The top reported proficiency rate is 29% in English language arts. The lowest is 10% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Combre-fondel Elementary School
Combre-Fondel Elementary School serves kindergarten through fifth grade in Lake Charles, Louisiana, as part of the Calcasieu Parish district. It is a regular public school that enrolls a student body that is very heavily Black, with a much smaller number of white and Hispanic students, and a small Asian and multiracial presence. The school draws from the surrounding area; the community context of Lake Charles is a mid-sized city and regional economic hub shaped by petrochemical industry, casino-based tourism, and higher education, with a downtown lakefront and a car-dependent spread. The city has faced severe hurricane damage in recent years, and the district has responded with a major rebuilding budget and a renewed property tax millage that funds teacher salaries and operations. The school itself sits in a city where the housing stock is relatively affordable; home values in the area are below both the state and national benchmarks, and rents have been rising.
State testing results for Combre-Fondel are available from the LEAP 2025 assessments administered in the 2024-25 school year. The school had full participation. On the math assessment, a share of students scored at the proficient or above level that was below the midpoint when compared with other schools in Calcasieu Parish; the school places in the bottom quartile among the districts in the parish on overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades. In English language arts, the proficiency rate was similar to math. In science and social studies, the rates were noticeably lower, with only a small minority of students meeting the proficient bar in science and an even smaller share in social studies. Given that the school serves only elementary grades, there is no four-year graduation rate to report, and data on chronic absenteeism was not available for this school.
The academic picture is one where a majority of students are not reaching state proficiency benchmarks in any of the four tested subjects. A parent or caregiver considering the school may want to discuss directly with the school what interventions and supports are in place for students who are below grade level, and how the school approaches core instruction in reading, math, and the sciences. The district has invested in a districtwide literacy initiative that received recognition for its structured literacy approach, which could be relevant for elementary reading outcomes. The share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch is substantial, which is consistent with a school where a large majority of families qualify for income-based meal assistance, and that context may inform what wraparound services or resources are offered.
Special population data, such as the number of students with individualized education programs or English learners, was not reported in the available data, so the degree of special education or language support programming is not possible to characterize here. The school is not identified as a charter school, and its magnet status is not specified.
The school is housed within the Calcasieu Parish district, which operates as the sole district for the parish, meaning the comparison set used here is all schools within the parish. The district has seen recent funding stability from a voter-approved millage renewal, and it is in the midst of a recovery and rebuilding phase following hurricane damage, with significant facility reconstruction underway. For a family, Combre-Fondel represents an elementary school setting in a city with a complex recent history of natural disaster and recovery, where academic proficiency rates are low relative to other schools in the same parish, and where the student body is largely low-income and predominantly Black.
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