ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / May 19, 2000

RESERVE – A school-by-school breakdown of the LEAP test data shows that the public schools in St. John Parish did a lot better than first realized.Last week, the Louisiana State Department of Education sent every school district in the state partial results of the LEAP tests that were taken in March. These partial results only told how many students in each district hadfailed or passed the exams.

Now each school district has received numbers which show how each school in the district fared on the high-stakes test.

For St. John the news is pretty good, officials stated. The most dramaticimprovements happened over on the west bank, where West St. John HighSchool’s test results showed a dramatic success rate.

In the English Language portion of the exam, there was a 37 percent decrease in failing students as compared to 1999. The math portion showedan even greater improvement with a 47 percent decrease in failures.

In 1999, West St. John High had an 84 percent failure rate in the mathportion of the LEAP exam. In 2000 that rate went down to 37 percent.”After last year, we were determined to raise the scores,” said Glenda Gaudet, principal of West St. John High. “Thanks to the determination of ourteachers and our students, we did it.”Another west bank success story is West St. John Elementary, where thefailure rate of the English language test was a respectable eight percent, but in the math tests, fourth-grade failure rate went down by a healthy 20 percent.

Shelton Smith, principal at West St. John Elementary, said they weresuccessful because “of the hard work of the teachers staff and the parents.

The teachers put out 100 percent and we had nothing but cooperation from the parents.”Over on the east bank, John L. Ory Magnet had no change in the English partof the exam with a 2 percent failure rate. However in the math section ofthe exam, the Ory fourth-graders went from a 26 percent failure rate in 1999 to a two percent rate in 2000. That is a change of 24 percent.Teri Noel, principal at John L. Ory Magnet said, “It was due to a lot ofteamwork and a huge effort by our teachers. We also tested the kids theway they would be tested on the LEAP exam. Plus we have threeextraordinary, top-notch, wonderful fourth-grade teachers.”Another bright spot in the St. John Parish school district is the Glade School.They made marked improvements in both portions of the tests with both the fourth grade and eighth grade. Glade experienced an average 12 percentdecrease in failure rates.

Glade principal Robert Schaff credited several factors for the success.

“There was a serious concerted effort to teach the benchmarks,” said Schaff, “and we made an effort to assign teachers to their areas of expertise.”Schaff also says the several mentoring and tutoring programs they had at Glade helped immensely, not only with the LEAP tests but also with the Iowa basic skills test. Programs like HOSTS (Helping One Student to Succeed), theLEAP Remediation Program and after-school assistance all helped his students to succeed.

“We also made every effort to get the students to attend the Saturday tutoring sessions at New Wine Christian Fellowship,” said Schaff. “There wasa total change of attitude at Glade,” added Schaff. “We got the parents moreinvolved with their children.”Parent involvement and tutoring were also keys to success for Courtney Millet and her teachers over at LaPlace Elementary School.

“Our teachers got a lot of support from the parents,” said principal Millet.

“and the teachers taught a wonderful after-school tutoring program to the fourth-graders that was as much fun as it was learning.”It paid off for the school, as the failure rates went down 12 and 16 percent respectively in the English language and math portions of the test.

East St. John Elementary and Leon Godchaux Junior High each maderespectable average decreases in their failure rates of 8 and 6 percent respectively.

The only disappointments were Fifth Ward Elementary and Garyville/Mt. AiryMagnet.

Fifth Ward managed to lower their failure rate in the language arts section but the rate went up by nine percent in math.

The Garyville fourth-graders’ failure rate went up in both section of the test while the eighth-graders improved their math scores but decreased their language arts score.

Even with this apparent backsteps, the overall test results were encouraging. The outcome of the 2000 LEAP scores was summed up byGaudet, who said, “We are really pleased. We’re not where we would really liketo be, but we are improving.”

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