SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Students in third through twelfth grade across Louisiana start standardized testing this week, but what do those tests measure.
The Louisiana Educational Assessment Program, also known as the LEAP Test, started for third graders Thursday. Students in fourth through eighth grade start testing Monday. High school students take assessments on various dates until early May.
Sommer Anderson-Picou, Broadmoor STEM Academy Principal, explained how testing is structured and what subjects are part of the assessment.
“We have five days of testing for third through fifth, and then another five days of testing for grade six. So for us, we have ten days of testing,” Anderson-Picou said.
Preparation for the LEAP happens throughout the year for students at Broadmoor STEM.
“We do a few things here. We prepare all year long; we use our tier-one curriculum, which is aligned with the Louisiana student standards. We teach that all year long. We even prepare the kids for the formatting of the tests in a computer-based format,” Anderson-Picou said.
The results from the test allow educators to pinpoint the areas of additional support each child may need in a particular subject or specific content area.
“So we just take the data at the end of the year to make individual plans for the next year for each student.”
The LEAP test does not determine a child’s fate of passing or failing a class.
“Over the years, when we first started with standardized testing, it became a thing where, oh, you have to pass or fail the leap to progress to the next grade. What we do is we use this data in the preponderance of data.”
For more information about the LEAP test and other grade-level assessments, visit Louisiana Believes.
