Historical public education information in Louisiana, 2011-2013

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Education policy in the U.S.

Public education in the U.S.

School choice in the U.S.

Charter schools in the U.S.

Higher education in the U.S.

Glossary of education terms

Education statistics

This page contains archived information on Louisiana's public education system, primarily from 2011-2012, but also from other years due to the availability of data at the time it was written. For more recent information, view Louisiana's public education page.

The Louisiana public school system (prekindergarten through grade 12) operates within districts governed by locally elected school boards and superintendents. In 2012 Louisiana had 703,390 students enrolled in a total of 1,437 schools in 132 school districts. There were 48,657 teachers in the public schools, or roughly one teacher for every 15 students, compared to the national average of 1:16. There was roughly one administrator for every 244 students, compared to the national average of one administrator for every 295 students. On average Louisiana spent $10,723 per pupil in 2011, which ranked it 23rd highest in the nation. The state's graduation rate was 72 percent in 2012.

State agencies

See also: Louisiana Department of Education

The Louisiana Department of Education is helmed by the Superintendent of Education, who is appointed by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. The Superintendent of Education was John White as of 2015.

The Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) is the administrative body governing the state's public elementary and secondary schools as well as some non-public schools. The board is composed of 11 members, eight of whom are elected by district and three of whom are appointed by the Governor to represent the state at-large. Members serve four-year terms.

The mission statement of BESE reads:

“

The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education shall provide leadership and create policies for education that expand opportunities for children, empower families and communities, and advance Louisiana in an increasingly competitive global market.

”

Regional comparison

See also: General comparison table for education statistics in the 50 states and Education spending per pupil in all 50 states

The following chart shows how Louisiana compared to three neighboring states in school year 2011-2012 with respect to number of students, schools, the number of teachers per pupil, and the number of administrators per pupil during the 2011-2012 school year. Further comparisons between these states with respect to performance and financial information are given in other sections of this page.

Regional comparison, 2011-2012
State	Schools	Districts	Students	Teachers	Teacher/pupil ratio	Administrator/pupil ratio	Per pupil spending
Louisiana	1,437	132	703,390	48,657	1:14.5	1:244.3	$10,723
Alabama	1,618	170	744,621	47,723	1:15.6	1:293.5	$8,813
Arkansas	1,108	289	483,114	33,983	1:14.2	1:271.3	$9,353
Mississippi	1,069	163	490,619	32,007	1:15.3	1:251	$7,928
United States	98,328	17,992	49,521,669	3,103,263	1:16	1:295.2	$10,994
Sources: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "State Nonfiscal Public Elementary/Secondary Education Survey", 2011-12 v.1a. National Center for Education Statistics, "Table 2. Number of operating public schools and districts, state enrollment, teacher and pupil/teacher ratio by state: School year 2011–12" U.S. Census Bureau, "Public Education Finances: 2011,Governments Division Reports," issued May 2013

Demographics

See also: Demographic information for all students in all 50 states

The following table displays the ethnic distribution of students in Louisiana as reported in the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data for 2011-2012.

Demographic information for Louisiana's K-12 public school system, 2011-2012
Ethnicity	Students	State percentage	United States percentage**
American Indian	5,479	0.78%	1.10%
Asian	10,300	1.46%	4.68%
African American	316,947	45.06%	15.68%
Hawaiian Nat./Pacific Isl.	427	0.06%	0.42%
Hispanic	28,276	4.02%	24.37%
White	333,736	47.45%	51.21%
Two or more	8,225	1.17%	2.54%
**Note: This is the percentage of all students in the United States that are reported to be of this ethnicity.

Enrollments by region type

See also: Student distribution by region type in the U.S.

During the 2011-2012 school year, a plurality of students in Louisiana attended rural schools. Approximately 55 percent of the state's students attended rural or town schools, compared to the approximately 45 percent who attended city or suburban schools.

Student distribution by region type, 2011-2012 (as percents)
State	City schools	Suburban schools	Town schools	Rural schools
Louisiana	20.7%	24.5%	19.6%	35.2%
Alabama	20.6%	16.9%	14.4%	48%
Arkansas	25.8%	9.6%	20.3%	44.3%
Mississippi	10%	8.9%	28.9%	52.2%
U.S. average	28.9%	34%	11.6%	25.4%
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD)

Academic performance

Education terms
For more information on education policy terms, see this article.
School board elections portal Glossary of education terms School choice on the ballot Education on the ballot

NAEP scores

See also: NAEP scores by state

The National Center for Education Statistics provides state-by-state data on student achievement levels in mathematics and reading in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Compared to three neighboring states (Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi), Louisiana tied with Mississippi for the lowest percentage of fourth grade students who scored at or above proficient in math during the 2012-2013 school year.

Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013
	Math - Grade 4	Math - Grade 8	Reading - Grade 4	Reading - Grade 8
Louisiana	26%	21%	23%	24%
Alabama	38%	20%	31%	25%
Arkansas	39%	28%	32%	30%
Mississippi	26%	21%	21%	20%
U.S. average	41%	34%	34%	34%
Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express, "State Tables," accessed May 13, 2014

Graduation, ACT and SAT scores

See also: Graduation rates by groups in state

See also: ACT and SAT scores in the U.S.

The following table shows the graduation rates and average composite ACT and SAT scores for Louisiana and surrounding states for 2012 and 2013.

Comparison table for graduation rates and test scores*
State	Graduation rate, 2012		Average ACT composite, 2012		Average SAT composite, 2013
	Percent	Quintile ranking**	Score	Participation rate	Score	Participation rate
Louisiana	72%	Fourth	20.3	100%	1,741	5%
Alabama	75%	Fourth	20.3	86%	1,608	7%
Arkansas	84%	Second	20.3	88%	1,697	4%
Mississippi	75%	Fourth	18.7	100%	1,673	3%
U.S. average	80%		21.1		1,498
*Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Rate (except for Idaho, Kentucky, Oklahoma, which did not report “Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate,” but instead used their own method of calculation). **Graduation rates for states in the first quintile ranked in the top 20 percent nationally. Similarly, graduation rates for states in the fifth quintile ranked in the bottom 20 percent nationally. Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express

Dropout rate

See also: Public high school dropout rates by state for a full comparison of dropout rates by group in all states

The high school event dropout rate indicates the proportion of students who were enrolled at some time during the school year and were expected to be enrolled in grades 9–12 in the following school year but were not enrolled by October 1 of the following school year. Students who have graduated, transferred to another school, died, moved to another country, or who are out of school due to illness are not considered dropouts. The average public high school event dropout rate for the United States remained constant at 3.3 percent for both school year 2010–2011 and school year 2011–2012. The event dropout rate for Louisiana was higher than the national average at 3.9 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 5.7 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.

Educational choice options

See also: School choice in Louisiana

School choice options in Louisiana include: charter schools, school vouchers, school choice tax credits, intra-district and inter-district enrollment policies and online learning programs. In addition, about 16.31 percent of school-age children in the state attended private schools in the 2011-12 academic year, and an estimated 2.67 percent were homeschooled in 2012-13.

Education funding and expenditures

See also: Louisiana state budget and finances

Breakdown of expenditures by function in fiscal year 2012
Source: National Association of State Budget Officers

According to the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO), Louisiana spent approximately 18.4 percent of its fiscal year 2012 budget on elementary and secondary education. As a share of the budget, this was up 3.20 percentage points, or 21.1 percent, from fiscal year 2008, when the state spent 15.2 percent of its budget on elementary and secondary education.

Comparison of financial figures for school systems
State	Percent of budget (2012)	Per pupil spending (2011)	Revenue sources (2011)
			Percent federal funds	Percent state funds	Percent local funds
Louisiana	18.4%	$10,723	19.11%	41.43%	39.46%
Alabama	20.9%	$8,813	14.6%	53.77%	31.63%
Arkansas	16.3%	$9,353	16.02%	51.2%	32.77%
Mississippi	16.9%	$7,928	22.33%	45.95%	31.72%
Sources: NASBO, "State Expenditure Report," Table 8: Elementary and Secondary Education Expenditures As a Percent of Total Expenditures U.S. Census Bureau, "Public Education Finances: 2011,Governments Division Reports," issued May 2013

Revenue breakdowns

See also: Public school system revenues in the U.S.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, public school system revenues in Louisiana totaled approximately $8.2 billion in fiscal year 2011. The table below presents further detail, including revenue sources, for Louisiana and surrounding states.

Revenues by source, fiscal year 2011 (amounts in thousands)
	Federal revenue	State revenue	Local revenue	Total revenue
Louisiana	$1,570,393	$3,404,656	$3,242,171	$8,217,220
Alabama	$1,077,070	$3,965,614	$2,332,472	$7,375,156
Arkansas	$834,685	$2,667,090	$1,707,234	$5,209,009
Mississippi	$1,006,465	$2,071,467	$1,429,770	$4,507,702
U.S. total	$74,943,767	$267,762,416	$264,550,594	$607,256,777
Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Expenditure breakdowns

See also: Public school system expenditures in the United States

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, public school system expenditures in Louisiana totaled approximately $8.4 billion in fiscal year 2011. The table below presents further detail, including expenditure types, for Louisiana and surrounding states.

Expenditures by type, fiscal year 2011 (amounts in thousands)
	General expenditures**	Capital outlay	Other***	Total expenditures
Louisiana	$7,440,499	$812,768	$149,430	$8,402,697
Alabama	$6,582,496	$564,183	$255,905	$7,402,584
Arkansas	$4,495,309	$607,962	$578,992	$5,682,263
Mississippi	$3,888,831	$368,906	$88,046	$4,345,783
U.S. total	$520,577,893	$52,984,139	$29,581,293	$603,143,325
**Funds spent operating local public schools and local education agencies, including such expenses as salaries for school personnel, student transportation, school books and materials, and energy costs, but excluding capital outlay, interest on school debt, payments to private schools, and payments to public charter schools. ***Includes payments to state and local governments, payments to private schools, interest on school system indebtedness, and nonelementary-secondary expenditures, such as adult education and community services expenditures. Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Personnel salaries

See also: Public school teacher salaries in the United States

Note: Salaries given are averages for the state. Salaries may vary between a state's urban, suburban, and rural districts and should be adjusted for cost of living. For example, a MacIver Institute study of average teacher salaries in 60 metropolitan areas found that salaries in New York City were the third-highest in absolute figures but 59th-highest when adjusted for the cost of living.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average national salary for classroom teachers in public elementary and secondary schools declined by 1.3 percent from the 1999-2000 school year to the 2012-2013 school year. During the same period in Louisiana, the average salary increased by 13.6 percent.

Estimated average salaries for teachers (in constant dollars**)
	1999-2000	2009-2010	2011-2012	2012-2013	Percent difference
Louisiana	$45,246	$52,201	$51,014	$51,381	13.6%
Alabama	$50,139	$50,779	$48,802	$47,949	-4.4%
Arkansas	$45,625	$49,850	$47,085	$46,632	2.2%
Mississippi	$43,535	$48,722	$42,339	$41,994	-3.5%
U.S. average	$57,133	$58,925	$56,340	$56,383	-1.3%
**"Constant dollars based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), prepared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, adjusted to a school-year basis. The CPI does not account for differences in inflation rates from state to state."

Organizations

Unions

In 2012 the Fordham Institute and Education Reform Now assessed the power and influence of state teacher unions in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Their rankings were based on 37 different variables in five broad areas, including: resources and membership, involvement in politics, scope of bargaining, state policies and perceived influence. Louisiana ranked 42nd overall, or "weakest," which was in the fifth of five tiers.

The main unions related to the Louisiana school system are the Louisiana Association of Educators (LEA), an affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA), and the Louisiana Federation of Teachers (LFT). LEA is the largest education association in the state. For the 2003 tax period LEA had: $3.6 million in total revenue, $3.2 million in total expenses and $3.7 million in total assets. For the same period, LFT had: $1.8 million in total revenue, $2.4 million in total expenses and $826,009 in total assets.

List of local Louisiana school unions:

• Louisiana Association of Educators
• Louisiana Federation of Teachers
• American Federation of Teachers (New Orleans)
• American Federation of Teachers (Baton Rouge)
• American Federation of Teachers (Metairie)
• American Federation of Teachers (Slidell)
• American Federation of Teachers (Shreveport)
• Caddo Association of Educators
• American Federation of Teachers (Monroe)

Government sector lobbying

See also: Louisiana government sector lobbying

The main education government sector lobbying organization is the Louisiana School Boards Association.

Transparency

On November 12, 2008 Louisiana launched a spending transparency database, Louisiana Transparency and Accountability (La TRAC). La TRAC contains all executive branch spending for the state of Louisiana, including higher education. It also includes a vendor search, as well as a link to performance evaluations for state agencies (through La PAS).

Studies and reports

State Budget Solutions education study

See also: State spending on education v. academic performance (2012)

State Budget Solutions examined national trends in education from 2009 to 2011, including state-by-state analysis of education spending, graduation rates and average ACT scores. The study showed that the states that spent the most did not have the highest average ACT test scores, nor did they have the highest average graduation rates. A summary of the study is available here. The full report can be accessed here.

See also

• Public education in Louisiana
• Louisiana
• Education Policy in the U.S.