BATON ROUGE – The Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) is focusing on literacy and numeracy, and two recent evaluations indicate the Department’s major literacy initiatives appear to be paying off for students. The Picard Center for Child Development and Lifelong Learning conducted the evaluations and concluded that Louisiana’s K-12 Literacy Pilot program’s results after two years “are promising” and the Reading First program has shown steady increases in the performance of third grade students.

“We know that literacy is a fundamental component in successful student outcomes and in preventing students from dropping out, so we welcome conclusive evidence that shows we are not only improving student achievement but also spending our money wisely on these programs,” State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek said.

The literacy pilot program began in the fall of 2006 with 28 schools and 770 students participating in the program.

After two years, the percentage of students in K-12 literacy pilot schools that scored “Basic or above” on the Reading sub-score portion of the iLEAP test increased from 50.4 percent to 55.7 percent. The percentage of students who scored “Basic or above” on LEAP test increased from 56 percent to 63 percent for 4th grade students and 49 to 51 percent for 8th grade students.