| Advocate staff photo by Steve Kashishian |
| NAACP members and supporters gather Saturday on the steps of the State Capitol to protest against the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education’s requirement that Louisiana schoolchildren in the fourth and eighth grades must pass the LEAP exam for progression to the next grade. |
Members of the Louisiana NAACP and nearly 100 protesters rallied Saturday at the State Capitol to demand the Board of Elementary and Secondary Schools end its “unlawful” policy of requiring fourth- and eighth-grade students to pass standardized tests for promotion to the next grade.
Amid choruses of “We Shall Overcome,” President Ernest Johnson of the Louisiana National Association for the Advancement of Colored People called use of the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program testing by BESE for grade promotion unlawful, unconstitutional and said it should be stopped.
Public school students in the fourth and eighth grades must pass the LEAP test before moving on to the next grade.
Johnson said more than 28,000 public school students failed the exit examination for the 2006-07 school year.
“There is no law in the state constitution that says our children have to take this test before they can pass,” Johnson said.
“I believe that what happened to the 28,000-plus children (who failed the LEAP test) is a curse for those kids and their families. It can’t be considered a blessing that you flunk a kid by a test that is not even required by law.”
Johnson asserted many schoolchildren fulfill their classroom requirements but are being held back because of LEAP test failure.
The protest rally was the second in two months staged on the Capitol steps by the NAACP.
In connection with the June rally, state education officials voiced strong support for the standardized testing.
State Superintendent of Education Paul G. Pastorek and BESE President Linda Johnson described the LEAP testing policy as a “catalyst for academic improvement.”
Several parents and grandparents of children who failed the 2007 exit examinations also spoke at Saturday’s rally.
Helen Stewart, of Covington, said her grandson, Corey Turner Jr., failed the fourth-grade test at Pineview Middle School.
Stewart and her grandson stood before the protestors to speak.
“My grandson did fail the LEAP test and went through the eight-week remediation class,” Stewart said. “I don’t know to this date if he has passed.
“I would like to say to BESE that we are failing our kids, but we should have 27,999 parents here today to speak for their children.”
Vanessa Norman Rivet of Baton Rouge said her children have twice flunked the LEAP test.
“I teach my children to do their best, but when they’ve done their best and they come to you and still fail, what do you say?” Rivet said. “Academically, they have done what they have to do. Change is here today so I’m going to march on, run on and talk on until BESE hears what I have to say.”
Johnson said the NAACP also is considering picketing the BESE offices.
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