ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / October 21, 2000

RESERVE – The state’s plan for school accountability and high-stakes testing seems to paying off according to the latest school performance scores that were released on Wednesday.

Not only was the news good for the state as a whole, but the St. John theBaptist Parish public school system improved dramatically. All nine schoolsinvolved in high-stakes testing and accountability improved their performance scores, some by as much as 88 percent.

“We are very pleased with the way everybody improved,” said School Superintendent Chris Donaldson. “And everybody in the community should behappy with the results.”Of the nine schools, only two, John L. Ory Magnet and LaPlace Elementarywere place in the Academically Above Average bracket. The other sevenschools are still listed as Academically Below Average.

But Donaldson said that this should not discourage people at all. All theschools met their personal growth targets and some have really improved beyond expectations.

“Glade School and Leon Godchaux Junior High have come a long way,” said Donaldson.

In the 1998-1999 school year, Glade and Godchaux had school performance scores of 39.2 and 48.9 respectively. In the 1999-2000 school year, eachschool raised its performance scores to 53.7 and 61.4, an improvement of72 percent for Godchaux and 79 percent for Glade.

All nine schools showed improvement, the biggest change coming from John L. Ory, which improved its score from 84.7 to 102.0However, Donaldson said that he is using the scores to see where everybody is, and not to compare one school against the other.

“If they made their growth target, and they all did, that is great,” said Donaldson. “We intend to share the successes of one school with the otherschools.”Most of the schools improved their average scores on the LEAP 21 and IOWA tests. Only West St. John Elementary posted a score lower than its 1998-1999 scores for the IOWA test and East St. John Elementary showed nochange at all.

In the LEAP tests, Fifth Ward Elementary and Garyville/Mt. Airy Math andScience Magnet School posted lower scores in the 1999-2000 year than in the 1998-1999 year, while the other schools posted improvements.

Donaldson cautioned that even though the scores have improved, there is a lot of room for improvement.

“Everybody still has growth targets to reach and everybody needs to improve,” said Donaldson.

Donaldson gives credit to everybody involved with the improvement.

“A lot of people were involved in this,” said Donaldson. “Teachers andadministrators worked very hard. Plus the students are taking it seriously.”He continued, “With the mentors, and tutoring, everybody in the system joined in to make this a success.”

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