One state is getting education right — going back to basics

Another year, another nationwide education disaster laid out in the scores issued by the nation’s report card.

Math scores are down, reading scores are down, every year worse than the last, as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Our kids can’t seem to recover from the school closures inflicted on them by the teachers’ unions and their weak politician friends during the COVID-19 pandemic.

What should American schools do to turn this around?

First they must face the reality of just how bad this problem has become. Even before COVID, our schools were on a slide to the bottom.

The pandemic just let American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, with special powers awarded by the Biden administration, keep schools closed and give them that extra push down.

The disruption measurably hurt so many kids, the poorest most of all — but the collapse of American education has been in the works for decades, as schools became indoctrination factories instead of places of education.

We need to change course, and Louisiana gives us a roadmap.

The Pelican State was the rare bright spot on the NAEP results, jumping from 49th place nationwide to 32nd in overall scores.

Louisiana was the only state to recover its pre-pandemic scores in reading, actually improving 6 points above its 2019 results.

How did they do it, and can other states do it too?

Louisiana State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley credits the achievement with “going back to basics.”

Among other education initiatives, Louisiana’s Legislature in 2021 implemented Act 108, mandating that all early-grade teachers, from kindergarten to third grade, complete a course on the “science of reading.”

This intense, research-based training focuses heavily on methods to teach phonics and phonemic awareness — old-school principles that many educators have abandoned in favor of detrimental “balanced literacy” principles like memorization, “picture power” and guesswork.  

Louisiana isn’t just succeeding in reading — its students’ math results are up too. Math scores for Louisiana fourth graders “were top five in the nation for math growth,” the state’s department of education boasted.

To emphasize the critical importance of math basics, “We’ve done symbolic things, like shipping old-school flash cards with math facts to every elementary school in the state,” Brumley told the education website The 74.

Perhaps more important, Louisiana passed a state law requiring in-school “high-dosage tutoring” services for kids in kindergarten through grade 5.

“Every student in those grades who is not proficient in reading or math has to receive high-dosage tutoring throughout the week to improve those outcomes,” Brumley said. 

It’s not rocket science — in fact, it’s the way schools used to be run until they became overwhelmed with trendy ideas and filled with teachers looking to indoctrinate kids with political thought instead of the ABCs.

Louisiana’s education initiatives go hand-in-hand with transparency: Kids are given literacy tests throughout the year, and parents are informed of the results of these assessments, so there is no surprise if their kid is struggling.

In another huge change, Louisiana is working to end social promotion, the practice of just moving kids along to the next grade if they aren’t performing on grade level.

A new state law mandates that third-graders who are far behind their grade level in reading must repeat the year, and Brumley is encouraging a “merit matters” philosophy in every grade throughout the state. 

It should be obvious that kids who can’t do the work in one grade shouldn’t automatically move up to the next — but for so long this is exactly what has happened in schools across the country.

Why? Because the entire system is built on passing the buck.

No one is held responsible for failure. Public schools get funded no matter how poor their performance, and bad teachers can’t be fired.

But thousands of held-back kids will be harder to cover up — giving hope of actual accountability.

The final piece of the puzzle is universal school choice, which Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed into law last year.

Now the state’s parents can pull their children out of failing schools that refuse to go back to these basics.

Childhood is brief, bureaucracy is anything but. No kid should be forced to wait until the local public school figures out that math and reading are more important than “dismantling racism in mathematics instruction” or making students evaluate if they are privileged or oppressed.

What makes the Louisiana story so inspiring is that its education leaders know their work is not done. A big leap in scores is wonderful, but too many kids are still struggling.

“We can be pleased,” Brumley said, “but we can’t be satisfied.”

That should be the message to schools across the country. America is demanding a “return to normal” — and our education system should, too.

Back to basics for all schools, now.

Karol Markowicz is co-author of the book “Stolen Youth.”