L’Observateur / May 17, 2000

Test results are now in, and school administrators across the River Parishes are pleased with how well students did with the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program tests.

“This is better than we expected,” said St. John Parish School SuperintendentChris Donaldson, talking about the results which were released Friday.

The LEAP tests are given to fourth- and eighth-grade public school students all over the state to assess their progress. The results are high-stakebecause not passing the exam means the student does not go on to the next grade.

“The students in St. John Parish showed significant improvement in nearly allgrades and subject areas,” said Donaldson.

Although 515 students in St. John Parish failed either one or both thelanguage arts or mathematics portions of the LEAP test, the students improved over last year’s assessment test results.

In St. Charles Parish, school by school passing rates were released yesterdayby public information officer Rochelle Touchard, with 93 percent of fourth- graders passing the language arts portion and 71 percent passing the mathematics portion. Among eighth-graders, 86 percent passed thelanguage arts segment and 67 percent passed the math portion.

“There is noticeable improvement here,” Touchard observed, even with 244 students failing one or both of the vital portions of the LEAP tests. “Whenyou factor in the pressure, our students did extremely well.”Speaking on behalf of St. James Parish’s public school system, MaryEdwards, administrative director for student services and resources and district testing coordinator, said, “We are very pleased. We have seen anincrease all the way across the board.”This is reflected in the test scores, where significant improvements were made in both grade levels in mathematics and also in eighth-grade language arts.

In St. James Parish, 636 students missed the mark on one or both tests, butthe improvements over last year’s scores promise further improvements in the coming years.

St. John Parishcan still improve

Even though the St. John School Board, parents and teachers can all breathea small sigh of relief, there is still a lot of room for improvement.

The number of students who ranked “unsatisfactory” in the LEAP tests has gone down. In the fourth grade there was a 4 percent decrease in thenumber of unsatisfactory grades in the language arts and an 8 percent decrease in the math portion of the test.

Eight-graders in St. John Parish made the biggest improvement with an 11percent decrease in unsatisfactory scores for language arts and a 13 percent decrease in math.

Both the fourth- and eighth-graders did make marked improvements in raising their scores to the “basic” level.

“We were happy with all the results,” said Donaldson. “Math is still a problem,but that is a problem statewide.” Donaldson emphasized several reasons for the improvement in the test scores.

First of all, there was the work of the teachers.

Kathy McWaters, coordinator of staff Development and testing, said, “There was a real emphasis on teamwork among the teachers. There was a lot ofafter-school planning going on.”Donaldson said, “Our teachers worked very hard. They stressed thebenchmarks of the test, and they placed a great emphasis on increasing students’ thinking skills.”Another factor in helping out the students was the parents and the community.

“We want to thank the many mentors and tutors who assisted our students throughout the school year,” said Donaldson.

He named such programs as the HOSTS mentoring program and singled out New Wine Christian Fellowship for its Saturday tutoring lessons at its own LEAP Learning Center.

Donaldson said the school board will look at the students who attended the New Wine tutoring sessions and compare them with students who did not take the tutoring and see what results there might be.

Despite improvements, there are still 515 fourth- and eighth-graders who scored unsatisfactory on the test, and they will have to either repeat the grade or spend the summer in school.

The St. John School Board sent letters home Monday with the children whodid not pass the LEAP test. The letters told the parents what the testresults were and informed the parents that their child had a choice. Thestudent can either repeat the grade over in the 2000-2001 school year or go to a 20-day summer school starting June 5 then re-take the LEAP exam in July.

“The letters have to signed and returned,” said Donaldson. “They also have tobe marked, yes or no, as to whether or not they are going to summer school.”Donaldson said anybody with an unsatisfactory score will be urged to go to summer school.

“Last summer we had over 30 percent of the students pass the test,” said Donaldson. “This summer we are shooting for 50 percent.”All this week the St. John School Board is actively recruiting new teachers tohelp out with the summer school program.

The day before the LEAP test results came in the school board received the results of the ITBS basic skills test administered to the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh grades.

The results of the ITBS, or Iowa tests, were also encouraging. Overall,students improved their score by 5 percentile points as compared to 1999.

The only dark spot was the fifth grade, which dropped by 2 percentile points.

“We were surprised with the fifth-grade results,” admitted Donaldson. “Butfrankly, we were optimistic. We expected growth.”Donaldson said they had no reason for the fifth-graders’ decline in test scores.

Donaldson stressed the LEAP information they received from the state was only partial results. So far they have only gotten a list of students whopassed and didn’t pass LEAP. They are waiting for further data that willbreak down the scores school-by-school within the parish.

“The principals were relieved because the scores improved,” said Donaldson.

“But some were disappointed because they expected better scores.”Donaldson is happy with the results, but he is also being cautiously optimistic.

“This will not happen overnight,” he said. “Real improvement is a gradualprocess.”McWaters’ view of the LEAP results was a bit more upbeat.

“I was thrilled to see the students’ hard work had paid off,” she said. “In thefuture, we will see even the unsatisfactory scores improve.”

St. Charles aimingfor improvement

School-by-school LEAP results in St. Charles Parish school, releasedyesterday, indicate a high level of achievement.

“They’re still analyzing the results,” said Touchard.

Fourth-grade passing rates, school-by-school, are: Language arts – Carver Elementary, 83 percent passed; Lakewood Elementary, 99 percent passed; Norco 4-6 Elementary, 97 percent passed; St. Rose Primary, 96 percent passed; R.J. Vial Elementary, 90 percentpassed; and Schoeffner Elementary, 95 percent passed.

Mathematics – Carver Elementary, 88 percent passed; Lakewood Elementary, 97 percent passed; Norco 4-6 Elementary, 87 percent passed; St. Rose Primary, 88 percent passed; R.J. Vial Elementary, 75 percentpassed; and Schoeffner Elementary, 91 percent passed.

Eighth-grade passing rates, school-by-school, are: Language arts – Hurst Middle, 96 percent passed; Cammon Middle, 97 percent passed; J.M. Martin Middle, 95 percent passed; and Landry Middle, 90percent passed.

Mathematics – Hurst Middle, 85 percent passed; Cammon Middle, 74 percent passed; J.B. Martin Middle, 88 percent passed; and Landry Middle, 78percent passed.

Some parents and teachers may not be quite so pleased, as 244 of the 1,499 students who took the LEAP tests failed one or both of the language arts or mathematics portions by scoring unsatisfactory.

Letters went out Friday to those students’ families informing them of the results and advising them of LEAP summer school registration.

Fourth-grade students also took science and social studies LEAP tests, but as a practice run, and those results didn’t count this year against advancement.

What has most concerned at this point, Touchard said, are identifying those 244 students, signing them up for summer classes and retesting in July.

The last day for non-graduating students to register is June 1.

LEAP summer school will begin June 12 at Harry Hurst Middle School in Destrehan and J.B. Martin Middle School in Paradis.New LEAP math tests will be taken July 6, and language arts tests will be taken July 10 and 11.

Results from those tests will be received by Aug. 8 for eighth-graders andAug. 14 for fourth-graders, with the start of the new school year set Aug.17. Without passing these tests those students will not be eligible to beadvanced to the next grade.

In fourth grade, 778 students took the LEAP tests. Of these, 84 regulareducation students failed one or both of language arts or mathematics tests. In addition, 22 special education students failed one or both.Fourth-grade students scored well across the board in all tests, with more than half scoring at the basic level, the midpoint range. Scoring runs fromadvanced to proficient, basic, approaching basic and unsatisfactory.

In language arts, fourth-grade scores were: 5 percent advanced, 22 percent proficient, 49 percent basic, 18 percent approaching basic and 7 percent unsatisfactory.

This compared to 1999’s practice tests, with results as follows: 4 percent advanced, 26 percent proficient, 49 percent basic, 17 percent approaching basic and 7 percent unsatisfactory.

In mathematics, fourth-grade scores were: 3 percent advanced, 17 percent proficient, 47 percent basic, 21 percent approaching basic and 12 percent unsatisfactory.

This compared to 1999’s practice tests, with results as follows: 2 percent advanced, 15 percent proficient, 44 percent basic, 22 percent approaching basic and 18 percent unsatisfactory.

There were 721 eighth-grade students who took the LEAP tests and, of these, 102 regular education failed one or both, and 36 special education students.

Eighth-grade language arts scores for this year’s testing had results as follows: 2 percent advanced, 20 percent proficient, 46 percent basic, 27 percent approaching basic and 5 percent unsatisfactory.

This compared to 1999’s practice tests, with results as follows: 4 percent advanced, 21 percent proficient, 38 percent basic, 28 percent approaching basic and 9 percent unsatisfactory.

Eighth-grade mathematics scores were: 5 percent advanced, 8 percent proficient, 51 percent basic,19 percent approaching basic and 18 percent unsatisfactory.

This compared to 1999’s practice tests, with results as follows: 6 percent advanced,12 percent proficient, 42 percent basic, 19 percent approaching basic and 21 percent unsatisfactory.

Besides the language arts and mathematics portions, fourth- and eighth- grade students also took science and social science test with the following results: Fourth-grade science results: 2 percent advanced, 14 percent proficient, 47 percent basic, 29 percent approaching basic and 8 percent unsatisfactory.

Fourth-grade social science results: 1 percent advanced, 14 percent proficient, 53 percent basic, 21 percent approaching basic and 10 percent unsatisfactory.

Eighth-grade science results: 1 percent advanced, 20 percent proficient, 37 percent basic, 29 percent approaching basic and 13 percent unsatisfactory.

Eighth-grade social science results: 0 percent advanced, 11 percent proficient, 46 percent basic, 26 percent approaching basic and 17 percent unsatisfactory.

Private and parochial students who planned to attend a public school in the fall likewise had to take the LEAP tests. However, those results have notbeen reported as of yet.

Boutte Christian Academy, with 17 enrolled in eighth grade, will see most of their students continue at Hahnville High School, according to principal Linda Davis. The exact number of how many took the LEAP test was not availableMonday.

At St. Charles Borromeo Elementary in Destrehan and at Sacred HeartSchool in Norco, nearly all the students will continue their Catholic educations, school officials stated, and very few took the LEAP test.

St. James hopefulfor future results

“I think we have really made an impact,” said Mary Edwards. “We have reallyfocused on academics, and the results are very satisfying.”Even with the progress being made, 636 students will either be repeating the fourth and eighth grades for the 2000-2001 school year or taking a 20-day summer school session and re-taking the LEAP test in July.

“It’s a slow process,” admitted Edwards, “but we continue to work hard and make great strides.”In the eighth-grade results among St. James Parish LEAP-takers, 19 percentof the students scored unsatisfactory in the language arts as compared to 29 percent in 1999, a decrease of 10 percent. Math saw a big decrease inunsatisfactory scores with 48 percent this year as compared to 60 percent in 1999.

The news was also good for the fourth-graders. Even though there was nochange in the language arts from last year’s 28 percent, fourth-graders did much better in math. In 1999, 38 percent scored unsatisfactory, while thisyear 25 percent didn’t make the cut.

The results of the ITBS, or Iowa basic skills test, were a lot more encouraging. The test is given in third, fifth, sixth and seventh grades. In allgrades levels St. James students made improvements in the percentilescores as compared to 1999. The biggest improvement was the seventhgrade, which improved its scores by 6 percentile points.

A hopeful Edwards said, “I think that we will see an increase in scores in the next couple of years.”

(Staff reporters Erik Sanzenbach and Leonard Gray contributed to this report)

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