VIDALIA &8212; Sometimes hard work pays off, even when the odds say otherwise.

All but two of Concordia Parish&8217;s 10 schools showed academic growth based on last year &8212; the year of massive curriculum changes and Katrina.

Ferriday Lower Elementary and Ferriday Upper Elementary improved enough to rid themselves of the &8220;academically unacceptable&8221; growth label they earned a year ago and adopt a one star school ranking instead.

Based on school performance scores released Monday, FUES and Vidalia Junior High School showed &8220;exemplary academic growth.&8221;

Vidalia Lower, Vidalia Upper and Monterey showed &8220;recognized academic growth.&8221;

And FLES, Ferriday Junior High and Vidalia High showed &8220;minimal academic growth.&8221;

Ridgecrest and Ferriday High School received the &8220;school in decline&8221; label.

&8220;I was pleasantly surprised,&8221; Superintendent Kerry Laster said. &8220;I was concerned we were going to have three schools in school improvement level 3.&8221;

FLES, FUES and FJHS all stood the chance of facing the negative third year of school improvement. FJHS did enter into the level, but the others did not.

Administrators across the district had expressed worries all year that growing pains from the implementation of a new comprehensive curriculum combined with the influx of students after Hurricane Katrina would seriously hurt test scores.

&8220;I think we probably missed a good couple of weeks of instruction,&8221; Laster said Monday. &8220;There was some confusion and disruption.&8221;

At one point the district had about 600 evacuees enrolled.

Students also took a brand new test, the iLEAP &8212; something teachers were afraid would affect scores.

Because of the new test, this year&8217;s scores cannot be compared to previous years&8217; scores.

Ferriday Lower Elementary

Principal Loretta Blankenstein thinks the effects of Reading First are part of the reason her school improved this year.

The federal grant-funded program was started in all parish elementary schools three years ago.

&8220;It has provided us with the basis for the student,&8221; she said. &8220;This provides the foundation. We are just going to see improvement.&8221;

FLES improved their school performance score from 59.1 last year to 61.1 &8212; though the test scores used to formulate the SPS were different this year.

A score of 60 is considered the state minimum for academically acceptable schools.

&8220;We are just elated,&8221; Blankenstein said Monday. &8220;We will just continue to grow. We are not going to stop; we&8217;ll just keep going forward.&8221;

She attributes the growth to a team environment at the school and help from parents and students.

&8220;I think it&8217;s just a school-wide effort, trying to stay on task,&8221; she said. &8220;People are working hard together at this school. Everyone is talking to the children and reminding them about things like their spelling test.&8221;

FLES receives scores based on how students at the Upper do on tests, but their overall SPS can differ based on attendance records.

Attendance factors kept FLES a few steps behind FUES this year, Blankenstein said, something she plans to address.

Ferriday Upper Elementary

Perhaps the biggest success story in the district this year was at FUES, which went from a 59.1 to a 61.5 score.

Along with FLES, the Upper won&8217;t have to offer school choice anymore, starting next year.

They are now a one star school and are no longer in school improvement.

Ferriday Junior High

Even though the junior high fell into level 3 school improvement and is still marked &8220;academically unacceptable,&8221; the school is showing growth.

It&8217;s school performance score increased from 54.4 last year to 57.7 this year.

Programs are in place and the faculty is staying positive at the school, Laster said.

&8220;The one that&8217;s the biggest concern is, of course, Ferriday Junior High School,&8221; Laster said. &8220;But we have a lot of things going on over there.&8221;

An additional assistant principal was added to the school this year along with a high level coordinator. Read 180 is a new reading program currently being used.

Laster said the district still struggles to attract teachers to the junior high level, but is working to remain positive.

Ferriday High School

The highest performing Ferriday school in recent years took a dip this time around, but Principal Michelle Bethea isn&8217;t worried at all.

Ferriday High is now a school in decline and &8220;academically unacceptable.&8221; They are in level 2 of school improvement with a performance score of 58.

&8220;Come March we are going to be ready,&8221; Bethea said. &8220;We&8217;ll show them what we are made of.&8221;

New to the head principal job, Bethea said she spends most of her time in the classrooms now, assessing teachers and making sure they are teaching the curriculum.

&8220;It&8217;s going to take hard, hard work and discipline, discipline, discipline,&8221; she said. &8220;But I&8217;m not worried. Everybody knows what they need to do. They just need to step up to the plate and do it.&8221;

Monterey High School

Montery has long been the district&8217;s highest performing school, and not much changed this year.

The school showed &8220;recognized academic growth&8221; with a school performance score of 106.2.

&8220;We are just working extremely hard,&8221; Principal Neeva Sibley said. &8220;We&8217;ve shown growth ever year. It&8217;s just keeping everybody focused on what needs to be done, and just working hard on making sure the teachers are teaching the curriculum.

&8220;Each step you take, it gets a little harder. But we are very focused on maintaining that score.&8221;

Vidalia Junior High

An 88.1 performance score catapulted VJHS into the &8220;exemplary academic growth&8221; category and earned the school two stars.

&8220;It took a lot of support from parents and teachers last year with all the turmoil from the comprehensive curriculum and Katrina and Rita,&8221; Principal Paul Nelson said.

Nelson has accepted a position as district-wide academic affairs director, but is still working at VJHS right now.

Attendance rates increased and drop-out rates decreased for VJHS, Nelson said, helping the score a lot.

Students also showed progress at summer school &8212; something else that can boost the score, he said.

But the key last year was the classroom teachers, Nelson said. &8220;It&8217;s a lot of hard work by a lot of good teachers,&8221; he said.

And advanced math class for the high achieving students helped, and mock testing programs helped prepare everyone for the real thing.

&8220;If you had asked me in January or February &8216;what do you think,&8217; I was very pessimistic with the way things would turn out&8221; Nelson said. &8220;I really give credit to the teachers who were able to stay on task and stay focused.&8221;

Ridgecrest School

Ridgecrest has typically tested well, but scores last year landed the school a &8220;school in decline&8221; label. Ridgecrest is still a two star school and is not in school improvement. Their score was 81.4 this year.

&8220;Ridgecrest is going to pull back up,&8221; Laster said. &8220;They didn&8217;t make their growth target, and we&8217;ll monitor that carefully. But I have the utmost faith in them.&8221;