It's back-to-school day: Report cards await students after holiday

The days of cabin fever are over. St. Mary Parish students returned to school today after the holiday break.

“High school students will return to a new schedule because we’re on block,” said St. Mary Parish Schools Assistant Superintendent Teresa Bagwell. “So they’ll have four new classes in the spring.

“And our elementary and middle school students will return to business as usual.”

Report cards will also be issued today to middle and high school students.

Because Wednesday was parent-teacher conference day at elementary schools, parents should have received report cards during conferences.

Parent-teacher conferences for middle and high school students are only for those who are failing or in danger of failing.

The state mandates that any student who is failing or in danger of failing that parents receive two parent opportunities in the fall, Bagwell said.

According to the district calendar, students will be out of school Jan. 16 for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

A science assessment for sixth- to eighth-graders is scheduled for Jan. 25. It will assess the content and skills learned within a six-week period of instruction.

It allows teachers to monitor the progress on a short-term basis so they can remediate students as quickly as possible. It is a simulated test as students prepare for testing at the end of the year.

“Teachers will really be ramping up preparations for state testing as we get closer to April and May when the tests are given,” Bagwell said.

The end-of-course testing window for high school students opens the week of April 24. The LEAP testing window opens May 1, which affects students in grades 3-8.

Fifth- through eighth- grade students will take their tests online for state assessments. The fourth-grade level has the option of taking online state assessments. And third- grade students will still take the paper-based assessment, Bagwell said.

The science LEAP test is the only one that will not be taken online. It is paper-based for all testing grade levels.