November Theatre
November 5, 2007
Daniel Rodrigue, Sr.
November 7, 2007(AP) Local Louisiana educators have recommended that eighth-graders who fail a key standardized test should get new options for advancing to the ninth grade.
The Parish Superintendents’ Advisory Council, which advises the state’s top school board, approved on Thursday the idea that was first recommended by state education officials. The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education could make a final decision on the issue in early December. Changes would take effect with tests given in the spring.
The exam, the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program, is designed to ensure that fourth- and eighth-graders master basic skills in math and English before they are promoted to the fifth and ninth grades.
Under the state plan, eighth graders who fail the test in the spring, attend summer school and fail again would have additional ways to advance to the next grade, through a new appeals process. The change would not affect fourth graders.
Critics say the proposed change would water down state education standards.
To advance to the ninth grade, eighth-graders are supposed to pass the test in the spring or summer, and meet other course requirements.
But new passage rules are needed in part because too many overage eighth-graders remain in middle school because they flunk the test, said Scott Norton, assistant state superintendent for student and school performance.
LEAP results fall into five categories: advanced, mastery, basic, approaching basic and unsatisfactory.
Students are supposed to achieve at least basic in math or English and approaching basic in the other for promotion.
Under one proposed option, students who achieve basic in one subject and fall within 20 points of the cutoff for approaching basic, and meet other rules, would be eligible for promotion.
Students who score basic in math would normally have to earn a score of at least 269 out of a possible score of 500 in English to achieve the state standard for approaching basic. The new option would allow them to win promotion with a score of basic in math and 249 out of 500 in English, or 20 points less than the current cutoff.
Nearly 25 percent of eighth-graders failed LEAP earlier this year.
The proposed LEAP change next faces review on Nov. 28 by another panel of educators that advises the state school board.
