Rapides School District keeps B rating, but individual schools show growth
TIOGA — Rapides Parish educators gathered Monday to celebrate successes from the district and school performance scores released earlier in the day by the state, holding the event at Tioga High School to mark the first time it has been an A school.
It was one of many achievements touted by Superintendent Jeff Powell. Overall, the district kept its B rating, although it did increase within that category three-tenths of a point from 80.4 points in 2022 to 80.7 points in 2023.
"So with all these wins, and all these pluses, I want to make sure that our community knows ... we're not settling for where we are right now," said Powell. "We're still focused on continuous growth."
The state's school performance score went up to 78.5 points, up 1.4 points.
"These results come one year after the state matched its pre-pandemic score of 77.1," reads a release about the scores from the Louisiana Department of Education.
Scores from across the state can be found on the department's website, louisianabelieves.com.
The district also had a school named among the state's top 10 most improved kindergarten through eighth-grade schools. Lessie Moore Elementary School moved its letter grade from an F to a C and grew more than 20.5 points, said Powell.
"Tremendous, tremendous result," he said as those gathered in Tioga's library applauded.
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The district was higher than the state average in all but two of the categories and had 27 of its schools ranked as either an A or B school. Eight schools improved by a letter grade, while 25 schools improved their overall performance scores.
In addition to Tioga High, Buckeye High and Poland Junior High schools went from a B in 2022 to an A in 2023. Going from a C to a B was Tioga Elementary School, while Arthur F. Smith Middle Magnet, Martin Park Elementary and Lessie Moore Elementary schools rose from Ds to Cs.
Acadian Elementary School left its F status, jumping to a D.
Powell noted improvements in ACT scores for individual schools and the district, too. Five schools showed improvements, and the district rose by 3.2 points to 68.5.
The superintendent said he always tries to let people know that Louisiana is one of a handful of states that requires students to take the ACT.
The schools with the best ACT improvements are:
Glenmora High School: 15.5 points
Tioga High: 13.1 points
Alexandria Senior High School: 9.1 points
Peabody Magnet High School: 7.5 points
Buckeye High School: 5 points
Northwood High School: 4.7 points
"All of these schools showed significant growth and, based on what's being reported right now, ... this year's seniors, we're already seeing another expected growth going into the upcoming school year, so extremely excited about that," he said.
Northwood also had large gains in three other categories — strength of diploma growth, graduation rate index growth and cohort graduation rate growth.
While Northwood, Tioga and Plainview high schools grew more than 10 points from 2022 to 2023, Northwood leaped by 27 points in the strength of diploma growth.
The Lena school, which serves kindergarten through 12th-grade students, also grew more than 29 points in graduation rate index growth, as did Buckeye and Plainview. And it jumped 15.3 points in its cohort graduation rate growth.
The district highlighted seven schools that it said showed the most significant growth from 2022 to 2023.
They are:
Alexandria Middle Magnet School grew 13.7 points in the Dropout/Credit Accumulation Index (DCAI), while Glenmora High School increased its DCAI by 8.8 points.
In the Interests and Opportunities Growth, Buckeye Elementary School vaulted 49.2 points, leading four other schools — Martin Park Elementary, Carter C. Raymond Elementary, Pineville Junior High and Arthur F. Smith Middle Magnet schools — that increased by more than 30 points. Powell said this category included "that well-rounded educational experiences, different programs, different clubs, activities we have for our students."
During a Tuesday committee meeting, Powell told Rapides Parish School Board members the district's three-tenths point still was progress.
"Growth is growth, and we're gonna celebrate moving in the right direction," he said.
Shannon Alford, the district's executive assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, said there was a lot to celebrate. She said the assessment index — which covers "core content" like math, English, social studies and science — for both elementary and high school students grew.
But she said administrators "were a little shocked" that the district's progress index did not go up, though. She said they had begun a data analysis already to "get to the root of the problem, and we'll definitely have an action plan of what we need to do differently moving forward."
This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Rapides School District keeps B rating, but schools show big gains
