Today the BESE board met to hear an update on the revision of the Social Studies standards and the LEAP scores. Two speakers provided presentations to accompany their updates, but these weren't visible in the live video.
Social Studies standards:
- Since this was an update, there wasn’t much presented on the individual standards themselves; however it was still very informative.
- The standards are being revamped, but this does not include the curriculum itself. It is up to each individual school district to purchase curriculum that is relevant to their students.
- The current standards were last revamped in 2010-2011, and they’re supposed to be reviewed every 7 years so we are a little behind.
- The standards are being written with an inquiry based teaching method in mind. This means that the students should be taught information and then be presented primary/secondary sources to dissect and formulate questions.
- The team has access to many different tools that they’re using to write and sequence the new standards including the standards from the other 49 states.
- On September 26th, the team will present the next draft of standards to the public to read and comment on. The public will have the month of October to comb through the standards and add comments.
- In December, the team will present the revised standards to the BESE board for a vote.
- During the 2022-2023 school year, LDOE will provide resources and PDs to prepare educators to teach the new standards.
- The current LEAP 2025 Social Studies test will have its final administration in the spring of 2023.
- The revised standards will being implemented starting in the 2023-2024 school year.
- During the 2023-2024 school year, grades 3-8 and high school Civics will be administered a field test.
- The new Social Studies assessment (LEAP) will be fully operational during the 2024-2025 school year.
The presentation did go into more detail about how the committee was formed and what it has done so far. Therefore, those interested in viewing the meeting, may do so here.
LEAP scores:
- Grades 3-8
- 4% decline in ELA (mastery and above)
- 8% decline in Math (mastery and above)
- Dr. Brumley displayed a chart that showed where Louisiana was compared to other states that have reported. However, it wasn't visible to the viewer.
- He took the time to briefly thank parents, but elaborated more on his appreciation of teachers and school employees and their hard work this past year.
- In 2018-2019 school year, there was a 98.3% participation rate which dropped to 93.4% this past year.
- The academic test results showed that students who were in person performed better than virtual students.
- He pointed out that the greatest decline was in grades 3 & 4 and believes that the assumption can be made that K-2 would show the same pattern if there were a test to compare for them. So, he advices educators of younger students to assume there is a greater learning loss and to plan accordingly.
- There was an increase in the number of students scoring unsatisfactory.
- He showed a chart that listed the number of districts with certain percent changes. The ones he called out are as follows:
- 14 districts saw a 4% decrease
- 10 districts saw a 3% decrease
- 5 districts saw a 2% decrease
- A couple of districts saw a 1% increase
- 1 district showed no change
- There were some extreme outliers that had a pattern of schools that changed configuration (example K-2 becoming K-6)
- High School
- Not as much of a difference between virtual and in person but there was still a 10% difference.
- 5% decline in Mastery and above
Again, this is just a summary of key points. Those wanting to view the entire, you can here.