The Calcasieu Parish School Board on Tuesday unanimously approved changes to how fourth- and eighth-grade students will be promoted this school year.

Tommy Campbell, district chief academic officer, said all state school districts were required to revise the way they determine those students’ proficiency for promotion.

Fourth and eighth grades used to be considered high-stakes grades, and students used to be promoted based on scores from LEAP tests, he said.

State officials have said this school year will be a “transitional year” because of the change from LEAP tests to the PARCC assessment — or another high-stakes test — and that the results won’t prevent fourth- and eighth-graders from passing, Campbell said.

Furthermore, he said, the state told districts that the results from the new test wouldn’t be available until late summer.

“We decided to simply go back to the way things were well before standardized testing,” he said. “If you pass the course work and meet all the requirements for passing to the next grade, you would be considered proficient and promoted to the next grade.”

Campbell said students who don’t pass coursework will have the opportunity to go to summer school. The revision is only for this school year, he said.

The board also approved a revision that lowers the minimum number of test grades teachers can give students each nine weeks. District officials said this change is an effort to relieve some of the burden on teachers and so they can focus on better grading instead of more grading.

Elementary and middle school students will now have a minimum of nine test grades every nine weeks. Previously the minimum requirement was 15.

Initially, the proposed revision required a minimum of six test grades for elementary students, but many board members felt that wasn’t enough to measure student learning and amended the revision.

Board member Billy Breaux commended staff for the change. He said he is married to a teacher and has seen the number of papers his wife has to grade at home.

“This is the first time since I’ve been on the board — that’s 11 1/2 years — that anybody has come and offered to take something away,” Breaux said. “I commend y’all for helping with that.”

Board members Dale Bernard and Bill Jongbloed were absent from Tuesday’s meeting.

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Online: www.cpsb.org.(MGNonline)