LEONARD GRAY

LULING – Nearly all students who need to re-take the LEAP test this summer have been signed up for summer school, according to St. Charles Parish school administrators at a press conference Thursday. On the whole, though, school officials remain pleased with the trend of continued improvement, year to year, in results of the LEAP test, given to fourth- and eighth-grade students during March 13-17. “We worry about the percentage failing, but we’re working to raise the achievement levels of all students,” said Rachel Allemand, executive director of curriculum, instruction and assessment. Altogether, she added, there were improvements noticed in every area except eighth-grade science scores. A total of 237 students of the 1,539 tested are being enlisted for summer school, slated for June 11-July 11, 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. Funding of these summer session is 30 percent from the state and 70 percent from local sources. Results from those tests will be received by Aug. 8 for eighth-graders and Aug. 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 be advanced to the next grade. The Louisiana Educational Assessment Program tests measure knowledge students should have learned by a specific point in their education. The scores are scaled from Advanced to Proficient, Basic, Approaching Basic and Unsatisfactory. Passing is considered at Approaching Basic and above. However as of 2004, Allemand said, passing will be considered at Basic and above “as the bar is placed higher.” The number of students scoring Unsatisfactory dropped overall in both fourth- and eighth-grade classes, both regular and special educations students. Strategy meetings are planned with principals on June 7 to interpret the tests and make adjustments in the coming year’s curricula. What’s more, the school district is receiving three state grants to help pay for after-school tutoring to assist students having difficulty. The tutoring sessions, though, are not aimed specifically at LEAP, but at school work as a whole. “We’re preparing children for life, not for LEAP,” Allemand said. Allemand also went through school-by-school scores and found of fourth-graders, 92 percent passed the language arts portion and 88 percent passed the mathematics portion. For eighth-graders, 95 percent passed the language arts portion and 85 percent passed the math portion. In the same press conference, Allemand and Asst. Superintendent Felicia Gomez reviewed results of the Iowa tests administered to grades three, five, six, seven and nine. Composite scores indicate students remain above the norm level of students tested nationally in 1995, the base line score used for measurement purposes. This September, officials hope to receive good news from new school performance scores, comparing 2001 LEAP scores to the 1999 baseline, reassigned school growth labels, which will determine which, if any schools need corrective action, and a new baseline for future testing. “All of our schools have improved, and we hope none will need corrective action,” Allemand said.