(Official editorial of the Advocate/Times-Picayune, Feb. 5) The hundreds of thousands of Super Bowl visitors to Louisiana already know they are coming to a cultural and entertainment mecca, but they might be surprised to learn the state is a rising educational star, too.
Truth be told, we Louisianans are still getting used to this reality. The trick will be to keep the educational momentum going.
The news came last week: On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often known as the nation’s report card, Louisiana has moved from 49th of 50 states up to 32nd in just five years. Better yet, the state’s fourth graders led the whole country in the rate of progress in reading scores, climbing from 42nd to 16th in just two years. Indeed, Louisiana was one of only two states whose fourth graders’ raw scores in both reading and math outpaced the scores from before the coronavirus outbreak. The other was Alabama.
The state’s eighth graders’ reading scores remained flat, but as scores nationwide fell — purportedly because of the aftereffects of the pandemic — Louisiana’s flat scores helped it rise 10 spots, to 29th, in the comparative rankings. As it does make sense that pandemic disruptions would cause measurable repercussions for several years, the very fact of maintaining the earlier performance while other states failed is a noteworthy achievement.
Exam hall with tables and chairs. Original public domain image from Flickr
In math, Louisiana’s overall standings — 38th and 43rd in fourth and eighth grades, respectively — aren’t as impressive, but even there the state is moving up. Indeed, Bayou State fourth graders were among the nation’s top five in comparative math improvement….
State education leaders and some national education specialists say the improvements in reading result from a re-embrace of a back-to-basics approach that emphasizes phonics and foundational comprehension skills. The state also has expanded what it calls a “high dosage tutoring program” for more individualized instruction, and state officials say they have reduced bureaucratic rigmarole and classroom disruptions, so teachers can focus more on students…. [The full editorial is at this link. Also noteworthy, but not explicitly in the editorial, is that Louisiana began rising when it abandoned the wrongheaded tenets of the “Common Core” national standards…..]
