Summary:
In zip code 71463, there is one middle school, Oakdale Middle School, serving grades 5 through 8 with 340 students in the Oakdale area of Louisiana.
Oakdale Middle School is part of the Allen Parish school district, which holds a strong 4-star rating and ranks in the 79th percentile statewide. The school itself has shown improvement, moving from the 32nd percentile to the 39th percentile in state rankings over the past year. A key strength is English Language Arts (ELA), where 69% of students are proficient—nearly matching the state average of 70%. This is a notable achievement given that 75.59% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, indicating a high-poverty population. The school also boasts an excellent 0.0% dropout rate and a favorable student-teacher ratio of 10.3:1, which typically supports more individualized attention.
However, there are significant challenges. The most striking issue is an "8th grade cliff" in mathematics: while 5th, 6th, and 7th graders achieve math proficiency rates of 61%, 65%, and 61% respectively, only 30% of 8th graders are proficient—far below the district average of 60% and state average of 52%. Overall math proficiency sits at 55%, and social studies at 49%, both below district and state averages. Chronic absenteeism is a major concern at 25.6%, notably higher than the district's 19.6% and state's 22.5%. This likely contributes to the school's below-average test scores, despite its favorable resources. Addressing absenteeism and the 8th-grade math slump could be the most impactful changes for improvement.
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