Summary:
Zip code 70422 in Amite, Louisiana, is home to three public schools—Amite Elementary Magnet School, Amite High Magnet, and Amite Westside Middle Magnet—all part of the Tangipahoa Parish school district, which ranks in the bottom 21st percentile statewide. These schools serve a predominantly economically disadvantaged student population, with free/reduced lunch rates ranging from 88.5% to 94.9%.
Amite Elementary Magnet School stands out as the strongest performer in the area, achieving the highest state ranking (21st percentile) and leading in mathematics proficiency at 57%. In contrast, Amite Westside Middle Magnet shows a dramatic drop in math proficiency to just 28%, though it posts a bright spot with 60% of 7th graders proficient in English Language Arts. Amite High Magnet faces the greatest challenges, with the lowest state ranking (10th percentile), a graduation rate of 81.6% (below the state average of 85%), and a chronic absenteeism rate of 52.3%—more than double the state average. A notable anomaly at the high school is a 100% proficiency rate on the English I exam, likely due to a very small number of test-takers.
Chronic absenteeism emerges as the most critical issue across all three schools, with rates between 36.6% and 52.3%, far exceeding the state average of 22.5%. Despite favorable student-teacher ratios (9.5:1 to 12.3:1), academic proficiency in core subjects remains well below state averages, particularly in social studies where the highest score is just 36% at the middle school. The data strongly suggests that addressing attendance is the most impactful lever for improvement, as the correlation between high absenteeism and low performance is consistent across all grade levels in this community.
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