Raising the Bar: Louisiana's Strategies for Improving Student Outcomes

Abstract

This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited. Permission is given to duplicate this document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest.RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.Support RAND Make a tax-deductible charitable contribution at www.rand.org/giving/contribute www.rand.org Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available for this publication.ISBN: 978-1-9774-0065-9 For more information on this publication, visit www.rand.org/t/RR2303Published by the RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif. © Copyright 2018 RAND CorporationR® is a registered trademark. Cover: caption/source information.iii PrefaceThis report provides an in-depth description of Louisiana's approach to improving educational experiences and student outcomes. Louisiana has received recent attention for some of its new policies and promising early results. Thus, its approaches could merit closer study. As we document, Louisiana's most recent reforms have focused not only on K-12 academics but also on the systems that coexist and interact with K-12 academics, including teacher preparation, early childhood education, and graduation pathways. We particularly focus on the reform strategies that the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) has been implementing since 2012, when a new state superintendent of schools was appointed by the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Since that time, LDOE has utilized a range of policy levers to work toward its goals. These policy levers include accountability but also emphasize resources, tools, and incentives intended to support and build capacity for accountability mandates. What is perhaps most notable about Louisiana's approach is the systematic, focused, and frequent communication and planning processes LDOE has set in motion to support its reform efforts.This overview of Louisiana's education reform strategies should be of interest to those seeking to keep track of the vast changes being made in the state, as well as education stakeholders in other states who are interested in making system-wide changes to affect educational outcomes. However, we have not yet collected any data on how Louisiana's strategies are being perceived and implemented by stakeholders at the ground level, such as teachers, school leaders, and child care agencies. In ad...

Raising the Bar for Graduation Pathways to College and Work: Early Signals on How Louisiana's Education Policy Strategies Are Affecting College and Career Readiness

“…In 2018, RAND published the report Raising the Bar: Louisiana's Strategies for Improving Student Outcomes (Kaufman et al, 2018), which provides an overview of recent Louisiana state policies intended to improve student outcomes in the areas of early childhood education, K-12 academics, teacher preparation, and graduation pathways. The current report, which is part of a four-report series, focuses on Louisiana's strategies for graduation pathways over the past decade and addresses two key questions:…”

“…In the face of these challenges, over the past decade, the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) has engaged in multiple actions to improve what LDOE terms graduation pathways for high school students, with an emphasis on improving three areas: college readiness, career readiness, and access to financial aid (Kaufman et al, 2018). In particular, in the 2014-2015 school year, Louisiana began requiring students in grades 9-12 to pursue one (or both) of two possible high school diplomas:…”

“…Each of the four reports addresses a different topic that has been the focus of Louisiana's education policy reforms: early childhood education, K-12 academics, teacher preparation, and graduation pathways. The report series follows up on Raising the Bar: Louisiana's Strategies for Improving Student Outcomes (Kaufman et al, 2018), which provided an in-depth description of the key actions that the state has been taking in each of these four areas to support and improve outcomes for all students in Louisiana. Taken together, these reports provide an overview of how an ambitious set of interconnected state policies, introduced in 2012, are making their mark on the teaching and learning happening in early childhood centers, schools, and teacher preparation institutions across the state.…”

“…This report focuses on graduation pathways. It specifically examines the implementation of key state actions-described in Kaufman et al (2018)intended to support and improve graduation pathways in Louisiana, and early signals regarding changes in student outcomes that might be associated with those actions. Findings suggest that state policies may have supported increases in college enrollment among low-income and minority students and enabled students to receive industry-based credentials upon graduation from high school.…”

Raising the Bar for Early Childhood Education: Early Signals on How Louisiana's Education Policy Strategies Are Working for Early Childhood Providers and Community Networks

“…Following Act 3, the state initiated several other reform efforts in support of implementation toward the unified system's goal to create a shared vision to improve ECE quality (see Kaufman et al, 2018, for more details and a timeline), including efforts related to improving provider preparation, improving quality of instructional resources, and increasing subsidies for low-income families to receive ECE. The programs currently included in the quality rating system and subject to the other reform efforts discussed in this report operate in three types of centers:…”