Enrollment
219
Elementary
DISTRICT 395 · STATE 453
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·CALCASIEU PARISH·NCES 220033001677
Pearl Watson Elementary School
1300 5th Street, Lake Charles, LA 70601 · (337) 217-4860 · Calcasieu Parish
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY13-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL219 STUDENTS
C+
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 43% of Louisiana public elementary schools
- C-Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- BBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- AThree-year trend Change in reading and math proficiency over the last three test years.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Louisiana public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
11.0:1
20 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 12.2:1 · STATE 14.0:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
92%
201 students
DISTRICT 63% · STATE 70%
Community
0
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 43 | 20% |
| Grade 1 | 36 | 16% |
| Grade 2 | 42 | 19% |
| Grade 3 | 36 | 16% |
| Grade 4 | 31 | 14% |
| Grade 5 | 31 | 14% |
This year's kindergarten class (43) is 39% larger than its 5th grade class (31).
Student demographics
15%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 59% · STATE 65% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
QUIET COMMUNITY
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START A DISCUSSIONTest scores
LEAP 2025 2025-26 . % Mastery+English Language Arts
29.0%
LA avg 41.8% . +14.0pp since 2022
Math
22.0%
LA avg 34.2% . +9.0pp since 2022
What this means: On the LEAP 2025, Louisiana's statewide test, about 29 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 22 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Louisiana schools, those numbers are about 42 and 34. Reading and writing scores are up about 14 points since 2022, while math scores are up about 9 points.
LEAP 2025 results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 29.0% | 22.0% |
| 2024-25 | 23.0% | 20.0% |
| 2023-24 | 28.0% | 28.0% |
| 2022-23 | 15.0% | 13.0% |
% Mastery+, all students and all tested grades.
Source: LEAP 2025. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
20.5%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
18.2%
based on LA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+2.3pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 21% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 18% typical for Louisiana schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Louisiana's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Pearl Watson Elementary School
Pearl Watson Elementary School's state test result (20.5% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pearl Watson Elementary School this school | 219 | 91.8% | 20.5% |
| Northeast Elementary School Opelousas | 232 | 90.5% | 18.7% |
| Midway Professional Development Center Shreveport | 234 | 91.5% | 14.2% |
| Sharon Hills Elementary School Baton Rouge | 213 | 93.9% | 12.7% |
| Dr. Raphael A. Baranco Elementary School Lafayette | 247 | 93.1% | 14.5% |
| Atkins Technology Elementary School Shreveport | 189 | 92.1% | 10.3% |
Matched among Louisiana elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Pearl Watson Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Louisiana | In Calcasieu Parish |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 20.5% | #440 of 583 | #25 of 30 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 22.0% | #415 of 582 ▲ 9 | #21 of 31 ▲ 3 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 29.0% | #429 of 587 ▲ 65 | #25 of 31 ▲ 3 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +11.5pp | #33 of 540 | #2 of 29 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 219 | #635 of 714 | #31 of 35 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 11.0:1 | #88 of 655 | #6 of 31 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 14.7% | #590 of 655 | #28 of 31 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 91.8% | #96 of 705 | #3 of 34 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -32.4% | #59 of 436 | #6 of 29 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
219
-14 (-6%) vs 2020
-54% since 1990-91, when it was 472
Student : Teacher
11.0:1
was 14.6:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 219 | 20 | 11.0:1 | 92% (201) |
| 2023-24 | 332 | 25.4 | 13.1:1 | 89% (295) |
| 2022-23 | 325 | 20.7 | 15.7:1 | 93% (303) |
| 2020-21 | 233 | 16 | 14.6:1 | 98% (228) |
| 2017-18 | 324 | 20.3 | 15.9:1 | 70% (227) |
| 2015-16 | 308 | N/A | N/A | 72% (223) |
| 2010-11 | 364 | 30 | 12.1:1 | 95% (346) |
| 2000-01 | 459 | 40 | 11.5:1 | 87% (399) |
| 1990-91 | 472 | 40 | 11.8:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Pearl Watson Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 32% (324 to 219); teachers down 2% (20.3 to 20).
About Pearl Watson Elementary School
Pearl Watson Elementary School is a small elementary school in Louisiana, located in Lake Charles. The school's enrollment of 219 students covers pre-K through 5. Statewide, elementary schools in Louisiana average about 453 students each.
Calcasieu Parish has 56 schools and 27,851 students, and Pearl Watson Elementary School is one of those schools.
Pearl Watson Elementary School enrolls a student body that is 92% Black. Beyond that, enrollment is 3% White and 3% Hispanic. In Calcasieu Parish overall, about 23% of residents are Black. The chance that two students picked at random at Pearl Watson Elementary School belong to different racial or ethnic groups, known as the diversity index, is 15%.
The school employs the equivalent of 20 full-time teachers, for a ratio of 11.0:1. The average ratio among elementary schools in Louisiana is 14.0:1, higher than at this school. The free or reduced-price lunch rate at Pearl Watson Elementary School is 92%. On average, public schools in Calcasieu Parish report 59%.
The allk12 Grade for Pearl Watson Elementary School is C+. Compared with Louisiana public elementary schools, the school scored higher than 43% on a mix of test scores, poverty-adjusted results, and recent trend.
On the allk12 BeatsExpectations measure, Pearl Watson Elementary School is 2.3 points above the average proficiency rate on state tests predicted for its free or reduced-price lunch share: 20.5% actual, 18.2% predicted. That is outside both the top and bottom 10% in Louisiana.
County data help place the school in context: in Calcasieu Parish, median household income is about $67,564, about 25% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and the poverty rate is about 13%. Pearl Watson Elementary School is among the 61 public schools in Calcasieu Parish.
The closest other public school is Oak Park Elementary School, about 1.2 miles away. Around the school, at least 8 other public schools are within five miles. In a group of 7 nearby schools with scores, Pearl Watson Elementary School ranks 3rd on average proficiency.
NCES lists the school's locale as City: Small. That means it sits inside a principal city with a population under 100,000.
A comparison of 2020-21 and 2024-25 shows enrollment down 6%, from 233 to 219. The number of students per teacher fell from 14.6 to 11.0 over 4 years.
Discussion on this page can cover school safety, transportation, and start times. Reviews and ratings from people who know the school are welcome.
Calcasieu Parish at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
207,088
Census ACS
Median income
$67,564
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
25%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
13%
Below federal line
Schools in county
61
30,278 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Calcasieu Parish
- Sulphur High SchoolHigh · 1,911 students
- Alfred M. Barbe High SchoolHigh · 1,908 students
- Sam Houston High SchoolHigh · 1,141 students
- S. J. Welsh Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,011 students
- Iowa High SchoolHigh · 1,007 students
- Moss Bluff Elementary SchoolElementary · 969 students
Other schools in Lake Charles
- Alfred M. Barbe High SchoolHigh · 1,908 students
- Sam Houston High SchoolHigh · 1,141 students
- S. J. Welsh Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,011 students
- Moss Bluff Elementary SchoolElementary · 969 students
- Lake Charles Charter AcademyElementary · 951 students
- LaGrange High SchoolHigh · 881 students
Nearby schools
- Oak Park Elementary School1.2 mi · 259
- John J. Johnson II Elementary School1.4 mi · 131
- T. S. Cooley Elementary Magnet School1.4 mi · 300
- Ralph F. Wilson Elementary School1.4 mi · 92
- T. H. Watkins Elementary School1.4 mi · 165
- Oak Park Middle School1.6 mi · 388
Frequently asked questions
About Pearl Watson Elementary SchoolHow many students attend Pearl Watson Elementary School?
Pearl Watson Elementary School enrolls approximately 219 students in grades PK-05.
What age range does Pearl Watson Elementary School serve?
Pearl Watson Elementary School serves students from grade PK through grade 05.
How many students per teacher at Pearl Watson Elementary School?
Approximately 11.0:1 students per teacher at Pearl Watson Elementary School.
How diverse is Pearl Watson Elementary School?
Pearl Watson Elementary School reports a student body of 3% White, 3% Hispanic, 92% Black, 1% Two or more.
Who oversees Pearl Watson Elementary School?
Pearl Watson Elementary School is overseen by Calcasieu Parish in Calcasieu Parish.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.