Acadia holds steady with B

After much wait and debate, scores and grades for the state’s school districts and schools were released Thursday and, in Acadia, the news was that of steadiness.
Dropping some 2.7 points overall, the school district maintained its high B average and boasted seven A schools this year and a decrease in the number of D schools.
“We’re down to three D schools and the tests got quite a bit harder,” said Acadia Parish Superintendent John Bourque. “We’re definitely encouraged by the scores.”
There was a bit of fluctuation both ways, some dropping a few points
Seven schools earned a score of A, including Egan Elementary, Iota High, Iota Middle, Mermentau Elementary, Mire Elementary, Morse Elementary and Richard Elementary.
That is up from six last year. Several of the A schools from last year swapped for Bs this year.
In Louisiana today, A schools are defined as schools with an average quality of “basic,” meaning an average amount of students are scoring basic on testing and displaying basic knowledge.
By 2025, Louisiana wants an A level school to average “mastery.”
“Slowly, we’re raising the bar,” said state Superintendent John White in a media conference call Thursday afternoon.
The push for school accountability began in earnest in 1999 by providing points to schools that had students scoring “approaching basic” or higher on testing. In 2013, the state moved that mark to “basic.”
As expected, scores and schools showed relatively the same level of achievement as last year across the state. It was no different in Acadia either.
Acadia had six B schools in total — Branch Elementary, Estherwood Elementary, Evangeline Elementary, Iota Elementary, Midland High and South Crowley Elementary.
Ten Acadia schools earned Cs – Central Rayne Kindergarten, Church Point High, Church Point Middle, Crowley High, Crowley Kindergarten, North Crowley Elementary, Martin Petitjean Elementary, Rayne High, Ross Elementary and South Rayne Elementary.
Only three of Acadia Parish’s schools earned Ds this year, down from five last year. They are Armstrong Middle, Church Point Elementary and Crowley Middle.
In district comparisons, Acadia held its own again, dropping some in its score quite like the state average as well as counterparts in Lafayette Parish.
Jefferson Davis and St. Landry also saw decreases in scores, though a bit larger; and so too did Evangeline, which dropped 12.3 points and a letter grade.
Vermilion Parish, meanwhile, bucked the trend and increased by nearly a point-and-a-half.
Part of that little change is the fact that Louisiana is in the midst of a two-year baseline period. In roughly nine or so months, it will fall to the state to designate a calendar of benchmarks as to how the state will officially begin raising the bar. Tentatively, marks will be set for annual improvement to reach the 2025/mastery mark.
However, while the state is in its baseline transition period, scores are curved to maintain the same amount of A schools as last year.
“What we’ve done is provided a stable transition period for schools and school districts,” said White.
This year, 111 elementary, middle and combination schools were curved for consistency, or roughly 9.6 percent of all schools in those groupings.
High school scores, for the most part, were curved very little as the state continued to see upward trends in graduation rates and ACT scores, which, in turn, helped high schools see improvement in their scores.
Meanwhile, schools with students in grades three through eight saw some decreases.
That trend is possibly best shown in Acadia Parish as four of the parish’s five high schools saw jumps in scores. Midland, meanwhile, which houses all eighth graders, transitional and true, saw a tenth of a point drop.
“Branch was two-tenths away from an A,” said Bourque. “Then there’s Midland that stayed about the same without earning any progress points.”
Still, Acadia is seeing improvement in schools like Ross Elementary and South Rayne Elementary, each of which jumped from a D to a C this year.
When most schools and districts saw drops, albeit mostly small ones, and Acadia can see a jump, it’s a good sign, according to Bourque.
“You can see the progress that is being made at those schools [and others],” he said.
School and district report cards can be obtained by visiting http://www.louisianabelieves.com/data/reportcards/2015/.