Crescent Elk Middle, Crescent City CA

Original Research by School Decision on Crescent Elk Middle

Crescent Elk Middle serves students in grades six through eight in Crescent City, a small coastal community on California's far north coast where government employment, health care, and retail are the dominant economic sectors. The school sits in a district undergoing significant change, and its academic performance reflects substantial challenges that warrant close attention.

The school enrolls roughly equal cohorts across its three grade levels. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the student body includes a mix of white students, Hispanic students, American Indian and Alaska Native students, and students of other backgrounds. Data on English learners and students with disabilities were not available, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about the scale of these populations and the supports in place.

On state assessments in mathematics and English language arts, proficiency rates are low across all grade levels. In math, fewer than one in five students overall met proficiency standards, with results ranging from about one in seven in sixth grade to about one in four in seventh grade. In English language arts, overall proficiency sits at about one in three students, with performance dipping in eighth grade. In eighth-grade science, only about one in ten students demonstrated proficiency. When measured across all tested subjects and grade levels, the school's overall proficiency index places it above the midpoint among the county's districts, suggesting its peers face similar struggles, but this context does not obscure the underlying reality: most students are not meeting grade-level standards in core academics.

Data on the school's attendance, discipline climate, or teacher staffing were not available, leaving gaps in the full picture of school environment and support. The school offers athletics in basketball, cheerleading, soccer, track and field, and volleyball, providing extracurricular options. The district has recently secured a substantial grant to embed mental health services, afterschool programming, family resource centers, and expanded summer learning into schools, part of a shift toward a Community School model. This means mental health support and extended learning time are becoming available, though a parent may want to confirm which services are already operational at Crescent Elk.

The broader context matters. Crescent City itself is planning substantial growth, with new housing projects underway and a downtown revitalization effort. The district, however, faces a facility challenge: voters rejected a school facilities bond in November 2024, leaving aging infrastructure—including leaky roofs and mold issues—without a local modernization plan. This means families should expect continued facility constraints rather than near-term building improvements.

For a family considering Crescent Elk, the core question is whether the school's current academic performance and the district's support infrastructure meet their student's needs. The low proficiency rates suggest intensive academic support is necessary; the emerging Community Schools model and expanded mental health and summer services indicate the district is building that support. Families may want to discuss directly with the school what tutoring, intervention programs, and counseling are available, and what the school's improvement trajectory looks like.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 615%

School 15% · District 20% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median

Grade 724%

School 24% · District 30% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 7 pts below state median

Grade 816%

School 16% · District 20% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 634%

School 34% · District 38% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 10 pts below state median

Grade 731%

School 31% · District 39% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median

Grade 822%

School 22% · District 34% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median

Science

Grade 810%

School 10% · District 17% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median

Social studies

Grade 842%

School 42% · District 53% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 7 pts below state median

This schoolDel Norte County Unified, 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 6Lower-income27%Higher-income55%29 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income22%Higher-income54%31 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income20%Higher-income33%14 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income14%Higher-income16%2 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income18%Higher-income38%20 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income12%Higher-income32%20 pp gap