More Livingston Parish Students Testing Proficient

Parish Ranks No.6 in State for Passing Rates in 4^th and 8^th Grade

            LIVINGSTON, La. – Livingston Parish Public School students continue to improve their performance on the state’s high stakes tests, according to a recent accountability report released by the Louisiana Department of Education.

            The state’s reports indicate that more parish students are scoring at the proficient levels of Advanced, Mastery and Basic on the iLEAP, LEAP and GEE tests. 

The 2010 preliminary data released by the state on Wednesday shows that 86 percent of all fourth graders in the parish scored proficient in math and English/language arts, while 83 percent of all eighth graders in the parish scored proficient in math and English/language arts.  Public school students must score proficient on the fourth and eighth grade LEAP to be eligible for promotion to the next grade.

In comparison to other public school districts in the state, Livingston Parish has the 6^th highest percentage of proficient students for fourth and eighth grade.

            Livingston Parish has consistently ranked among the state’s top-tier school districts for academic performance since the state first began its accountability system nearly 10 years ago. Last year, Livingston Parish ranked No. 10 overall, and its ranking improved to the top five in some categories.  Among the state’s largest school districts – those exceeding enrollments of 15,000 – Livingston Parish ranked second in the state.  (Livingston Parish Public Schools has an enrollment of more than 24,000 students.)  The state will not release its newest overall rankings until this fall.

            Joe Murphy, the district’s test coordinator and accountability contact, said the individual schools in the parish largely maintained their existing scores at every grade level, with some fluctuating up a percentage point, and others going down a percentage point. 

            “While much of the data across the parish remains consistent with the success we achieved last year, we are continuing to see more progress at the individual level – fewer of our students are scoring unsatisfactory and more are scoring at the proficient levels,” he said.

            Murphy said the greatest concentration of improvement came at the eighth grade level in English/language arts.  He noted that only 4 percent of the parish’s eighth graders scored unsatisfactory in English/language arts this year compared to 5 percent last year, and in math, 7 percent scored unsatisfactory this year compared to 10 percent last year.  More eighth graders also scored higher in English/language arts with 6 percent scoring Advanced compared to only 1 percent last year and 22 percent scoring Mastery as compared to 21 percent last year.  The biggest gains in math for the parish’s eighth grade were at the Basic level, up from 56 percent last year to 60 percent this year, as the top levels – Advanced and Mastery – decreased slightly.

Murphy noted the parish’s fourth grade percentages remained high, with more students scoring Advanced in math and English/language arts than last year – up from 5 percent to 8 percent in Advanced for English/language arts, and up from 5 percent to 7 percent in Advanced in math.  More fourth graders also scored Mastery in math compared to last year, up from 21 percent to 26 percent.