Brumley calls LEAP scores 'good progress' but more work is required

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.

Brumley shared details of how initiatives adopted by the LDOE have shown literacy growth.

For high schoolers, the only content area that there was not growth was social studies. 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.

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

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.