According to 2010 District Performance Score (DPS) results released by the Louisiana State Department of Education Thursday, October 7, 2010, the East Baton Rouge Parish School System (EBRPSS) continues to show a strong and steady increase in its average DPS over the last five years. State data released today show an overall growth for EBRPSS of 2.2 points, which indicates an improvement from the 2009 DPS of 79.8 to 82.0 this year. Because of this increase, the School System is now labeled as a 2-Star School System. It had a 1-Star label since the 1998-1999 school year, when district rankings were first introduced by the state. A school system must score above 80 points in order to achieve the 2-Star ranking.

Seventy-eight percent of the district’s schools showed growth with 37 schools meeting or exceeding average state growth. Thirteen of the 37 schools saw one-year growth greater than 10 points. In addition, 87.5 percent of schools currently labeled as Academically Unacceptable Schools (AUS) by the State Department of Education showed growth. The Graduation Rate for the district also increased by 3.2 percentage points over last year.

“We are pleased that the test results show improvement for our district,” said School System Superintendent John Dilworth. “We understand there is hard work ahead of us, but at this time all indicators used to measure student achievement continue to show an increase here in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System.”

Dilworth added, “I want to thank our students, parents and dedicated staff for their hard work. We understand that the new minimum state score for schools labeled as Academically Unacceptable Schools will rise next year and again the following year. However, I know our schools are up to the task of continuing to increase the quality of education offered at our schools.”