The LDOE embarked on a listening tour in the summer of 2016, visiting several cities across the state, and they have recently published a report that summarizes the feedback they received from teachers, parents, school administrators, and community advocates. I attended one of these meetings, and I shared some of NCTE’s concerns with our State Superintendent of Education, John White — see video here: https://youtu.be/WEf6p8oAcqU?t=2503

The report features many comments from the meetings, divided into sections titled:

Aligning Expectations to Higher Education and Workforce
Serving Struggling Students
Transforming Struggling Schools
Celebrating and Strengthening the Teaching Profession
Ensuring Access to Enriching Experiences for All Students

Sharing this report from the public rather than announcements of new policies is uncommon for Policy Analysis reports, but this listening tour summary is a good capture of a variety of viewpoints in Louisiana about education. Most relevant to literacy education were these comments, under the “Aligning Expectations to Higher Education and Workforce” section:

“The accountability system should include multiple measures, not just student test scores.”

“As Louisiana raises standards and measures student learning using new tests, the state should pay closer attention to students’ ability to write and use technology.”

The listening tour report can be found at
http://www.louisianabelieves.com/docs/default-source/louisiana-believes/essa-listening-tour-report.pdf?sfvrsn=2

And the Louisiana ESSA Framework Version 2.0 can be found at http://www.louisianabelieves.com/docs/default-source/louisiana-believes/essa-framework.pdf?sfvrsn=8