Original Research by School Decision on Crowley High School
Crowley High School is the single public high school in the small city of Crowley, the parish seat of Acadia Parish in southwestern Louisiana. It serves students in ninth through twelfth grades as a regular public school. Its student body of roughly five hundred reflects the demographic composition of the town itself, with comparable shares of Black and White students, a notable Hispanic presence, and small numbers of Asian and multiracial students. A substantial majority of students come from low-income households, consistent with the modest economic context of the area.
Crowley sits at the center of Acadia Parish’s rice-growing region, a place that still calls itself the “Rice Capital of the World.” Active rice mills remain part of the local landscape, and agriculture continues to shape the economy. The city has a large historic downtown district with traditional architecture, a Main Street program, and a city-owned theater, giving it a small civic core. Its population has declined gradually over several decades, though recent estimates show a slight rebound. Housing in the area is notably affordable compared to state and national benchmarks. The town is autocentric, with Interstate 10 and US Highway 90 providing regional access.
For a high school, the most consequential gaps in available data involve academic performance and outcomes. The only state test results that appear for this school are from a single school year and for eighth grade, not the high school grades it currently serves. Those results showed an average scale score well below the proficiency cutoff in every tested subject, with essentially no students reaching proficient levels. Because the data is limited to one lower grade and is several years old, it does not give a reliable picture of current high school achievement. A parent should ask the school directly for its more recent high school state assessment results and for its four-year graduation rate, which is also not reported in the available information. No chronic absenteeism data is available either.
The school’s program offerings, course access, and staffing ratios are not documented in the records we examined. Crowley High is part of the Acadia Parish school district, which serves the entire parish. No recent district-level changes or initiatives of lasting impact were found in the public record. The district brief turned up little of note, so we left it out rather than guess.
What emerges is a high school located in a small, historically agricultural city with a declining population and a modest local economy. Its student body is economically diverse with a heavy concentration of low-income families. The available academic evidence is too thin and dated to draw conclusions about current performance. For families considering this school, the next step would be to contact the school directly for up-to-date information on test results, graduation rates, advanced coursework, and career pathways. The town itself offers a quiet, affordable setting with a distinct cultural identity rooted in Cajun heritage and rice production, but the school’s academic profile and program depth remain largely unmeasured in the public data.
See more original research from School Decision →