(The Center Square) — Louisiana’s 2021-22 student test scores for grades 3-8 showed improvement in 80% of school systems compared to the year prior, due in large part to more fulltime, in-person learning.

Data on 2021-22 LEAP scores released by the Louisiana Department of Education on Wednesday showed mastery rates improved among numerous student subgroups and all individual subject areas for grades 3-12.

“After the impact of a global pandemic and two of the strongest hurricanes in our state’s history, Louisiana’s students are back on their feet,” Superintendent Cade Brumley said. “K-12 education is on the rise in Louisiana because we kept schools open, strategically allocated resources, and developed innovative solutions to recover and accelerate student learning.”

Education officials credit much of the improvement to a larger share of students receiving instruction in person versus remote learning options implemented by schools during the pandemic.

In 2021, 98% of students tested were engaged in full-time, in-person learning, while that figure was 57% for the 2020-21 school year. Brumley told lawmakers during budget hearings last session that data from student test scores during the pandemic showed about a 15% difference in proficiency between students who received mostly face-to-face instruction versus those who mostly attended virtually.

The LEAP 2025 test includes assessments for English language arts, math, science and social studies for grades 3-12. The tests measure knowledge and skills defined by the state’s content standards for each grade, assigning student scores to one of five levels: Unsatisfactory, approaching basic, basic, mastery, or advanced. Mastery and advanced scores are considered proficient.

The number of students in grades 3-8 who reached that threshold increased by 2% to 31%, a figure that remains about 3% behind the 2019 proficiency rate. In English language arts, mastery was up 3% to 42%, while the figure was 30% for math, a 3% change over the prior year.

Science mastery scores for grades 3-8 wentup 2% to 27%, while social studies mastery for the same grades remained the same as last year at 25%.

Those numbers stand in contrast to a 5% drop in mastery scores for all subjects, and a 5% increase in unsatisfactory scores, for students in grades 3-8 between the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years. Scores for high school students also dropped 5% during the pandemic.

“This progress is a true testament to the dedication of our educators to maintain high standards for students no matter the circumstance,” Brumley said. “We still have work to do before we’ve fully recovered from the impact of the last two years, but there’s excitement among our teachers and leaders to close that gap and continue moving our students forward.”

Erin Bendily, a former Louisiana Department of Education official who now serves as vice president for policy and strategy at the PelicanInstitute, agreed that the progress erasing losses during the pandemic is worth celebrating, but noted that “overall, the story is we’re not back to pre-pandemic levels.”

“There are some areas where we have a lot of work left to do,” she said. “Third grade has basically not posted any progress since 2019. That’s incredibly troubling. We have to sound the alarm bells, we have a crisis there.”

Even once students fully recover from learning losses during the pandemic, it’s imperative “we keep focused on how we’re preparing kids for the challenges ahead,” she said.

“Even in the best school district in the state, only half of students are at grade level,” Bendily said. “Currently, a high percentage of kids coming out of high school are not prepared for life.”

Schools across the country received large infusions of federal cash, including $4 billion in Louisiana, to address learning loss, and how schools spending the money and the results on the investment will provide valuable lessons moving forward, she said.

“I think we’re going to see differences in how schools are using the resources to address student needs,” Bendily said.