Baton Rouge, LA - On the heels of Tuesday’s announcement of gains on LEAP performance, state officials were pleased with the marks earned by Louisiana’s school children on the iLEAP tests. “From a testing standpoint, 2008 has been a success,” said State Superintendent Paul G. Pastorek. “When you look at these scores in tandem with the results from LEAP, our districts have much to be proud of and so do our kids.”

Students in the 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th grades learned their results today on this year’s iLEAP assessments. The iLEAP, which stands for Integrated Louisiana Educational Assessment Program, replaced The Iowa Tests beginning in the 2005-2006 school year, making this the third year from which schools and districts are able to track student performance. The iLEAP is aligned with Louisiana’s Comprehensive Curriculum, benchmarks as well as Grade-Level Expectations in the areas of English Language Arts, mathematics, science and social studies and is compliant with the federal government’s No Child Left Behind Act.

Superintendent Pastorek continued, “We did see some mixed results for our 3rd and 6th graders and that means we need to be focusing on sustaining the gains we’ve seen in 4 th and 5 th grade into middle school and it shows the importance of implementing our Literacy and Numeracy for All initiative. Our schools need as many tools at their disposal as possible to raise student academic achievement.”

The iLEAP tests include mostly multiple-choice questions, but also include some constructed-response items that require students to compose an answer and serve to measure higher-order thinking skills. The tests were administered in March, at the same time as the LEAP and Graduation Exit Exam (GEE). As with the LEAP and GEE, scores are measured in terms of the state’s achievement levels: Advanced, Mastery, Basic, Approaching Basic and Unsatisfactory. Students in grades 3, 5, 6 and 7 are tested in English, math, science and social studies. Ninth graders take only English and math for iLEAP.

In the 3rd grade, students scoring Basic and above decreased by one percentage point in English, two points in math, three points in science and increased in social studies by one percentage point.

In the 5th grade, there were significant gains across the board with those scoring Basic or above in English and science up five percentage points each along with improvement in math and social studies of 6 points.

In the 6th grade, the percentage of students achieving Basic or above fell by one percentage point in both English and math, while science was up three points and social studies showed no change from the previous year.

Scores for 7th graders were mixed, with a two percentage point increase in English for those scoring Basic or above, a four point decrease in math along with a one point improvement in social studies and no change in science.

9th graders are only tested in English and mathematics and scores were up four percentage points in both areas.

“After three years, the iLEAP program is really beginning to take root and we have to be encouraged by what we see here,” said Board of Elementary and Secondary Education President Linda Johnson. “Though these tests are not high stakes they are an important tool for parents and schools in identifying areas of strength and concern for students. It also serves to help the Department of Education as it develops its supports for the districts in building a world class education system for all children.”

Parents will receive not only their child’s individual scores but also a norm-referenced test report which will let them know how their children are compare to a national norm group. The norm-referenced reports are similar to those used for The Iowa Tests over the past few years, with a score of 50 representing the national average.