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In a win for the nation’s second-largest school districtLos Angeles Unified students bounced back from the pandemicposting big gains on state reading and math tests.

L.A. Unified surpassed pre-pandemic math, reading and science levels on 2024-25 state test scores released Thursday and closed the gap with the rest of California, even as the state’s test scores rose overall.

District officials attributed the increases to tactics such as targeted funding for struggling schools, small group instruction, tutoring and using the phonics-based science of reading.

But disparities remain.

While LAUSD students narrowed achievement gaps between Black, Hispanic; and white and Asian students, inequities persist, with 68.9 percent of white students meeting reading standards compared to 41 percent of Latino students, who make up most of the district’s enrollment. Overall, 53.3 percent of the district’s 540,000 students are still not reading at grade level, compared to 51.2 percent of the entire state.

The district also continues to face challenges including falling enrollmentfinancial troubles and threats from the federal government.

Still, officials celebrated the increases across the state and in L.A. Unified in particular.

“This is a proud moment,” said Governor Gavin Newsom at a press conference with LAUSD superintendent Alberto Carvalho held inside the Alexander Science Center School in Exhibition Park, a neighborhood in the south region of L.A., where many students are low income. “We’re not only moving in the right direction; we’re leading in that respect.”

L.A. Unified students made big gains in reading on the exams, outpacing those made by the state as a whole, and achieving a 46.5% reading proficiency level on 2024-25 Smarter Balanced assessments, up from 43.1% the previous year and 44.1% in 2018-19.

Likewise, 36.8% of LAUSD students achieved math proficiency on the 2024-25 state exams, up from 32.8% the previous year and 33.5% in 2018-19.

Statewide, reading proficiency rose to 48.8% and math proficiency rose to 37.3%. LAUSD, a huge and diverse urban school district, historically underperforms the state overall and serves a higher percentage of higher-needs students.

“Los Angeles Unified is having a very special moment in history, one without precedent,” said Carvalho. “Today, we celebrate the fact that we can proudly say that as Los Angeles goes in terms of education, so goes the state of California.”

Carvalho said the district’s early adoption of approaches aligned with the science of reading helped boost students’ test scores. Newsom cited a new law he signed Thursday to promote the use of phonics-based techniques for teaching reading in all California schools.

As the largest school district in California, LAUSD’s new test scores helped lift those of the state overall and capped a string of positive metrics for the district. Carvalho, who boasted of L.A. Unified’s progress in his opening of schools address, just reupped his contract with the district to remain superintendent for another four years.

In an interview with reporters on Wednesday, Carvalho explained that the district’s improvement was not only due to using the science of readingbut also to tactics that targeted increased funding at underperforming schools, providing needier students with extra tutoring and supplemental training for teachers.

“We outperformed last year’s already improved performance,” said Carvalho, “with Black, Latino, low income, poor kids, students with disabilities, performing better than pre-pandemic levels.”

Black students showed the strongest gains overall on the Smarter Balanced assessments, and Latino students also made larger gains compared to both white and Asian kids in reading and math on the exams.

LAUSD Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Karla Estrada said LAUSD’s improvements were also the result of the district’s deployment of small group instruction, wraparound social services, and efforts to boost attendance.

Carvalho said the district is already looking to redouble those efforts.

“We are already examining and analyzing and detailing over the practices that we believe produce these results, and refining the approach to actually accelerate the rate of improvement that we’ve seen,” Carvalho said. “This is strategic. It is deliberate. I believe it settles a number of contentious unknowns of the past.”

Former LAUSD board member David Tokofsky, who consults with districts and labor groups on policy and operations, said LA Unified’s latest test scores are impressive, but the district and the state can still do better to achieve stronger results.

“The gap between Black and brown kids and white and Asian kids continues to be expansive,” said Tokofsky of the new scores. “The good news is the gap between the state scores and the district scores has been reduced to near nothing.”

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