Avoyelles Parish School District improves rank in performance score

While the Avoyelles public schools still rank near the bottom fourth of public school districts, the school system was one of the top-10 in terms of improvement.

APSD Superintendent Blaine Dauzat said that even with a tougher grading scale to measure school and district performance, Avoyelles showed progress over last year. He said the parish ranked 56th out of 69 school systems in 2016-17 and is 52nd in the 2017-18 results.

The parish had the ninth biggest improvement in the state under a tougher scoring system.

“We are a ‘C’ district for the third straight year,” Dauzat said.

On the grading scale used the previous year, the district would have had no “F” schools, he noted. However, on the new, more rigorous measurement, both Bunkie and Riverside elementary schools remained “F” schools.

Marksville High moved up to a “C” this year and Bunkie Magnet missed moving up to a “C” by less than 1 point.

“I think this is a big deal,” he said.

“This is the highest score we have ever had,” Dauzat continued. “We are not fooled or naive. We know more growth is needed, but we are continuing to move up. I am proud of what we’ve done.”

APSD’s overall score was 66.6, which is a low C. It would have been an 80.3 had the state not changed its grading system, according to a state Department of Education chart on the district’s results.

LaSAS high school retained its “A” rating with a 96.4 score. Lafargue Elementary remained a “B” school with a 75.2. Avoyelles High kept its “C” rating, recording a 69.4 score.

Marksville High’s 60.4 score was just enough to raise its letter grade from a “D” to a “C.” Bunkie Magnet’s 59.3 score fell just short of the 60.0 needed to improve from a “D” top a “C” school under the state’s School Performance Score system.

Marksville Elementary dropped a letter grade from a “C” in 2017 to a “D” in the 2018 results. It’s 58.8 score is just below the “C” range. Plaucheville Elementary at 56.5 and Cottonport Elementary with 58.2 also stayed in the “D” range.

Riverside with a 48.2 score and Bunkie Elementary with 46.0 remained “F” schools. Dauzat was able to give board members, and recently elected board members in the audience at the Nov. 7 meeting a brief preview of the results, but could not provide details because it could not be released until Nov. 8.

In other comments at the board meeting, Dauzat congratulated those new board members elected in the Nov. 6 balloting and wished luck to those candidates in the Dec. 8 runoff. He said he is “looking forward to working with you in moving this district forward.”

Later in the meeting, the board members reported their evaluation of Dauzat, who was given a “grade” of about 3.5 on a 4 point scale.