BOSSIER CITY, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – A week before some students in our area return to school Louisiana State Superintendent Dr. Cade Brumley announced LEAP test results for the 2022-2023 school year.

The announcement was made from the Cyber Innovation Center on Tuesday morning in Bossier City.

The Louisiana Department of Education shared details of how initiatives adopted by the LDOE have shown literacy growth. Most notably the economically disadvantaged students improved from 42nd to 11th overall in reading proficiency.

“One of the things we have really encouraged our educators to do is pay attention to individual student needs, and I think we’re seeing that in these results,” Louisiana Department of Education’s Deputy Superintendent for Teaching and Learning, Jenna Chiasson.

The Superintendent of Education said these results highlight the post-pandemic improvements, rating Louisiana 4th Grader number one in the nation for reading growth.

For high schoolers, the only content area that there was not growth was social studies. LDOE Superintendant Dr. Cade Brumley said that was a direct result of a lack of strong social studies standards adoption.

Year over year the LDOE sees a decline in math scores by the time they reach eighth grade. Brumley called this a systemic issue that persists in much of the country.

“Mathematics stacks on top of mathematics, and as students advance in the grades those small fault lines become craters if we don’t take care of them very early,” says Brumley.

The solution, Brumley believes, is to attack the math scores in much of the same way they did with literacy rates.

“We’ve had an intentional focus around our literacy improvement work that included training every kindergarten to third-grade teacher and school leader in the science of reading,” says Chiasson.

Northwest Louisiana districts all showed growth of at least one percentage point, Brumley noted as he explained why his announcement came from this region instead of Baton Rouge.

Brumley highlighted Ascension Parish, Central Community Schools, West Feliciana, Plaquemines, St. Tammany, Lincoln, Vermilion, St. Charles, Lafayette, Lafourche, and Livingston Parishes as systems that achieved mastery of all content areas.

Most improved systems highlighted by the superintendent included Lincoln, East Carroll, Evangeline, West Baton Rouge, West Feliciana, Assumption, Bogalousa, Calcacieu, Concordia, Natchitoches, Orleans, Plaquemine, Richland, St John the Baptist, and St. Tammany.

“We are pleased with this progress, this is good progress – sustained progress,” Brumley said. “But we are not where we need to be, and we have to continue to work with urgency and focus to get there,”

All Louisiana public and charter school students in grades three through twelve on academic standards for ELA (English language arts), math, science, and social studies. Student scores are reported as unsatisfactory, approaching basic, basic, mastery, and advanced. Achieving a score of mastery or advanced is considered proficient; or ready for the next grade level.

LEAP results for 2021-2022, the first full year that students attended school without a hybrid learning model integrated, LEAP scores showed that mastery rates for students in grades 3-8 increased by three points in math and ELA had an 80 percent improved mastery rate in Louisiana school systems compared to the year before.

Sun City Elementary in Bossier made it to the top ten for most improved schools. The Bossier Superintendent credits the hard work and dedication of the teachers.

“It shows that hard work, a lot of teachers that- that are heroes for us, that have invested in those kids and helped them achieve outstanding results,” says the Superintendent of Bossier Parish Schools.

They said, there is nothing more important than the classroom teacher.