LEAP hotline providing extra last-minute tutoring

Louisiana Education Assessment Program testers have three more weeks to take advantage of additional tutoring provided by the Louisiana Department of Education’s new tutoring hotline.

“I gave the department a mission shortly after the release of School Performance Scores in September,” said Paul G. Pastorek, state superintendent of education. “I asked staff members to come up with a plan to raise student achievement by the end of the year.”

The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) constructed a two-fold plan: form partnerships with local parishes to issue the practice LEAP exam and institute the tutoring hotline for the students.

“It is my hope that students across the state take advantage of the help available to them before they take these high-stakes exams,” Pastorek said in a release.

“Every little thing adds up to hopefully make the students successful on the LEAP test,” said St. Mary Parish Schools Testing Supervisor Kevin Derise.

In October, the state Education Department issued practice booklets to every school in Louisiana with the recommendation that students complete several lessons each night at home in the days leading up to the exam.

“The schools use the practice exam in many different ways,” said Lafourche Parish Schools Testing Supervisor Julie Bourgeois. “Some schools use the test as a gauge to see what remediation is needed prior to the LEAP, Integrated LEAP and the Graduation Exit Examination.”

“We hope that the practice LEAP booklet and the tutoring hotline will supplement the daily efforts of teachers in familiarizing students with the information they need in order to succeed on this exam,” said Linda Johnson, president of BESE.

Bourgeois said fourth grade teachers in Lafourche Parish have the option of sending their students’ practice essays to the state Education Department as another remediation prior to the exam.

However, Derise said the most important component has been having teachers create lessons based on the state’s comprehensive curriculum.

The new tutoring hotline supplements the extra tutoring students are receiving after school. Monday through Friday, from 3 to 7 p.m., students and their parents can call the hotline at 1-877-453-2721. Tutoring ends March 7, three days prior to the start of the state exam.

By going to the LEAP/GEE Help Center link on the Department of Education’s Web site (www. louisianaschools.net), students can receive additional online tutoring.

This site offers programs like PASS (Practice Assessment/Strength Skills), which provides students with practice questions and online tutorials for each exam, and Newton’s Classroom, created four years ago to provide extra help to students having difficulty with mathematics.

“We encourage our students to take advantage of the PASS site and Newton’s Classroom,” Derise said.

“I hope this helps relieve some of the stress that some students experience during this time of year,” Johnson said.

“We know that practice makes perfect, and we are investing in an effort to make sure that all of our students have extra help available to them this year,” she added.

The LEAP, iLEAP and GEE exams will be given the week of March 10 in all public schools in Louisiana.

Individual results will be released in May.

Those results, calculated with attendance and dropout rates, make up the School Performance Scores, which will be announced in the fall.