By Kimberly Hopson
L’Observateur

LAPLACE – The percentage of St. John the Baptist Parish students scoring at the basic level or above on LEAP and iLEAP testing of four subjects grew by 1 percent in grades three through eight, with 62 percent of students testing at basic or above.

The increase is modest but means a lot to educators given the hard year the school district has experienced. The percentage has gone up a total of 2 percent since 2009.

“St. John Parish has faced a lot of adversity as a result of the hurricane. We were bracing for a potential disaster in test scores. Academic achievement was always primary, but we also knew had to cater to other needs,” said Heidi Trosclair, executive director of curriculum, instruction and assessment.

“If that ended up making us take a dip, then that was something that we would have to face, but luckily our teachers hit the ground running. This growth indicates to us that we have some really resilient teachers because they have really done a great job in making sure our students were well-prepared for the testing,” she said.

“Despite the challenges that the district has faced as a result of Hurricane Isaac, the principals and teachers have used all available resources to improve academic achievement. It has has been a difficult yer for everyone, and I want to thank all of my administrators, teachers and staff members for their hard work,” said Superintendent Herbert Smith.

St. Charles Parish School district saw a 3 percent increase in scoring, jumping from 79 to 82 percent. The change from last year to the current year is the school district’s biggest jump in scoring since 2009. Rachel Allemand, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said the school district doubled their teaching efforts with the recent changes to LEAP/iLEAP testing.

“We were very excited about that. That was good news,” said Allemand.

“We think that is a result of many different efforts taking place in the school — a real focus on the data, identifying children who need remediation as well as enrichment, an increase in focus on classroom observation with feedback to the teachers and the use of our district assessments, which are aligned with the state expectations for student learning. Basically, we see this as a result of a real concentrated effort on making sure every instructional minute was used effectively,” she said.

Allemand said that more change is ahead for the curriculum with the upcoming implementation of Common Core learning, but she hopes the school district will continue to show an increase in scoring.

St. James Parish also saw a small increase this year. The school district went up 1 percent this year, going from 70 to 71 percent. St. James Parish has seen a steady 6 percent increase since 2009 data.

This year’s tests are the first in a series of annual assessments that are gradually increasing in rigor so that Louisiana’s students and schools will be held to a standard equal to national learning standards.

For more information on test scores and statistics, visit the Data Center at www.louisianabelieves.com