Louisiana

Louisiana sees marginal gain in English LEAP scores, stagnant for math and science scores

Published

1 year ago

July 25, 2024

Louisiana sees marginal gain in English LEAP scores, stagnant for math and science scores

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – School leaders have touted the latest batch of newly released LEAP scores, while advocates said there is still much work to be done.

Louisiana saw minor improvements in student English test scores in 2024, while scores for math and science mostly stayed the same.

For grades 3-8, about 43 percent of students statewide achieved “mastery” in the English language arts test, a marginal improvement year-over-year. For the same grade levels, about 31 percent of students statewide achieved mastery in the math test, while about 28.5 percent of students achieved mastery in the science test.

“Mastery” is the state standard for proficiency.

The return to nearly pre-pandemic English scores was noteworthy for education leaders, who pointed to efforts to increase literacy among younger populations.

“Following consecutive years of improvement, these latest scores show students holding steady,” said Louisiana State Superintendent of Education Dr. Cade Brumley. “With a need to see increased outcomes, however, these numbers substantiate our recent aggressive efforts to simply let teachers teach, provide students with high-dosage tutoring, refresh our school accountability model, and expand options for students to access high-quality schools.”

The 2024 LEAP scores can be found here.

The Coronavirus pandemic was a major disrupter for school systems nationwide, with school leaders acknowledging recovery is still a work in progress.

“The latest LEAP data released today is encouraging, with overall performance holding steady in line with recent achievement gains. With improvement confirmed in early grades, Louisiana’s emphasis on literacy initiatives and fundamental skills development is beginning to bear fruit,” said Ronnie Morris, President of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

“The availability and accessibility of quality K-12 options is a strength of Louisiana’s system, in which families are empowered to provide the best learning environment for their children.”

About 36 percent of high school students achieved mastery across all subjects (English I, English II, Algebra I, Geometry, U.S. History and Biology).

“People have different learning styles, and we’re teaching to one, which is mostly lecture. The things we already know to do, we need to implement them. We just need to implement best practices,” said Ashana Bigard, a parent of two children in the Orleans Parish education system and a longtime education advocate.

“I know everybody’s going to focus on the one percent growth but considering how much money was poured into the system overall, there definitely needs to be more growth.”

Bigard said the results are not consistent with the amount of state and federal dollars that has been poured into education since the pandemic.

“We do have a lot of good teachers, we do have a lot of good people trying very hard, but they don’t have the resources,” she said. “We don’t have the small class sizes. We don’t have the books.”

But education researchers note there is a nationwide trend of low-test scores.

“We’re basically back to where we were pre-pandemic, and that’s a lot better than most states can say, so that’s a plus,” said Douglas Harris, chair of the economics department at Tulane University and director of the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans.

“We still see improvement after years of continuous improvement, that’s like unusual. You don’t usually see states improving consistently over time, even to a small degree,” he said. “You’ve got the high absence rate, you’ve got students more stuck on their phones, mental health issues, and I think teaching has become less attractive.”

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Louisiana

Louisiana State Police urge safe driving during Thanksgiving travel

Published

8 hours ago

November 25, 2025

Press Room

Louisiana State Police urge safe driving during Thanksgiving travel

MONROE, La. (KNOE) – Louisiana State Police is reminding families traveling for Thanksgiving to make driving safety a priority.

LSP said holidays are for fellowship and gratitude, not tragedies on the roadways.

State Police ask drivers whose holiday festivities involve alcohol or any substance that can alter their driving ability to make transportation plans beforehand. They recommend planning a different ride, or using a designated driver and public transportation options to prevent impaired driving.

LSP urges all drivers to wear seatbelts, saying it can make the difference between life and death. They also encouraged everyone to buckle up before the vehicle moves.

Anyone who sees reckless driving or hazardous road conditions should call LSP (*577) and report to any State Police headquarters.

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Louisiana actor Monti Sharp looks back at 1990s ‘Guiding Light’ role

Published

1 day ago

November 24, 2025

Press Room

More than 30 years after his Emmy-winning turn on “Guiding Light,” Monroe native Monti Sharp still remembers the moment that changed his life − when a small-town actor heard his name called on national television.

“And the winner is − Monti Sharp from Guiding Light.” The words, spoken by “The Young and the Restless” actress Kimberlin Brown at the 1993 Daytime Emmys at New York City’s Marriott Marquis Hotel, are still embedded in Sharp’s memory.

“Something shot through me and my body jerked,” he said. It took his “Guiding Light” co-star Amelia Marshall − his onscreen sister − to give him a little push toward the stage.

“It was a very surreal moment,” Sharp said. “It was just all kind of a real enchanting time. Huge surprise to me.”

From Ouachita Parish to daytime TV

Sharp, the youngest of five children born to an attorney and educator, described himself as a “ferocious reader” who spent weekends at the Ouachita Parish Library devouring books. It was there, he said, that he discovered Richard Corson’s “Stage Makeup” − the book that first opened the door to the world of theater and set him on his artistic path.

“I was just fascinated by that book and I checked it out and I kept it for quite a while until they came out a subsequent edition − third, fourth and fifth edition,” Sharp said. “I used to send away for catalogs where I could order things like nose putty and all these different things. I just wanted to try them out. I think that opened my mind up to the reality of theater.”

He spent several years on the road performing in regional theater before landing the role of David Grant on “Guiding Light.” He said he a casting director saw him in a production at The Public Theater in New York City and left a note in his mailbox alerting him about an audition she thought he should pursue.

“I think my manager or my agent at the time reached out and they scheduled the audition ,” he said. “That was a whole new audition process to me. Totally different from auditioning for theater. So I went into it with a kind of − looking back − naive view of it. I thought ‘I’m used to audition for plays. Ok’ but that process lasted a long time and eventually got to the point where we did a screen test. I showed up to the studio to do a screen with Nia Long and that was kind of interesting because I didn’t have the role but I knew I was this close. I think there was maybe two other guys there. I think Flex Alexander [and] I forget the other gentleman’s name. So I did it. I just had fun and we just really got along very well and then I went home and I just kind of forgot it because I was doing plays and other stuff.”

Sharp said his agent called and asked him to come by the office, delivering the news in person that he had won the role. Hearing he’d gotten the part was “exhilarating,” Sharp said.

Sharing the screen with Nia Long and more about Sharp’s turn in Guiding Light

Sharp’s first major storyline on “Guiding Light” centered on a forbidden romance between his character and Kat Speakes, portrayed by Long. The relationship put his character at odds with Kat’s father, Hampton Speakes, who was dating David’s sister, Gilly Grant. The storyline ultimately cemented his Emmy win.

“My character was introduced on the show as sort of this mysterious guy who no one really knew if he was a good guy or a bad guy,” he said. “Kat and I ran away together and we spent the summer on the run, trying to be in love and escape her father [and] the community who thought I was bad. That was a pretty exciting entrance. They really milked that entrance of my character and played into the mystery and all that and I think that’s what really captured people put me in the position to be nominated certainly.”

Sharp believes audiences connected with his earnest portrayal of David Grant because he approached the role with the discipline shaped by his theater background. Sharp said he was determined to do more than simply show up, tape his scenes and collect a paycheck. He wanted the work to matter, he said, and approached the role with a genuine effort to find artistic and theatrical meaning in it.

His portrayal helped cement his character’s fanbase and earned him the 1993 Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Male Newcomer in addition to his Emmy. He was also named one of TV Guide’s ‘Soaps’ Sexiest Stars’ and went on to receive additional Emmy and Soap Opera Digest Award nominations.

Coming from the theater, Sharp said he and like-minded co-stars “were like magnets,” pushing one another to elevate the material beyond soap-opera conventions.

“It’s a very, very fast and very demanding workflow,” Sharp said. “Very different from any other type of work, certainly episodic television where you might be doing one script that whole week as opposed to one script per day.”

What Monti Sharp noticed about the treatment of Black daytime actors in the 90s

Sharp said the soap world of the early 1990s didn’t feature many Black actors as central characters, and issues surrounding race sometimes surfaced behind the scenes.

“There were some wild things that happened that needed to be dealt with,” he said. He approached those situations “not combative, but pretty cocksure,” a stance he believes challenged the show’s writers and producers to respond in kind.

Sharp said he began noticing that Black daytime actors weren’t getting the same visibility as white actors. Walking past newsstands, he said, he would see Black magazines featuring Black talent, but white publications almost never featured them on the cover unless they were part of a group, which he said was rare.

“There was a lot of segregation in the coverage and in the presentation of the product to the public,” Sharp said. “I recall we were doing these − because I was popular at the time − we were doing these public appearances. Go Maine for a couple of hours and sign some autographs with other people from the show and I went on one of these things at some point with a popular character from another show and we just started talking about what a gig this was and he said something like ‘Can you believe for like two hours we’re getting x amount of dollars’. I was like ‘You’re getting ‘X’ amount’. He was like ‘How much you’re getting?’ I said ‘I’m getting ‘Y’ amount’.”

Sharp said that when he questioned the pay gap, he was bluntly told that Black talent did not earn the same as white actors − even with his rising popularity and recent award wins. He recalled being told he should feel “fortunate” to be invited to fan events and was asked whether he wanted to continue, a response he described as a “gut punch.” Sharp said it was one of the first moments that ‘soured’ his relationship with the industry.

Despite his award wins, Sharp’s character’s storylines and screen began to shrink. When he said he raised questions, he was told a major story was coming − one that never materialized. He recalled speaking with one of the show’s writers who later confided that they had been fired after pushing for more material for Sharp and the actress who played his onscreen sister.

Beyond Guiding Light

Sharp’s post-“Guiding Light” career spanned daytime, film, and primetime television. He took on roles in “As the World Turns” and “General Hospital,” appeared in the film “Dead Presidents,” and made guest spots on shows ranging from “ER” and “Modern Family” to “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “How to Get Away with Murder,” and most recently “9-1-1.”

Sharp said these days, between television and film auditions, he has shifted more of his creative energy towards visual art − a passion that long sat in the background of his acting career but moved to the forefront during the pandemic.

He returned to Monroe in February 2024 to exhibit his work at the Northeast Louisiana African American Heritage Museum.

For updates on his artwork, he encourages visitors to join his mailing list at sharpartstudio.com.

Follow Ian Robinson on Twitter @_irobinson and on Facebook at https://bit.ly/3vln0w1.

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Louisiana

Over 7 million people in the U.S. have vision impairment. Here’s the parish data.

Published

2 days ago

November 23, 2025

Press Room

Over 7 million people in the U.S. have vision impairment. Here’s the parish data.

Approximately 7 million people in the United States have vision impairment, including about 1 million people with blindness.

As of 2012, 4.2 million Americans aged 40 or older have uncorrectable vision impairment. This number is predicted to more than double by 2050, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

The U.S. has a rapidly aging population, which means more people living with diabetes and other chronic conditions, which can lead to vision loss.

In Louisiana, an average 7.4% of adults are living with a vision disability.