Zachary Community School District continues to rise to the top

During the Thursday, May 28th Zachary School Board meeting, Superintendent, Warren Drake expressed his pleasure about the district’s continued progress. The next meeting of the Zachary School Board will be Thursday, June 25.

Buy photo reprints

During Thursday’s School Board Meeting, Board Members Michelle Clayton and Karen Lawless presented the Zachary Community School District Spring 2009 Assessment Results from data released at the Louisiana Department of Education in May. Nearly every grade level, from first through eleventh grade, found continued improvement of student’s testing scores on the LEAP, iLEAP, and the GEE (graduate exit examination) tests. Many grade levels scored high enough to be at the top of the state’s performance ladder. “Our district is the most consistent scoring district in the state,” District Superintendent Warren Drake stated in reaction to the academic gains presented.
ZCSD’s ninth grade GEE test takers stood strong in front of the rest of the state’s ninth grade school district class scores in each content area of the test. “It’s the partnership of teachers, principals, parents and students doing the best that they can that has allowed Zachary Community School District scores to continue to rise with each progressive year,” Clayton said.
This year was the first time that ZCSD’s ninth grade scores placed them above the rest of the state’s districts, academically speaking, if only by a few tenths of a percentile. Lawless stated that for the first time ninth grade scores were first in the CRT index for the state. Clayton stated that these test scores reflect what’s being taught in the classrooms. “Teachers aren’t teaching subjects like math or science; teachers are teaching students,” Clayton said. With the collective passion for excellence and their unabashed student focus, ZCSD continues to make advanced progress.
ZCSD’s first and second grade test scores grew several percentage points to be in the top 74 and 71 percent, respectively of the nation’s first and second grade test takers. The iLEAP index for third grade test takers hopped from last year’s 102 state ranking percentile to this year’s 116.4 state ranking percentile. On top of that tremendous growth, 89 percent of fourth grade LEAP test takers met the state’s standard for promotion and had the highest percentage of students performing at an Advanced and Master level on the English Language Arts for the third year in a row. ZCSD also had the highest percentage of fourth graders scoring at an Advanced level in the Science portions of the LEAP test.
“Zachary Community School District continues to meet and exceed state promotional standards,” Lawless said of the fourth and fifth grade LEAP test takers then continued to state that ZCSD has the strongest eighth grade scores in the state. Zachary Schools had the highest percentage of 8th grade LEAP test takers scoring at an Advanced and Master level on science portions and at the Master level on English Language Arts section of the LEAP.
“We must recognize teachers for their hard work. It’s the close teamwork between the board, the teachers, parents and students that we owe these exciting and continuous accomplishments. We have built a solid foundation and look forward to continually building upon that foundation for years to come,” stated Lawless in reference to the stellar test scores, national school district rankings, and state district rankings.
In other business, Superintendent Drake mentioned that two of ZHS’s upcoming high school football games will be televised as Cox’s Game of the Week.
ZHS’s first game onSeptember 11 against St. Thomas Moore and their last game on November 6 against Catholic High will be featured.