Original Research by School Decision on Crowley County Junior and Senior High School
Crowley County Junior and Senior High School serves grades seven through twelve and is the only secondary school in the Crowley County School District. The school is in Ordway, a small, quiet rural town that functions as the county seat. Ordway has a traditional Main Street with a grocery store, hardware store, cafes, and other small commercial uses. Agriculture — especially irrigated farming — has long been the economic foundation, and county government is a significant employer. The town’s population has been declining gradually over recent decades. There is no public transit, and State Highways 96 and 71 are the main road connections. Housing in the area is notably affordable, well below state and national benchmarks, though values have softened recently.
The school has a small enrollment for a secondary campus, with roughly 150 students spread across six grade levels. The student body is majority Hispanic, with a substantial white population and very small numbers of students who identify with other racial or ethnic groups. More than half of the students come from households with low enough incomes to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a rate that is considerably above the national average. Parents or guardians should note that data on the share of students with individualized education programs (IEPs) and the share classified as English learners were not available; a family with a child who has special education needs or is learning English may want to ask the school directly about these supports and services.
On state assessments, Crowley County Junior-Senior High School’s proficiency results are suppressed for all tested subjects — math, English language arts, and science — meaning the data did not meet reporting thresholds for public release. This is common for a school of this size, where small numbers of test-takers can make it difficult to present reliable rates. What is available are average scale scores, which fall within a moderate range, but without a proficiency rate the picture of academic performance is incomplete. A family seeking a clear sense of how students here perform on state tests will need to consult the school or district directly for a fuller account. The participation rate was strong, with roughly 95 percent of eligible students taking the assessments.
Because this school does not serve a traditional high school graduating class in the way large comprehensive high schools do — or because the data was not reported — a graduation rate was not available. The school environment section, including discipline rates, course access, staffing, and attendance data, was also absent from the information we examined. Without these details, a parent cannot fully evaluate school climate, student engagement, or the breadth of the curriculum from this report alone.
The district itself appears to operate at a modest scale and, based on a search of recent news and public records, there were no major changes, strategic plans, or controversies that would be important for a parent to know. That absence of information is neither good nor bad — it simply means the district has not recently undertaken a high-profile initiative or faced a public challenge.
For families considering this school, the key considerations are the very small size, the rural setting, the affordability of the surrounding housing market, and the limited academic data available at the state level. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and it serves its entire community in a single combined junior-senior high building. A parent who values a close-knit rural environment, small classes, and direct relationships with teachers may find that fit. A parent who relies on state test scores or wants a wide menu of advanced coursework, career pathways, or extracurricular options may need to investigate more thoroughly what the school offers beyond what the data here reveals. The school’s website and a conversation with the principal or a current family would be the next logical step.
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