North Caddo High School

North Caddo High School in Vivian, LA, is a small high school serving 306 students in grades 9-12 within the Caddo Parish school district, where a significant portion of the student body (65.36%) is economically disadvantaged.

This school stands out for its impressive graduation rate of 89.7% in 2024-2025, which is higher than both the district (82.6%) and state (85.0%) averages, and notably better than the 86.0% rate at the nearby Northwood High School. North Caddo also boasts a much lower dropout rate (2.5%) compared to Northwood (4.0%) and the district (4.1%). A key advantage is its small class sizes, with a student-teacher ratio of just 10.2:1, far lower than Northwood's 17.5:1. This personalized environment likely contributes to its strong performance in core subjects like Algebra I, where 69% of students are proficient—more than double Northwood's 34%—and Biology, where 51% are proficient versus Northwood's 48%. However, a critical challenge is chronic absenteeism, which spiked to 33.1% in 2024-2025, exceeding the district (31.0%) and state (22.5%) averages.

One of the most remarkable findings is the school's dramatic turnaround in Algebra I proficiency, which soared from just 27% in 2023-2024 to 69% in 2025-2026—a 42 percentage point increase in two years. This suggests highly effective interventions or teaching strategies are at work. Additionally, performance among student subgroups has improved broadly, with African American students and male students both seeing significant gains. Despite serving a higher percentage of economically disadvantaged students than Northwood (65.4% vs. 54.3%), North Caddo achieves superior outcomes in graduation rates and key subjects, highlighting the potential of its small-school model. Yet, the high absenteeism rate threatens to undermine these successes, making it the school's most pressing issue to address.