LEAP, iLEAP scores show improvement

The end of the school year for students means celebrating a year of hard work.

For students, and the teachers that worked hard with them this year, the release of the parish’s LEAP and iLEAP results are definite cause for celebration in Acadia Parish.

“Overall, I think we did really well,” said Superintendent of the Acadia Parish School District John Bourque. “If you look at the scores of basic and above, we did exceptionally well.”

Highlighted as one of the few parish’s with great improvement in its fourth- and eighth-grade LEAP scores in mastery and above scores, Acadia’s scores, for the most part, grew from last year.

“We were one of a few parishes in the state mentioned for our fourth- and eighth-grade progress,” Bourque said.

Acadia had 22 percent of its students hit mastery or advanced in its testing, landing it in the 57th percentile. That is up from 20 percent and the 49th percentile in 2013.

Bourque explained that the fourth- and eighth-grade tests were more difficult this year, so the improvement is something the school district should be very proud of.

“The teachers and students responded well to get scores like this,” he said.

On the LEAP front, Acadia had 740 fourth grade students tested for English/language arts (ELA) and math tests this spring and 85 percent met the standard to be promoted to the fifth grade. The district had 731 eighth graders take the LEAP test in ELA and math and 76 percent earned promotional status.

Compared to neighboring school districts, Acadia did very well and was among the top across the board.

In neighboring parishes, the promotional breakdown was as follows:

• Jeff Davis Parish: 83 percent of fourth graders, 70 percent of eighth graders.

• St. Landry Parish: 78 percent of fourth graders, 69 percent of eighth graders.

• Vermilion Parish: 85 percent of fourth graders, 80 percent of eighth graders.

• Lafayette Parish: 80 percent of fourth graders, 75 percent of eighth graders.

In the school-by-school breakdown, fourth graders at Branch Elementary, Egan Elementary, Estherwood Elementary, Iota Elementary, Mire Elementary, Morse Elementary and Richard Elementary all had higher than the state average of 34 percent score mastery or above in ELA testing.

On the math front, the state average was 40 percent of mastery or above. Branch Elementary, Egan Elementary, Estherwood Elementary, Evangeline Elementary, Iota Elementary, Mermentau Elementary, Mire Elementary, Morse Elementary, Richard Elementary and Ross Elementary saw 40 percent or more of its students score mastery or advanced on the math portion test.

Richard outperformed all schools with 12 percent scoring advanced and 42 percent scoring mastery for a total of 54 percent in ELA and 81 percent (48 percent, advanced, and 33 percent, mastery) in math.

Eighth-grade averages were much lower in the state with 22 percent scoring mastery or above in ELA and only 12 percent scoring so in math.

In Acadia Parish, Branch Elementary, Egan Elementary, Evangeline Elementary, Midland High, Mire Elementary and Richard Elementary’s eighth graders outperformed the state average in both tests. Iota Middle’s eighth grade ELA scores were above the state average.

Egan Elementary saw 54 percent of its eighth graders score mastery (35 percent) or advanced (19 percent) in ELA, and Midland High and Richard Elementary showed 32 percent of its eighth graders with high marks in math (Midland: 12 percent advanced, 20 percent  mastery; Richard: 20 percent advanced, 12 percent mastery).

Bourque did point out that there is, of course, still room for improvement, as the fifth-grade iLEAP scores faltered some this school year.

The iLEAP test is very similar to LEAP, but is not a promotion-based test, meaning students do not have to make a certain score base to move onto the next grade. However, the tests do still count toward school performance and continue to be used by schools and the state to judge where the school is compared to other schools and states.