Louisiana Assessment Letter

November 8, 2000

Cecil Picard Cecil Picard
Superintendent
Louisiana Department of Education
Post Office Box 94064
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70804

Dear Superintendent Picard:

Thank you for submitting your assessment materials for review under the Title I requirements of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. We appreciate the effort required to prepare for the review and hope that the process provides useful feedback that will support your State’s efforts to monitor student progress toward challenging standards.

As we requested, you provided additional information regarding Louisiana’s policies for exempting limited English proficient students from the assessment and accountability system, disaggregating assessment results by economic disadvantage and migrant status, administering the 10th grade assessment, and the 10th grade performance standards. These materials have been reviewed and are completely acceptable. Therefore, I am providing full approval of Louisiana’s assessment system for Title I effective as soon as the Department is notified that the State Board of Education has approved the performance standards for the 10th grade.

If, over time, additional changes are made to Louisiana’s assessment system, you must submit information about those changes to the Department as required by section 1111(e)(2) of Title I. Please note that the approval of Louisiana’s assessment system for Title I is not a determination that the system complies with federal civil rights requirements, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and requirements under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

I want to congratulate you on the great progress your State has made in developing the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) for the 21st Century and implementing the Public Education Accountability System. These impressive efforts clearly demonstrate Louisiana’s commitment to making sure that all students achieve to challenging standards. The Department recognizes Louisiana’s high student participation rates in the State assessment program as well as the State’s efforts to hold schools accountable for including all students in the assessment system. The peer reviewers who reviewed your State’s submission particularly noted that Louisiana’s student achievement reporting system is “comprehensive and will be useful to schools in helping all students reach high standards.” I want to congratulate you on the great progress your State has made in developing the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) for the 21st Century and implementing the Public Education Accountability System. These impressive efforts clearly demonstrate Louisiana’s commitment to making sure that all students achieve to challenging standards. The Department recognizes Louisiana’s high student participation rates in the State assessment program as well as the State’s efforts to hold schools accountable for including all students in the assessment system. The peer reviewers who reviewed your State’s submission particularly noted that Louisiana’s student achievement reporting system is “comprehensive and will be useful to schools in helping all students reach high standards.”

Your cooperation with the U.S. Department of Education in this review, including submitting material in a timely fashion has been a help to the Department. Enclosed with this letter are detailed comments from the peer review team that evaluated Louisiana’s assessment documents. We hope this information will be useful to the Louisiana Department of Education in its efforts to implement a high-quality assessment system.

Thank you again for your efforts. Congratulations on meeting the Title I requirements for a final assessment system.

Sincerely,

Michael Cohen

Enclosure

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