Review of the Draft Louisiana Standards for English Language Arts for 2016-2017 Using Achieve’s Criteria for the Evaluation of College-and Career-Ready Standards

The 2016 Draft Louisiana Standards for English Language Arts (referred to in this report as the draft 2016 ELA Standards) reflect the best available evidence of what students need to learn in order to be prepared for college and careers. Louisiana’s Standards for English Language Arts substantially meet Achieve’s criteria. There are two areas that deserve further attention by the writers: (1) To be well prepared for postsecondary success, high school graduates must be able to apply literacy skills – reading, writing, listening and speaking – not only in ELA classrooms but also across academic disciplines as well as within career and technical courses; and (2) To ensure students are prepared for the rigors of post-secondary endeavors, Louisiana needs to provide educators clear guidance on what is regarded as appropriate grade-level complexity of texts from grades 2-12.