The state report cards for Louisiana public schools are in, and they show students continue to make progress. But the letter grades for state schools and districts are likely to look a little different next year, when a significant change in the state’s accountability system takes effect.
There has been a wave of positive news lately when it comes to student outcomes on various measures of performance. The latest comes from school and district performance scores. Overall, Louisiana public schools earned a performance score of 80.9 on a 150-point scale, giving school districts a statewide letter grade of B.
That letter grade is the same as it has been in recent years, but the raw score is the highest it has been on the state’s current accountability system, up from 80.2. It is also nearly four points better than the pre-COVID score of 77.1, continuing an upward trend that was only briefly interrupted by the pandemic.
In terms of school letter grades, the breakdown is roughly the same as last year’s results.
- A Schools: 21%
- B Schools: 31%
- C Schools: 32%
- D Schools: 12%
- F Schools: 4%
Notably, slightly more than half of schools earned a letter grade of A or B and there are no F schools districts this year as the City of Baker School District improved slightly to a D. Nearly all the state’s major urban school districts earned a B letter grade, including Orleans.
That marks a major milestone as Orleans was the worst school district in the state by far prior to Hurricane Katrina. Twenty years later, the switch to charter schools coupled with other education policy changes have moved the district to a level approaching the statewide average.
While the year-to-year growth in district performance has not been large, it has been relatively steady, up nearly five-points since 2018. It is worth noting that while many are talking about a national crisis in education marked by declining student test scores, this new data seems to confirm other signs that show Louisiana bucking that trend.
It comes as the state has changed the way students are taught reading and math, increased access to high dosage tutoring for struggling students, and enhanced teacher training and professional development.
Changes Coming to State Measures of School Performance
As it turns out this will be the last year the performance of schools and districts will be evaluated under the current measurement model. With the beginning of classes this past August, schools are now under a new accountability system. Better Louisiana believes that is a good thing. For a number of years, it was clear that the old accountability system was too complicated, not as transparent as it needed to be and, frankly, had acquired loopholes that inflated some performance scores, particularly in high schools.
That is apparent when looking at scores in the latest release. In 2025, 44% of elementary and middle schools earned an A or B score, compared with 70% of high schools. Clearly there is a disconnect here since the actual students didn’t change, just their schools. The new system, which Better Louisiana supported at BESE, is simpler than the old one, more rigorous in some ways, and more straightforward in what it seeks to measure.
It puts a greater emphasis on student growth, sets a strong standard for student proficiency, and places a more intense focus on ensuring that graduating students are college and career ready.
Because of this new rigor, it is likely that some school performance scores will change. Using a simulation of the 2025 results run through the requirements of the new accountability system, differences in scores were apparent, particularly for high schools.
In the simulation, 84% of elementary and middle schools earned the same or better letter grade compared to this year’s results. In high school, however, the results were starkly different. About 76% of high schools saw their letter grade drop, 23% stayed the same, and virtually none improved.
As you might expect, this is causing some concern in many school districts who worry about the message that sends if grades go down. While those worries are understandable, Better Louisiana believes there is no need to overreact. The goal of an accountability system is to measure, to the best degree you can, how well a school is doing based on the outcomes you want to see.
Our old system wasn’t doing that for high schools, and the new system should provide a more accurate view of the performance of their students. On top of that, there is now a growing understanding that our schools need to be doing more to prepare our students for college and career opportunities after they graduate.
Though there is admittedly some disagreement about how well the new system truly incentivizes schools to focus on that piece, that was clearly the intent of BESE members when they approved it, and that, too, could have an effect on scores depending on how school districts respond.
All that said, this is not the first time we have changed things that can have an impact on letter grades and student scores. Over the years, we have made adjustments to our accountability system, academic standards, and student assessments – usually adding more rigor with each change.
And, yes, we often see a short-term drop in scores, but it is almost always accompanied by a long-term increase in performance. History tells us school leaders respond and adapt to the changes, which is what you want them to do. And when that happens, it is the students who benefit.