LA K-3 Literacy Performance– According to the national report card on state education rankings – Louisiana placed 42nd in the country. And even though the state falls in the bottom 10 states, it has improved from the 46th ranking it had received in 2019. Speaking before the Baton Rouge Press Club this week- Louisiana Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley said the state will improve rankings thanks to recent changes in how teachers are trained to better teach reading skills to younger students.
“We also passed legislation that calls for the training of every Kindergarten through third-grade teacher across the state of Louisiana, and administrator in this phonics-based science of reading,” Brumley explained. “And this is not like a one-hour workshop; this is 50 or so hours of intense training in the science of reading with a competency test to follow.”
Brumley said that many schools already have had this training process underway. He also revealed that his office recently received the Spring Reading Assessments of K-through grade 3 literacy proficiency rates and those have improved 8% from last fall which he attributes to the newer phonics-based literacy teaching programs.
In a related story, Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy made a speech from the floor of the U.S. Senate in Washington to express his support for a Louisiana House Bill – HB-12 which would require Louisiana Third Graders to pass a state reading test before getting promoted to the fourth grade.
“Over half of my children, my young people, in Louisiana are not reading at their grade level, and, at some point, as a child is socially promoted in school and progresses, it almost becomes impossible for a child to learn if the child can’t read,” Kennedy said.
Louisiana’s HB-12 sponsored by Rep. Richard Nelson- Republican from Mandeville was approved by a Senate vote of 28 to 11. It now heads to Governor John Bel Edwards’ desk for his signature. If a student fails the reading test, they will be receive additional help in learning reading skills to reach academic success and get promoted. HB-12 is a similar measure that has been in use in Mississippi which has increased its 4th grade reading scores from 49th to 21st in the nation since 2013.