Delta Charter School MST

Delta Charter School MST in Ferriday, LA, is an alternative school serving 485 students in grades K-12 under the Delta Charter Group, with a moderate level of economic disadvantage as over half of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. This school stands out for its consistently high graduation rate of 89.7% (2024-2025), which exceeds the state average of 85.0% and is notably higher than the nearby Concordia Education Center (72.7%), another alternative school just 2.15 miles away. Delta Charter also offers a favorable student-to-teacher ratio of 11.2:1, providing a more intimate learning environment than many public schools, though it faces challenges with chronic absenteeism at 22.5%, which is higher than Monterey High School (14.4%) and Harrisonburg High School (19.3%).

Academically, Delta Charter shows notable strengths in upper-grade English Language Arts, with 7th grade (82%) and 8th grade (70%) both outperforming state averages, and an exceptional Geometry End-of-Course proficiency rate of 66%—9 points above the state average—marking a significant improvement from prior years. However, math performance varies widely by grade level: 6th grade math (73%) excels, while 4th grade (47%) and 5th grade (49%) lag behind state averages, suggesting a need for targeted support in upper elementary grades. Social Studies scores are inconsistent, with 3rd grade (59%) exceeding the state average by 10 points, but 4th grade (39%) and 8th grade (49%) falling below, indicating a need for a more aligned curriculum across grade levels.

Compared to Monterey High School, which consistently outperforms in all subjects and has a higher graduation rate (93.5%) and lower chronic absenteeism, Delta Charter has clear areas for growth, particularly in overall academic proficiency and attendance. Despite these challenges, Delta Charter is a high-performing outlier among alternative schools, especially when contrasted with Concordia Education Center, which has very low test scores and a higher dropout rate. A notable anomaly in the data is a spike in the dropout rate to 23.6% during the 2019-2020 school year, likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on remote learning, but the school has since recovered to rates below 2%.