A congressional committee took up the issue of falling test scores among American students on Wednesday, as Rep. Burgess Owens asked experts what more could be done.
Owens, R-Utah, questioned two of the witnesses who appeared before the House Committee on Education and Workforce, Cade Brumley and Chandra Roughton, on how to improve math and reading scores, which have not recovered following the school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brumley, the state superintendent of education for Louisiana, cited the National Assessment Governing Board’s annual assessment, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which showed that almost 70% of eighth graders nationwide cannot proficiently read or write.
Brumley spoke about his state’s Let Teachers Teach Initiative, which focuses on 18 recommendations to help reduce bureaucratic requirements and classroom disruptions.
Brumley credited the program with jump-starting Louisiana’s educational recovery. A joint study by Harvard and Stanford found that “Louisiana was one of three states where average reading achievement in 2023 was above 2019 levels” calling Louisiana’s math recovery “remarkable.”
A separate U.S. News & World Best States Report found that Louisiana preK-12 education achieved its highest ranking ever recorded, moving from 46th to 40th in the nation in just four years.
In 2021, Roughton founded “Luminous Minds” — an educational website offering a “library of engaging, standard-aligned, research-based, supplemental resources designed to support students in TK- 2nd grade.” Their programs are created with “key insights and findings from the Science of Reading.”
Before founding Luminous Minds, Roughton worked for 25 years as a classroom teacher, educational coach, professional development leader and administrator.
When Owens asked Roughton what could be done if a teacher wanted to teach more effectively but lacked support from school administrators, her advice was to “lean on the evidence — the teacher is so powerful in his or her own classroom. There is a lot we can do even if an administrator hasn’t administered the science of reading. Teachers should feel confident to be advocates — we can’t argue the data. Invite principals into your classroom during a science or reading lesson.”