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 Education Scorecard reports from Harvard and Stanford, here is a combined summary of academic performance and recovery trends for Caddo and Bossier Parishes.

Academic Performance & Growth (2022–2025)

Both districts have shown resilience following the pandemic, though they differ in their baseline performance and growth trajectories:

• Average Test Scores:
  • Bossier Parish students performed 0.14 grade levels below the 2019 national average.
    
    
  • Caddo Parish students performed 1.60 grade levels below the 2019 national average.
    
    
• Performance Trends:
  • Caddo has shown significant upward momentum, with test scores improving at a rate of +0.10 grade levels per year since 2022, outperforming the state average of +0.06.
    
    
  • Bossier scores have remained stable (0.00 change) during the same period.
    
    
• National Rankings:
  • Bossier ranks in the 53rd percentile for math and 62nd percentile for reading nationwide.
    
    
  • Caddo ranks in the 16th percentile for math and 21st percentile for reading nationwide.

Learning Rates (School Quality Indicator)

Learning rates measure how much a student improves during a single school year. A rate of 1.0 represents one full grade level of growth.

• Caddo Parish boasts a high learning rate of 1.09, meaning students are gaining more than a year of knowledge for every year spent in school. This ranks Caddo higher than 77% of districts nationwide.
  
  
• Bossier Parish has a learning rate of 0.85, ranking it higher than 28% of districts nationwide.

Student Subgroup Success

• Reading Recovery: Caddo Parish has seen remarkable growth in reading, with its recovery trend ranking in the 88th percentile nationally.
  
  
• Equity Gaps: Both districts face challenges with performance gaps:
  • In Bossier, White students performed 1.01 grade levels above the 2019 national average, while Black students performed 1.82 below.
    
    
  • In Caddo, White students performed 0.87 grade levels above the national average, while Black students performed 2.67 below.
    
    
• Economic Progress: In Caddo, students from low-income families are showing strong recovery, with a growth trend of +0.13 grade levels per year.

Chronic Absenteeism

Attendance remains a critical focus area for both Northwest Louisiana parishes:

• Caddo Parish: The average chronic absenteeism rate was 31.1% between 2022 and 2025, a 10.5 percentage point increase from pre-pandemic levels.
  
  
• Bossier Parish: The average rate was 21.5%, which is a 6.1 percentage point increase from pre-pandemic levels.

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.

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