by Julia H. Kaufman, Jill S. Cannon, Shelly Culbertson

       Over the past several years, Louisiana has taken big steps to improve its education policies and the education of the state's children, from birth to grade 12. RAND research suggests that the reforms have been ambitious. Parents can help their children benefit from the reforms by being informed about the changes and knowing how to take advantage of new resources. Here are four big changes adopted in the last few years with suggestions for parents on how to make the most of them.

       This commentary is available on theadvocate.com.

       Julia Kaufman, Jill Cannon and Shelly Culbertson are policy researchers at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation.

       Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.