State testing will take place on March 20, and April 12-17, for St. Bernard Parish students in grades 2 – 11. Students in grade 2 will take the ITBS (Iowa Test of Basic Skills). Students in grades 3, 5, 6, and 7 will be administered the iLEAP. The iLEAP is an integrated LEAP that combines a criterion-referenced test (CRT) and a norm-referenced test (NRT). The CRT portion of iLEAP measures student progress toward mastery of the state-defined Grade Level Expectations. The NRT portion of the iLEAP is normed on a national sample of students and compares student performance with students across the nation. iLEAP is not a high stakes test.

Students in grades 4 and 8 will be administered the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) criterion-referenced test (CRT). High school students in grade 11 will be administered the Graduation Exit Exam (GEE) criterion-referenced test (CRT). High School students taking Algebra, Geometry, Biology, English II, English III and U.S. History will take an End of Course Exam for these courses in the month of May. The test results will be released from the Louisiana Department of Education in the middle of May 2012.

As required by state law, a student may not be promoted to the 5th or 9th grade until he or she has scored at or above the Basic achievement level on either the English/language arts or mathematics component on the 4th or 8th grade LEAP and at the Approaching Basic achievement level on the other. Current 4th and 8th grade students who do not meet the promotional standard on the April LEAP tests must attend summer remediation during the month of June and take the summer retest on June 26-28, 2012 in order to be eligible for promotion to the 5th or 9th grade.

Students enrolled in state-approved home-study programs and students currently enrolled in private or parochial schools who plan to enter public schools next year in grades 5 or 9 must score at the required achievement levels on the English/language arts and mathematics portions of the LEAP test to be considered for grades 5 or 9. Students enrolled in state-approved home-study programs and students currently enrolled in private or parochial schools may test with the public school students during the week of testing.

All home-study, private and parochial school students may register for testing at the St. Bernard Parish School Board Administration Office at 200 E. St. Bernard Highway until Monday, March 12, 2012. Hours are 8:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday and 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. on Friday. Registration forms may be faxed upon request.

Printable registration forms and links to test information and preparation materials are available on the St. Bernard Parish School Board website at www.stbernard.k12.la.us via the State Testing link and the LEAP Testing link. Click here for registration information.

Students currently enrolled in St. Bernard Parish public schools do not need to register for state testing.

Questions about testing and requests for registration forms can be directed to the District Testing Supervisor at 504.301.2000.