By T. Scott Boatright
The Lincoln Parish School heard an update on the learning proficiency of its students as it held its monthly August meeting Tuesday night at the Central School Office.
In a 22-minute-long presentation, a group of Louisiana Tech professors from Louisiana Tech’s College of Education and Human Sciences presented an update following the first year of their partnership with Lincoln Parish Schools to teach the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI) provides the foundational skills curriculum.
That group of Tech professors is made up of Dustin Whitlock, Libby Manning, Miranda Allen, Kim Kimbell-Lopez and Julie Cappo.
“We partnered with Louisiana Tech to help us implement this curriculum and improved the literacy outcomes of our students in grades K-2,” said Lincoln Parish Schools K-2 Literacy Coordinator Michelle Thrower. “Our literacy vision for our students in grades K-2 is that by the end of second grade, we want our students reading on grade level.
“That is our goal. I think our mission measure is set at 85%, but of course, as I have said before, I will not quit until we are at 100%. That is truly the goal we have. Through the implementations of UFLI foundations, the Louisiana Tech partnership has been so instrumental.”
Thrower said the Tech cohort provided and helped plan professional development for parish teachers on the curriculum and joined Talley in walkthroughs of all of the K-2 teachers’ classrooms throughout the year to provide feedback on how the process was going.
Whitlock, the interim chair of Tech’s COEHS, said the goal was to determine where students were struggling in the classroom and find ways to provide additional support to such students as well as their teachers.
And he brought news that data shows that the planned three-year partnership made progress in its first year of working together.
That date showed that over the course of the 2024-25 school year, DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) testing showed that from the beginning of the school year, middle of the school year and end of school year results showed the number of parish students well below benchmark schools decreased significantly from the start of the academic year until the end.
“What you’re seeing here is a significant growth of students across Lincoln Parish, and a significant shift of students growing as they are participating in this curriculum,” Whitlock told the LPSB.
Whitlock also pointed out some highlights that recognized not only the learning growth made last academic year as well as the growth he said needs to continue to happen.
“You see a lot of growth, but you also see there are some students that still are not at benchmark (level) by the end of the year,” Whitlock said. “I am happy to say this is something the district has already observed and is already working toward eliminating.
“These are students that are already being supported and we’re already identifying opportunities to continue as they move into the next academic year.”
Whitlock said the change from beginning to end of year results showed that after starting with only 25% either at or above the benchmark level, by the end of the school year, 69% of kindergarten students were at least if not above the benchmark.
“It’s clear that the data shows that the work that’s being done at the kindergarten level is showing success, and these teachers are certainly to be commended for their work that they’re doing.”
But Whitlock stressed there is still work to be done despite a 44% increase in proficiency.
“The areas of growth identified for kindergarten students that at the beginning of year are below or well below numbers are still too high,” Whitlock said. “This is something that we’ve already started to plan for and I’m happy to say Mrs. Thrower’s team is already beginning to address things.”
“We recognize there is still work to be done. At the end of the year, there were still 130 kindergarten students that were not reading at the benchmark.”
While 52% of first-grade students were below benchmark at the start of last school year, by the end of the year that number had dropped to 32%. And second-grade students showed a 12% benchmark increase over the course of the academic year with 69% at or above the benchmark level upon the end of the school year.
The data Whitlock showed also broke the students into subgroups — Black students, Hispanic/Latino students, other race students and special education students.
Those results showed that among Black students, there was a 24% decrease in students below or well below the benchmark from the beginning to the end of the school year, a 32% decrease in Hispanic/Latino students below the benchmark over the course of the academic year, a 41% decrease in below benchmark level for learning English language students, a 25% decrease in economically disadvantaged students.
The numbers were not as good for special education students, which showed that by the end of the school year, 63% of those students were still not reading at a benchmark level.
“Certainly, we see areas of growth,” Whitlock said. “We want to continue to work with those (special education) students and identify that as an area of focus. We have already had a lot of discussion about what kind of interventions and support can be put into place. We are also looking at all students across the district,
“As we look toward years two and three (of the partnership), there are some areas of further investigation that we are looking at as a team. We are going to dive deeper into these statistics to better understand a little bit more about what is going on, taking those down to the school level and the classroom level.”
It is all about moving forward, Whitlock said.
“When teachers follow the curriculum, the students tend to do well,” he said. “I think the data showed that when there’s a strong implementation of the curriculum, students are going to continue to grow.”
