Louisiana Literacy in the Limelight
On July 17th and 18th 2023, as part of the Louisiana Legislative Youth Advisory Council, I attended a two-day conference at the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge.
During the two days, we met with and heard from a variety of community leaders, both governmental and non-governmental, including Senator McMath, Representative Matt Willard, from New Orleans, Ethan Melancon from the BESE (Board of Elementary and Secondary Education), Judd Jeansonne from Volunteer America, Trevis Thompson from the Center for Safe Schools and Karen White, from the LMA (Louisiana Municipal Association) which advocates for local interests over state and government control – and more. We also met with members of last year’s council and heard about their successes and challenges.
I was most excited to hear from Mr. Melancon from the BESE, as he discussed the impacts of a bill we wrote about last year that has now passed. House Bill 12/Act 422 (2023), with some exceptions, holds back third grade students with reading deficiencies (measuring at the lowest achievement level on a literacy assessment) from being promoted to fourth grade until they have met a certain achievement level.
The bill was introduced (twice) by Louisiana State Representative Richard Nelson, and caused some controversy as stakeholders weighed the potential disadvantages of being held back against the potential benefits.
The bill passed, with other measures (including 50 hours of required training for teachers on how to teach phonics), and thankfully, in just one year it has already proved successful. Mr. Melancon explained that Louisiana has seen “huge increases” in reading scores. Similar policies have also been successful in neighboring Mississippi. Hopefully the progress continues!