Latest LEAP scores show why the three Rs at Louisiana schools shouldn’t include religion
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Results from the most recent round of standardized testing at Louisiana public schools reveal progress for third- through eighth-grade students is mired in math and science while improving only slightly in English. Officials and researchers believe learning loss over the COVID-19 pandemic — when schools had to turn to remote instruction — is now showing up in disappointing test scores.
It’s all the more reason education policymakers in Louisiana should double down on their efforts to end declines in these basic subjects — and shun any distractions that don’t emphasize these core areas.
A new law making news isn’t helping. It will require Louisiana’s K-12 public schools and any college or university that receives state money to place Ten Commandments displays in every classroom by Jan. 1, 2025. Parents have challenged its constitutionality in court, leaving enforcement on hold for the time being.
Throughout debate over this legislation, none of its supporters offered proof that the presence of the Ten Commandments in classrooms would lead to better academic performance. And last time we checked, the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) exams don’t include questions on religion.
If legislators and state leaders who back the Ten Commandments law — including a litigiously fervent Gov. Jeff Landry — would apply the same passion and proportionate resources to improving school performance, Louisiana’s days of sweating out LEAP test results each year would be history.
Instead, our Republican governor and GOP-dominated Legislature’s educational priorities are defined by what’s politically popular with no promise they will reap educational benefits. What’s more, many are geared toward infusing fundamentalist Christianity into what should be religion-neutral spaces.
Take, for example, the “Don’t Say Gay” bill that the governor signed this year. It bans discussions of gender identity and sexual orientation at school in the classroom as well as during extra-curricular activities.
A similar though less stringent law in Florida was challenged in court, ending with a settlement that allowed teachers and students to discuss gender identity and sexuality as long it’s not part of classroom instruction. It’s an indication Louisiana might face a legal battle as well, with no real academic arguments for putting the law in place.
The same goes for a bathroom bill that applies to public school facilities. It prohibits transgender students from using bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender. Keep in mind there have been no instances of transgender boys attacking girls in school bathrooms here. There’s also no indication that, without this law, a barrier exists to students receiving their intended education.
While basically refusing to acknowledge the existence of transgender students, lawmakers have gone out of their way to institute religious-based lessons in public school classrooms. A law approved last year allows (but doesn’t require) Louisiana high schools to offer a course on the history and literature in the Bible.
Its author, then-Rep. Valarie Hodges, R-Denham Springs, also gained unanimous approval for a concurrent resolution to “designate 2024 as the Year of the Bible in recognition of the formative influence the Bible has been for our state and the nation and of the collective need to study and apply the teachings of the Holy Scriptures.”
I can’t imagine comparable legislation for Islam’s Qu’ran, Buddhism’s Tripitaka or Hinduism’s Vedas going over as well in the Legislature.
It’s not as if lawmakers can’t recognize where help is needed in Louisiana schools. After years of seeing students struggle with reading comprehension, legislation was approved in 2023 to hold back third-graders whose reading proficiency is below grade-level standards. It will be implemented in the upcoming school year.
Other recent efforts to address reading shortfalls have already produced results. According to the Louisiana Department of Education, our fourth-graders rank first in the nation for reading growth — a laudable accomplishment even if they had nowhere to go but up. Also, economically disadvantaged fourth-graders improved from 42nd to 11th nationally for reading proficiency.
So there’s clearly an awareness and appetite among Louisiana leaders to bring about meaningful change in the education arena. Why they would choose instead to use precious time, energy and public dollars to submerge students in Christian dogma — especially when it will lead to costly court battles, also at the public’s expense — is beyond my grasp.
Perhaps it’s time we tie LEAP scores to legislative effectiveness.
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