Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
16
Achievement gap remains
Central Louisiana school districts have improved student achievement scores from every race and income level since 2002.
The 2003 District Performance Scores Thursday revealed overall progress, but a large achievement gap still remains in most parishes. Black and low-income students are still scoring as many as 40 points below their white and higher-income peers in some area parishes.
District Performance Scores rate districts on standardized test scores, attendance and dropout rates. The scores are broken into subgroups to show how students from different races and income levels are performing. The scores released Thursday rank entire school district
s, not individual schools.
Vernon Parish, home to hundreds of military fami
lies from out-of-state, has one of the smallest achievement gaps in Louisiana. Black and lower-income students are only scoring an average 12 points below their white and more affluent peers. The overall district score of 104.9 ranks third in the state.
The goal is for schools and districts to reach a rating of 120 by 2014. This year's state average is 82.6.
While Rapides Parish's district-wide score of 88 is 5.4 points above the state average, it joins Concordia, Grant and Natchitoches as parishes with the most significant achievement gaps in Central Louisiana. Rapides Parish black students are scoring 38.3 points lower than their white classmates. However, only Central Louisiana's Concordia Parish has a black-white achievement gap larger than the state average of 42.1 points.
Students who qualify for free lunches in Rapides Parish score an ave
rage of 34 points behind their more affluent classmates.
Nancy O'Dell is a substitute teacher and grandmother of
five students in Tioga schools who qualify for free lunch. She said she's not convinced that low-incomes are the culprit of low achievement. Rather, "I see a lot of parents that are simply not interested in their children."
She said her grandchildren are privileged to have an involved grandparent, but low-income parents can seek help from a variety of after-school programs that offer a positive environment. Avoyelles Parish has one of the slimmest achievement gaps in Central Louisiana, with black and low-income students generally scoring within 20 points of their classmates.
Avoyelles has seen steady improvement overall in recent years.
"I'm very pleased we had a 3.9 overall increase from last year, which ranks us 11th in state in improvement," said Avoyelles Superintendent Ronald Mayeux. "I'm tremendously ple
ased we have improved, but we still have some work to do because I realize we still rank 48th in the state overall."
Mayeux credited grants from the Rapides Foundation
for promoting improvement. He hopes for even more improvement with help from the Foundation with a special Reading First program that emphasizes literacy training for teachers.
Most other Central Louisiana parishes have used Rapides Foundation grant money to enact a special strategy they hope will improve student achievement when they take standardized tests later this month.
Grant Parish initiated the strategy a year earlier, the year when the parish posted higher gains than any other parish in the state.
That strategy is called the 8-step process, modeled after a famously reformed school district in Brazosport, Texas.
Teachers are trained to analyze test scores, find student weaknesses and create lessons to target those. Teachers are also given valuable time to meet together and plan curriculum.
Rapides Parish is also using Rapides Foundation money to train teachers on "differentiated instruction." That means teachers learn different ways to present lessons to appeal to any type of learner
.
Cindy Gillespie, superintendent of Vernon Parish Schools said she was glad to see her district's scores rising, and merits the Rapides Foundation for much of the success.
She, like many other superintendents, are eager to see the effects on this year's test scores.
"We never would have gotten into some of this stuff if it weren't for the Rapides Foundation," she said. "It has made a world of difference to be able to train our teachers with these strategies."
****************
At this rate, niggers will have achieved parity with whites by the year 4700, maybe.
T.N.B.
Achievement gap remains
Central Louisiana school districts have improved student achievement scores from every race and income level since 2002.
The 2003 District Performance Scores Thursday revealed overall progress, but a large achievement gap still remains in most parishes. Black and low-income students are still scoring as many as 40 points below their white and higher-income peers in some area parishes.
District Performance Scores rate districts on standardized test scores, attendance and dropout rates. The scores are broken into subgroups to show how students from different races and income levels are performing. The scores released Thursday rank entire school district
s, not individual schools.
Vernon Parish, home to hundreds of military fami
lies from out-of-state, has one of the smallest achievement gaps in Louisiana. Black and lower-income students are only scoring an average 12 points below their white and more affluent peers. The overall district score of 104.9 ranks third in the state.
The goal is for schools and districts to reach a rating of 120 by 2014. This year's state average is 82.6.
While Rapides Parish's district-wide score of 88 is 5.4 points above the state average, it joins Concordia, Grant and Natchitoches as parishes with the most significant achievement gaps in Central Louisiana. Rapides Parish black students are scoring 38.3 points lower than their white classmates. However, only Central Louisiana's Concordia Parish has a black-white achievement gap larger than the state average of 42.1 points.
Students who qualify for free lunches in Rapides Parish score an ave
rage of 34 points behind their more affluent classmates.
Nancy O'Dell is a substitute teacher and grandmother of
five students in Tioga schools who qualify for free lunch. She said she's not convinced that low-incomes are the culprit of low achievement. Rather, "I see a lot of parents that are simply not interested in their children."
She said her grandchildren are privileged to have an involved grandparent, but low-income parents can seek help from a variety of after-school programs that offer a positive environment. Avoyelles Parish has one of the slimmest achievement gaps in Central Louisiana, with black and low-income students generally scoring within 20 points of their classmates.
Avoyelles has seen steady improvement overall in recent years.
"I'm very pleased we had a 3.9 overall increase from last year, which ranks us 11th in state in improvement," said Avoyelles Superintendent Ronald Mayeux. "I'm tremendously ple
ased we have improved, but we still have some work to do because I realize we still rank 48th in the state overall."
Mayeux credited grants from the Rapides Foundation
for promoting improvement. He hopes for even more improvement with help from the Foundation with a special Reading First program that emphasizes literacy training for teachers.
Most other Central Louisiana parishes have used Rapides Foundation grant money to enact a special strategy they hope will improve student achievement when they take standardized tests later this month.
Grant Parish initiated the strategy a year earlier, the year when the parish posted higher gains than any other parish in the state.
That strategy is called the 8-step process, modeled after a famously reformed school district in Brazosport, Texas.
Teachers are trained to analyze test scores, find student weaknesses and create lessons to target those. Teachers are also given valuable time to meet together and plan curriculum.
Rapides Parish is also using Rapides Foundation money to train teachers on "differentiated instruction." That means teachers learn different ways to present lessons to appeal to any type of learner
.
Cindy Gillespie, superintendent of Vernon Parish Schools said she was glad to see her district's scores rising, and merits the Rapides Foundation for much of the success.
She, like many other superintendents, are eager to see the effects on this year's test scores.
"We never would have gotten into some of this stuff if it weren't for the Rapides Foundation," she said. "It has made a world of difference to be able to train our teachers with these strategies."
****************
At this rate, niggers will have achieved parity with whites by the year 4700, maybe.
T.N.B.
