By Kyle Roberts
Following the official release of the 2023 School Performance Scores and Letter Grades, the Lincoln Parish School District received a score of 93.3, increasing 3.8 points from last year and earning the district an “A” grade.
“I think it’s quite an honor to be an “A” district,” Lincoln Parish School Board superintendent Ricky Durrett said. “I think that shows a lot of hard work by a lot of people in our school district. I think really significant for us are Ruston Elementary, Cypress Springs both moving from “C” schools a few years back, even being “D” schools to now being “B” schools is a great accomplishment for those two administrations, faculties, student bodies, and families there. We’re continuing to grow and improve the educational opportunity for our Lincoln Parish parents is great and continues to happen.”
Dubach School also moved from a “C” to a “B” while also improving its school performance score by 10.5 points from 65.7 to 76.2.
“It is a great day for the Dubach community,” Durrett said. “I want to say congratulations for Dubach school for earning a letter grade of B for the School Performance Score from being a D school two years ago. This is what is possible when a community and school system work together.”
Across all schools in the Lincoln Parish School District, the average growth per schools was and increase 2.7, while the state of Louisiana as a whole was 1.5.
Lincoln Parish now ranks sixth in the state of Louisiana with its district performance score, and tenth in the state for most improved and also boasts three “A” schools in A.E. Phillips, Choudrant High School and Ruston High School. All three schools also earned opportunity honoree recognitions for outperforming 90 percent of the other school districts in scores for Black or African American students, Economically Disadvantaged students, Hispanic/Latino students and Students with Disabilities.
Three schools maintained their “B” School Performance Score in Choudrant Elementary, Hillcrest and Simsboro School.
Lincoln Parish also has eight schools that were named Top Gains honorees for an “A” in progress index: A.E. Phillips, Choudrant Elementary, Choudrant High School, Cypress Springs, Glen View, Hillcrest, Ruston Elementary and Ruston High School.
The school district also ranked in the top 10 in three subgroup performance scores: No. 3 in Hispanic/Latino (87.3), No. 5 in Students with Disabilities (67) and No. 10 in Black or African American (78.1).
Howard School, which is independent of Lincoln Parish School District, ranked No. 5 overall for most improved alternative schools. The schools district maintains a partnership with Howard School through funds and ongoing conversations.
The one school in the district that moved downward in their school performance score grade was Glen View Elementary, who missed out on a “B” rating by one-tenth of a point. Durrett said that as of Wednesday afternoon, the school board was going to appeal the rating on Glen View’s behalf.
Cedar Creek and Lincoln Preparatory School were not included in this data and are graded separately by their own criteria.
