SM school district earns ‘B’ performance score

State officials last week released the District Performance Scores (DPS) and School Performance Scores (SPS) for Louisiana’s public school systems. State Superintendent John White said the results showed remarkable gains across the state. St. Martin School Superintendent Dr. Lottie Beebe praised the scores achieved by local schools, telling parish educators that “Your efforts made it possible for the negative label to be removed from the ... parish school system. Gov. Jindal can no longer reference St. Martin Parish as a failing school district on national television.” “Overall,” Beebe said, “when the more rigorous scale that was applied in the 2012-13 school year, 13 of our 16 schools saw their letter grades remain the same or grow by a letter. And more importantly, no parish school received an F grade.” Parks Primary led in the parish ranking, with the only A grade and an SPS of 106.4. Four schools – Breaux Bridge Primary, Cecilia Jr. High, Stephensville Elementary and St. Martinville Sr. High – achieved B grades. Five schools rated Cs and five Ds. The grades are based primarily on test results from the 2012-13 school year but it is difficult to compare the recent scores with those achieved in previous years due to changes in how the results are measured. For one thing, a shift has been made from a 200 to a 150-point scale. Standardized test scores previously accounted for 90 percent of elementary and middle school results. But starting last year that’s increased to 100 percent for elementary and 95 percent for middle schools. And high schools have gone in the other direction in terms of test emphasis. Test scores used to account for 70 percent. Now, end-of-course exams and ACT scores each account for 25 percent of a high school’s score (ACT scores were not part of the previous formula) and the remaining 50 percent is derived from a high school’s graduation rate and the quality of the diplomas students earn. St. Martin Parish’s DPS ranked 34th among the state’s 57 school districts and 6th among the eight Acadiana parishes, trailing Vermilion, Lafayette, St. Mary, Acadia and Iberia. In a prepared statement, Dr. Beebe said “I want to thank St. Martin educators for their desire for educational excellence and encourage them to continue to strive for increases in student achievement. We must remain committed to doing our best to remain competitive within the education arena.”