iron

Archived Story

Parish schools get report card

Published 12:07am Tuesday, October 23, 2012

VIDALIA — The Concordia Parish school system’s report card has come in, and it has two As, one B, one C, two Ds and three Fs.

The Louisiana Department of Education released school performance scores for 2012 Monday, and four of the nine Concordia Parish schools met their growth goals for the year.

School performance scores are calculated based on student test scores, school attendance and dropout and graduation rates. They are based on a 200-point scale, with anything below 75 points graded F and anything above 120 rated A.

The school district’s overall score was 97.7, or a grade of C. In 2011, the school district’s grade was 91.4

The schools that exceeded their growth targets included Ferriday High School, Monterey High School, Vidalia High School and Vidalia Upper Elementary.

Notable was Ferriday High School’s 15.2-point gain to a total score of 89.6, up from 74.4 in 2011.

Superintendent Paul Nelson said the school district was pleased with the results, especially at the high schools.

Nelson said end of course score requirements for graduation has helped serve as a motivation for students, but the school district is also better learning how to meet accountability goals.

“We have been really working on how to make our teachers know and understand the assessment guides for our courses, so teachers are now familiar with what is going to be on the test and the format it will be in,” Nelson said.

Likewise, school performance scores for high schools also factor in how many students are taking dual-enrollment courses and earning technical certificates, something Nelson said has increased in recent years.

The three schools given the F designation were Ferriday Junior High School, Ferriday Lower Elementary and Ferriday Upper Elementary. Ferriday Lower Elementary fell 14.5 points from 2011 to a score of 55.4.

Because the school performance score for lower elementary schools is 90 percent determined how the third graders at the upper elementary schools perform, FLE took a hard hit after a bad year at FUE, Nelson said.

“The Ferriday Upper scores were bad, and there is no other way to describe it other than that,” Nelson said. “So we have been working with the schools to have more integration between the second and third grades.”

Nelson also said some staffing changes were made at FUE.

The school performance scores for each school were as follows:

• Vidalia High School, graded A, scored 128.8

• Monterey High School, graded A, scored 123.6

• Vidalia Lower Elementary, graded B, scored 108.7

• Vidalia Upper Elementary, graded C, scored 106.3

• Vidalia Junior High, graded C, scored 97.9

• Ferriday High School, graded D, scored 89.6

• Ridgecrest Elementary School, graded D, scored 88.9

Ridgecrest Elementary became the Concordia Parish Academy of Math, Science and Technology, a magnet program, this fall.

• Ferriday Junior High, rated F, scored 75.6

Nelson said that even though FJHS was rated 75.6, the school performance score letter grade rating also factors in the previous year’s performance, and so even though the school earned a score that would have been graded‘D in 2012, the 2011 score kept the school from moving out of that category.

“Sometimes I think the letter grades don’t reflect the hard work that the staff has put in to get to a point, because we don’t all start at the same point,” Nelson said.

• Ferriday Upper Elementary School, graded F, scored 67.

• Ferriday Lower Elementary, rated F, scored 55.4.

Nelson said that while parents should pay attention to the school letter grades, he said he feels they can be misleading.

“You have to look at it yourself and ask, ‘Is that (rating) really true?’” Nelson said. “Vidalia Junior High is at 99, and they are considered a C.”

Likewise, the FHS scores improvement is not necessarily reflected in the school’s letter grade, Nelson said.

“Those letter grades are important, but they should not be the only thing that you use to judge the quality of your child’s school. We are going to continue to work hard, and we are going to continue to work harder and smarter. We want people to know that when they are sending their kids to our schools, we are working hard to make it a better place.”

 

 

Print Article
  • Anonymous

    I am so glad that my children do not attend a Concordia Parish school because I am embarrassed that this information is publicly advertised. The problem is not so much with the teachers, but with the curriculum that the parish has decided to set in place as well as the fact that parents have less involvement with their child’s education.

  • southernmom

    my children attend concordia parish schools and i am very involved with my childrens education and even I am embarrassed!!!!!!!

  • southernmom

    my children attend concordia parish schools and i am very involved with my childrens education and even I am embarrassed!!!!!!!

  • Jack

    Superintendent Paul Nelson is pleased with the result. He is kidding right. He is the same Superintendent who turned down the request to create a Charter school for the Parish. He turned down the request because he wouldn’t have full control. From the results posted here he shouldn’t have any control. It is confusing to me why we wouldn’t allow a Chapter school to open in the parish. Charter schools have been proven to be an excellent alternative school to the state run schools. The politicians in our school system are too concerned about their own personal gain and not what is best for our children. Nothing is ever going to change until we improve our school system.

  • Anonymous

    3 F’s in the whole parish. Ferriday lower, Ferriday upper, and Ferriday junior high schools. And the lower fell to 55, simply pitiful. So now what? Anyone going to be held responsible for these abysmal rankings or is it business as usual. I have been hearing “We are working on it” for the last 3 years. Hopefully, the state will be taking over these failing schools soon, because it’s apparent the school board in charge can accomplish nothing when it comes to the children’s education.”Vidalia Junior High is at 99, and they are considered a C.” That’s because above 120 is an A with 200 being the top.

  • Ruth

    I hope the need for the Charter School in Ferriday is reevaluated;
    it is obvious Ferriday needs an alternative.The other school scores are nothing to brag about either.

  • southernmom

    i agree!! im asking the same question “the superintendent actually turned down a chance for a change and then gets these results and he is PLEASED” i swear all of us parents need to start a petition and not stop until something is done!!!!

  • Anonymous

    Southernmom, I don’t believe he turned down a chance for change. It is about the almighty $$$ that follows the student and gets taken from the school board budget! Then he wants to proclaim some kind of racial balance across the parish is why he’s against the charter school. Let him go to Ferriday Lower then Vidalia Lower and tell me about his so called 50-50 racial make-up plan. He complains about a charter school being able to weed out ones that are not high performers. Ask around about whats going on at Ridgecrest school now. I think private entities should start looking into schooling and voucher programs down there.

  • Anonymous

    All the charter school would do is enable the higher level kids to attend a school that will challenge them while filling the public schools with lower level students. This would surely drop our scores even more given that the charter school and possibly VHS and VJHS would score high while the rest bottomed out. Even so, the children of Concordia Parish are not receiving the education they deserve because they have nothing to challenge them. The teachers are in a deadlock attempting to drill the curriculum into the student in order to pass such tests as the LEAP, DIBBLES, ECT. I think that we need to stop evaluating the level of our kids intelligence and teach them the fundamentals that they need in life, not for a test.

Editor's Picks