Louisiana has emerged as a national leader in academic recovery, becoming the only state in the country to surpass its 2019 pre-pandemic reading benchmarks. According to the latest Education Scorecard, a collaborative report from Harvard, Stanford, and Dartmouth, Louisiana also ranks 3rd in the nation for academic growth in math.

The report, which combines state test results from 35 million students nationwide with national assessment data, provides a high-resolution look at the state’s educational landscape between 2022 and 2025.

Key Statewide Findings:

• Reading Leadership: Louisiana is the only state in the nation where students are performing above pre-pandemic levels in reading (+.29 grade equivalents over 2019).

• Math Growth: Louisiana is one of only two states performing above 2019 math levels, ranking 3rd out of 38 states in growth.

• Economic Impact: Gains in high-poverty districts were largely driven by federal pandemic relief (ESSER) funds, which provided roughly $6,000 per student.

• Challenges Ahead: Chronic absenteeism remains a significant hurdle, rising from 18.8% in 2022 to 22% in 2025.

Based on the technical report from the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford and Harvard universities, here is a summary of academic performance and trends for Avoyelles Parish:

Overall Academic Performance (2022–2025)

• Test Scores: Students in Avoyelles Parish performed 1.45 grade levels below the 2019 national average. This is lower than the average for the state of Louisiana (-0.70) and similar districts (-0.71).
• Learning Rates: While average scores are below the national baseline, the district’s learning rate was 1.04, meaning students gained slightly more than one full grade level of skills per year during this period. This ranked the parish higher than 69% of districts nationwide for average learning rates.
• National Ranking: Avoyelles Parish ranked in the 16th percentile for math performance and the 26th percentilefor reading performance nationwide.

Student Subgroup Trends

• Race/Ethnicity: There is a significant performance gap between student groups. White students performed 0.70 grade levels below the 2019 national average, while Black students performed 2.18 grade levels below.
• Economic Status: Students from low-income families performed 1.73 grade levels below the 2019 national average. However, their scores have been improving at a rate of +0.10 grade levels per year since 2022, a higher growth rate than their non-poor peers (-0.01).
• Gender: Female students (-1.29) outperformed male students (-1.59) relative to the national average.

Chronic Absenteeism

• Rising Rates: Chronic absenteeism (missing 10% or more of the school year) has increased in Avoyelles Parish.
• Current Standing: Between 2022 and 2025, the average chronic absenteeism rate was 24.5%, an increase of 1.9 percentage points from the 2017–2019 pre-pandemic average.
• Comparison: This rate is higher than the state average (21.8%) and similar districts (21.1%).

Recovery Context

• Math Recovery: Between 2022 and 2025, math scores in the parish showed a slight upward trend of 0.06 grade levels per year.
• Reading Recovery: The district’s reading trend was particularly strong relative to others, with a reading score trend that ranked in the 91st percentile nationally.

While the “learning recession” of the last decade has been severe, the recovery has officially begun in Louisiana. Harvard Professor Tom Kane, faculty director of the Center for Education Policy Research, noted that while a small group of state leaders have started “digging out” by changing how students learn to read, the work must continue.

With federal relief funds expiring, the report suggests Louisiana focus future school improvement dollars on middle- and higher-poverty districts that still trail their pre-pandemic levels.

---