Louisiana
Louisiana’s $30M tutoring program boosts elementary test scores
BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — Louisiana elementary school students are seeing improvements in standardized test scores thanks to a $30 million High-Dosage Tutoring Initiative, state leaders say.
At Jefferson Terrace Academy, educators showcased how the program has helped raise Louisiana’s rankings on the Nation’s Report Card.
State Superintendent of Education Dr. Cade Brumley emphasized the program’s challenges and progress.
“We’re still in the stream on this. We have work to do. To take something to scale like this statewide is hard. It’s difficult. No other state has done it,” he said.
Brumley said the tutoring program consists of 10-week sessions, held three times a week for 30 minutes.
“Louisiana has been long challenged educationally. We are trying to implement comprehensive education reform to take the state to the next level,” Brumley said.
East Baton Rouge Parish Schools Superintendent LaMont Cole explained the flexible approach.
“What ends up happening is—you can do it one of two ways—teachers can go in and work in small groups of no more than four students on the skills they need in order to get to grade level, or we can use our partners, and specialized online programs so they can do it on their own,” Cole said.
State leaders said the funding has allowed schools to bring in college students, teachers, and trained tutors, creating a safe and productive learning environment.
According to the Nation’s Report Card, the initiative is already showing positive results—especially in fourth-grade reading scores in Louisiana, which have jumped from last place to 16th nationwide this year.