Summary
Madison High School in Tallulah, LA, is a small, rural school serving 280 students in grades 8 through 12 within the Madison Parish district, where about 88% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Despite the district ranking near the bottom of the state, Madison High shows promising signs of improvement, recently earning its highest state ranking in years (260 out of 325) and a 1-star rating for the first time in several years, suggesting a potential turning point for the school.
Madison High stands out for its ability to keep students in school, boasting a remarkably low dropout rate of just 1.7%—far below the state average of 3.1% and the 6.4% rate at nearby Delhi High School in the Richland Parish district. Its graduation rate of 81.6% also exceeds Delhi High's 74.4%. Additionally, the school offers a strong structural advantage with a very low student-teacher ratio of 7.8:1, compared to Delhi High's 12.7:1, allowing for more individualized attention. However, academic test scores remain a challenge, with proficiency rates in subjects like Geometry (50%) and Biology (51%) significantly outperforming Delhi High's 13% and 15%, but still below state averages in core areas like English I (26%) and U.S. History (31%).
A key area of concern is chronic absenteeism, which affects 31% of students—higher than the state average of 22.5% and Delhi High's 28.3%—and likely undermines the benefits of small class sizes. On a positive note, the school has seen a remarkable turnaround for its African American students, who jumped from the 11th to the 36th percentile statewide and earned a 2-star rating, the highest of any subgroup. While the Madison Parish district struggles overall, Madison High is a relative bright spot, effectively retaining students and showing momentum that, if paired with efforts to reduce absenteeism, could lead to stronger academic outcomes.
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