LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / August 12, 2000

LULING – School officials are elated at the latest LEAP test results in St.

Charles Parish, with only a small percentage not achieving the necessary passing grade to advance to ninth grade.

“We’re pleased with the fact that more students have passed,” commented Rochelle Touchard, public information officer for the school district. “We’renot disappointed in any way. This was only the first year.”Meanwhile, parents of these students who took the retake test have only a week’s notice as to which grade their child will attend. The first day of classfor students is Aug. 17.Out of 1,451 eighth-graders in St. Charles Parish who took the LEAP test inMarch, 95 percent passed language arts and 82 percent passed mathematics.

In language arts, 37 students scored unsatisfactory in language arts and 128 students scored unsatisfactory in mathematics.

With the LEAP summer school and the July retest, along with new students coming into the system who had to take the LEAP test while not being here for the March testing, the numbers dwindled even more.

Now, unofficial results indicate that only 19 students are unsatisfactory in language arts and 81 are unsatisfactory in mathematics.

School by school, language arts retest results were as follows: Albert Cammon had one pass and two fail. Harry Hurst had six pass and two fail. E.J.Landry had six pass and four fail. J.B. Martin had five pass and three fail.Overall, 60 percent passed language arts.

Mathematics results were: Albert Cammon had 10 pass and 18 fail. HarryHurst had 15 pass and 19 fail. E.J. Landry had eight pass and 16 fail. J.B.Martin had 12 pass and 13 fail. Overall, 41 percent passed mathematics.Revised passing rates for those students tested in March and factoring in the July retests indicated the following school-by-school results in language arts: Albert Cammon has a 97.5 percent passing rate. Harry Hurst has a98.3 percent passing rate. E.J. Landry has a 98.9 percent passing rate. J.B.Martin has a 97.2 percent passing rate.Touchard credited the teaching methods used for several years in St.

Charles Parish which match the testing methods used in LEAP for the excellent results.

Revised passing rates for those students tested in March and factoring in the July retests indicated the following school-by-school results in mathematics: Albert Cammon has a 83.1 percent passing rate. Harry Hursthas a 90.9 percent passing rate. E.J. Landry has an 84.9 percent passingrate. J.B. Martin has a 93.1 percent passing rate.Touchard pointed out that the math teaching methods used in the past did not match the LEAP testing requirements, but that curriculum changes in this and in social studies are under way which will result, in a few years, with improved test scores and passing percentages.

“We just have a little way more to go in math,” Touchard commented.

Rachel Allemand, executive director of curriculum, instruction and assessment, said that in the eighth-grade retesting, four students retested in only language arts, 90 students in only math and 24 students for both exams. Parents of these students were notified by the state as to theindividual results.

Fourth-grade LEAP retest results are awaited next week, Allemand continued, where 14 students retested in only language arts, 48 students retested for only math and 31 students retested in both exams.

Allemand added that 50 hours of remedial instruction in math and the 56 hours of instruction in language arts were presented to a total of 220 students, 93 percent of those eligible from the March testing.

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