By Josh Beavers
Webster Parish Public Schools is growing in math faster than 96 percent of school districts in the country, according to new district-level data released by researchers at Stanford and Harvard.
The report, a companion piece to the 2026 Education Scorecard that named Webster a “District on the Rise” last week, places the parish in the 96th percentile nationally for math growth between 2022 and 2025. In reading, Webster ranks in the 75th percentile nationally, outpacing three out of four U.S. districts.
The Education Scorecard, an annual project by researchers at Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth, names districts that have shown unusual improvement compared to similar communities in their own states. To qualify, a district must show academic growth of at least 0.3 grade levels in both reading and math, serve more than 1,200 students, and outperform demographically similar districts in its state. Only 108 districts in the country earned the distinction this year.
Webster Parish Superintendent Johnny Rowland credited the people doing the work.
“I cannot say enough about the work of our students and our teachers, who I believe are the most important component in a child’s educational journey,” Rowland said. “Our administrative teams, our principals and their staffs lead this charge on a daily basis.”
The data, produced by the Stanford Educational Opportunity Project in collaboration with the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, draws on test scores from grades 3 through 8 across more than 10,000 districts nationwide. Webster’s math growth rate of 0.11 grade levels per year outpaces both the state average of 0.06 and the average of similar Louisiana districts at 0.03. In practical terms, that means a Webster student is gaining roughly twice as much ground per year as a student in a comparable Louisiana district.
Webster also ranks in the 76th percentile nationally for “learning rates,” a measure researchers consider a cleaner indicator of school quality than raw test scores because it tracks how much students gain year over year. Webster’s learning rate of 1.08 means students in grades 3 through 8 are gaining slightly more than one grade level of skills each year. The national average is 1.00.
The growth shows up across student groups. Black students in Webster rank in the 98th percentile nationally for math growth, slightly outpacing white students who rank in the 97th percentile. Low-income students rank in the 95th percentile. Female and male students grew at nearly identical rates. The pattern suggests Webster’s gains have not concentrated in a single subgroup but extend across the district’s student population.
Rowland said the credit extends well beyond the classroom.
“It says so much about the capability and integrity of our employees, our support staff, our school board, and the vision they have to put together critical pieces for a plan,” Rowland said. “The citizens of our district can be proud knowing that they have educators using their tax dollars in such a great way.”
The report also flags one persistent headwind. Chronic absenteeism in Webster rose from 23.0 percent before the pandemic to 28.4 percent in the 2022-2025 period, higher than both the Louisiana average of 21.8 percent and the average for similar districts at 25.6 percent. Researchers warn that absenteeism nationwide continues to slow academic progress.
Webster was among the Louisiana districts singled out by name in the Education Scorecard for math growth. Louisiana ranked second in the nation for academic recovery overall, with researchers crediting the state’s reading reforms and disciplined focus on the basics. For Webster, the new data offers something more specific: hard evidence that the work happening in classrooms across the parish is producing results that hold up against any district in the country.