VIDALIA — The teachers of Concordia Parish Academy — covered in glow sticks — delivered one message loud and clear to their students Thursday afternoon.

“We stand behind you” was the overall theme of a pep rally teachers and staff hosted for the students at the parish’s magnet program, which is home to students in grades kindergarten to sixth grade, days ahead of annual state-wide tests.

The pep rally, school director Nancy Anders said, was intended to allow the students to blow off some steam before the upcoming state tests.

“Everyone is standing behind you because we want you all to rock that test,” Anders shouted into a microphone during the pep rally. “We want you to get plenty of sleep, eat a good breakfast and do your best on that test.”

Monday through Thursday, students will take the Louisiana Educational Assessment Programs, or LEAP, and the Integrated Louisiana Educational Assessment Programs, or iLEAP.

Students in grades 3, 5, 6 and 7 take the iLEAP test and students in grades 4 and 8 take the LEAP test.

In Louisiana, fourth- and eighth-grade students must pass the LEAP in order to move on to the next grade. Those students took the first part of the LEAP in March and will take the remainder of the test next week.

The iLEAP measures a student’s progress throughout the year but does not affect a child’s grade promotion.

The theme for Thursday’s pep rally came about through a series of videos the magnet school teachers participated in where students were asked questions on camera about a variety of topics, while the teachers danced or goofed off behind them unknowingly.

The students watched the video for the first time over a projector in the school’s cafeteria during the pep rally in side-splitting laughter and joy.

The video, Anders said, was meant to show the students if they concentrated on the task at hand, they could avoid distractions all around them.

“When you were doing those interviews, you weren’t thinking about what was behind you or beside you, right?” Anders asked the students. “We don’t want you to think about what’s behind you or in the hallways, just what’s on that test.”

Fifth grader Tripp Cotton was one student in the video being interviewed and said he had no idea of the shenanigans taking place behind him.

“I was so surprised,” Cotton said. “It showed me that if I just focus on what’s in front of me, I won’t be distracted.”