Summary:
Zip code 71106 in Shreveport, Louisiana, is home to two middle schools serving grades 6-8 within the Caddo Parish school district, which itself holds a 1-star rating and ranks 86th out of 116 districts in the state.
The standout school in this area is Caddo Parish Middle Magnet School, a high-performing 5-star institution that ranks in the top 1% of all Louisiana middle schools (6th out of 452). It achieves 100% proficiency in both Math and English Language Arts, has a remarkably low chronic absenteeism rate of 10.8%, and a 0% dropout rate. In stark contrast, Caddo Middle Career and Technology School is a struggling 0-star school ranking in the bottom 1% (447th out of 452), with only 30% ELA proficiency, a 58.8% chronic absenteeism rate, and a 1.4% dropout rate. The poverty rate, measured by free/reduced lunch eligibility, is 23.34% at the magnet school versus 84.23% at the career and technology school, a 61-percentage-point gap that strongly correlates with the 70-percentage-point gap in ELA proficiency.
This extreme disparity within a single zip code reveals a highly stratified educational landscape. While Caddo Parish Middle Magnet benefits from selective admissions and a motivated student body, Caddo Middle Career and Technology School faces overwhelming challenges from high poverty and absenteeism, despite having a lower student-teacher ratio (12:1) than the magnet school (16.6:1). The chronic absenteeism rate at the career and technology school is over five times higher than at the magnet school and nearly double the district average of 31.0%, making it a critical red flag for student engagement and overall school health.
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