Recently, the 2021-22 School Performance Scores for the state’s public K-12 schools were released by the Louisiana Department of Education, according to this brief by LDOE. The results indicated that students are continuing to recover academically from the unprecedented school disruptions that were caused by the pandemic and multiple hurricanes.

The released 2021-2022 School Performance Scores showed that Louisiana’s statewide School Performance Score is the same as it was before the pandemic. Both in 2019 and 2022, Louisiana’s SPScore was 77.1. This is a 1.8 marginal increase from a simulated score of 75.3 that was generated for 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The released performance data can be viewed on the LDOE website, and SPScores will be available on the Louisiana School and Center Finder by the end of 2022.

This year, 48 of the 63 traditional public school systems included in the released 2021-2022 School Performance Scores showed improvement from the 2021 data to 2022. The issued scores also indicated that 30 Louisiana school systems had either equaled or improved their school performance score in 2022 when compared to 2019.

Louisiana State Superintendent Cade Brumley commented on the state’s scores by saying: “Returning our statewide performance score to its pre-pandemic level is reason to be thankful, but we have a long way to go for Louisiana’s children. We must continue to act with urgency to provide even better outcomes moving forward – that’s the challenge we must meet.”

Since 1999, Louisiana has issued School Performance Scores (SPScores) to its public schools; these scores are based on student achievement data. Additionally, in order to better communicate the quality of a school’s performance with families and the larger public, Louisiana adopted a letter grade system (A-F).

State Superintendent Cade Brumley commented that the increase in mastery rates for English, math, and science in grades three through eight on the 21-22 LEAP Assessments was a contributor to the improved statewide performance. He said, “we saw a 3% increase in mastery rates in English, a 3% increase in math and we saw a 2% increase in our mastery rates for science. So, that increase in proficiency certainly led to improved school performance across the state.”

Generally speaking, Louisiana has avoided some portion of the devastating learning loss that schools and districts nationwide have experienced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The maintaining of pre-pandemic SPScores is made even more notable due to the fact that over the past two years, Louisiana has been catastrophically impacted by six hurricanes, with two being among the strongest in the state’s history.

Since last year, the 2021-2022 SPScore showed several measures of performance increases that included measures from ACT results, dropout data, state assessments, and expanded school interests and opportunities measures. In fact, this is the first time that the interests and opportunities indicator has been used to measure schools in official SPScores.

The new interests and opportunities indicator, which accounts for 5% of the SPScore formula, was originally approved by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) in 2018 and implemented in the 2019-20 school year. The interests and opportunities indicator measures whether schools are providing their students with access to a well-rounded education. In this case, a well-rounded education would expose students to a wide array of learning activities.

Looking forward to the remainder of the 2022-2023 school year, the state superintendent said, “we have to focus on staying on course with literacy efforts, refreshing math, transforming our high schools, and continue to give parents the options of education for their kids. I believe that if we do those things, we will continue to see improvements across the state of Louisiana.”

For more education-related information, click here.