St. Landry Parish public schools lag behind other schools in Acadiana in terms of growth toward subject mastery on English language arts and math scores from the 2018 to 2019 school year, according to Louisiana Department of Education information released Tuesday.
The rankings are from LEAP scores release early this year.
St. Landry Parish public schools, as a whole, did not break 50% in top growth, which is given to students on track for mastery at the grade level, maintaining advance scores or outpeforming peers statewide.
St. Landry Parish students faltered in English language arts, but increased in number achieving top growth in mathematics.
State Superintendent John White said, “Louisiana is proud to have an accountability system that measures not only where students ended up, but how much progress they made to get there. We’re also proud to have school systems and schools leading the charge to ensure progress is possible for every child, every day.”
Also in the news release, White said, “The results released today highlight schools, systems, subjects, and groups where student progress is accelerated, and areas of challenge where students are falling behind.”
In Acadiana, the school districts results of the percentage of students achieving top growth.
Lafayette Parish: English language arts, 45% in 2018; 46% percent in 2019; Math, 49% in 2018, 50% in 2019.
Acadia Parish: English language arts, 46% in 2018, 46% in 2019; Math, 42% in 2018, 41% in 2019.
Iberia Parish: English language arts, 51% in 2018, 48% in 2019; Math, 47% in 2018, 48% in 2019.
St. Martin Parish, English language arts, 49% in 2018, 45% in 2019; Math, 43% in 2018, 42% in 2019.
St. Landry Parish: English language arts, 46% in 2018, 43% in 2019; Math, 44% in 2018, 47% in 2019.
Vermilion Parish: English language arts 53% in 2018, 53 percent in 2019; Math, 50% in 2018, 52% in 2019.
State: English language arts, 48% in 2018, 47% in 2019; Math, 43% in 2018, 44% in 2019.
Louisiana public schools and school systems are assigned A-F letter grades every year. The letter grades correspond to a scale of school performance scores, which are calculated using student performance metrics, including but not limited to students’ state assessment scores.
By 2025, as outlined in the state’s plan to comply with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the average A-rated school in Louisiana is one in which students are proficient in literacy and math skills, demonstrated by a score of Mastery or Advanced on state assessments. A score of Mastery or above, the two highest levels of five, is considered proficient. The other levels, in descending order, include Basic, Approaching Basic, and Unsatisfactory.
To ensure students and schools are improving at a rate that will allow them to reach this goal, Louisiana developed a measurement tool that helps educators better guide their students’ growth by determining a tailored growth target for each student to meet each year and by tracking how their performance changes over time. The tool was used for the first time last year.
Schools earn an ‘A’ in the progress measure for students that demonstrate Top Growth by:
showing improvement on ELA and math assessments that is on track to Mastery of key skills and content by 8th grade (elementary/middle school) or 10th grade (high school), and/or outperforming other similar students statewide, as measured by Louisiana’s value-added model.
Statewide results are expected to be reasonably stable year-to-year, while variations among schools, school systems, and student groups highlight areas of relative strengths and weaknesses.
The student progress measure will make up 25 percent of an elementary or middle school’s overall performance score and 12.5 percent of a high school’s overall performance score. In addition to an overall school performance score and letter grade, schools will earn a letter grade equivalent for student achievement and progress on their annual report card.