NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — The report card is in for Louisiana schools, and the state overall maintained a B grade.
In the New Orleans area, Orleans and Jefferson parish school systems held on to a C grade while St. Tammany Parish kept a B grade.
The report cards, released by the Louisiana Department of Education, represent how public schools are doing academically.
Standardized test scores, graduation rates and academic coursework are used to measure a school’s performance.
Elementary schools in Orleans and St. Tammany parishes made the list of the top 10 most improved elementary schools from 2022 to 2023.
“Leading the list is ReNEW Schaumburg Elementary School in New Orleans, Success @ Thurgood Marshall,” Louisiana Superintendent of Education Dr. Cade Brumley said before naming Folsom Elementary School in St. Tammany Parish in the fifth spot.
Brumley says he visited ReNEW Schaumburg Elementary School in New Orleans East and believes there were several elements that put the school on the improvement path.
“I can tell you that I saw a commitment to the science of reading,” Brumley said. “I saw a commitment to professional development of staff, so that teachers are also getting the learning that they need to better do their job. And I saw an excited leadership team.”
A few Jefferson Parish high schools and one New Orleans high school made the 2023 list for highest-scoring high schools.
“Leading the list [is] Haynes Academy in Jefferson Parish,” Brumley said.
Patrick F. Taylor Academy in Jefferson earned the third spot, Ben Franklin High School in New Orleans earned the fifth spot, Thomas Jefferson Academy in Jefferson Parish earned the sixth spot and The Willow School in New Orleans earned the seventh spot on the list.
The results show that the statewide score now exceeds pre-pandemic levels following two consecutive years of growth.
However, Brumley says there’s still more work to do.
“We need to make sure families have choice and educational opportunities, and we need to return to the basics in literacy and the foundations of math,” Brumley said. “We think that if we do those things, we’re poised to accelerate even further than where we are today.”
NOLA Public Schools released a statement Monday. In part, it read, “From 2022 to 2023, two New Orleans schools dropped down to an F letter grade and another school received an ‘F’ grade after receiving a transitional grade in 2022. At the same time, seven schools received a higher letter grade in 2023 after receiving an ‘F’ in 2022.”
To see the full list of district scores and school scores, visit the Louisiana Department of Education website.
On Tuesday, Nov. 14, the NOLA Public Schools superintendent held a conference to discuss the school system’s performance scores. Watch the full conference in the video player below.
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