LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / March 15, 2000

LULING – Fourth and eighth-grade students across Louisiana began the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program tests Monday morning with the first part of English language arts, continued on Tuesday morning.

Early indications Monday from St. Charles Parish test coordinators werethat the students felt ready.

“It was so quiet,” Rachel Allemand, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment for St. Charles Parish Schools, commented. “There’s beena little test anxiety.”Counselor Sue Landry of Landry Middle School added: “They felt like they were prepared. They felt very comfortable today.”However, today is the all-day mathematics test, felt by most teachers to be the biggest hurdle for most students. This will conclude that portion ofthe LEAP test required for advancement this year.

In earlier evaluations, 21 percent of eighth graders scored unsatisfactory on the mathematics portion. However, a pre-test performed early in thisschool year gave teachers an opportunity to address that need in time for today’s test.

Tomorrow students will take a LEAP science test, and Friday students will have a LEAP social studies test, neither of which is required this year for advancement.

At Norco Elementary, as in all schools administering the LEAP tests, security was tight. Lasca Anderson and Julie Abreo, coordinators for thetesting, said every student’s test were taken up one by one and accounted for.

“Every test booklet has a number on it, and teachers sign in and sign out on these numbers,” Allemand said. “Security is very tight. Each one is bar-coded.”The LEAP test is a new state requirement for a student to advance to the next grade level. It measures the knowledge they should have at thesepoints in their academic careers.

Test scores are ranked according to the following: unsatisfactory, approaching basic, basic, proficient and advanced. “If you look at this as F,D, C, B and A,” Landry added, “all a child needs is a D to pass.”In the language arts portion of the LEAP test, students are evaluated on reading and response, written composition skills, proofreading abilities and using information resources.

The mathematics portion of the LEAP test includes two major parts – assessing concepts and skills with multiple-choice problem-solving and short-answer word problems where students are asked to explain how they reached the answers.

Teacher guides to the mathematics and language arts portions of LEAP were provided as a tool in developing lesson plans, evaluating shortcomings among the students and addressing those needs in every grade. In addition, an “early warning” test was given at the beginning ofthe school year to assist teachers on an individual basis to make those assessments.

Results of this week’s tests will be released May 15. A LEAP “summerschool” is planned to handle those students who score unsatisfactory, with re-tests planned July 6, 10 and 11.

Results from those make-up tests will be received by Aug. 8 for eighthgraders and Aug. 14 for fourth-graders, with the start of the new schoolyear set in St. Charles Parish Aug. 17.To head off a possible scheduling crunch, those students at risk will be double-scheduled at each grade level, up or down.

Allemand said attendance has been very good, but students absent from this week’s testing will have to take make-up tests next week.

“I was well pleased with how seriously children are taking these tests,” she concluded.

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