Grad rates low but improving at area high school

Nearly half of the students at Carroll High School won’t graduate in 4 years, according to Louisiana Department of Education information released by Monroe City Schools. And that number is an improvement over recent years.

For the school year 2013-14, Carroll’s graduation rate was 55 percent, up from 49 percent in 2012-13 and 50 percent in 2011-12.

Carroll’s student population is largely considered to be ‘at risk’ with 89 percent qualifying for free or reduced lunches.

The school’s rate has consistently been the lowest in northeastern Louisiana for at least the past three years.

“There has been tremendous growth at that school,” Monroe City Schools Administrator Cassie Owens said. “That’s one bright spot, but they still have a lot of ground to cover.

Monroe City Schools also had the school with the second lowest graduation rates in northeastern Louisiana. Wossman High School graduated 63.7 percent of its students in 4 years in 2013-14. Wossman’s at risk population is 88 percent.

At both schools Owens said the district is taking more of an individual student by student approach to help improve the graduation rates.

“We need to do a better job of making sure they are taking classes that will help them move toward graduation,” she said.

The district’s overall average percentage of students graduating four years after they begin high school was 64.9 percent with 86.1 percent of Neville High School’s students graduating on time. At Neville High School, 51 percent of the students qualified for free or reduced lunches.

Owens believes the numbers of students living in poverty are even higher than the numbers reflect because it high school students are less likely to fill out the necessary paperwork to receive free or reduced lunch.

“Kids who live in poverty have fewer resources available to them,” Owens said. “With resources come more experiences like family vacations, which aren’t necessarily academic, but enhance a student’s knowledge in the classroom.”

The district also is focusing attention on the junior high and elementary schools that feed into the high schools. Owens said growth at Carroll Junior High under the direction of Principal Tammye Turpin who is a curriculum specialist is expected to reflect in the graduation rate at Carroll as the students move through the school.

Other schools scoring in the bottom five in northeastern Louisiana for graduation rate are Union Parish High School at 65.1 percent, Delhi High School at 66.7 percent and Morehouse Parish High School at 67.3 percent.

Top-scoring high schools in northeastern Louisiana are Forest High School with a 93.5 percent graduation rate, Oak Grove High School at 92.1 percent, Sterlington High School at 92 percent and Mangham High School at 89.7 percent

Graduation rates for West Ouachita High School were not provided.

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