Marked improvement shown, but still some disappointments

By JESSICA DAIGLE

Staff Reporter

BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana State Department of Education released school-by-school test results for LEAP 21 on Tuesday, and St. John the Baptist Schools are demonstrating highs in the test scores, as well as lows.

The recently released results represent the final scores for Spring 2005, after preliminary results were made public in May.

The final scores include those students who were allowed to retest during the summer.

Students in fourth grade must score at least Basic in English and Math to advance to the next grade, while eighth-graders need to score Approaching Basic.

The five achievement levels are: Advanced, Mastery, Basic, Approaching Basic, and Unsatisfactory.

The results show marked improvement in most schools across St. John Parish. In fourth grade English and math at John L. Ory Magnet, no students scored below Basic, while 20 percent of the students fell into the Advanced level for English.

At the Glade School, Unsatisfactory levels in fourth grade math fell by 19 percent, and at Garyville/Mt. Airy, the scores improved by 18 percent.

However, there were also disappointments in test scores, as 76 percent of eight-graders at East St. John High scored Unsatisfactory in Math, from 61 percent last year.

Overall, though, the percentage of students in the Advanced and Mastery levels for St. John Parish stayed the same as last year, the percentage of students, in both grades, scoring at the Unsatisfactory is showing progress.

According to the state’s department of education, parish rankings will be released in mid to late September.