Best Public Schools in Zip Code 70471

The five public schools in zip code 70471 (Mandeville, LA) are part of the highly-ranked St. Tammany Parish school district and serve students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, creating two distinct feeder pipelines with very different performance profiles.

The "Northside" pipeline of Pontchartrain Elementary School (PK-3), Tchefuncte Middle School (4-6), and Mandeville High School (9-12) forms a model of consistent excellence. Pontchartrain Elementary is the academic powerhouse with a 5-star rating, 88% math proficiency, and the lowest student-teacher ratio (11.9:1) and chronic absenteeism rate (6.4%) in the area. Tchefuncte Middle School is a hidden gem, achieving 90% math and 89% ELA proficiency—the highest scores in the entire zip code. Mandeville High School is the premier high school, ranking in the 95th percentile of Louisiana high schools with a 90% graduation rate, a 0.9% dropout rate, and exceptional STEM performance (90% Geometry proficiency). In contrast, the "Fontainebleau" pipeline shows a troubling decline. While Fontainebleau Junior High School (7-8) is solid (84th percentile), Fontainebleau High School (9-12) struggles with the highest chronic absenteeism (29%), the highest dropout rate (3.8%), and the lowest graduation rate (85%) in the zip code.

Chronic absenteeism emerges as the strongest predictor of performance, with schools having the lowest rates (Pontchartrain at 6.4%, Tchefuncte at 11%) achieving the highest test scores, while Fontainebleau High's 29% absentee rate correlates with its lower outcomes. Economic factors alone do not explain these differences, as Tchefuncte Middle outperforms both high schools despite a 25.5% free/reduced lunch rate. For parents, the data clearly shows that the Pontchartrain-to-Mandeville pipeline offers the most consistent, high-quality education from elementary through high school, while the Fontainebleau system presents significant challenges, particularly at the high school level.