By David Vitrano

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – All three River Parishes school districts improved their overall district rating over the past year, according to a report recently released by the state Department of Education.

The St. John the Baptist Parish school system showed improvement in its District Performance Score for the fourth year in a row.

This year’s growth of 4.7 points, from 81.8 to 86.5, placed the distict sixth among most improved districts statewide.

In the past three years the district has shown at least four-point gains each year.

“Our new DPS of 86.5 and the schools’ increased baseline scores reflect that our teachers are really working hard to educate our students, and many of the investments we have made in our classrooms are showing results,” said Superintendent Courtney Millet.

While each individual school also showed improvement over the past year, only three schools in St. John — Lake Pontchartrain Elementary, Garyville/Mt. Airy Math and Science Magnet and East St. John Elementary — met their growth targets. As a new school, Emily C. Watkins Elementary did not have a growth target for the 2009-10 school year. Growth targets are set by the state.

Notably, St. John has the only four-star school in the River Parishes. John L. Ory Communications Magnet, with a School Performance Score of 121.7, did not achieve its growth target but did maintain its four-star rating.

The St. James Parish school district also showed growth, but not to the extent of St. John. Its rating improved from 93.3 points for the 2008-09 school year to 94.0 for the year that just passed.

Three schools in the district — Paulina Elementary, Vacherie Elementary and Vacherie Primary — have attained three-star status, an achievement Superintendent Alonzo Luce is particularly proud of.

“Two years ago, we had no three-star schools,” Luce noted.

Romeville Elementary, however, remains on the “academic watch” list. With a school performance score of 67.4, the school actually lost ground compared to last year, when its score was 70.1.

Although he was clear that he was not trying to make excuses, Luce explained that at small schools, just one or two lagging students can drag down the entire school’s score.

“At Romeville, where the number is 120, every student counts so much,” he said.

He said a director of school improvement was brought in at Fifth Ward Elementary to address that school’s lagging scores. That school’s score improved nearly 13 points over the past year. Consequently, he said Romeville will likely be headed down a similar path, especially because the state raises the bar each year for what constitutes an academically unacceptable school.

Overall, five of the district’s 10 schools — Fifth Ward Elementary, Gramercy Elementary, Paulina Elementary, Vacherie Elementary and Vacherie Primary — achieved their target growth marks.

The St. Charles Parish school system has long been the high achiever in the River Region, and this year is no different, although that district’s growth has slowed somewhat.

St. Charles improved its rating from 104.9 in 2009 to 105.5 this year.

Furthermore, only six of the district’s 17 schools achieved their growth targets for the 2009-10 school year. It should be noted, however, that 10 schools in the district have a three-star rating, and no school in the district is rated lower than two stars.

Statewide, the SPS stands at 92.5, a gain of over three points from the previous year.