NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The percentage of Louisiana public school students who have demonstrated readiness to move to the next grade level edged up again this year, according to state Department of Education results for spring standardized tests released Tuesday.

State education officials say betterment in most subjects and grade levels and in 42 of the state’s 70 school districts is proof that improvement efforts instituted over the last decade are working. Sixty-six percent of students were ready to move up, compared with 65 percent last year.

“These results validate that the reforms and initiatives being implemented are paying off for our students — in this case several thousand more children are better-prepared to succeed in their future academic and life pursuits,” acting State Superintendent of Education Ollie Tyler said in a statement after the figures were released in Baton Rouge.

The news was not uniformly positive. Sixty-six percent of students achieving the basic level in all grades and subjects marks a 7 percentage point improvement over the last six years but still means roughly a third of students haven’t achieved that level.

Officials were able to point to improvements in urban areas such as New Orleans and in rural regions, such as East Carroll Parish. The northeastern Louisiana district with only 1,300 students showed an 8 percent jump — the highest in the state — in the number of students scoring at the “basic” level. That is defined by the state as demonstrating fundamental knowledge and skills needed to move to the next grade level.

New Orleans schools mostly overseen by the state’s Recovery School District, which took over after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, showed the second-highest improvement at 5 percent. The RSD runs 23 schools itself and turned 46 over to independent charter organizations.

RSD also runs a few schools in other districts — Caddo, East Baton Rouge, Pointe Coupee and St. Helena — and that group showed a 4 percent gain in students achieving basic level, tied with Red River Parish for the third most improved.

There were areas of decline. For instance, the percentage of high school students achieving basic or better on the graduate exit exam declined over the year, from 65 percent to 60 percent.

(The subset achieving the higher “advanced” or “mastery” levels also slipped from 17 percent to 13 percent.)

Graduate exit math percentages also declined from 73 percent at basic to 69 percent. There were percentage declines in various subjects and at various grade levels for the iLeap test takers.

The biggest percentage-point decline was for 10th grade test takers, with a 5 percent drop in English language arts and 4 percent in math, the department said.

In New Orleans, the Recovery School District’s new superintendent, John White, cited various areas of improvement as he held a news conference at a charter school in eastern New Orleans, an area ravaged by the widespread flooding that followed Katrina. The inundation of 80 percent of the city after levee breaches during the storm led to the RSD taking over most schools from the long-troubled Orleans Parish Schools system.

Among the improvements for New Orleans’ RSD schools noted: The percentage of fourth-graders meeting promotion standards in the state’s LEAP promotion tests (a combination of “basic” and “approaching basic” scores on different subjects) grew from 58 percent last year to 64 percent this year. Eighth grade rates improved from 50 percent last year to 60 percent. The percentage of fourth-graders achieving an overall “basic” score leveled off at 53 percent, same as last year, but eighth-grade “basic” scores jumped from 37 percent last year to 50 percent this year.

And the percentage of eighth-graders in the New Orleans RSD schools achieving basic level increased in all four LEAP test subjects — English, math, science and social studies. “Double-digit gains in every content area,” said RSD Deputy Superintendent Patrick Dobard. “That is just phenomenal.”

Overall, the number of RSD students achieving basic level or above has more than doubled over the last four years.

The Zachary Community School District near Baton Rouge had the highest percentage of students performing at basic or above, 85 percent; the New Orleans school system, which still oversees a group of schools that were performing well before Katrina, was second at 82 percent.

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Online:

http://www.doe.state.la.us/