By JESSICA DAIGLE

Staff Reporter

BATON ROUGE – The Louisiana Educational Assessment Program, or LEAP, test scores are in, and St. John the Baptist Parish Schools have shown improvement.

According to results released by the State Department of Education on Thursday, the fourth graders of the state took a significant upward jump in scores, and 10th graders taking the GEE 21 test showed a slight betterment. Some 10th graders may have the opportunity to take the GEE 21 test again.

However, on the state level, eighth graders took a bit of a stumble backwards, with more students scoring Unsatisfactory in math and a smaller percentage Approaching Basic in Language Arts.

The fourth grade classes of St. John the Baptist Schools are showing a marked progression as compared to last year’s scores.

There were less students, at 15 percent, receiving an Unsatisfactory score in Language Arts, compared to 18 percent from last year. The number also dropped in math, from 25 percent to 22 percent.

The scoring on the Advanced and Mastery level in both portions stayed relatively the same. The Basic level also showed higher scores, with 43 percent from last year rising to 45 percent in language arts. Math grew to 41 percent, compared with 39 percent in 2004.

St. John eighth graders took a turn against the majority of their classmates across the state, showing improvement from 2004. The Mastery scores are up in both language arts and math, and the percentage of students failing their tests were 14 percent in English and 31 percent in math, down from the previous year of 17 percent and 32 percent, respectively.

The eighth grade students took a notable growth in the Basic scores for language arts, jumping from 31 percent in 2004 to 38 percent for this years test. In math, scores increased by 1 percent.

The State Department of Education’s scores include those who took the test a second time for fourth and eighth grades. However the scores for the 10th graders taking the GEE 21 test reflect initial test takers only.

St. John 10th graders did not fair quite so well in their test taking, with the failure rate dropping by three percent in language arts, but actually gaining one percent in math.

In Basic scores, 10th graders again scored higher than last year in language arts, yet scored lower in math. However, the Mastery rate in math increased by three points.

In St. Charles Parish, students showed above average Advanced scores compared to the rest of the state. Their Basic scores overall improved, but suffered a 4 percent drop in eighth grade math. Also, math seemed to be a difficulty for the parish, as all grades experienced increased failing scores.

St. James Parish scores were not readily available for comparison to the previous year.