Summary:
This analysis examines nine middle schools in the St. Landry Parish school district in Louisiana, serving grades 5 through 8 with a total enrollment of 2,138 students, where the district holds a 3-star rating and a significant majority of students face economic disadvantage.
The standout school in the parish is Arnaudville Middle School, the only school to achieve a 4-star rating and the top performer in all core subjects, with 76% proficiency in Math (14 points above the state average) and 63% in Social Studies. In contrast, Opelousas Junior High School faces the most significant challenges, with the lowest state ranking (6th percentile), the highest chronic absenteeism rate (42.3%), and the lowest proficiency rates (27% in Math and 29% in Social Studies). Port Barre Middle School shows strong consistency, matching the state average in both Math (62%) and ELA (70%) while having the lowest chronic absenteeism rate (23.1%) and the lowest dropout rate (0.6%).
Key metrics reveal that the parish-wide chronic absenteeism rate of 29.8% is a systemic issue, significantly higher than the state average of 22.5%, and this correlates strongly with performance—schools with lower absenteeism like Port Barre tend to perform better. While poverty is a factor, Arnaudville Middle School (76.68% poverty) outperforms schools with lower poverty rates, showing that school quality can mitigate economic challenges. The parish struggles most in Math and Social Studies, where proficiency gaps are largest, while ELA is a relative strength. Notably, smaller class sizes do not guarantee better results, as Opelousas Middle School has the smallest student-teacher ratio (7.3:1) but is one of the lowest-performing schools, while Sunset Middle School has the largest ratio (16.4:1) but performs in the middle of the pack.
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