East Baton Rouge Parish School System students continue to build academic momentum, posting the district’s strongest post-pandemic LEAP assessment results while demonstrating growth that outpaced statewide results in several key areas.
Overall, EBR Schools improved student performance across every tested content area and improved or maintained results in 27 of 31 tested areas, including 22 of 24 tested areas in Grades 3-8 and five of seven tested high school courses, marking the district’s greatest academic gains since the pandemic.
The Spring 2026 LEAP results, the first released under Louisiana’s new “Grow. Achieve. Thrive.” accountability framework, reflect measurable progress across every tested subject and reinforce the positive trajectory of EBR Schools under Superintendent LaMont Cole’s leadership.
From elementary classrooms to high school campuses, the results demonstrate that the district’s strategic investments in high-quality instruction, educator support and student success are translating into measurable gains for students.
“This is an important milestone for our district because it reflects the hard work taking place in classrooms across East Baton Rouge every single day,” said Superintendent LaMont Cole. “When we launched our ‘Dare to be Great’ vision, we committed ourselves to raising expectations, investing in our schools and believing in what our students and employees are capable of achieving. These results show that commitment is paying off.”
A few of the district’s most significant accomplishments include:
- Overall student proficiency reached its highest level since the pandemic.
- Students improved across every tested content area, including English language arts, mathematics, science and social studies.
- East Baton Rouge outpaced statewide growth in Grades 3-8 overall proficiency, increasing Mastery+ rates by two percentage points compared to Louisiana’s one-point increase.
- Mathematics proficiency reached its highest level since the pandemic, with district growth exceeding the state’s improvement while narrowing historical achievement gaps.
- English language arts proficiency rebounded to within one percentage point of pre-pandemic performance, while statewide growth remained unchanged.
- Social studies proficiency reached its highest level in years, with district gains exceeding the state’s improvement across all tested subjects and high school assessments.
- Science proficiency now exceeds the district’s pre-pandemic performance.
Middle school students produced some of the district’s strongest gains, particularly in Grades 6-8, while high school students made significant strides in Algebra I, Geometry, U.S. History and Civics.
One of the year’s most notable successes came in Algebra I, where EBR Schools increased student proficiency by eight percentage points, reducing the historical achievement gap by nearly half in a single year. Civics also emerged as a bright spot, with EBR Schools students outperforming the statewide average after posting a four-point increase.
The district also continues making meaningful progress among historically underserved student populations. Black students improved their Mastery+ performance from 21% to 23%, surpassing the statewide average. Overall, multiple student groups demonstrated year-over-year improvement, signaling encouraging progress toward closing long-standing achievement gaps.
Individual schools also earned statewide recognition for both academic achievement and student growth, with three EBR schools ranking among Louisiana’s Top 20 for overall Mastery+ performance and two schools ranking among the Top 20 for annual academic growth.
Cole credited the district’s educators, support staff, students and families for embracing transformational changes that have focused on high-quality instruction, stronger supports, strategic investments and a culture of accountability.
“These results belong to every teacher who refused to lower expectations, every support employee who removed barriers for students, every principal who challenged their staff to improve, every family who partnered with us and every student who chose to persevere,” Cole said. “Our people have embraced this work because they believe in our children.”
While celebrating the district’s progress, district leaders emphasize that the work is far from finished.
Although proficiency rates continue to improve, and several achievement gaps are narrowing, EBR Schools remains focused on accelerating student achievement and closing the remaining gaps with statewide performance.
“The progress we’ve made proves what’s possible,” Cole said. “We are pleased but not satisfied. We know our students are capable of even more, and our commitment to excellence has never been stronger. There is no turning back from the progress we’ve begun. We will continue building on this momentum until every child has the opportunity to succeed at the highest levels.”
The Spring 2026 LEAP results represent another significant step forward in EBR Schools’ ongoing efforts to improve student outcomes, strengthen academic excellence and ensure every student graduates prepared for college, career, citizenship, service and life.
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