The Louisiana Department of Education last week released the school and district performance scores for 2018-19 and the news was mostly disappointing for the St. Martin Parish public school system.
The District Performance Score (DPS) for the parish slipped from 75.2 to 73.3, falling below the state average of 77.1. The parish did manage to maintain its ‘B’ letter grade, however.
The DPS is calculated based on the School Performance Scores (SPS) of each school within the district. School scores are calculated based on a wide range of criteria, including LEAP assessment, student academic growth, ACT scores and graduation rate, among other evaluations.
No parish school improved its letter grade and three – Breaux Bridge Jr. High, Breaux Bridge High and Cecilia Primary/Teche Elementary – all dropped one letter grade.
Four schools showed increases in their numerical scores, although not enough to raise the letter grades.
Stephensville Elementary went from 83.1 to 89.1, St. Martinville Sr. High from 78.9 to 81.7, Cecilia Jr. High from 63.9 to 64.3 and Catahoula Elementary from 69.4 to 69.7.
Parks Primary repeated as the parish’s only ‘A’ graded school although its numerical score slipped from 93.9 to 90.1.
Superintendent Allen Blanchard Jr. said his staff had received some preliminary data at the end of August and began putting plans in place to address some of the drops in different areas.
“Schools and staff are working hard to show growth for next year,” he added.
The district decline in progress points at both the elementary as well as secondary levels indicates the district must address the quality of instruction within the classrooms.
“We were aware of the issue last year and have already implemented professional development with embedded instructional coaches as well as assessment practices to help our struggling schools to help our students move forward and achieve academically,” says Blanchard.
The scores of schools without a “testing grade” (Grade 3 and above) are shared with the school a majority of their students attend after leaving. That includes Breaux Bridge Primary (BB Elementary), Cecilia Primary (Teche Elementary) and the Early Learning Center (St. Martinville Primary).
