Webster Junior High School

Webster Junior High School in Minden, LA, serves 461 students in grades 6 through 8 within the Webster Parish school district, where nearly 80% of students come from low-income backgrounds. While the school has consistently ranked in the bottom 20% of Louisiana middle schools over the past decade, it shows relative strengths in English Language Arts compared to its own performance in Math and Social Studies, and its dropout rate is notably low—well below both district and state averages.

When compared to nearby schools, Webster Junior High School sits in the middle academically. It significantly outperforms Homer Junior High School in Claiborne Parish, with roughly double the proficiency rates in Math (47% vs. 23%) and ELA (53% vs. 42%). However, it is substantially outperformed by Haughton Middle School in Bossier Parish, just 13.7 miles away, which serves a more affluent population and achieves 69% proficiency in Math and 78% in ELA. Webster’s chronic absenteeism rate of 24% is better than both Homer’s 29.4% and Haughton’s 28.5%, and its student-teacher ratio of 13.6:1 is favorable, suggesting class sizes are not a primary barrier to growth.

An interesting trend is that while Webster has seen a clear improvement in chronic absenteeism—dropping from 35.3% in 2020-2021 to 24% in 2024-2025—this has not yet translated into academic gains on state assessments. The school’s biggest challenge is supporting its large population of low-income students, who rank in the bottom 18% of the state. On a positive note, White students at Webster showed a notable jump to the 32nd percentile in 2025-2026, a significant improvement from previous years, offering a potential clue about what strategies might be working for some groups.