Commom Core Standards in Louisiana

In the Spring of 1989, the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) was begun.  It was created to revolutionize the educational system in Louisiana which for years remained at the bottom of the list nationally in educational preparedness for the students it served.  Classroom curriculums were rewritten to address the standards incorporated as part of the LEAP paradigm.   A series of high stakes tests was developed to assess the success of the overall program.  Specifically, these tests were given at the 4^th and 8th grades, and children were held back if not performing at a specified level.  Also, students had to master another test at the senior high level known as the Graduation Exit Exam (GEE) to receive a high school diploma..

Over the years public relation blitzes abounded showing continuous improvement in LEAP test scores.  With the advent of Charter schools, even more fantastic performance gains on the LEAP tests were reported.

Soon a system of letter grades was developed to give parents a clearer understanding of the quality of education provided at each public school.

Once again the Louisiana Department of  Education  issued  media blitzes filled with examples of tremendous shifts in schools moving from a rating of ‘F’ to ‘C’s, ‘B’s and ‘A’s based in part upon LEAP scores.

After years of holding students back and denying graduation to seniors, we find that in the latest measure of how states perform nationally in the areas of reading and math skills, Louisiana is still almost dead last. 

The latest results showed out of the 50 states tested nationally that Louisiana was:

Tied for 50^th in fourth grade math

48^th in fourth grade reading

Tied for 48^th in eight grade math

Tied for 48^th in eight grade reading

After 24 years this is what the public got from the various educational gurus that existed in this state, and now some are clamoring that we should abandon the recently state adopted Common Core Standards, because these are not ‘appropriate’ for our students.  From past performance, I doubt that these educational experts even have a clue as to what is ‘appropriate’ for our students, or, for that matter, have the ability to develop educational standards that should serve as a guide to educate our youth.

However, the Common Core Standards do provide such a guide and were created to be used in developing curriculum for students.  Despite all the misinformation now circulating among  small factions of citizens throughout the state, the core simply serve as benchmarks of what children are expected to know at specific times throughout the educational process.   In actuality, the Common Core Standards concept was originally proposed by state governors of BOTH political parties.  They were developed by a collaboration of teachers, school administrators, and educational experts throughout the nation, to provide a clear and consistent framework to prepare our children for college and the workforce, and to prevent what has happened in our state (educational fraud) by insuring that children get a good education no matter where they live.   They are NOT a curriculum, as some would have us believe.  Curriculum development is still the responsibility of each local school system as was the case before the adoption of the core standards. 

Louisiana needs to ignore the naysayers with little credibility and proceed with the Common Core adoption.