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 latest data from the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford and Harvard universities, here is a summary of the academic performance and attendance trends for Bienville Parish:

Overall Academic Performance (2022–2025)

• Test Scores: Students in Bienville Parish performed 0.87 grade levels below the 2019 national average. This is slightly lower than the Louisiana state average of -0.70, but it is higher than the average for similar districts (-1.28).
• Growth Trends: Test scores have been improving at a rate of +0.15 grade levels per year since 2022. This growth rate is more than double the state average of +0.06.
• National Ranking: Bienville Parish ranks in the 33rd percentile for math and the 37th percentile for reading performance nationwide.
  
  

Learning Rates and School Quality

• Learning Rate: Students in Bienville Parish learned an average of 1.07 grade levels per year during the 2022–2025 period. This exceeds the national average learning rate of 1.0.
• National Comparison: The district’s learning rate is higher than 74% of districts nationwide. This metric is considered a stronger indicator of school quality than raw test scores because it measures progress made during the school year regardless of starting points.

Student Subgroup Trends

• Income Level: Students from low-income families performed 1.28 grade levels below the 2019 national average, but they are showing steady progress with a growth trend of +0.16 grade levels per year.
  
  
• Race/Ethnicity: White students performed 0.27 grade levels below the national average, while Black students performed 1.49 grade levels below. However, both groups are showing positive growth trends (+0.17 and +0.14, respectively).
  
  
• Gender: Female students (-0.69) currently outperform male students (-1.08) relative to the 2019 national average.

Chronic Absenteeism

• Rising Rates: The average chronic absenteeism rate (students missing 10% or more of the school year) in Bienville Parish was 19.8% between 2022 and 2025.
• Long-term Change: This represents a 2.9 percentage point increase from the 2017–2019 pre-pandemic average of 16.9%.
  
  
• Regional Context: Despite the increase, Bienville’s absenteeism rate remains lower than both the state average (21.8%) and the average for similar districts (22.8%).

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.