle school slump" is evident, with 7th-grade Math proficiency at 35% dropping to 25% in 8th grade. The critically high chronic absenteeism rate is likely the single biggest barrier to improvement, as nearly half of all students are missing so much school that it directly impacts learning and outcomes.
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