From NAEP Data to Real Classrooms: What Louisiana Taught Me About Reading Improvement

This year’s NAEP results were mostly sobering. Nationally, reading scores remain stubbornly low. But when I looked more closely at the data, a small group of Southern states stood out, particularly Louisiana and Mississippi, which posted reading gains even after adjusting for poverty and other demographic factors.

That data point sent me back to something more concrete: classrooms.

Last week, I spent time in West Monroe, Louisiana visiting elementary schools, sitting in on lessons, and talking with teachers about what they were actually using to teach reading. What struck me wasn’t a new program or a silver-bullet intervention. It was the quiet consistency of strong, content-rich instructional materials - lessons that deliberately built students’ knowledge of the world through history, science, and literature, rather than treating reading as a set of isolated skills.

Teachers told me that when students know more, they read better. I watched students wrestle with complex texts because they had the background knowledge and vocabulary to make sense of what they were reading. That connection between knowledge and comprehension was not theoretical; it was visible in the room.

Louisiana’s approach has also been remarkably steady over time. Through changes in leadership, the state has continued to publish curriculum guidance, invest in professional learning, and support teachers in using high-quality materials well.

Those classroom moments - and the NAEP data behind them - led me to write a fuller reflection on what might be driving these gains, and what other states could learn from them.

👉 Read the full essay in Education Week: This State Is Achieving Impressive Reading Gains. Why?
https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-this-state-is-achieving-impressive-reading-gains-why/2025/05