Looking Under the Hood: Accountability with ACT Scores

Accountability is a foundational pillar of NSLA’s work.

Last week, the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) released class of 2024 ACT data on their website, sharing score averages for each parish and the high schools within them. News articles (like this one from The Advocate) followed shortly after, largely comparing the parish averages while ignoring individual school data.

With averages, however, it’s important to take a “look under the hood” to understand how individual schools and specific groups of students are performing.

Why? Often selective admissions schools and their data provide cover to deeply underperforming schools serving the most at-risk students, making it harder for parents to truly understand how their child’s school is performing.

Let’s take a look at East Baton Rouge Parish schools as an example.

While EBR’s average for 2,140 seniors across 15 schools is 17.8, only two selective admissions magnet schools achieved averages above the district’s. The other 13 schools, representing 71% of EBR seniors in 2024, fall below the district average with the majority of the schools falling below by 2+ points. 

Let’s take a look at another major district with similar trends – Jefferson Parish.

Similar to East Baton Rouge, three Jefferson Parish selective admission magnet schools far outperform the district average while ten schools representing 63% of 2024 seniors scored well below the district average.  

It gets even more complicated to find and understand student subgroup data that provide more insight into how certain economical, racial, and disability groups perform. These data, if more readily available in an easy to understand format, could provide parents with an even clearer picture of how their student might fare in a particular school or district. 

What can this "look under the hood" into ACT data teach us about the relationship between accountability and choice?

1. Often the way data are shared with stakeholders, particularly parents, make it more difficult to determine individual school and student group performance.
2. Without knowledge about how individual schools and student peer groups are performing, parents are not able to make a fully informed decision about their child’s education.
3. We must all do better in sharing performance data with families in ways that are truly accessible – school guides, community outreach, school leader transparency, and more!

Only with transparency and clarity in schools’ academic and operational performance can families be empowered with true choice in their child’s education. 

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