Superintendent Touts Rapides Parish School Improvements
Rapides Parish Schools experienced significant growth this year. ABC 31 News Joel Massey spoke with the superintendent about what this means for area schools.
“I think that some of the most exciting things is to see so many of our individual schools grow a letter grade, eleven schools growing their letter grade from whatever they were before and being an A in growth. And that just shows that the teachers the parents the students of Rapides Parish public school system are committing to the work that we are doing committing to growing each and every year.”
Superintendent Jeff Powell was flanked by all the principals of Rapides Parish as he announced the growth of schools compared with last year.
“It’s just exciting for us to have the highest rating school performance score number that we’ve ever had under this accountability system, to move from 35th in the state up to 24th over the last few years. It’s just a tremendous day to celebrate the students, the teachers and the leaders of our community.”
Powell highlighted some of the specific areas of growth that he was proud of.
“I think the most important ones are just the overall growth, the progress index which measures how much we’re growing students from the time we get them to the time they leave and to be rated an A there that’s tremendous. Schools like Martin Park Elementary who have gone from an F, climbed out of that F category with still growth to go. Schools like Carter C. Raymond to improve to a C. These are some of the very specific things we’ve increased in our assessment index which is based on that one test that kids take at the end of the year. To be able to see that growth again we still have a long way to go, but those are some of the really specific highlights that we are proud to celebrate with our principals and their staff for the leadership that they’re providing.”
Powell thanked the community for the way they support area schools.
“I just want to continue to thank our community for rallying around our schools, our school board, our schools the people that work each day, the parents that are supporting the work that’s getting done. We’re in a reading revival. We’re trying to get more kids connected to high school, to colleges and post-secondary opportunities and industry-based credentials. So, lets continue to show the world that Rapides Parish truly is better together.”
For complete list of performance score:
