The top reported proficiency rate is 13% in English language arts. The lowest is 7% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Bogalusa High School
Bogalusa High School serves students in seventh through twelfth grade in the City of Bogalusa School District, a small public school system in Washington Parish, Louisiana. The school is a regular public school and is not a charter or magnet school. The city itself was founded as a company town for a sawmill and retains a strong industrial identity centered on a paper mill, though the population has been declining for decades as timber and paper operations have contracted.
The student body is modestly sized for a combined middle and high school. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that the school serves a community with significant economic need. The student population is predominantly Black, with a smaller share identifying as white and very small shares identifying as Hispanic, Asian, or multiracial.
On the Louisiana state assessments, which measure proficiency against state standards, the school’s results for the 2024-25 school year show that the share of students scoring proficient or above was relatively low across all four tested subjects. In math and science, that share was very low. In English language arts, the share was low. In social studies, it was also low. Compared to other districts in Washington Parish, the school’s overall proficiency index placed in the bottom quartile. A parent who is focused on state test scores will want to understand this picture clearly; it suggests that meeting grade-level academic benchmarks is a challenge for the majority of students at this school. Only a single year of assessment data was available for this school, so there is no trend line to indicate whether scores have been improving or declining.
Because the school includes middle grades through high school, state testing data for the end-of-course or high school level assessments was not available in this data set, and no graduation rate was reported in the available data either. A parent looking for that information would want to ask the district or school directly about high school completion outcomes.
The district brief notes a couple of developments. Byrd Avenue Elementary was renamed and restructured into a primary school serving pre-kindergarten through second grade, while Central Elementary now serves grades three through six; this grade reconfiguration affects which elementary building a child attends based on age. The brief also reports that the district’s graduation rate has been on an upward trend over the past several school years, which, if confirmed by the school’s own data, could be a positive signal for families considering high school placement.
Housing in Bogalusa is notably affordable relative to state and national benchmarks. Home values are well below both the Louisiana median and the national median. For a family looking to buy, the monthly mortgage estimate on a typical home in the area, at current interest rates, is modest. Rents have been rising nationally, but the local housing market is tied to a small city with a long-term population decline, so price pressure may be less intense than in growing areas. The unemployment rate nationally has been stable and moderate, but the local economy, anchored by a shrinking paper mill and a growing healthcare sector, has its own dynamics.
The school’s academic data shows a clear area of difficulty. A parent considering Bogalusa High School for a child who is already meeting academic expectations may want to investigate what supports are in place for students who need to accelerate, what advanced coursework or career pathways the school offers, and how the school is working to improve its proficiency rates. The data provided does not include information on Advanced Placement courses, dual enrollment, career and technical education programs, or staffing ratios, so a family interested in those offerings should request those details directly from the school.
For a family that values a small-city, working-class environment with very affordable housing and a school that is the only public option for secondary grades in the Bogalusa system, this is the local school. The peer environment is one in which the majority of students come from low-income households, and the school’s test results indicate that the majority of students are not yet reaching the state’s proficiency bar. The school’s future trajectory will depend in part on how the district and building leadership address this gap.
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