Concordia Parish school scores released

By Vershal Hogan (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Saturday, October 24, 2009

VIDALIA — Concordia Parish’s school accountability scores are in, and while six schools are slightly down, Vidalia Lower Elementary grew nearly six points.

In 2008, Vidalia Lower Elementary’s school performance score was 87.1, but the 2009 score is 93.

Ninety percent determined by the performance of third graders at the local upper elementary schools, Concordia Parish Academic Director Paul Nelson said.

“(The lower elementary) job is to prepare those students and create the foundation for them,” Nelson said. “The only thing the lower elementary actually contributes to that score is their attendance rate.”

The group of third graders tested for the Vidalia Lower Elementary’s score — who are now fourth graders — should actually provide a similar boost to Vidalia Upper Elementary’s score next year, Nelson said.

Other schools that showed marked growth included Monterey School, which continued its upward arc from 107.2 in 2008 to 111.9 in 2009, and Vidalia Junior High School, which took its score from 95.8 to 99.1.

Vidalia Upper Elementary’s score also grew from 92.3 to 94.

Both Ferriday High School and Vidalia High School showed slight drops, Vidalia from 95.8 to 95.5 and Ferriday from 71.5 to 70.3.

While the dips in scores aren’t good, it is easy for the numbers to get skewed, Nelson said.

That because 30 percent of a high school’s score is based on the graduating class, called a “cohort.” The cohort group is formed when the members of the graduating class are freshmen, and the cohort score is determined by dropout rates, how many students took advanced classes, how many graduated with honors and other similar criteria.

“If you have a good group and they all start together, they work hard and nobody drops out, you can have a real good group that would give you a good boost in that area,” Nelson said.

“But it’s a math formula, so if you have a large class and one or two students drop out, proportionally that’s not as bad as if you had a class of 80 and one or two drop out.”

The score at Ridgecrest School fell from 79.3 to 78.1, while at Ferriday Junior High the score went from 65 to 63.7 and at Ferriday Upper the score dropped from 67.6 to 66.8.

Ferriday Lower Elementary’s score fell from 67.6 to 64.8.

The scores weren’t unexpected, and Nelson said the school district has already started addressing some of the issues.

While some of the schools with lower scores will have to review their school improvement plans, the district has hired some consultants and a social worker who works between Ferriday Upper Elementary and Ferriday Junior High School to help improve student performance, Nelson said.

Accountability testing and other factors, such as attendance rates, determine school performance scores.

The state average score is 91.