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Gulf States Gumbo

How Alabama and Louisiana schools defied the COVID decline

Students at Young Audiences Charter School at Lawrence D. Crocker College Prep in New Orleans on March 21, 2022.
Aubri Juhasz
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WWNO
Students at Young Audiences Charter School at Lawrence D. Crocker College Prep in New Orleans on March 21, 2022.

Pandemic disruptions put a lot of kids behind. But in the South, some schools seized the moment, making unexpected gains in different subjects. Alabama is the only state to see improvements in math. The same goes for Louisiana in reading.

NPR reporters Jonaki Mehta and Cory Turner join the GSN team to talk about their reporting about the improvements.

This week’s Gulf States Gem: Picks from Mehta and Turner for road trips to Alabama and Louisiana.

This episode is hosted by public health reporter Drew Hawkins. The podcast was produced by Stephan Bisaha, Danny McArthur, Kat Stromquist, Orlando Flores Jr. and Tyler Taboada Pratt. Joseph King is the social producer. Nellie Beckett is our audience engagement producer. Our theme music is by DJ Supreme.

To get in touch with the team, email connect@gulfstatesnewsroom.org.

READ MORE:

Alabama is the only state where 4th-grade math scores are higher now than they were in 2019, before the pandemic. This is the story of how the state pulled it off.

In 2019, Louisiana's fourth graders ranked 50th in the country for reading. Now, they're 16th. Here's how the state, and one rural district, pulled it off.