Summary:
Zip code 71251 (Jonesboro, LA) is home to a single middle school, Jonesboro-Hodge Middle School, which serves grades 6 through 8 with a small enrollment of 145 students and is part of the Jackson Parish school district.
Jonesboro-Hodge Middle School presents a complex picture. Academically, it has consistently ranked in the bottom 11% of Louisiana middle schools over the past three years, with test scores in math (37% proficient), English (50%), and social studies (31%) all significantly below district and state averages. However, the school shows strong non-academic indicators: it has a 0% dropout rate and a chronic absenteeism rate of 16.8%, which is better than both the district (21.1%) and state (22.5%) averages. This suggests the school provides a stable environment that keeps students attending, even if academic outcomes are low. A very low student-teacher ratio of 8.5:1 is a positive structural asset, though it has not yet translated into high test scores, likely due to the high level of economic disadvantage, with 81.38% of students receiving free or reduced lunch.
Encouragingly, the school showed substantial academic improvement from the 2024-2025 to the 2025-2026 school year, with math proficiency jumping from 27% to 37% and English from 42% to 50%. Within the school, 7th graders are a relative bright spot, outperforming their 6th and 8th-grade peers in all subjects. For parents, this school offers a supportive, low-dropout environment with improving academics, but faces significant challenges tied to poverty that impact overall performance.
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