L.A. Was the Only Big District to Improve Student Scores This Year. Here’s How They Did It

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.”