Acadia holding strong with ‘B’

The grades are in and Acadia Parish has improved its District Performance Score and held its “B” letter grade.

Up from 87.3 in 2013, Acadia drew an 89.7 DPS in 2014, both of which show the school district as a “B” district. The district is now just ahead of the state average of 89.2.

“The data signals a strong showing for Acadia’s schools.   We still have a long way to go, but these increases show that we are improving,” said Superintendent of Acadia Parish Schools John Bourque.

“It is always a pleasure to celebrate the success of our schools.  We want to thank the educators, staff, and students for their dedication and work to increase achievement.”

The Louisiana Department of Education released school report cards summarizing and evaluating academic achievement for the 2013-2014 school year Tuesday, part of the state’s long-term transition to higher expectations.

The 2014 report cards are part of the state’s multi-year transition to higher academic expectations.

During the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years, educators, parents and students are learning the new expectations, as the state’s tests and accountability system adjust. Louisiana committed to a gradual change process, ensuring that schools would not be humiliated, educators not denigrated and students not punished in the process.

Because of this transition to higher expectations, even though test scores remained steady, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education added an additional layer of stability to the report card letter grade system during the 2014 and 2015 transition process, requiring that the overall distribution of letter grades awarded to schools would not indicate lower performance than in 2013.

While schools may improve on their own, BESE guaranteed that there would not be fewer “A”-rated schools or fewer “B”-rated schools in 2014, for example, than in 2013.

Of the 1,335 schools statewide, 21 (1.6 percent) had letter grades increased as a result of this policy. Because of the new and special nature of this policy, State Superintendent John White has asked for an external review of its implementation by the Legislative Auditor’s Office, which will start immediately and will be presented at the December BESE meeting.

The Acadia Parish School District now boasts six “A” schools — Branch, Egan, Estherwood, Mermentau, Mire and Richard elementary schools.

This number is double its 2013 counterpart.

The district had no “F” schools, but did see five “D” schools in this year’s stats. They are Armstrong (Rayne), Church Point and Crowley middle schools and Ross (Crowley) and South Rayne elementary schools.

Mixed in were also marketed improvements for several schools in the parish as well as dramatic drops.

Of the 18 schools that saw improvement from their 2013 scores, Central Rayne Kindergarten (10.6 increase) Estherwood Elementary (12.3), Iota Elementary (12), Rayne’s Martin Petitjean Elementary (10.6) and South Crowley Elementary (24.3) were the most notable.

Eight schools saw drops in scores, including Church Point Middle (8.9 decrease).

The letter grades this year featured more A’s, 10 in total this year, and zero F’s in the state for its school districts. The scale for this year’s grades was as follows:

A: 100.0-150.0

B: 84.3-99.9

C: 70.0-84.2

D: 46.8-69.9

F: 0.0-46.7