VIDALIA — Students taking high-stakes tests will take their tests in two rounds nearly a month apart this year.

The first phase of the tests will be March 23, and during the first phase of the tests the students will complete the writing portions of their tests, Concordia Parish Academic Director Paul Nelson said.

The state decision to implement the two phases came because, in the past, the process of getting the tests scored and back to the schools in time for the school system to assign students to summer school has cut it close to the deadline, Nelson said.

Moving the writing portion of the tests to an earlier date should alleviate some of those concerns, he said.

“I think in a way it is going to be nice, because you spread some of the tension and stress out more, and I am hoping it will help the kids do better,” he said.

High-stakes tests are those that require students to achieve a certain score to proceed to the next grade or to graduate. The high stakes tests are the LEAP and GEE tests. Students in grades 4, 8, 10 and 11 take high-stakes tests.

Students in grades 3, 5, 6, 7 and 9 will take the iLEAP, an assessment test that does not determine if they will proceed to the next grade. Their tests will be completed on a single phase.

The second phase for the high-stakes testers — and the only phase for the iLEAP testers — will be in mid-April.

The change does have its complications, Nelson said.

“It gets more complicated and complex in moving test booklets and documents around the district and on to the testing center to get them scored,” he said.

There may also be logistical problems with students moving in and out of the district.

“If you have a kid who moves in here from Alabama and he doesn’t move until after phase I, during the phase II window we will have him make up phase I,” Nelson said.

Likewise, the school district will have to contact the former schools of students who transfer from within the state to make sure they took the phase I portion of the test, Nelson said.

The fourth and eighth graders will have one perk when the April testing session rolls around.

“Since they already tested one day in March, they will only have to test Monday through Thursday instead of Monday through Friday,” Nelson said.