By LEONARD GRAY

LAPLACE – School district accountability report cards were issued Thursday for the first time by the state Department of Education, and the results are positive in the River Parishes.

During a news conference held Thursday at the State Capitol, Gov. Mike Foster said, “We began by holding our students and then our schools accountable.” He added, “Now we’re making history by holding our districts accountable. Successes like this are exactly why we need to protect the funding that is fueling our reform efforts.”

State Superintendent of Education Cecil J. Picard continued, “We’re interested in one thing – improving student achievement – and all indications are that District Accountability will be another way to help us continue our trend of improved student performance.”

St. John the Baptist Parish achieved a District Performance Score of 68.7, where the state average is 80.8, moving up from their 1999 DPS of 52.8. St. Charles Parish’s DPS is 100.4, up from 97.0, while St. James Parish’s score is 73.3, up from 60.4. The DPS is a “roll up” of individual student scores on the LEAP 21 and Iowa tests, as well as attendance and dropout rates.

The District Responsibility Index ranked St. John at 116.1, at 35th place out of 66 districts, where the state average is 115.6. St. Charles ranked at 105.9, at 48th place, while St. James Parish ranked at 99.3, in 55th place out of 66 districts.

A DRI is a compilation of school improvement scores, LEAP passing rates, summer school passing rates and certified teacher placement. In the DRI scores, St. John ranked Excellent in school improvement, Excellent in LEAP passing rate, Good in summer school passing rates but Unsatisfactory in certified teacher placement in low-performing schools.

In the same DRI scores, St. Charles ranked Good in school improvement, Very Good in summer school passing rates, Very Good in LEAP passing rates and Excellent in certified teacher placements.

Similarly, St. James ranked Excellent in school improvement, Very Good in LEAP passing rates, but Poor in summer school passing rates and Unsatisfactory in certified teacher placement.

At the St. John Parish School Board meeting Thursday night, Superintendent Mike Coburn said he was “very excited” about the scores, and pointed out the district performed high among those school districts with a Very Good ranking.

Board member Russ Wise pointed out St. John Parish beat the state average in how quickly the district improved during the past two years and board member Charles Watkins said the achievement demonstrated “the system is improving and doing better,” and added “a pat to the superintendent’s back.”

The Top 10 scoring DPS districts were: St. Tammany, Livingston, Ouachita, St. Charles, West Feliciana, Jefferson Davis, West Carroll, Cameron, Calcasieu and Beauregard. Four districts – St. Tammany, Livingston, Ouachita and St. Charles, have already reached the state’s 10-year goal of scoring 100. With the state average at 80.8, St. Charles Parish scored 100.4.

Picard said he was not surprised those districts performed well on the DPS, because they have relatively low percentages of students on free lunch, a commonly-used poverty rate indicator.

St. Charles Parish ranked at 10, with 1 being the lowest-poverty rate. St. James Parish ranked at 49, while St. John Parish ranked at 61 of 66 school districts.

One issue taken with the scores, however, is the lack of recognition of schools which have placed high in the 10-year goals with little room for improvement.