La. ranks poorly in national education assessment BATON ROUGE — Louisiana hasn’t made much progress in the past seven years in a national assessment of educational achievement. In its “Leaders and Laggards” report, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ranks Louisiana as the second-worst laggard, at the bottom of all 50 states but ahead of the District of Columbia. Louisiana has grades of F in 5 of 11 categories. The most damning are Fs in academic achievement and academic achievement for low-income and minority students in its 2014 report. The state received a D for its efforts to improve overall academic achievement in 2007 and a B for its efforts to improve academic achievement for low-income and minority students. The academic scores are based on the National Assessment of Education Progress, a standardized exam administered across the nation on which Louisiana students traditionally perform poorly. The study used 2011 results. “Student performance in Louisiana is very weak; the state ranks among the lowest in the nation,” the report says. Superintendent of Education John White said Louisiana has always had an F in academic performance in the Chamber’s assessment but although the scores are bad, he’s encouraged that the study recognized that the state is making sincere efforts to improve performance of low-income students. “It’s positive in that it identifies us as making some of the top gains toward improving low-income students,” White said. Stephanie Desselle, education specialist for the Council for a Better Louisiana, said the grading of how the state educates low-income and minority students is significant. “Everybody recognizes that kids who live in poverty bring challenges,” she said. “We really have to believe that kids can learn at higher levels and not accept low achievement. “But expectations are meaningless if you don’t have standards and training and tools that go with them,” she said. Other Fs include return on investment, postsecondary and workforce readiness and international competitiveness. The return on investment means the state isn’t getting much for the money it puts into public education. The best grades the state got was an A in parental options and Bs in 21st Century teaching force and data quality. The state got a B-minus in technology, a C in fiscal responsibility and a Dplus in truth in advertising: student proficiency. “What’s damning is we got a D in truth in advertising,” White said. “It says that when we call kids basic, it doesn’t mean our kids score as high as those in other states. It points out that we have low expectations.” The report says “Fourth graders stand a full 16 percentage points behind the national average of 42 percent for students at or above the proficient level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress math exam.” That’s one reason White has been pushing for higher standards. Desselle said the report shows “we need to keep working toward higher expectations with higher standards and teaching.” One of the problems, she said, is “schools didn’t expect much of high school students for decades ... This is an area where we’re really slow to make progress. Over the long haul, we need to get our high schools to make progress.” The Department of Education is in the process of strengthening early childhood education by setting standards and a grading scale so parents can pick the best centers for their preschoolers. White said only about half of students who come to kindergarten have basic skills, so many children start out behind. Desselle said she’s not making excuses for Louisiana’s poor performance, but one factor that’s not considered in these studies is private school enrollment. Louisiana has one of the highest percentages in the country of its school-age population — just under 20 percent — attending private schools and they tend to be college- bound students. “In North Carolina, you’re not going to have 18-to-19 percent in private schools,” she said. Those students are attending public schools.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 15:11:18 +0000
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