<p class="indent">The Beauregard Parish School District maintained its “B” grade and increased its point total this year, according to district and school performance scores released this week by the Louisiana Department of Education.</p><p class="indent">Under the state’s new scoring scale implemented this year, the Beauregard district earned 83.8 points. That total is an increase of 2.2 points under last year’s scale and an increase of 2.4 points based on the 2018 scale.</p><p class="indent">“The State Department of Education is transitioning to a new accountability formula with stringent requirements for schools and districts which make it even more challenging to meet standards,” Superintendent Timothy Cooley stated.</p><p class="indent">“We are elated that Beauregard Parish has maintained a letter grade of ‘B’ and at the same time has improved our score under both the old scoring formula and the new.”</p><p class="indent">Under the new scoring formula, every school in Beauregard Parish increased or maintained its letter grade over last year, and 11 schools increased their total earned points from the previous year, according to district spokesperson Keri Ifland.</p><p class="indent">DeRidder High School and South Beauregard High School each earned an “A” grade, while East Beauregard Elementary and high school, Merryville High School, Pine Wood Elementary, Singer High School, and South Beauregard Elementary and Upper Elementary all earned “B” grades. Three schools, Carver Elementary, K.R. Hanchey Elementary and DeRidder Junior High, earned “C” grades. No schools in the district earned below a “C” grading.</p><p class="indent">Six schools earned an “A” in their progress scores, which Ifland said are points given in relation to schools and districts based upon the extent to which students meet the new individual growth targets on the LEAP 2025 exams. Those schools included Carver Elementary, DeRidder High School, East Beauregard Elementary, K.R. Hanchey, Pine Wood Elementary and Singer High School.</p><p class="indent">DeRidder High School also was designated an “Equity Honoree,” Ifland said, by outperforming 90 percent of schools across the state in three subgroups — Students with Disabilities, English Language Learners and Economically Disadvantaged.</p><p class="indent">“Overall, we are extremely proud of our students, teachers, and schools for our district and school performance scores this year,” Cooley stated.</p><p class="indent">“In a difficult transition year, for our district and our schools to maintain or increase their letter grades and point totals is significant. We will continue to provide our schools, teachers, administrators and students the tools necessary to move forward under this new phase of the accountability system.”</p>Beauregard Parish School