While Louisiana has historically fallen behind in education, recent LEAP results show the state is beginning to catch up. The Calcasieu Parish School District is one of the systems spearheading that growth.

On Wednesday, the Louisiana Department of Education released the 2022-23 school year LEAP scores — and the results indicated statewide improvements in almost every subject area.

The overall national ranking of the state improved from 46th to 42nd, which is the highest ranking since 2003, said State Superintendent Cade Brumley.

For two years in a row, Louisiana schools have shown growth during LEAP testing — annual assessments in core subject areas for grades 3 through 12. Proficiency is indicated by scores of Mastery or Advanced, or Mastery+. Statewide assessments show that 33 percent of students reached this level in the 2022-23 school year, an increase of 2 percentage points from the previous year and 3 percentage points from the 2020-21 school year.

This year, a supermajority — 75 percent — of Louisiana school systems indicated increased Mastery+ rates from 2021-22 to 2022-23.

Brumley said this consistent growth is what he is looking for, and according to a news release from the LDOE, Louisiana’s overall School Performance Score has returned to its pre-pandemic level.

In a news briefing, he explained that scores in the 2020-21 school year were lower than usual due to the unconventional learning environments that students were taught in, a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“2021 was the first year of assessment when students came back to school after being closed in 2020.”

In Southwest Louisiana, this hurdle was exacerbated by the 2020-21 severe weather events. Despite the additional challenges, CPSB was one of 15 Louisiana school districts to show improvement, tying with 10 schools with a three percentage point proficiency increase, with overall Mastery+ scores among Calcasieu students sitting at 38 percent.

CPSB Superintendent Shannon LaFargue told the American Press “the most important variable was that we were blessed with an uninterrupted school year.”

“Our teachers and students were fortunate to have more time in the learning environment for improved academic achievement.”

He said that in addition to the normal school year, individualized professional development lended a hand.

“Our professional development indicators focusing on personalized professional development increased significantly from the year before. This focus provided more moments of growth in how effectively we deliver instruction, thus ultimately benefiting student learning.”

Statewide and locally, the most notable improvements were shown in English language arts LEAP assessments.

Brumley said “there wasn’t a state in the country that had more reading growth than Louisiana’s fourth-graders.” He referred to the Nation’s Report Card, which reported that Louisiana fourth-graders are ranked first for reading growth. Last year, when these students were in the third grade, 38 percent of them indicated proficiency. This year, as fourth-graders, 43 percent of them are proficient.

NAEP also reported that Louisiana third-graders showed their first gains in ELA since 2017-18 with a five percent increase in Mastery+ scores, from 38 percentage points to 43.

Additionally, the state’s economically disadvantaged students saw exceptional growth in reading proficiency, moving from a nationwide ranking of 42nd overall in 2019 to 11th overall this year.

He attributes these improvements to the LDOE’s commitment to “call out the literacy crisis in our state” over the past few years using a Science of Reading technique.

For LaFargue, literacy is “critical to the educational journey of a student.”

“In the same rationale that a house’s foundation is vital to the integrity of the structures, a child’s foundational literacy is vital to learning grade-level content, thus ensuring benchmark progress appropriate for more complex texts.

He said all of CPSB’s elementary teachers have completed courses grounded in the Science of Reading, which has directly impacted the improved reading assessment results.

While the advancement is a cause for celebration, Brumley said it is vital the momentum doesn’t come to a halt.

“This is sustained improvement for the last two years, and that’s good news, but at the same time, in a state that has been educationally challenged in turns of outcomes for too long, we have to maintain urgency, we have to maintain focus, because that’s what students across the state of Louisiana need and deserve, and we are committed to doing that work alongside school systems and parents and community members that are engaged in this process.”

The applied techniques that led to improved statewide literacy will need to be adapted to math, he said.

Math education is an area of concern nationwide. LEAP reports show 36 percent of third-grade students are proficient in math. By fifth grade, proficient decreases to 33 percent; in eighth grade proficiency is 24 percent.

“We have seen historically in Louisiana, and across the county, that students’ proficiency levels in math decline from essentially their third and fourth grade years to the eighth grade,” he said. “We know it is a systemic issue across the state and the nation, and what we will be doing is launching a Math Refresh.”

LaFargue believes the Math Refresh initiative will continue to grow proficiency in CPSB students.

“At the district level, we are confident that our instructional shirts and empirically based resources will deliver the desired results we have set for our students.”