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39 BR-Area Schools Fail to Meet Standards 30 Must Offer Students Chance to Transfer

Posted on: Thursday, 4 August 2005, 18:00 CDT

Thirty-nine greater Baton Rouge area public schools failed to meet new minimum standards - 33 more than met lower standards last year - the state Department of Education reported Wednesday.

The schools represent about 10 percent of the schools in the area. Statewide, 175 of 1,525 schools failed to meet these standards.

Thirty of the area schools - including 16 in East Baton Rouge Parish - must offer at least some of their students a chance to transfer to better schools in their districts. The remaining nine schools improved significantly last year and are expected to earn a one-year reprieve from sanctions.

In the Lafayette area, N.P. Moss Middle School in Lafayette will have to offer choice, but Hopkins Street Elementary in New Iberia won't; it earned a reprieve.

School choice is a prominent feature of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The law imposes choice on schools that fail to meet standards set by states.

In practice, choice will be limited. Students in rural parishes, for instance, have few alternatives.

Even in East Baton Rouge Parish, the largest school district in the area with 46,000 students, the choices are likely to be slim. Recent school closures have created space problems for many schools. Meanwhile, a 2003 desegregation case settlement further limits student transfers.

What determines whether a school offers choice in Louisiana is its school performance score. This numerical grade is based mostly on standardized test scores, and to a lesser extent on student attendance and dropout rates.

Scores can range from zero to a theoretical ceiling of about 250, depending on the type of school. The state average is 82.6, but the goal is that every school will score 120 by the year 2014. The state will release scores for every school this fall.

Louisiana originally set its minimum score at 30. Any school below that mark was considered "academically unacceptable." In 2003, it raised the bar to 45, and this year again raised it to 60.

Schools that fail to meet state minimums have to start by offering school choice. If they fall short two years in a row, they have to pay for private tutors. Repeated failure can result in state takeover.

East Baton Rouge Parish increased from four to 22 its "academically unacceptable" schools, or a quarter of all schools in the system. Only Orleans Parish, with 73 "academically unacceptable" schools, has more.

Officials with East Baton Rouge Parish say the state's report has some positive news for the district:

Three schools that were below 60 have improved enough to get off the list. They are Glen Oaks High School, and Lasalle Elementary and Belle Aire Elementary schools.

Six more schools scored better than 60 for 2005; however, previous inferior results are keeping them in school improvement, but they have a one-year reprieve from having to offer school choice.

Fourteen of the 22 schools on the list showed at least some academic growth in the past year.

"The district is very proud of the schools that made the gains, but we will have to continue to work harder to grow and improve," Superintendent Charlotte Placide said.

While elementary and high schools grew, all six middle schools declined.

Prescott Middle School, already the lowest scoring school in the system, declined eight points in the past two years, erasing years of previous gains. The school has been drastically reorganized. If it fails to improve this year, it could be taken over by the state.

School choice may not prove much of a choice for many:

Clinton High and Jackson Middle schools in East Feliciana Parish, and St. Helena Parish high and middle schools are the only public high and middle schools in their respective parishes.

Students at Pointe Coupee High School and Rosenwald Elementary can choose Livonia High School and Upper Pointe Coupee Elementary. But district rules let them transfer already.

Donaldsonville High School families have three other Ascension Parish high schools to transfer to, but all three are on the opposite side of the Mississippi River. The situation is complicated because the high school starts in seventh grade, rather than ninth grade. School Superintendent Robert Clouatre said students have four eastside schools to choose from, two middle and two high schools, and he expects that those who transfer will have at least a 90- minute bus ride. He said he notified parents Wednesday and hopes to sign up all transfers by Aug. 12, the first day of school.

Four schools on the list are either charter or alternative schools. Families already have chosen to send their children there and can easily send them somewhere else.

That leaves just 17 area schools, 15 in East Baton Rouge, and one each in Tangipahoa and St. James parishes, where students may have choices.

Baton Rouge parents, however, will have to wait some time before they can exercise their choices.

East Baton Rouge Parish is not going to evaluate applications until Sept. 13 and will be approving transfers until as late as Sept. 28. It will announce which schools will receive transfers next week.

"There's a lot of work that goes into this," Placide explained. "We have to get space worked out. We have to get staff in the right place. We also have to get materials and textbooks."

In the past two years, fewer than 10 percent of eligible East Baton Rouge Parish students transferred, mirroring national trends.

Chief Academic Officer Robert Stockwell said a lot depends on how much space opens up during the first month of school and how many students still want transfers.

Elementary schools are more likely to have room than middle schools, but school system officials do not want to overload the elementary classrooms with transfers, he said.

Source: Advocate; Baton Rouge, La.

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