By STACEY PLAISANCE / L’Observateur / February 27, 1999

Public schools throughout the state will now be held accountable for student academic performance, and St. James Parish School Boardmembers learned earlier this month what to expect with the new accountability system Individual schools are now being held solely accountable for student test scores, and poor performance could result in the closing of some schools, said Kimbrough Benson, education program manager with the School Accountability System.

The state is administering two new tests, the Criterion-Referenced Test and Norm-Referenced Test, which will determine academic performance levels of parish schools, Benson said.

The CRT measures how well a student has mastered the new content standards. It is aligned with new state content standards, has NationalAssessment of Educational Progress-like rigor and assesses students on the basis of five achievement levels, he explained.

The NRT compares the performance of Louisiana’s students to that of students nationwide, and the new testing system is designed utilizing 10- and 20-year assessment goals, Benson said.

The 10-year goal is to meet today’s national average performance levels, and the 20-year goal is to meet average levels of schools in higher performing states, Benson said.

Beginning in spring 2000, fourth- and eighth-grade students who receive unsatisfactory results on their math or language arts CRT tests must be offered intensive summer school and be re-tested at the end of summer to determine whether they may be promoted, and over-aged students must be placed in an alternative setting, Benson said.

Academically unacceptable schools, or schools with a school performance score of 30 or below, will immediately enter corrective actions, Benson said. Corrective actions are intended to help schools improve and provideadditional support and assistance to low-performing schools, he added.

A school will move into a more intensive level of corrective actions when adequate growth is not demonstrated during each two-year cycle the school is evaluated. There are three levels of corrective action prior tothe elimination of a school institution, he explained.

The State Department of Education publishes an individual School Report Card to provide information on every school’s performance, and under certain circumstances parents can transfer their child from one public school to another, Benson said.

If a student is attending an academically unacceptable school beginning corrective actions at the second level or the third level, parents may transfer their children to another school facility, he said. No transfers canbe made to academically unacceptable schools or schools undergoing corrective action, he added.

The system will test grades K-8 in 1999 and grades 9-12 in 2001, and only the scores of regular education students will be used to determine academically unacceptable schools, Benson said.

School report cards will include the school performance score, school progress in reaching growth targets, school performance when compared to similar schools and subgroup performance levels, Benson said.

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