VIDALIA, La. — On Friday, Debra Probst was notified that her daughter, Kimberly, passed the English portion of the LEAP test but failed the math portion — by one point.

&uot;Now she’ll be going to summer school, which will turn our lives upside for the summer,&uot;&160;said Probst, who led parish parents in joining a suit to keep the state from holding students back in school because of their LEAP scores.

Kimberly will go to summer school four hours a day for a month, and she’s not alone. Of the 612 students who took LEAP in March, 223 students failed the math, language, or both sections of the test, compared to about 480 last year.

And those students are expected — though not required — to attend up to four hours of summer school from May 29 through June 30 to prepare for retests in early July. If they don’t pass the retests, they will have to attend transitional classes instead of simply moving to the next grade for the upcoming school year.

Although some parents have already been notified by principals of whether their children passed or failed, notification letters will be sent home today with all students who failed at least one section of the test. Principals will follow up the letters with calls to parents, said Superintendent Lester &uot;Pete&uot; Peterman.

Parents who wish for their children to attend summer school must notify principals of that fact by Tuesday, and by Thursday principals should set up meetings in Ferriday and Vidalia to inform those parents of the summer school schedule and rules.

LEAP retests will be held July 6 for math and July 10 and 11 for language, and the district will not get retest scores back until just before school starts in August. That gives the district very little time to figure out which students will need to be put in &uot;transitional settings&uot;&160;for the year.

Most students who did not fail their school courses but failed LEAP — although not students, like Kimberly, who have two or more learning disabilities — will be placed in transitional classes if they don’t pass the retests. That means that, while they will take fifth- or ninth-grade classes as usual, they will also take intensive courses in the LEAP subject areas they failed.

For example, a student who failed the math portion of LEAP may be taken out of another class for a period to be taught an intensive math program, Peterman said.

Students who failed their school courses this year will, of course, be held back another year altogether.

Peterman attributes the decrease in the number of students failing LEAP to more intensive remediation programs, staff development and tutoring programs.

&uot;Another reason is the efforts of teachers, principals and the rest of our instructional staff … as well as parents,&uot;&160;Peterman said. &uot;In addition, the school board supported many of the things we did to try to prepare ourselves for this test.&uot;

During the summer, district staff will further analyze LEAP scores to find areas in which students were the weakest and attempt to pinpoint why.

In addition to continuing its remediation and tutoring programs, the district has also received a federal grant to establish a reading program that Peterman believes will help strengthen students’ skills in those areas.

&uot;We want to provide the greatest number of opportunities possible for students to be successful,&uot; he said.