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East Baton Rouge schools mark record graduation rate as state rolls out new accountability formula
Summary
At the Nov. 20 meeting, district leaders said the Louisiana Department of Education's new accountability scorecard leaves East Baton Rouge Parish with an overall C but cited the district's highest-ever graduation rate (76.3%) and gains at dozens of schools.
At the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board's Nov. 20 meeting, district officials presented newly released school and district performance scores from the Louisiana Department of Education and urged cautious celebration: the district's overall letter grade remained a C under both the old and new state formulas, while several school-level measures improved.
Superintendent Lamont Cole opened the discussion by thanking staff and promising a fuller report to come. "We did better, but we still have so much more to do," Cole said, calling the results a reason to celebrate briefly before returning to the work of improvement.
District data presenter Andre told the board the district received the state files overnight and explained that the previous 150-point accountability scale has been replaced by a 100-point scale. "No matter which way you cut it, the district remains a C," Andre said, and he cautioned that numeric drops caused by scale changes do not necessarily mean a letter-grade decline.
Key figures shared with the board included: the district's graduation rate rose to 76.3% for the class of 2025 (the district's highest to date), compared with a Louisiana average of 85%; 61.7% of graduates earned industry or advanced credentials (the district's "strength of diploma" metric), an increase of more than 15 percentage points; 62% of district-run sites increased their school performance scores under the current formula; and 12 schools increased their letter grades.
Andre called out several schools by name for notable improvement and explained how realignment and formula changes affect counts of "F" and academically unacceptable (AUS) schools. He noted that three previously closed sites had formally exited AUS status and that other schools such as Claiborne Elementary and Winburn Elementary are on the cusp of exiting AUS under certain calculations.
Board members praised staff work during a transition year and asked for follow-up briefings on areas not included in the release. "We have an opportunity to make more history for our school system and our city," Cole said, noting staff will upload backup reports and a presentation to BoardDocs and the district's new dashboard.
The board did not take any formal policy action tied directly to the score release at the meeting; presenters said more detailed data and analysis will be posted online and discussed at a later date. The board's next regular meeting is scheduled for Dec. 4, 2025.
