Mildred S. Harris Elementary School, Bridge City LA

Original Research by School Decision on Mildred S. Harris Elementary School

Mildred S. Harris Elementary School is closed. The data shows it operated as a regular public school in the Jefferson Parish Public School System, serving middle grades only, but its lifecycle status is listed as closed.

Because the school is no longer operating, any discussion of its programs, staffing, or student experience is historical. What is available are state assessment results from the 2022-23 school year, the last year for which testing data is reported. Those results show that on Louisiana's LEAP 2025 assessments, student proficiency rates were low across every subject and every grade tested. In math, the share of students scoring at the proficient level or above was in the mid-teens for third grade and lower for fourth and fifth grades. In English language arts, performance was somewhat higher but still below a third of students in any grade level. Science and social studies proficiency rates were also low, with the weakest results appearing in fourth-grade science and social studies.

This pattern is consistent across all tested grades and subjects. It indicates that the school was serving a student body where a large majority were not meeting the state's academic benchmarks. A parent looking at this data historically would want to know that the school was operating with significant academic challenges before its closure.

The school served Bridge City, an unincorporated community in Jefferson Parish along the Mississippi River. Bridge City was established in the 1930s during the construction of the Huey P. Long Bridge and has a working-class, industrial character centered on the Avondale Shipyard. The community has seen a flat or declining population trend. The Bridge City community's school landscape has been in flux. Bridge City Elementary, a separate school, closed in 2023, and the Jefferson Parish school system has been undergoing a broader consolidation plan approved in 2023 that involves closing and merging schools across the parish due to declining enrollment and aging facilities. The district also approved budget cuts for the 2024-2025 school year that included reductions in central office staff and transportation services.

The district also adopted a new evidence-based reading curriculum starting in the 2023-2024 school year and received a federal grant around the same time to enhance STEM education. These initiatives, however, postdate the closure of this particular school.

The housing context for the zip code covering the area shows home values somewhat below the state average and rents that are modest relative to national benchmarks. The broader economic context includes a national unemployment rate that has been stable and a national median household income that has been rising gradually over recent years.

Because the school is closed, there is no enrollment or demographic data to review, no graduation rate, and no information about programs, staffing, or discipline. The data available is limited to assessment results from its final year of operation and the context of the district and community it served. A parent or resident looking at Mildred S. Harris Elementary School today would not find an active school to consider, but rather a record of a school that faced substantial academic hurdles in a district navigating enrollment decline and consolidation.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 326%

School 26% · district not reported

▲ 1 pts above state median

Grade 413%

School 13% · district not reported

▼ 15 pts below state median

Grade 512%

School 12% · district not reported

▼ 7 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 329%

School 29% · district not reported

▼ 1 pts below state median

Grade 415%

School 15% · district not reported

▼ 16 pts below state median

Grade 524%

School 24% · district not reported

▼ 5 pts below state median

Science

Grade 315%

School 15% · district not reported

even with state median

Grade 47%

School 7% · district not reported

▼ 13 pts below state median

Grade 516%

School 16% · district not reported

▼ 7 pts below state median

Social studies

Grade 310%

School 10% · district not reported

▼ 5 pts below state median

Grade 49%

School 9% · district not reported

▼ 11 pts below state median

Grade 514%

School 14% · district not reported

▼ 9 pts below state median

This schoolJefferson Parish, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 4Lower-income11%Higher-income43%32 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income23%Higher-income49%26 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income9%Higher-income43%34 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income13%Higher-income0%13 pp gap