Some parents reached out to us a few weeks ago after their child’s middle school announced that Algebra I would be discontinued. Students wanting to take that advanced course would have to wait until high school.

We then started hearing from others whose schools had announced the same change. Officials at the Louisiana Department of Education confirmed they were hearing the same from a few school districts across the state.

The reason? Unclear, at least at that point.

Was it due to a sudden lack of available teachers? A course scheduling issue? Lower demand from students, perhaps?

Then a parent said school officials stated it was because that the state had stopped giving “incentive” points in the school accountability system whereby high school ratings (school performance scores) would receive a small boost every time a middle school student took such a course and scored well on the end-of-course LEAP test. Because of the change, the school district decided it was no longer worth offering the course in middle school, even if students and their families wanted it.

It’s true; last year, BESE overhauled the state’s accountability system to make it clearer, more transparent, simpler, and more focused on reporting students’ progress toward proficiency. That was an excellent move, and the removal of several “incentive” schemes within the formula that had long inflated school scores was the wise thing to do—in this case, giving high schools points for students they didn’t teach.

Wanting to help these students and their families, BESE then put an item on its June 2 and 3, 2025 meeting agendas to consider an accountability “banking” item, essentially restoring the old accountability practice. The proposal would “bank” middle school students’ scores on end-of-course LEAP tests taken as part of high school courses like Algebra I and then award them to the high school the students would later attend, rather than credit those scores to the middle school that taught them that subject.

But is reinstituting this accountability scheme really the only solution? Can’t schools just do the right thing by continuing to offer students access to advanced courses?

If school leaders are holding advanced courses hostage just to get more accountability points for other schools in their district, that’s a new low. That’s not putting students first.

BESE, while rightly concerned about students’ education and admirably wanting to help, should resist the calls to weaken its new and improved accountability system that has received high praise all over the U.S. Instead, they—and all of us—should challenge local school leaders to serve the needs of students and be responsive to families. It’s really that simple.