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STAYING ON A WINNING STREAK
The flags hanging in its main corridor say a lot about the quality of teaching and learning at Harahan Elementary School. Presented by the Louisiana Department of Education, the flags tout the school's success over the past several years in attaining "exemplary" or "recognized" academic growth.
While Harahan Elementary has long been one of the highest achieving of Jefferson Parish's nonmagnet public schools, the latest round of school performance scores has it leading the pack. It also has Principal Gerri Settoon figuring out where she will hang her next flag.
"We were ecstatic. We were thrilled," Settoon said of her school's 104.5 baseline score and 110.6 growth score, a jump of nearly 13 points over the past year. "But I know how hard the teachers and students have worked."
She attributed her school's success to pupils' expanding use of technology, positive discipline techniques and an intervention team that tracks down and remediates struggling pupils.
"Every child (who) is found to be at risk is put in tutoring two to three days a week," Settoon said. "We have teachers here (who) will give up their planning periods to tutor kids."
The state released the latest school performance scores last week, showing the top five positions in Jefferson Parish were occupied by its five magnet schools for advanced students. Of conventional schools, Harahan Elementary was No. 1, its growth score more than 32 points above the parish average.
Performances scores for elementary schools are calculated using a combination of standardized test scores and attendance. Harahan Elementary's scores from last spring's Louisiana Educational Assessment Program test show that 80 percent of fourth-graders scored basic or above in English language arts and 76 percent scored basic or higher in mathematics.
Settoon said her school lucked out when, as a result of last year's realignment of attendance districts, Harahan Elementary's enrollment shifted by only 21.6 percent, compared to more than 50 percent at many schools....
