Howard School

Howard School in Ruston, LA, is a small alternative school serving 75 students in grades 2 through 12, operating as its own independent Howard School district, and faces severe educational challenges that set it apart from nearby schools.

The most critical concern for parents is the school's extremely low graduation rate of just 6.3% for the 2022-2023 school year, compared to rates above 85% at nearby schools like Quitman High School (92.5%) and Weston High School (91.8%). Academic proficiency is also critically low across all subjects—for example, only 25% of students are proficient in math versus the state average of 62%, and end-of-course exam scores are in the single digits or teens for key subjects like English II (8%) and Algebra I (15%). In contrast, Simsboro High School (8.83 miles away) is a 4-star school with proficiency rates two to three times higher. The student-teacher ratio has fluctuated wildly, from an implausible 90.6:1 in 2022-2023 to 23.4:1 in 2024-2025, still higher than all nearby schools which range from 10:1 to 14.3:1. Additionally, the percentage of students eligible for free/reduced lunch has swung dramatically from 43.38% to 8.8% to 78.67% over three years, raising questions about data reliability.

While the school serves a high-needs population, its performance is a stark outlier compared to high-performing neighbors like D'Arbonne Woods Charter School (19.53 miles away), which often exceeds 80% proficiency. Even Lincoln Preparatory School (3.62 miles away), which also has low proficiency rates, achieves a much higher graduation rate (85.2%) with a lower student-teacher ratio (10:1). There is a glimmer of relative strength in 7th-grade English Language Arts (59% proficiency), but overall, the data suggests the school is struggling to fulfill its mission of re-engaging at-risk students and preparing them for graduation.