3 schools fail to reach benchmark

LAFAYETTE — Three Lafayette Parish schools received “academically unacceptable” labels from the state, affording parents an option to move their students to higher-performing schools, district officials announced Friday in a news release.

Based on preliminary school performance scores for the 2011-12 school year, Alice Boucher Elementary, J.W. Faulk Elementary and Northside High School failed to meet the new state accountability requirement of a score of 75, according to the news release.

The minimum benchmark for school performance scores was 65 last year, which the three schools would have met if accountability measures had not changed.

The Louisiana Department of Education has not yet released statewide school performance scores.

Northside High’s preliminary score of 74.4 fell slightly below the new minimum accountability score requirement, but was nearly a 7 point increase over last year’s score of 67.7.

Boucher’s score rose more than two points from 67.1 to 69.5 while Faulk’s score dropped by two points from 67.1 to 65.1.

Superintendent Pat Cooper encouraged parents of students assigned to Boucher, Faulk and Northside to consider the changes that are planned at the schools that are part of the district’s overall turnaround plan.

The changes include providing additional student support through health and wellness teams that will case manage students needs, as well as new principals taking the leadership roles at Boucher and Faulk, he said in the release.

“If parents want their child to benefit from the sweeping changes at Boucher, Faulk or Northside or if they want their child to continue receiving the specialized programs offered by the World Languages Academy at Boucher or the Law Academy at Northside High they do not have to apply for a transfer,” Cooper said.

The school system is in the process of notifying parents about transfer options available to them. Students zoned for Boucher may be able to transfer to either Live Oak or S.J. Montgomery Elementary.

J.W. Faulk students may choose to transfer to either Carencro Heights or Evangeline Elementary schools and Northside High students may transfer to either Carencro or Comeaux High.

Comments

1) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 29/07/2012

Interesting.... it seems that none of the responders to my comments EVER seek to discuss the actual facts, but instead jump to conclusions that are nowhere implicit or explicit in my critique of the so-called "accountability system" used in this state. I make no reference to any of the "solutions" you propose kind sir, and wonder if your response is a knee-jerk ideological response to factual information that flies in the face of your ideological solutions. A non-sequitur is not a valid response, sir.

2) Comment by bourbon-soda - 29/07/2012

So all we need is a guaranteed income of, say, $50,000 a year? Oh, wait, some people say benefits to a family of government dependents already exceeds that, and is largely non-taxable. How about $100,000 a year? That should do it.

3) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 28/07/2012

I wonder if ANYONE writing an article such as this one might have taken a few minutes to learn a little about the schools in question, but perhaps that is asking too much of the "journalists" (and I use the term loosely) writing for The Advocate. For those who care to know just a tad more than the press release version of the truth, it might help if I mention just a few facts about the three schools in question. Northside High School just happens to have about twice the percentage of students qualifying for free meals as the other four high schools in Lafayette Parish. With over 74% Free Lunch students, its challenges are quite a bit greater than those of the other high schools. To be clear, Northside High School has a far greater percentage of students in poverty than any other high school. As for the two elementary schools in the article... the average almost 95% free lunch qualifying students, far more than any other schools in the parish. Are we surprised that these schools did not make the cutoff? Why? Perhaps because we have been fed a constant diet of lies and deceit from the "reformers" in our state, who refuse to EVER admit the truth, that poverty is directly and highly related to student outcomes, in an almost perfect correlation that is far stronger than any "in-school" factors. in fact, every major research study looking at the effects on student achievement has found that "out-of-school" factors such as poverty, books in the home, and parental education levels are much stronger predictors of student achievement than ANY combination of in-school factors. Would that we find journalists willing to print this truth!