NEW ORLEANS – Louisiana’s K–12 public school system is posting some of the fastest academic gains in the country, ranking first in reading growth and second in math from 2022 to 2025, according to the latest Education Scorecard from researchers at Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth. But the academic gains reflect rapid improvement more than overall performance, with many districts, including Orleans Parish, still ranking well below national averages.
Students improved by approximately 0.22 grade levels in reading and 0.43 grade levels in math, making Louisiana the only state where students have surpassed pre-pandemic achievement levels in both subjects. Reading scores are now roughly 0.29 grade levels above 2019 benchmarks, while math scores are about 0.07 above.
Much of that acceleration was driven by an unprecedented influx of federal pandemic aid. Louisiana schools received approximately $4.05 billion through the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) programs amounting to about $6,000 per student, well above the national average of roughly $3,700. The higher funding level reflects Title I formulas that direct more funding to states and districts with higher concentrations of low-income students.
That investment helped enable shifts toward phonics-based literacy instruction, expanded tutoring and intervention, and tighter alignment around curriculum and accountability, which together drove academic gains, particularly in higher-poverty districts.
But with ESSER funding now expired, the state faces a new challenge: whether those gains can be sustained without the same level of financial support. Adding to the challenge, Louisiana teachers earn about $4,000 less on average than their peers in other Southern states.
Uneven Academic Gains at the Local Level
Students in Orleans Parish rank in the 7th percentile nationally in math and the 20th percentile in reading for overall performance during the 2022–2025 period. At the same time, Orleans Parish is improving faster than nearly any district in the country.
“New Orleans’ improvement is particularly noteworthy,” said Michael Hecht, CEO of Greater New Orleans, Inc. (GNO, Inc.). “Orleans Parish ranked in the 99th percentile nationally in reading growth and the 98th percentile in math from 2022 to 2025, placing NOLA Public Schools among the fastest-improving large urban districts in the country.”
Test scores in the district have been rising by 0.28 grade levels per year since 2022—more than triple the growth rate of similar districts.
Learning rate data reinforces that trajectory. Students in Orleans Parish are gaining an average of 1.35 grade levels per year, compared to a national benchmark of 1.0, placing the district in the 98th percentile nationwide for learning gains.
The pattern reflects a broader statewide trend: rapid academic gains are driving improvement, but many districts are still working from a low baseline relative to national peers.
Return on Investment and What Comes Next
The Scorecard findings point to a strong return on pandemic-era education spending, particularly in districts that combined funding with targeted instructional changes.
“While much of the country is still recovering from learning loss, students nationally remain about half a grade level behind pre-pandemic reading scores,” said Thomas Kane, a professor of education at Harvard University and faculty director of the Center for Education Policy Research. “Louisiana students, meanwhile, are performing just over a fifth of a grade level above their 2022 reading levels. To be the only state above its pre-pandemic levels in both math and reading shows what’s possible when state leaders stick with evidence-based interventions and give districts the support they need to follow through.”
At the same time, the report highlights structural risks that could slow future academic gains. Chronic absenteeism remains one of the most significant challenges. In Louisiana, 22% of students were chronically absent in 2025, roughly five percentage points higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Researchers behind the Education Scorecard also found recovery has been uneven across income levels. High- and low-income districts saw the strongest gains, while middle-income districts, those with roughly 30% to 70% of students qualifying for subsidized lunches, lagged behind, in part because they received less federal aid.
With federal relief dollars no longer flowing and absenteeism still elevated, sustaining post-pandemic progress is likely to be challenging.
