Ferriday Junior High School

Ferriday Junior High School in Ferriday, LA, serves 241 students in grades 6-8 and is part of the Concordia Parish school district, a community with high economic need where over 94% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

This school is in the midst of a remarkable turnaround. After years of ranking in the bottom 10-15% of Louisiana middle schools, Ferriday Junior High has made dramatic academic gains. In just two years, its overall state ranking jumped from the 6th percentile to the 23rd percentile, with math proficiency rising from 28% to 47% and English Language Arts (ELA) proficiency climbing from 39% to 60%. This rapid improvement is outpacing the district and even its nearby peer, Vidalia Junior High School, which has remained more stagnant. In fact, Ferriday now outperforms Vidalia in 8th-grade math and ELA. The school also boasts a very low chronic absenteeism rate of 11.8%—far better than the district (18.9%) and state (22.5%) averages—and has maintained a 0.0% dropout rate for two consecutive years, indicating a strong, supportive school culture.

One of the most compelling findings is Ferriday’s exceptional support for students with special needs, ranking in the 92nd percentile statewide—a sign of highly effective, targeted interventions. However, a clear area for growth remains in Social Studies, where only 35% of students are proficient, compared to 60% in ELA. While the school has made significant progress with all student groups, the biggest challenge ahead is closing the achievement gap for students from low-income households, who make up the vast majority of the student body. The school’s success with special education students provides a promising blueprint for how to apply similar intensive support to ensure every child thrives.