C O R P O R A T I O N Research Report JULIA H. KAUFMAN, ELIZABETH D. STEINER, MATTHEW D. BAIRD Raising the Bar for K–12 Academics Early Signals on How Louisiana’s Education Policy Strategies Are Working for Schools, Teachers, and Students L ouisiana’s K–12 schools have historically dealt with numerous obstacles. Louisiana is one of the poorest states in the nation and spent less on education than 36 other U.S. states as recently as 2013 (Education Week Research Center, 2016). Louisiana’s students have scored lower on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) than national averages in every tested subject since NAEP was frst administered to a state-representative sample of stu- dents in Louisiana in 1992. Te state’s high school graduation rate has historically been low, and it remains below the national average despite recent improvements (Sentell, 2018). In the face of these challenges, over the past several years, the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) has engaged in several actions to boost K–12 student learning. Tese actions have built on federal accountability policies, including the emphasis on standards, assessment, and public reporting in the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 and its predecessor, the No Child Lef Behind Act of 2001 (see Box 2 for a description of those policies). At the same time, Louisiana has taken some deliberate