Summary:
The four public schools in zip code 71418 (Columbia, LA) serve 1,098 students from elementary through high school, all part of the Caldwell Parish district, which ranks 90th out of 116 districts in Louisiana with a 1-star rating.
Caldwell Parish Junior High School stands out as the district's strongest performer, earning a 3-star rating and achieving a remarkable 100% proficiency rate in Algebra I—far exceeding both the district (56%) and state (63%) averages. It also has the lowest chronic absenteeism rate (26.7%) among the four schools. In contrast, Columbia Elementary School experienced a dramatic collapse, dropping from a 5-star rating (92nd percentile) in 2021-2022 to a 1-star rating (19th percentile) by 2025-2026. Union Central Elementary School is the strongest elementary school, with Math (60%) and ELA (62%) proficiency rates near the state average, while Caldwell Parish High School has the lowest performance, with alarmingly low proficiency in Geometry (37%) and U.S. History (34%).
A key concern is the "feeder school" performance gap: students lose academic ground as they progress, with high school scores significantly lower than elementary levels. Chronic absenteeism is a systemic crisis, with the district average (31.0%) nearly 40% higher than the state average (22.5%), and the high school's rate reaching 34.9%. The district's low ranking is heavily influenced by the high school's struggles and Columbia Elementary's decline, despite pockets of success at the junior high and Union Central. The Algebra I anomaly at the junior high suggests a highly effective program or selective student group, but this success does not carry over to the high school's Algebra I scores (48%).
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