Thibodaux Tomorrow: Problem-solving today
October 23, 2012$14M awarded in settlement
October 23, 2012Tri-parish school districts remain above state averages on the Louisiana Department of Education’s newest listing of performance scores and letter grades among public schools. However, some educators are frustrated after falling short of their own expectations.
“We are seeing improvement, but it still is not where we want to be,” Terrebonne Parish School District Superintendent Philip Martin as his students and teachers missed advancing from a C to a B by 0.4 of a point. At the same time, both Lafourche and St. Mary Parish school districts earned a grade score improvement from C in 2011 to B for fall testing in 2012.
State Superintendent John White announced test results Monday afternoon during a webcast news conference. In that session he revealed state performance scores averaged 100.5, which leaves Louisiana with an overall C letter grade.
The state superintendent said seven of Louisiana’s 86 public school districts earned a letter grade of A, 22 are listed as B schools and 26 carry a C grade for performance.
“A record number of schools in Louisiana earned an A this year,” White said.
The number of A schools increased from 98 in 2011 to 163 in 2012. Statewide, 36 percent of schools earned either an A or B, up from 28 in 2011, while D and F decreased in number from 44 percent in 2011 to a current level of 36 percent. The D and F schools offered improvement while the grading standard for them increased by 10 points.
The Terrebonne Parish School District improved by 7 points or 7.17 percent from its 2011 test results on a score of 104.6 for 2012.
St. Mary Parish moved from a C to a B level with an 8.79 percent performance increase from the previous year to secure a score of 105.2 during the 2012 testing period.
Lafourche Parish public school students earned that district’s overall B with an 11.89 percent performance increase from 2011 and a score of 107.3 to top the region.
Administrators at the Lafourche Parish School District were in a celebratory mindset following White’s announcement.
“We had a strong focus on curriculum instruction,” Lafourche Parish School District Secondary and Middle School Curriculum Supervisor Aubrey Orgeron Jr. said. “The teachers did a fantastic job of doing what they are hired to do and that’s just providing good quality instruction.”
“All three of our high schools moved letter grades,” Lafourche Parish School District Curriculum Assistant supervisor Karen Gisclair said. “South Lafourche was a B school and they are now an A school. That’s our first A school in the district. Thibodaux High School and Central Lafourche High School were both C schools and they moved to B schools.”
Telephone calls to the St. Mary School District were not returned by press time.
The state grade range was presented as an A requiring 120-200 performance points, B needing 105-119.9 points and C with a range of 90-104.9. Schools and districts earning a D had performance scores that ranged between 75 and 89.9, while an F grade was reserved for those falling below 75 points on the performance scale.
Determining school and district performance points and letter grades differed based on student level. Elementary schools were graded based on 90 percent test scores and 10 percent attendance. Grades for middle schools were tabulated on 90 percent test scores, 5 percent attendance and 5 percent dropout rate. High school performance results involved 70 percent test scores and 30 percent graduation rate.
Martin said his district might be disappointed with the overall grade, but he can still highlight bright spots including Ellender Memorial High School advancing in performance from a D to a C and all other Terrebonne Parish high schools earning a B letter grade for 2012.
“Last year we set a goal for ourselves,” Martin said. “It is disappointing that we fell 0.4 percent short of that goal, but we know what we need to do to correct it.”
Among individual schools across the state, 163 received an A, 308 were listed as B, 339 as C, 157 as D, 157 as F and nine charter schools were listed as being in transition.
