By Josh Beavers

BATON ROUGE — Webster Parish Public Schools earned national recognition Wednesday as one of Louisiana’s leading districts in post-pandemic math recovery, according to the fourth annual Education Scorecard released by researchers at Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth.

The report identifies Webster as one of Louisiana’s standout districts in math growth between 2022 and 2025. The state itself ranked third in the nation for math recovery and second for reading recovery during that period, becoming the only state in the country to surpass its pre-pandemic reading benchmark.

The findings were unveiled at a news conference held Wednesday morning at Park Elementary in Baton Rouge, where state Superintendent of Education Dr. Cade Brumley and Gov. Jeff Landry addressed reporters. Webster Parish Superintendent Johnny Rowland was among the local district leaders in attendance.

Rowland said the recognition fits a longer pattern for the district.

“Just so honored and privileged to once again be invited to a press conference in Baton Rouge to celebrate the great things going on in the Webster Parish Public School system,” Rowland said. “Several years ago, I was called to a similar press conference with the state superintendent and members of BESE, where we were recognized as being one of the top 10 districts in the state for student growth. So academic excellence in Webster Parish is not something that is new to us.”

The Education Scorecard tracks district-level academic recovery using state test results for roughly 35 million students in grades 3 through 8, paired with national assessment data. To qualify as a “District on the Rise,” a school system must show improvement of at least 0.3 grade levels in both reading and math during two windows: 2022 to 2025 and 2019 to 2025. It must also serve more than 1,200 students while outperforming demographically similar districts in its own state.

According to the report, Louisiana students are now performing about 0.43 grade equivalents above their 2022 math levels and 0.22 grade equivalents above their 2022 reading levels. The state is one of only two performing above 2019 levels in math.

Brumley pointed to Louisiana’s broader climb in national rankings.

“In 2019, we were rated 49th in the entire country for educational outcomes. Today, we’re ranked 32nd in the entire country,” Brumley said. “We are indeed pleased, but we’re not satisfied. Nothing is more important to a child’s academic success outside of the parent than their classroom teacher. That’s why we have to let the teachers teach and make sure to support them as they do their job.”

Researchers credit Louisiana’s reading gains in part to comprehensive “science of reading” reforms. Every state that improved in reading between 2022 and 2025 had been implementing those reforms, according to the report. Louisiana is one of eight states cited for that work.

Landry pressed the point further.

“So much of the country is still recovering from learning losses. We’re not catching up. We’re leading,” Landry said. “How many of you all thought that just five years ago, we would be here? How long have we struggled in this thing to get our educational system right?”

Webster Parish is among 108 districts nationally identified by the researchers as outperforming peers of similar size, demographics and circumstance.

For Rowland, the recognition comes back to a phrase he said sums up Webster Parish’s approach. He attributed it to one of his central office supervisors, Mrs. Oreata Banks.

“We grow kids,” Rowland said. “We know how to grow kids and help students improve their academic outcomes. There are things that are out of our control that we deal with on a daily basis. But when they come to us, whether it’s pre-K, kindergarten, elementary, middle or high school, our teachers, our principals and their teams know how to improve student outcomes. They know how to educate children.”

The report also flagged challenges that could threaten future gains. Chronic absenteeism in Louisiana rose from 18.8 percent in 2022 to 22 percent in 2025, roughly five percentage points above pre-pandemic levels. Nationally, the picture is similar, with researchers warning that students missing more than 10 percent of the school year are at heightened risk of falling behind.

The Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard, which leads the Scorecard project with Stanford and Dartmouth, called on states to pair high-performing districts with peer systems to share recovery strategies. Louisiana received about $4.05 billion in federal pandemic relief for K-12 schools, roughly $6,000 per student. Much of that funding drove gains in the highest-poverty districts, researchers say.

With federal relief now expired, the report’s authors recommend states direct school improvement dollars toward middle- and higher-poverty districts still lagging behind 2019 achievement levels.