Preliminary school performance scores released by the state this week show slow-to-static improvement rates for poor-scoring schools in Lafayette Parish. Without drastic growth, three north Lafayette schools will reach academically unacceptable — read failing — status by next year.
Northside High, JW Faulk Elementary and Alice Boucher Elementary schools edged above the minimum 65 points needed in 2010-2011 to avoid the label of academically unacceptable. But with performance scores of 68.2, 67.1 and 67.3, respectively, the three north Lafayette, high-poverty schools will be moved into the failing category by 2012 when the state’s minimum school performance score is raised to 75.
According to the state Department of Education, an SPS of 65 equates to roughly 61 percent of students performing below grade level. For elementary schools, performance scores are determined 90 percent by test scores and 10 percent by attendance rates. For high schools, the SPS relies 70 percent on test scores and 30 percent on the graduation index.
Based on The Independent’s review of SPS data from 2008-2011, meeting the new minimum standards by next year will be challenging, if not unattainable, for Lafayette’s at-risk students. Since 2008, Northside’s total growth has been -1 point, and J.W. Faulk has only increased its SPS by 2.5 points in three years. Northside and J.W. Faulk need seven and eight point gains, respectively, by 2012 to meet the new minimums. Alice Boucher has shown the most improvement of the three with a 10.6-point increase in its SPS since 2008. But Alice Boucher’s gains were notably slower (1.8 points) from 2010 to 2011 than they had been in previous years. And the elementary school must raise its overall score by eight points in 2012 to avoid state sanctions.
Statewide, 155 schools were placed on the “Academic Watch” list for earning scores of 65-74.9.
“While schools on the Academic Watch list do not currently face sanctions, the list provides schools with notice that they will fall into [academically unacceptable school] status if they do not raise their SPS above 75,” the state education department says.
Not included in the preliminary data was the SPS of N.P. Moss Middle School, which had the title of lowest performing school in the parish before the school system closed its doors in May. DOE spokesman Barry Landry says NP Moss scores will be released in the fall along with all other schools that weren’t among the worst performing. Low-scoring schools are notified before the fall so they can offer school choices and supplemental programming during the upcoming school year. NP Moss scores may be as low or lower than the three watchlist schools, but DOE is grouping its scores with other schools because the school is now closed.
Carencro High, which offers a rigorous college-prep curriculum in its Academy of Information Technology, failed to make enough gains in reading for the school’s black and disabled populations, two subgroups identified by the federal No Child Left Behind Act, according to DOE. Because the high school didn’t reach its improvement goals in those subgroups for two consecutive years, it faces sanctions outlined by No Child Left Behind.
Lafayette Parish School System spokeswoman Angie Simoneaux says students at Carencro High now have the option of transferring to Comeaux High or Acadiana High.
Simoneaux says Superintendent of Schools Burnell Lemoine will wait until scores are in for all schools in the district before commenting on the “ups and downs” of overall school performance in Lafayette Parish. Be it now or later, it'll take a masterful PR strategy to put a postive spin on the state of north Lafayette schools.
Meanwhile, the Lafayette Parish School Board continues to search for a new superintendent to replace Lemoine when he retires Dec. 31, the halfway mark of a school year in which performance scores face the highest standards ever implemented statewide.
Community feedback sessions on the superintendent search begin Aug. 18 at David Thibodaux Career and Technical High School, where parish residents are encouraged to give their input on what they want to see in the new super. For more on the state of Lafayette Parish schools and the search for a new superintendent, read The Independent’s May cover editorial, “Help Wanted.”
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
Most Read
in case you missed it
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Parents!
You have kids who go home to a culture that idolizes gangbangers and thugs, they stay up all night watching crap on TV till 2am and then show up at school without enough sleep and usually without any breakfast. They do not value education. They do not value their children.
But the stupid idiots in charge refuse to address that problem and continue to blame teachers as if they are supposed to be some kind of miracle workers.
You people need to get your heads out of your asses and figure out that stupid people breed stupid kids regardless of race color or religion.