Stanford Data: New Orleans K8 Schools Lead the State

Posted on by Leslie Jacobs

Stanford’s Educational Opportunity Trends Project has released updated Education Scorecard data covering grades 3-8 from 2022-2025.

GROWTH

  • New Orleans’ 3-8 grade performance ranked #1 among all Louisiana school districts in academic gains in reading and math since 2022.
  • We are leading in Louisiana, and last spring Louisiana was ranked #2 among states in reading growth and #3 in math growth.
  • Among the 1,000 largest districts the report included, New Orleans ranked #5 nationally in growth.
  • From 2022-2025, New Orleans public school students in grades 3-8 gained 1.34 grade levels of learning in math and reading per year – a third of a grade more each year than the national average. Stanford (and Educate Now!) considers learning rate a better measure of school quality than absolute test scores, as it measures what schools add to the students they enroll rather than the academic level students arrive with.

CLOSING THE GAP

  • Stanford calculates that New Orleans 3rd-8th graders’ performance is 1.9 grade levels below the national average. Unfortunately, this is a blended number that uses the test results across all six grades. We know many of our students enter school far behind their peers nationally.  
  • The more relevant question is how far behind are our 8th graders when they leave middle school. According to Claude’s analysis of the detailed data charts in the study, the gap narrows significantly in reading – to about 1.0. Math, however, remains more challenging for our schools, with a 2.1 gap.
  • Closing the performance gap is a 13 year marathon that requires our schools to outperform and continue to deliver more than a year of growth each year and across all grades. A typical American school delivers 13 years of teaching in 13 years; ours must deliver several years more in the same amount of time. This report shows our K8 schools are doing it. And, as Educate Now! reported last month, our high schools are also showing strong growth. They are taking the handoff from our middle schools and continuing the work to close this performance gap.