Most area students pass summer LEAP

Nearly 360 Tri-parish fourth and eighth graders passed the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) test this summer to advance to the next grade, according to the state Department of Education.

The students who failed to pass the spring LEAP test in April had to retake the test at the end of June, after attending summer school.

After the summer LEAP retest, the promotional rates in the Tri-parishes were just below the state average in most cases.

Eighty-four percent of St. Mary’s fourth graders passed the LEAP compared to 83 percent statewide. In Lafourche and Terrebonne, the passage rates were 81 and 80 percent respectively.

Among eighth graders, 78 percent passed the LEAP test in all three parishes. The state average was 79 percent.

“The fact that we got about the state average over that hurdle, I’m very pleased with,” said Philip Martin, Terrebonne schools superintendent. “I’m not satisfied though.”

The high stakes assessments test students in four subjects: English, math, science and social studies.

Students receive a score on one of five achievement levels: advanced, mastery, basic, approaching basic or unsatisfactory.

For LEAP takers, the important subjects are English and math. Students must score at least basic in one subject and approaching basic in the other.

In some subject assessments, the passing rate of local students exceeded the state averages.

Terrebonne’s eighth graders surpassed the state averages in English and math with 85 and 64 percent respectively.

“Our eighth graders did significantly better than the state average, by 15 points on some tests,” Martin said. “Fourth grade was not as good. We’re still trying to figure out why.”

Lafourche’s fourth graders topped the state average in English with 70 percent and St. Mary’s fourth graders bested the state average in math at 59 percent.

While St. Mary Parish Schools Superintendent Dr. David Aguillard was pleased with his students’ results, the numbers released by the state were not the most important to him.

“We had 130 fewer kids who had to take English language arts in summer school than last year,” he explained. “We had 112 fewer kids that needed math in summer school. That’s the better measure of our success.”

Martin has an even more ambitious goal for LEAP achievement.

“We still have a long ways to go, but I want to get to the point where we don’t need summer school,” he said. “That’s our goal.”