Live Oak Elementary School

Live Oak Elementary School in Lafayette, LA, serves 520 students from Pre-K through 5th grade and is part of the Lafayette Parish school district, which ranks in the top 27% of districts in Louisiana.

Live Oak is a school on the rise, showing strong academic growth despite serving a community where over 80% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. In the most recent school year, the school achieved its highest state ranking in years, reaching the 41st percentile. This upward trend is supported by notable improvements in test scores, with math proficiency jumping from 53% to 63% and English Language Arts from 57% to 64%. The school is particularly effective with its English Language Learner students, historically ranking in the 94th and 96th percentiles for this group. A standout bright spot is 3rd-grade math, where 75% of students are proficient—outperforming both the district and state averages. Compared to nearby schools with similar demographics, such as J.W. Faulk Elementary School and Dr. Raphael A. Baranco Elementary School, Live Oak consistently achieves higher proficiency rates, suggesting it is more effective at educating its student body than its demographic profile would predict.

While Live Oak shows promise, it faces challenges that families should consider. Chronic absenteeism, though improving from 29% to 23%, remains higher than top-performing peers like Myrtle Place Elementary School (5.2%). Additionally, there is a notable drop-off in 5th-grade performance, with only 44% proficiency in math and 43% in social studies, far below district averages. The school also struggles most with its male students and low socio-economic status students, who make up the majority of the student body. For context, nearby Willow Charter Academy serves an even higher-poverty population and achieves higher test scores, but does so with a much larger student-teacher ratio of 34:1 compared to Live Oak’s 16:1, highlighting different educational approaches.