By David Vitrano

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – The Louisiana Department of Education released new performance scores and letter grades for all districts in the state Monday, and all three River Parishes showed improvement in the yearly assessment, although some showed more improvement than others.

St. John the Baptist Parish had the most modest gain, a nearly five-point increase, bringing the district’s overall performance score to 94.4. This earned the district a grade of “C.”

“The district is making steady gains. Our teachers are working hard to implement the best teaching strategies in our classrooms, and our students are responding to the higher expectations that we are putting on them,” interim Superintendent Herbert Smith said.

“We are excited about our progress, and we will take these latest results, break them down, and continue to find ways to make improvements,” he added.

Within the district, West St. John High School made the largest gains, improving its School Performance Score to 112.3, up 15.6 points from last year. This was good enough to earn the school a “B” rating, making it one of just two schools in the parish to earn the rating.

The other is John L. Ory Communications Magnet School, which saw a slight decrease in its SPS. Last year John L. Ory was the only school in the River Parishes to earn an “A” rating, but its SPS dropped nearly one point since last year.

Other major gainers in the parish included East St. John High, LaPlace Elementary, West St. John Elementary and Lake Pontchartrain Elementary. Each of these schools have a “C” rating.

Both Fifth Ward Elementary and Emily C. Watkins Elementary had slight gains but not enough to lift them out of “D” status.

East St. John Elementary’s SPS dropped slightly, 1.6 points, but the biggest drop came from Garyville/Mt. Airy Magnet, which saw a drop of more than 15 points. These schools also both have “D” ratings.

Upriver in St. James Parish the gains were a little more significant. Its latest performance score is 104.7, up nearly 10 percent from last year.

Although the district is still in the “C” range, its newest score is only three-tenths of a point away from being a “B.” In addition to the gains made at individual schools, the closing of Romeville Elementary likely played a large role in the district’s improved performance score.

The district’s biggest individual gainers both came from the west bank, with St. James High and Sixth Ward Elementary posting gains of 15.4 and 10.8 points, respectively.

The latest gain earned Sixth Ward Elementary a “B” grade, bringing it into the company of Lutcher High, Paulina Elementary and Vacherie Elementary.

Vacherie Elementary, incidentally, was the only school in the district to have a decrease, albeit a slight one at .2, in its SPS.

The only school in the district to earn a “D” was Lutcher Elementary with an SPS of 82.7, up nearly two points from last year.

“Growth has been an exercise of vigilance and dedication by each employee in the school system and by all the students and parents that sacrifice so much and work so hard for this growth to be possible,” said Superintendent Alonzo “Lonnie” Luce.

“It takes a team effort to full fill the vision of ‘Inspiring Hope and Purpose’ in each and every child in St. James Parish,” he added.

Perennial overachiever St. Charles Parish topped the performance scores of the River Parishes with a score of 118.3, a gain of 11.6 points from last year. This earned the district a letter grade of “B,” but its score was less than two points from “A” territory. Only six districts in the state earned an “A” rating this year.

Additionally, the district’s two high schools, Destrehan and Hahnville, each earned an “A” rating this year. Each school made significant gains this year, and both have an SPS of about 130.

“We have seen some very positive trends in our scores, and we are very encouraged by what we see,” said Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Schools and Quality Assurance Felecia Gomez. “We’ve never made 11 points in gains in one year before.”

District administration attributes the success to a more vigilant assessment process, which identifies not only faltering schools and classrooms but students who are falling behind as well. This enables the district to intervene before problems become too great.

Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Rachel Allemand added that increased course offerings have also played a role in the district’s improvement.

“There’s been a real effort to increase the number of advanced placement classes,” she said.

Although two schools in the district, Norco Primary and New Sarpy Elementary posted slight drops in their SPS — each lost slightly more than two points — both schools still have a “B” grade, and the slight decrease should not be seen as a cause for alarm.

“That’s not unusual,” said Allemand.

Gomez added, “We are going to stay the course.”

Of the 16 schools in the St. Charles Parish Public School System, none earned a grade of “D” or lower, and only four had a grade of “C.”