Report: Baker students below benchmark

e_SDLqWe are trying to assess whether the interventions we are doing are working.” ulysses joseph,   Baker school superintendent

BAKER — Based on 2010-11 Louisiana Educational Assessment Program scores, 35 percent of students in Baker public schools are “at risk requiring intensive support,” a new report says.

The information was included in a Response to Intervention handbook the Baker School Board unanimously adopted Thursday.

Superintendent Ulysses Joseph said the manual was prepared by district staff with the help of a consultant.

Response to Intervention, also called RTI, is a process that uses screening and assessment to identify and assist students who need more individualized instruction to succeed academically, according to the handbook.

Students are placed into a three-tiered system with the first tier needing the least individual intervention and Tier III representing students who require intense tutoring outside of the classroom.

The handbook states that, ideally, 5 percent of students should classify as Tier III, “at risk requiring intensive support.”

However, 35 percent of Baker students are in Tier III.

Eighty percent of students should be Tier I, “achieving benchmark,” but only 39 percent of Baker students qualify as Tier I.

Twenty-five percent of Baker students fall into Tier II, “students at risk needing strategic support,” as opposed to the handbook’s stated ideal of 15 percent.

Joseph estimated that the school district has been using RTI methods for about a year.

“We are trying to assess whether the interventions we are doing are working. All I can say about the numbers is that we are trying to raise them,” Joseph said.

Other matters taken up by the board included:

MAGNET CLASS: The board voted unanimously to add a sixth-grade magnet class at Baker Middle School starting in the 2012-13 school year.

“We want to give the children leaving Park Ridge Elementary Magnet another outlet. We plan to add a seventh grade next year and an eighth grade the next year,” Joseph said. “We are hoping to get students who live in Baker but are going to other schools to come back to the Baker school system.”

The sixth-grade magnet students will attend Baker Middle, but be placed in special classes for English, social studies, mathematics and science, Joseph said.

He added that the magnet students would join the rest of the middle school population for lunch, music and physical education.