Louisiana test scores plunged five percentage points in the first glance at how public school students fared during the coronavirus pandemic, officials said Wednesday morning.
The exams, called LEAP 2025, measure what students know in math, English, science and social studies.
Scores have risen by a percentage point or two in recent years, which means the latest scores represent a significant step backwards amid unprecedented turmoil in classrooms.
In a break with tradition, state Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley said he will discuss the results on Aug. 11 rather than the day the scores are released.
Caddo saw a 5-percentage point decline across all subjects in elementary and middle school grades and a 4-percentage point decline at the high school level across all tested subjects.
Caddo’s student performance declines were similar to or less than declines seen statewide including in some of Louisiana’s largest school systems including Jefferson (5-point decline), East Baton Rouge (6-point decline) and Orleans (6-point decline).
Bossier Parish posted gains, resulting in a 91.2% district-wide graduation rate. That is a 3% gain from the previous year and marks the district’s highest graduation rate, which has been steadily rising over the last four years.
Scores of all elementary-middle schools in the state here
Scores of all high schools in the state here
Students in grades 3-12 took the tests in the spring after back-to-back years of interruptions caused by the pandemic.
The exams were cancelled last year.
The state's longtime goal is for students to achieve the fourth highest achievement level -- mastery -- and students will have to average mastery for a school to earn an A-rating by 2025.
But the number of students scoring mastery or above in grades 3-8 fell five percentage points since 2019, the last time the scores were recorded.
A total of 29% of those students reached mastery, down from 34% two years ago.
The fall in the percentage of 3-8 students who achieved mastery applied to some of the state's top school districts.
This time 40% of all students achieved mastery in English, down four percentage points from 2019.
In math, 27% of students met the target, a drop of eight percentage points.
The decline in this year's results showed up across all grade levels, subjects and subgroups, according to the state Department of Education.
The department also said learning gaps deepened among struggling students.
The number of students that scored unsatisfactory -- the lowest of five levels -- rose by five percentage points.
Hardest hit were disadvantaged students, third- and fourth-graders and math students.
The results were similar for high school students.
The number of students achieving mastery fell five percentage points, with algebra showing the biggest decline -- nine percentage points -- and English II the smallest --two percentage points below the 2019 results.
The drop in scores was not surprising and mirrors trends in other states.
A report by McKinsey & Company said, at the end of the 2020-21 school year, students on average were five months behind in math and four months behind in reading.
The state Department of Education noted drops in other states that have published scores, including Texas, Florida, Tennessee and Indiana.
Those states showed drops of up to 15 percentage points.
State officials also noted that 97.5% of students took the tests, one of the highest turnouts in the nation.
Louisiana's high school graduation rate rose from 80.1 in 2019 to 84.0 this time.
But state education officials said the increase likely stemmed from onetime flexibilities sparked by the pandemic, including assessments traditionally required for graduation.
“In the face of immense adversity, students, teachers, administrators and parents showed unwavering resiliency, demonstrating a deep commitment to both safety and learning,” Brumley said in a statement that accompanied the announcement.
“This LEAP 2025 data will be invaluable in guiding our instructional, policy, and resource allocation decisions as we recover and accelerate from this unprecedented interruption to student learning.”
In Louisiana, classrooms closed nine weeks early in March, 2020 during the early stages of the pandemic.
The 2020-21 school year featured a mixture of in-person classes and distance learning.
However, the school year ended with about 75% of students attending classes in person.
Educators said distance learning posed huge problems for a state where two-thirds of students live in low-income homes.
Access to the internet, especially in rural areas, and initial problems getting laptops and tablets into the hands of students were among the obstacles.