Louisiana school board elections, 2016

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Elections

General elections for Louisiana school boards were held on November 8, 2016. While these elections are called "primaries" in Louisiana, they function as general elections with possible runoffs. If no candidate wins a majority of the votes cast on the first ballot, a runoff is held between the top two vote recipients. Such a runoff—which in 2016 was scheduled for December 10—is called a "general" election in Louisiana.

Special elections for Louisiana school boards were also possible on March 5 or November 8 in 2016. Such elections were required if a vacancy had occured on a given board with an unexpired term of more than one year. Special elections had to be called for by November 4, 2015, in order to be placed on the ballot for March 5, 2016; June 22, 2016, was the deadline to place special school board elections on the ballot for November 8, 2016.

Louisiana elections use the Louisiana majority-vote system. All candidates compete in the same primary, and a candidate can win the election outright by receiving more than 50% of the vote. If no candidate does, the top two vote recipients from the primary advance to the general election, regardless of their partisan affiliation.

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.

One of the 22 Louisiana school districts among America's largest school districts by enrollment held regular school board elections for seven seats in 2016. Orleans Parish School Board's entire board was up for general election. East Baton Rouge Parish School System had one seat up for special election on March 5, 2016, due to a vacancy on its board. This page will be updated if special elections become necessary in the other largest districts in the state.

These districts served 54,384 K-12 students during the 2013-2014 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Click on the district name for more information about it and its school board elections.

2016 Louisiana School Board Elections
District	General date	Runoff date	Regular term (years)	Seats up for election	Total board seats	Student enrollment
East Baton Rouge Parish School System	3/5/2016	4/9/2016	4	1	9	41,937
Orleans Parish School Board	11/8/2016	12/10/2016	4	7	7	12,447

Election trends

Trends in Louisiana school board elections

See also: School boards in session: 2015 in brief

The 2015 school board elections held in Louisiana's largest school districts saw more candidates run per seat on the ballot compared to the state's 2014 school board elections. The 2015 elections also had fewer seats go unopposed and had more newcomers elected to school boards compared to 2014. Half of the seats went to newcomers in 2015, and 30.36 percent of seats went to newcomers in 2014.

The 2015 elections had far fewer seats on the ballot than there were in 2014. Only special elections were held in 2015. They were held for four seats. In 2014, 224 seats were on the ballot.

The following sections analyze competitiveness and incumbency advantage in Louisiana's school board elections. Louisiana school board elections require a majority of 50 percent plus one for a candidate to win. If a candidate garners this majority in what is called the primary election, no general election is held. If no candidate receives the majority of votes, a general election is held and functions as a runoff election. All of the school board elections held in the state in 2014 and 2015 were partisan, meaning candidates ran with a political party designation.

Details of the data discussed here can be found in the table below.

Competitiveness

In 2015, school board elections in Louisiana's largest school districts attracted an average of two candidates per seat on the ballot. This was higher than the average 1.53 candidates that ran in 2014. One-quarter of the seats on the ballot in 2015 went unopposed, while 56.25 percent went unopposed in 2014.

Incumbency advantage

See also: School board incumbency analysis: 2015 in brief

Two-thirds of incumbents who ran for re-election in 2015 retained their seats. Three incumbents ran for four seats, and two won re-election. One ran unopposed and won another term; the other defeated a challenger to win re-election.

In 2014, 87.64 percent of incumbents who sought another term successfully won their re-election bids. A total of 178 incumbents ran for 224 seats, and 156 of them were re-elected. A total of 106 of those winners ran unopposed; the other 50 defeated challengers to win additional terms.

The map below details the success rates for incumbents who ran in the 2015 school board elections that were held in the largest school districts by enrollment in the U.S.

The map above details the success rates of incumbent who ran to retain their school board seats in the largest school districts in each state. States depicted in gray did not hold school board elections.

Data table

Louisiana school board elections, 2014 - 2015
	2014	2015
All candidates
Seats up	224	4
Candidates	342	8
Candidates/seat	1.53	2.00
Unopposed seats	126	1
% unopposed	56.25%	25.00%
% seats won by newcomers	30.36%	50.00%
Incumbents
Sought re-election	178	3
Unopposed	106	1
Retained	156	2
% retained	87.64%	66.67%

Academic performance

See also: Public education in Louisiana

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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). The table below presents the percentage of fourth and eighth grade students that scored at or above proficient in reading and math during school year 2012-2013. 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"

Graduation, ACT and SAT scores

See also: Graduation rates by groups in state and ACT and SAT scores in the United States

The following table shows the graduation rates and average composite ACT and SAT scores for Louisiana and surrounding states during the 2012-2013 school year. All statements made in this section refer to that school year.

In the United States, public schools reported graduation rates that averaged to about 81.4 percent. About 54 percent of all students in the country took the ACT, while 50 percent reported taking the SAT. The average national composite scores for those tests were 20.9 out of a possible 36 for the ACT, and 1498 out of a possible 2400 for the SAT.

Louisiana schools reported a graduation rate of 73.5 percent during the 2012-2013 school year, lowest among its neighboring states.

In Louisiana, more students took the ACT than the SAT in 2013, earning an average ACT score of 19.5.

Comparison table for graduation rates and test scores, 2012-2013
State	Graduation rate, 2013		Average ACT composite, 2013		Average SAT composite, 2013
	Percent	Quintile ranking**	Score	Participation rate	Score	Participation rate
Louisiana	73.5%	Fifth	19.5	100%	1655	5%
Alabama	80%	Fourth	20.4	78%	1608	7%
Arkansas	84.9%	Second	20.2	90%	1697	4%
Mississippi	75.5%	Fifth	18.9	95%	1673	3%
United States	81.4%		20.9	54%	1498	50%
**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. Sources: United States Department of Education, "ED Data Express" ACT.org, "2013 ACT National and State Scores" The Commonwealth Foundation, "SAT scores by state, 2013"

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 nine through 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.

State profile

State profile

Demographic data for Louisiana
	Louisiana	U.S.
Total population:	4,668,960	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	43,204	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	62.8%	73.6%
Black/African American:	32.1%	12.6%
Asian:	1.7%	5.1%
Native American:	0.6%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0%	0.2%
Two or more:	1.8%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	4.7%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	83.4%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	22.5%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$45,047	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	23.3%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Louisiana. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Presidential voting pattern

See also: Presidential voting trends in Louisiana

Louisiana voted Republican in all seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.

More Louisiana coverage on Ballotpedia

• Elections in Louisiana
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• Public policy in Louisiana
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See also

Louisiana	School Boards	News and Analysis
Public education in Louisiana List of school districts in Louisiana	School board elections, 2016 Louisiana school board elections, 2015 Louisiana school board elections, 2014	Education reform at the state and local levels (2016) School boards in session: 2015 in brief Analysis of spending in America's largest school districts Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey