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Louisiana ranks higher than ever before on nation’s report card

Students on the first day of classes at The Leah Chase School on Aug. 6, 2024.
Aubri Juhasz
/
WWNO
Students at The Leah Chase School in New Orleans on Aug. 6, 2024.

Louisiana was long one of the lowest-ranked states in terms of learning. But in recent years, the state’s fourth-graders have made noticeable growth in reading — and now in math — catapulting the state ahead.

Louisiana rose to its highest spot this week, based on new data known as the Nation’s Report Card. The state is now in 32nd place, up 11 spots from when students last took the test in 2022. Before the pandemic, Louisiana ranked 49th.

The national test, considered by many to be the gold standard of assessments, is given to fourth- and eighth-grade students in reading and math every two years.

While Wednesday’s data release brought good news for Louisiana, it didn’t for most states and the country overall.

In 2024, in both reading and math, most fourth and eighth graders once again performed below where they were before the pandemic.

“These results, as sobering as they are, once you unpack them, there is hope,” Peggy Carr, the commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers the nation’s report card, said on a call with reporters on Tuesday.

She pointed to Louisiana’s progress in fourth-grade reading as a bright spot.

“No excuses,” Carr said, speaking to struggling states. “Because they were able to pull this off and not only improve to pre-pandemic levels but exceed them and bring their lower performers along.”

While national data show a growing gap between high and low-performing students, the average fourth-grade reading score in Louisiana for both groups increased by the same number of points last year, bringing them roughly in line with national averages.

The state was one of just a few where fourth and eighth graders grew in reading and math and one of just two where fourth graders’ scores were higher than before the pandemic.

Students with disabilities and from low-income families also improved their reading and math scores, making greater gains than those groups did nationally.

State leads in reading growth

Louisiana’s fourth graders led the country in reading gains for the second testing cycle in a row, boosting the state’s average score by four points and its ranking from 42nd place to 16th.

Disclaimer: Technically, no states in the country showed statistically significant gains based on the assessment’s analysis, which used a confidence level of .05, meaning there was a 5% chance the results were due to chance.

Eighth graders’ scores in Louisiana were flat, but it was still enough to up the state’s ranking by 10 spots to 29th place.

In 2022, the state’s fourth graders also grew in reading — up two points from 2019 — while students nationwide fell back, posting the largest-ever declines in reading and math.

At a press conference at a Baton Rouge middle school on Wednesday, Louisiana’s top education official, Cade Brumley, said the state’s progress shows “smart and hard work” can make a difference.

“It further suggests that willing and capable people have the power to positively change systems,” Brumley said.

In the last five years, the state has made several significant changes in how reading — and, more recently, math — are taught.

Through new legislation, the state has adopted a “back-to-basics” approach in both subjects, including training for teachers in research-backed practices (like phonics or sounding out words), closer student monitoring and high-dosage tutoring.

Starting this school year, third graders who score too low in reading will have to repeat the grade unless they qualify for an exemption. The final prong in a turnaround effort mirrors Mississippi’s approach.

Louisiana fourth graders close math gap

The average fourth-grade math score ticked up nationally last year, ending the pandemic slide, but was still below where it was in 2019.

Fifteen states and jurisdictions (The Nation’s Report Card includes D.C., Puerto Rico and schools run by the U.S. Department of Defense) posted scores significantly higher than in 2022.

Eight of the 15, including Louisiana, reported gains for low- and high-performing students. The state also landed in the top five nationally for fourth-grade growth.

Overall, Louisiana eighth graders increased their average score by one point, still five points below where the group was pre-pandemic.

Since seeing gains in reading, Louisiana has adopted similar reforms in math, including teacher training, closer student monitoring and regular tutoring.

Teacher pay and ‘educational freedom’

Brumley’s first thank you this week was to Louisiana’s teachers, who he said deserve to be paid “professionally and fairly.”

State leaders decided against giving teachers a permanent pay raise again last year, instead opting for another one-time stipend.

“I hope in March that we see some progress on that front,” Brumley said, nodding to the state’s upcoming budget.

He also stressed that despite recent gains, many kids in the state still can’t read or do math on grade level.

“Those are things that we have to change,” Brumley said, adding that every kid deserves access to a high-quality teacher and that the state has to tackle chronic absenteeism, which increased again last year.

Toward the end of his remarks, he listed several research-backed actions the state is taking to help students before listing one more controversial.

“We have to expand educational freedom across the entire state of Louisiana,” he said.

Louisiana is one of several Republican-led states where lawmakers have passed laws to give parents tax dollars to spend on private education. However, Louisiana’s legislature still has to allocate the funding.

The Nation’s Report Card includes private school students but doesn’t share data for that subgroup at the state level, making it unclear whether helping more children attend private schools will improve outcomes.

Aubri Juhasz covers education, focusing on New Orleans' charter schools, school funding and other statewide issues. She also helps edit the station’s news coverage.

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