In a bid to dramatically boost lackluster literacy levels, a task force on Tuesday released a that aims to turn Baton Rouge into "The Literacy Capital of ถถา๕h.โ
โWe know it's a civil right to make sure that every child can read, write and comprehend,โ said Sito Narcisse, superintendent of the East Baton Rouge Parish school system.
Reading, writing and comprehension, however, are historic weak spots for Baton Rouge public schools. And itโs a district that trails a state that ranks 49th in the nation in reading proficiency on , often referred to as โthe nationโs report card.โ
The pandemic has made a bad situation worse. This past year, in East Baton Rouge Parish schools were reading on grade level, down .
Narcisse has zeroed in on improving literacy as a key goal since he arrived in January 2021 to take over the stateโs second-largest school district. As part of that effort, Narcisse has overhauled and standardized reading instruction and has placed a literacy coach in every school in the district. He's also set ambitious annual growth targets, for instance, aiming to increase reading proficiency for second-graders from 51% to 74% by 2026.
One of Narcisse's first hires was Barbara Lashley, who became his chief of literacy. Lashley worked previously as director of elementary literacy in Metro Nashville public schools, a district where Narcisse had worked as chief of schools.
A few months after he taking the helm of the East Baton Rouge school district, Narcisse worked with Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome to convene a joint literacy task force consisting of 40 members, most of them school employees.
The two offices held a news conference Tuesday at the parish library's main branch on Goodwood Boulevard to release the first in a series of reports that Lashley said will come out every quarter. is largely a summary of the goals and activities of Lashleyโs office over the past year.
โWe want this blueprint to be our North Star,โ Lashley said.
This first report, however, appears to have been ready to go for months. Itโs dated January 2022, five months ago. A district spokeswoman said the document has been in the works for months but only recently reached "a place that all involved felt it was ready for public consumption."
Also unclear are the results from the first year of Narcisseโs initiative. Results from state LEAP testing likely wonโt be released publicly until August, though schools have already received scores for individual students.
Narcisse said that since arriving heโs instituted new quarterly tests in English and math that help educators and families identify the weak areas in children before the big state tests.
โA one-time test does not determine how well a child is doing,โ Narcisse said.
Lashley said in-house tests this year show literacy improving by 10 percentage points between the first and the third testing cycles.
Speaking Tuesday on behalf of Mayor Broome was Leslie Chambers, assistant chief administrative officer for city-parish government. She said sheโs particularly excited about Narcisseโs effort to improve literacy and offer more job options to young adults, saying that โmeaningful employment opportunities are tied to literacy and access to literacy.โ