Louisiana State Superintendent of Education Dr. Cade Brumley paid a visit to the Calcasieu Parish school system on Wednesday.

Brumley stated his purpose for the annual visit was to sit down with local teachers and leaders to assess how much progress the parish has made in regards to hurricane recovery.

“I have been impressed with the resilience of the Calcasieu Parish system and the way that they have worked through these challenges,” he said. “They haven’t just worked to recover, but they have also worked to ensure that academic learning continues.”

“I simply wanted to be here to learn more about what they’re doing, but also show my support for the continued recovery in this community.”

Within the week following Hurricane Laura, Brumley was in Southwest Louisiana to view the aftermath. “If a picture’s worth a thousand words, then boots on the ground is worth a million.” He said that despite the immense damage, Calcasieu Parish schools were quick to begin recovery efforts.

“The way in which they worked with urgency to get kids back into school safely is to be commended,” he said. “I think that the proof point is the fact that they’ve been able to show academic growth at 3% growth year over year, and that’s significant.”

In CPSB schools, grades 3 through 8 exhibited a 3% bump in academic growth.

Brumley stated that he is “excited about the efforts underway to create a real revival in our state.”

The disruptions that were a result of the hurricanes and the pandemic amplified Louisiana’s poor literacy levels.  “”We have a literacy crisis in the state of Louisiana, and we have for some time.”

These side effects were especially evident for the education of lower elementary students.

“One of the things that we know is that our third and fourth grade students across the state have been most impacted as a result of the pandemic and as a result of the storms, which have created starts and stops and disruptions,” he said.

“We know that students in the foundational years, our youngest learners, were the most impacted,” Brumley said.

Brumley stated that in an effort to counteract these effects, the state has been working to pass corrective legislation. “We’ve been able to bring forward good strong policy to recover lost learning, and our school systems are working with us,” he said. “We’re working together to implement those practices in classrooms.”

“I believe that we’ll continue to see improvement in the area of literacy, because we have a strategic plan around it.”

Strong efforts have also been made through the Louisiana Comeback initiative. Brumley explained that during the aftershocks of the pandemic, there were three primary focus areas: attendance and well being for kids, academic recovery and acceleration and professional learning for teachers.

“Every system across the state had to build a plan around those three themes,” he explained. “As a result of that, and many other efforts, we did see the most significant year of academic growth since 2016.”

This academic year, the Louisiana Department of Education is starting the efforts back up with Louisiana Comeback 2.0. “We’re asking our schools to think about those three areas, think about the resources that they have and plan around those things so that we can continue to see the learning that has been lost recovered to that pre-pandemic level.”

When asked about Lake Charles College Prep’s decision to pursue the management of Charter Schools USA, Brumley stated that the decision is a valid one.

“It’s a decision that the local board has the ability to make,” he explained. “That particular charter organization has a board that oversees their operations that is responsible for governance, and they have signaled an interest to use C-USA as an operator, and that is certainly something that is allowed.”

He continued by stating that they will in fact have to seek approval at the state board level to “amend their current agreement as a procedural step.”

Brumley stated that it is imperative for the board to consider the opinions of their teachers and faculty. “It is a change, and it is important that they are sensitive to the needs of the teachers and that they listen to the teachers,” he said. “At the same time, that governance board has responsibility to get outcomes and take care of children, and if that’s what they feel is in the best interest of the kids, they certainly have a process to be able to do that.”

“It’s important to understand that a local board provides governance for that set of schools.”

Brumley visited Lake Charles-Boston Academy, St. Louis, Brentwood Elementary School and South Beauregard Elementary School.