While new national test results painted a grim picture of student learning during the pandemic, scores in the nation’s second-largest school district offered a glimmer of hope and signs of improvement.
In Los Angeles, the average scores for eighth-grade math and fourth-grade reading held steady between 2019 and 2022, while eighth-grade reading scores in the district saw a nine-point improvement—a “bright spot” amid otherwise steep academic declines on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as “the Nation’s Report Card.”
Of the 26 large urban districts where NAEP assessments were given, Los Angeles was the only one to make gains in eighth-grade reading. The district attributes the improvements not to a radical approach, but to methodically deploying well-known strategies—offering a model for other districts to follow, particularly those that are high-poverty and serve mostly students of color like Los Angeles.
