LaSIP - History

At the urging of the Louisiana Board of Regents (BoR) and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), the Governor and state legislature during 1991-92 established the Louisiana Systemic Initiatives Program (LaSIP). LaSIP's goal has been to exercise statewide leadership in promoting comprehensive, standards-based, mathematics, science, and technology reforms in K-16 education. From 1991 through 2001, LaSIP received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) with matching funds from BoR and BESE.

Professional development combined with leadership training for teachers, begun at the middle school level and now expanded to all grades, has been LaSIP's signature initiative. More than 7,000 past LaSIP participants, impacting each of the state's 66 school districts (map at right), are instructing approximately 300,000 students each year.

Throughout the decade of the '90s to the present, LaSIP has tracked the performance of students taught by LaSIP-trained teachers, using available multiple assessment instruments. These have included the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) tests, the LEAP for the 21st Century (LEAP 21) tests, the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS), the Iowa Tests of Educational Development (ITED), the California Achievement Tests (CAT), the American College Test (ACT), and the Graduation Exit Exams (GEE). In addition, LaSIP has participated in two National Science Foundation-funded studies of reform impacts on student performance, one by the RAND Corporation, and a current study by the COSMOS Corporation.

LaSIP's reporting of continuing positive results must be weighed in light of overall Accountability System reports which show both significant improvement and the persistence of underachievement in a sizable number of schools and districts. A continuing challenge to Louisiana's multifaceted and robust reform effort is to strengthen the interfaces among diverse initiatives at LaSIP, the Louisiana Department of Education, the Board of Regents, and the Blue Ribbon Commission in a manner which maximizes the effectiveness of reforms within schools and districts with the most pressing needs.

LaSIP is committed to collaborating closely with other reform initiatives to achieve this goal.