Fourth and eighth grade public school students in St. Martin Parish who attended summer remediation programs for the state LEAP test passed at a high rate than students who took the test during the regular school year.

Summary reports of the retesting were released last week by the Louisiana Department of Education.

Parish fourth graders who attended the remediation classes showed a pass rate of 85 percent on the retest compared to the pass rate of 78 percent on the spring tests. The final pass rate for the state was 87 percent.

At the eighth grade level, St. Martin students had a pass rate of 81 percent on the retest compared to 68 percent in the spring. The state’s pass rate was 82 percent.

“The increase in the pass rate on the summer retest is due mostly to the employees, school level coordinators and teachers working at the three summer sites,” says St. Martin Superintendent of Schools Richard Lavergne. “All employees are certified teaching personnel and most have served the district in the summer program for many years. We continue to narrow the gap with the state scores.”