Local Districts Show Gains In High-Stakes Test Scores | 5-24-12
The numbers from the Department of Education show improvements in student performance. Forty-eight of Louisiana’s 71 school districts showed advances over last year.
Still, 225,000 students are not working at expected grade levels. But state documents indicate that the number of students in all grades and subjects producing grade-level results increased from 66% to 68% from 2011 to 2012.
Louisiana’s Superintendent of Education, John White, says that represents a big jump.
“Our state’s rate of proficiency increased by a full two percentage points over last year, which means roughly 10,000 students across the state are now performing at grade-level who were not last year.”
Contributing to the two percent increase was the Zachary Community School District, with the highest number of students at basic and above at 87 percent.
Ouachita Parish ranked 14th in that category, with 76% of its students achieving basic or above, and scoring a one percent increase over 2011.
Monroe City Schools ranked 40th of 71 districts, with an increase to 65% this year from 63% in 2011 of its total number of students at basic or above achievement.
Superintendent White says certain school districts that have struggled are moving up in the ranks.
“St. Helena Parish, which – essentially we’re talking about only one school, to put that in context – we should be very proud of what’s going on at St. Helena Elementary. Desoto made good gains, and then Central District in East Baton Rouge Parish made great gains, and then on down through the districts, including the Recovery School District that are at the top of our gains list this year.”
Department of Education documents indicate that 90% of fourth-grade LEAP test takers in Ouachita Parish achieved basic or above scores.
The state chart shows that 85% of Monroe City School’s fourth grade LEAP testers scored basic or above results.
Air Date:
Thu, 05/24/2012
