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 reports from the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford and Harvard universities, here is the academic and attendance summary for DeSoto Parish:

Overall Academic Performance (2022–2025)

• Test Scores: Students in DeSoto Parish performed 0.01 grade levels above the 2019 national average. This places the district significantly higher than the Louisiana state average of -0.70.
• Performance Trends: Test scores have been improving at a rate of +0.13 grade levels per year since 2022. This growth is more than double the statewide average trend of +0.06.
• National Rankings: DeSoto Parish ranks in the 45th percentile for math and the 75th percentile for reading performance nationwide.

Learning Rates (School Quality Indicator)

Learning rates measure how much students’ scores improve as they progress from grade to grade, providing a strong indicator of school quality.

• Annual Growth: Students in DeSoto Parish learned an average of 1.10 grade levels per year during the 2022–2025 period.
• National Standing: This learning rate is higher than 80% of districts nationwide. It also exceeds the national average learning rate of 1.0 and the Louisiana state average of 0.97.

Student Subgroup Trends

• Economic Progress: Students from low-income families performed 1.06 grade levels below the 2019 national average but are showing strong recovery with a growth trend of +0.12 grade levels per year.
• Race/Ethnicity: Both White (+0.12) and Black (+0.16) students in the parish are showing positive annual growth in test scores. White students performed 0.95 grade levels above the national average, while Black students performed 1.46 grade levels below it.
• Gender: Female students (0.20) currently outperform male students (-0.16) relative to the 2019 national average.

Chronic Absenteeism

• Rising Rates: The average chronic absenteeism rate in DeSoto Parish was 17.3% between 2022 and 2025.
• Long-term Change: This represents a 2.8 percentage point increase from the 2017–2019 pre-pandemic average of 14.5%.
• Regional Context: Despite the increase, DeSoto’s absenteeism rate remains lower than both the state average (21.8%) and the average for similar districts (21.0%).

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.