ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / August 11, 1999

RESERVE – There was good news and bad news for the St. John ParishSchool Board Blue Ribbon Committee. Last week, the committee, made upof parents, business leaders, teachers and school administrators, reviewed the much anticipated Audit of Educational Effectiveness that had been commissioned last December by the committee.

The audit done by the SchoolMatch company of Ohio cost $16,000. Thecentral purpose of the audit was to identify areas of school system operations which can and should be improved upon.

SchoolMatch compared the St. John Parish school population to otherschool systems with the same demographic characteristics. These schoolsystems make up a “cohort group” and are comprised of 10 school system populations from all over the United States. The cohort group was used asthe average, and from that, St. John was given goals to achieve to attaineducational effectiveness.

Calling it a “good starting point, and money well spent,” Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Wilbert Ogden went over the major points of the study for the committee.

On the plus side, St. John Parish high school seniors taking the AmericanCollege Test (ACT) score well above the average and are being well- prepared to begin college-level work. The audit also showed that thefacilities, maintenance and environment for the students are excellent; the system has done a good job at starting alternative schools to help at- risk students and students with problems; a lot of attention has been given to improving technology in the schools and the school board has made great strides in involving local businesses with education, providing educational opportunities for adults who never finished high school, starting parenting workshops and starting a five-year plan for school accountability.

In the negative column, there is a downward trend in results for mathematics in the Graduate Exit Exam (GEE), but there’s an increase in language arts, while passing grades in both reading and mathematics are below state averages in all grades tested. The SchoolMatch surveyors saidimprovement in both reading and mathematic skills should be a top priority with St. John Parish schools. Also attendance of both students and teachers is well below the average.

Ogden said, “We have a big problem with finding teachers.”Superintendent Chris Donaldson agreed.

“The teacher shortage is at its worst this year,” he said. “Our biggest areaof concern is the quality of teachers.”Donaldson stressed the importance of good teachers to the overall accountability plan of the schools.

“We have to make sure the teachers understand the benchmarks and tests,” he said. “They must have the ability to analyze test scores so they can putstress on areas that need it.”Several members of the committee commented on the unusually high drop- out rate cited in the audit. Ogden explained that those figures are not trueindications of the drop-out rate because of counting methods. A studentmay drop out but then go to school in another district, parish or state.

This factor was not taken into account, but he did say that despite this, the St. John school system does have a drop out problem it needs to workon.

The audit made several recommendations to the school board on how to improve student performance and overall education effectiveness, including: Improve communication channels between teachers, students, parents and the community.

Enhance the quality of the staff. For example, do not use elementaryteachers to teach students in middle schools, and look into competitive salaries to attract good teachers.

Review district organization, such as the problem of too many students at East St. John High School. The system should look at changingappropriate attendance areas and distribute students more evenly throughout the district.

Privatize supplementary services like transportation and maintenance.

Reduce the number of dropouts.

Strengthen academic programs.

Establish a district accountability program. (St. John Parish has alreadydone this.) Increase public involvement. Donaldson is putting together a groupindustry, business and government representatives that will meet so that the school board can get public input into the school system.

Improve both teacher and student attendance.

Review the board policy manual and stress areas of homework, administration authority, public involvement, parent participation, student monitoring, community partnerships and school climate.

On the whole, Ogden said he was not surprised with the results of the audit.

“There was nothing earth-shattering in the audit,” he said. “A lot of areaswe are working toward, and others we really need to work on.”One of Ogden’s big concerns is encouraging the student. Part of theaccountability plan is to help students reach goals set by each school.

He thinks one way to do that is to tell the students the “raw” scores instead of percentiles, averages and means. The standard score is muchmore positive to the student. The student can actually see the progress heor she is making.

“We have to focus on growth,” Ogden said. “It’s much more positive to sayto the student, ‘you made this much progress this year,’ instead of telling him how he compared with others.”Russ Wise, a former St. John School Board member, said at the blue-ribboncommittee meeting, “Accountability means not having one school compete against other schools, but having the school compete against itself.”

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