Good morning, and welcome to the sixth meeting of the ELA and math standards review for 2025, the meeting facilitator said as the session opened.

The steering committee for the Louisiana Department of Education endorsed revisions to Bulletin 141, the Louisiana Standards for English Language Arts, after a section-by-section review of updates to foundational skills, speaking and listening, language, writing and reading standards. The committee voted to endorse the draft and to post it for public comment from June 30 at 8 a.m. through Aug. 8 at 4 p.m.

Why it matters: the revisions are intended to tighten vertical progression across grade levels, align early-grade foundational skills with the science of reading, clarify expectations for writing and speaking, and add guidance for teachers. Endorsement by the steering committee moves the draft to a public review period and a subsequent recommendation to the state review body in October.

The committee’s review included targeted changes to foundational skills for grades K–5, including removal of the phrase “high frequency” from one kindergarten phonics item to strengthen vertical alignment; added clarity on cursive and print in K–3 reading standards to reflect statutory instruction requirements; and a proposed language-conventions progression chart for grades 9–12 so teachers can see where conventions are introduced and reinforced. Kim Magana reviewed those strand-level updates for the committee.

On reading standards, the K–5 work group recommended adding the language “both print and cursive” to a grade‑3 informational standard to reflect Louisiana Act 482 (2016), and discussed moving the broader reference to cursive into an anchor standard so it applies consistently across grade bands. Mark, a steering committee member, asked for that change to anchor the requirement while keeping the grade‑3 reference.

Writing and speaking standards were revised to specify grade-appropriate expectations—for example, clarifying “provide a concluding statement” in early grades rather than the vaguer “provide a sense of closure,” and updating speaking and listening anchors to note that students will work with partners “who may or may not share their perspective,” language intended to clarify partner variability.

The endorsement vote was made by Mark (mover) and seconded by Paula; the meeting record states there was no opposition and “the motion carries.” The record does not list a roll-call tally.

Next steps: the endorsed draft of Bulletin 141 and any public feedback will be submitted to the state review body in October. The committee asked steering members and attendees to share the public‑comment link with their networks and invited interested teachers to apply to serve as teacher-leader advisors for future professional learning and standards work.

Details omitted or not specified in the meeting record include vote tallies and final wording of every standard; those details will appear in the posted draft and companion documents for public review.