LA education direction validated yet again

It’s becoming old news that most Louisianans never tire of hearing: state children continue to exhibit significant improvement in educational performance, this time concerning the National Assessment of Education Progress exam results.

Termed the “nation’s report card,” exams in fourth and eighth grades every couple of years or so are taken across America, providing a comparative instrument as well as an absolute measure of English and mathematics skills. Since its inception in 1990, through 2019 Louisiana typically has or been close to dragging the rear among the states for all four categories.

No more, In 2022 – the first exam in three years, after commencement of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic – Louisiana at least poked outside the basement, hitting among the states on three categories ranks between 41^st and 44^th and cresting at 38^th for fourth grade reading. While absolute scores didn’t change much from 2019 – in aggregate, across the four they summed close to no change – Louisiana’s ranking improved on average several places because almost all other states lost ground. This occurred not only because of reforms stretching back into the last century but which began picking up steam with major overhauls under Republican former Gov. Bobby Jindal and Superintendent John White that began bearing fruit but also because White’s successor Cade Brumley and the majority on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education – against the preference of Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards and a minority of BESE – refused to order school closings during the pandemic, leaving that decision to districts where the large majority kept operating in-person, avoiding for the most part the documented significant drops in outcomes witnessed elsewhere and particularly in jurisdictions that hesitated to return to in-person schooling.

Then came the boom. In 2024, Louisiana vaulted up the tables on the back of significantly improved scores in fourth grade, although eighth grade scores treaded water or deteriorated, which translated to the state’s highest scores ever in reading that, for the first time ever, came within statistical significance of matching the national average and on all four had the smallest gaps ever to the national average – with fourth grade reading exceeding the national average. In all, that left the state for fourth grade reading ranked 16^th and eighth grade 29^th while in math it ranked for fourth grade 38^th and for eighth grade 43^rd. That left the state overall ranked 32^nd, shooting up from 43^rd.

Better yet, and obviously from these statistics, the state’s students ranked close to the top in growth in three categories. Best of all, students with disabilities and those from low-income backgrounds exceeded the national average in both academic performance and progress.

This was a long time in coming. Through the first half of the White era, mainly policy changes set the stage for the payoff, such as the introduction of charter schools and (to a small degree) vouchers, incentive changes to retain and reward teachers, and more stringent school and district accountability. The came the Edwards governorship, where first White then Brumley and the BESE majority had to play defense against threats to reverse reforms.

But while policy was stagnant, the Brumley era has characterized concentrating on implementation, guided by eschewing trendiness and sticking to a back-to-basics approach, targeted incentives to improve teacher availability and performance and provision of support services, empowerment of the educative function, and continued refinement of, based on increased expectations, accountability. This direction has been enhanced with the election of GOP Gov. Jeff Landry who backs this approach.

As both Brumley and Landry noted in remarks about the results, much work remains to be done, particularly in the math area among older students where the current cohort scored below 2013 results and reading scores have remained stagnant. Consider that at the current trajectory the future of Louisiana elementary and secondary education is bright, as it appears the cohorts aging through the system will in coming years push higher the scores of older students. A victory lap from Landy, reform-minded legislators, Brumley, and BESE all the way down to classroom teachers is well deserved.