Groups blast, defend school

• By KORAN ADDO
• Advocate Westside bureau
• Published: Jun 22, 2009 - Page: 1B

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MORGANZA — After one year operating as a charter school, Pointe Coupee Central High School’s standardized test scores took a nosedive — most notably in math.

Supporters of Advance Baton Rouge, the nonprofit that operates the school, say critics are too quick to judge an organization that had 41 days to prepare for a new school year. What’s more, they say, Advance had less than a year to turn around an institution where a significant number of students were multiple grade levels behind.

Critics of Advance say the drop in scores, reports of disorderly behavior and the departure of three school administrators indicate an organization not equipped to run schools.

Thomas A. Nelson, a Pointe Coupee Parish School Board member who opposed the takeover, said the decline in test scores justifies his criticisms that the nonprofit doesn’t have a record of improving schools.

Nelson said Central’s test scores were rising, albeit slowly, in the years before Advance took over.

“I’m disappointed in what’s happened over there,” he said. “Progress has gone down and it’s the students who suffer.”

Carl Terrance, another opponent of the school takeover, said he pulled his 10th-grade daughter out of Central last year, choosing instead to send her to Livonia High School, which is still run by the parish.

Terrance said he would like to see the parish resume control of the school, with state oversight.

“The community can clearly see the charter is not working,” he said. “My fear is that we’ll have a generation of kids not getting an education.”

Advance board members acknowledge that it has been a rough year at Pointe Coupee Central. But Christel Slaughter, Advance chairwoman, said the nonprofit will adjust.

“We do know we have to look at the curriculum,” she said. “We want everything to improve from our academics and athletics, to the culture at the school.”

Slaughter said there are several indications the school is on the right track. Seniors especially benefited from Advance’s policy of tailoring the school’s curriculum around areas of need, she said.
Ninety-seven percent — 56 of 58 seniors — graduated from Central this spring. That’s the highest rate the school has seen in five years, Slaughter said.

Slaughter also said that rising sixth-grade scores, 17 seniors earning TOPS scholarships this year and 61 percent of 11th-graders outpacing state testing averages make her “pretty pleased” about the school’s performance.