(The Center Square) − U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon toured an East Baton Rouge school Monday, joining teachers, state Department of Education officials, U.S. Rep. Troy Carter and U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, both of Louisiana.
“Look at the results Louisiana has already had. To come out of COVID and get their reading program back up and make more gains than any other state, really speaks to the commitment that is here,” McMahon said. “It’s working! Why would I not want to come here and talk about it, and what’s making it work.”
The group toured Jefferson Terrace Academy – which began classes Wednesday and serves students from kindergarten through eighth grade – making stops in two classrooms before hosting a roundtable focused on the state’s recent gains in literacy.
Louisiana K-3 students posted notable reading gains in 2024-25, with the percentage reading on or above grade level rising 17 points to 64%, according to new Department of Education data.
Several recently passed laws have put a great deal of emphasis on reading in early education.
Act 438 of the 2021 legislative session, for instance, requires local education agencies to screen all students in literacy in kindergarten through third grade. The screener in implemented at the beginning, middle and end of the year.
Act 422 of 2023 mandates that students in traditional public schools must meet specific literacy proficiency standards in order to move on to the fourth grade. In total, eight laws have been passed since 2021 that strongly emphasize literacy training, both for students and teachers.
Still, Louisiana’s statewide 2025 LEAP test results revealed that there is still work to be done. For grades three through eight, there was only a gain of one percentage point in total proficiency for English, math and science. High schoolers saw a decrease of one percentage point.
Overall, only 35% of students are performing at the standards for their respective grade, unchanged from 2024, with just three public school systems reaching 50% or higher.
“All of us recognize that, you know, still too many kids can’t read on grade level and can’t do math on grade level,” Brumley acknowledged. “They’re in schools that are failing them. There’s still work to do ahead to make sure that every child has access to a high quality education.”
The group also mentioned the work being done to better teach and prepare disabled students, particularly those with dyslexia.
“We have outpaced every other state in the nation around our growth and for our students with disabilities,” said Jenna Chiasson, assistant state superintendent. “I think so much of that is because we’ve carved out explicitly extra time to learn for both our students with disabilities and their nondisabled peers.”
Leaders also emphasized the role of phonics-based instruction, dyslexia identification, and family engagement, with parents meeting regularly to review literacy plans.
The tour’s first stop was Melanie Arceneaux’s classroom, where she was teaching a group of first graders ‘at’ sounds – cat, hat, and pat. The tour then moved on to Tamiia Williams’ second grade class where more literacy instruction was occurring.
Arceneaux’s instruction using phonics reflects Louisiana’s broader policy push under a 2021 state law requiring all K-3 teachers and administrators to complete training in the “science of reading,” which emphasizes phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
The mandate, which also applies to charter schools, aims to ensure that every early-grade educator is equipped with evidence-based strategies to help students read on grade level by third grade.
“As I’m starting ‘Returning Education to the States’, I want to make sure that states can have best practices to look at,” McMahon said. “If there are bits and pieces that we can put into a toolkit that states can take away from. It’s a great thing to be able to do.”
McMahon made the appearance as part of her “Returning Education to the States” Tour, which will work to highlight “innovative local education initiatives, gather feedback from educators and families, and spotlight state-led strategies driving student success.”
Brumley shares similar sentiments.
“To have a partner like Secretary McMahon, who wants to be with us here and… return more power to the states is really rewarding. And we can continue to accelerate our results,” Brumley said.
