Bayou Black Elementary School, Houma LA

Original Research by School Decision on Bayou Black Elementary School

Bayou Black Elementary School is a regular public school in Houma, Louisiana, serving students from prekindergarten through sixth grade. It is part of the Terrebonne Parish School District. The school is small, and its student body is predominantly white, with a substantial Black population and smaller shares of students who identify as two or more races, Hispanic, or American Indian or Alaska Native. A substantial share of students at the school qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

Houma is a city with a strong industrial base in oil and gas, shipbuilding, and commercial fishing, and it serves as the parish seat. The city's historic downtown has museums and eateries, but the broader area is car-dependent, with suburban residential neighborhoods and industrial waterfronts along bayous. Hurricane Ida struck Houma directly in 2021, causing widespread damage, and recovery has been ongoing. The public schools are distributed across the parish rather than clustered downtown.

State testing results from the 2023-24 school year for Louisiana's LEAP 2025 assessments show a varied picture for Bayou Black Elementary. In English language arts, grade-level proficiency rates ranged from roughly a quarter of students to just under sixty percent, with the strongest results in sixth grade. In math, proficiency rates were lower across the board, with the highest rate just over forty percent in sixth grade. In science, proficiency rates were lower still, landing between roughly a fifth and thirty percent across the tested grades. Social studies results from the 2022-23 school year showed proficiency rates ranging from roughly a quarter to a little over a third of students. These results place academic performance as a clear area for a family to look into further with the school, particularly in math and science. Because the school serves only through sixth grade, no high school graduation rate data applies here, and no college or career readiness metrics at the high school level are available.

The Terrebonne Parish district has recently undertaken several changes. An elementary school rezoning plan was approved in 2024 to address declining enrollment and balance class sizes, which may affect which elementary school a child attends. A new science curriculum for elementary and middle schools was implemented starting in the 2023-2024 school year, emphasizing inquiry-based learning. The district has also discussed a projected budget deficit for the 2025-2026 school year, driven by declining enrollment, inflation, and the expiration of federal COVID-19 relief funds, and has mentioned potential school closures, staff reductions, and program cuts as possible responses. Families should be aware these discussions could have implications for the school.

The school's size and grade span make it a neighborhood elementary and middle school where students spend their full preK-6 years before moving on to a parish high school. Housing in the area, measured by typical home values, sits above the state benchmark, while rents tracked slightly below the national benchmark. The local economy has a mix of industrial and service-sector employment, with the unemployment rate near the national average. For families considering the school, the academic results and the district's financial challenges are the most salient factors to weigh against the school's role as a local, full-elementary-and-middle-grade option in a culturally rich and economically diverse community.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 344%

School 44% · district not reported

▲ 19 pts above state median

Grade 428%

School 28% · district not reported

even with state median

Grade 535%

School 35% · district not reported

▲ 16 pts above state median

Grade 641%

School 41% · district not reported

▲ 21 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 352%

School 52% · district not reported

▲ 22 pts above state median

Grade 428%

School 28% · district not reported

▼ 3 pts below state median

Grade 545%

School 45% · district not reported

▲ 16 pts above state median

Grade 659%

School 59% · district not reported

▲ 33 pts above state median

Science

Grade 326%

School 26% · district not reported

▲ 11 pts above state median

Grade 421%

School 21% · district not reported

▲ 1 pts above state median

Grade 525%

School 25% · district not reported

▲ 2 pts above state median

Grade 630%

School 30% · district not reported

▲ 9 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 336%

School 36% · district not reported

▲ 22 pts above state median

Grade 435%

School 35% · district not reported

▲ 15 pts above state median

Grade 529%

School 29% · district not reported

▲ 6 pts above state median

Grade 628%

School 28% · district not reported

▲ 12 pts above state median

This schoolTerrebonne Parish, 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-income60%Higher-income58%2 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income23%Higher-income40%17 pp gap