LEAP tests era to end
A test for fourth- and eighth-graders that became one of the symbols of Louisiana’s latest bid to improve public schools will be phased out, state officials said.
The exam, which is called LEAP, and others will be scrubbed in three years because new tests will be launched in connection with a national drive to make public school courses more rigorous.
Under current rules, fourth- and eighth-graders have to pass LEAP, and meet other standards, to move to the fifth and ninth grades.
Whether a similar rule will be in effect for passage when the new exams begin for the 2014-15 school year is up to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, which sets policies for public school students statewide.
“They will have to make that decision,” Scott Norton, assistant superintendent for standards, assessments and accountability for the state Department of Education, said of BESE members.
“All that has to be revisited,” he said.
LEAP stands for Louisiana Educational Assessment Program.
The changes will also spell the end of iLEAP, an annual skills test for third-, fifth-, sixth-, seventh- and ninth-graders, as well as end-of-course exams that high school students have to pass to earn a standard high school diploma.
Those students also will take new tests starting with the 2014-15 school year linked to the state’s revamped curriculum.
The issue surfaced on Thursday during a meeting of the House and Senate education committees.
All the test changes stem from the state’s adoption last year of a new curriculum called “common core standards.”
That switch is designed to focus teaching on core topics in math, English and other subjects and making sure that students master those skills before moving to the next grade.
Critics contend that one reason student achievement in the U.S. lags behind many other nations is because schools try to cover too much material.
“We really feel like the common core will provide lots of clarity on what kids need to know to be successful in the workplace or college,” Erin Bendily, assistant deputy superintendent for the Office of Departmental Support, told lawmakers.
Fourth- and eighth-graders have been required to pass LEAP since 2000. About 100,000 students in both grades take the test annually.
However, the exams have been the source of controversy for years.
Backers said the rule ended decades of social promotions and forced students to gain at least a basic knowledge of math and English skills before they were promoted.
Critics complained that it was unfair to link promotion in part to how students fare on one test. Efforts to repeal LEAP requirements failed in the state Legislature.
Norton said the rule that fourth- and eighth-graders have to pass LEAP is a BESE policy that stems from a state law.
Lawmakers could enact a measure of their own that would spell out whether fourth- and eighth-graders have to earn a certain score on the new tests for promotion starting in 2014-15.
Norton said fourth- and eighth-graders will take LEAP in the spring of 2012 before the test gets springtime tweaks in 2013 and 2014 to account for changes in the curriculum.
The new exams for the 2014-15 school year — presumably to be given in the spring of 2015 — “will be based on a more focused curriculum,” Norton said.
“We have to work to make sure everyone understands the plan,” he told legislators.
Bendily said Louisiana is one of 45 states, two territories and the District of Columbia to adopt the new standards.
Norton said Louisiana is one of 24 states participating in a consortium that shares in a $350 million federal grant paying for the task of hammering out new assessments to see if students are learning the new standards.