Education in Louisiana was handed a report card of its own this week, and Superintendent Kerry Laster said Concordia Parish schools are more or less in line with the grades.

Education Week magazine, which releases the rankings for each state, gave Louisiana schools an &uot;A&uot; for its teacher improvement efforts. Louisiana’s score of 93 was No. 1 in the nation and the only &uot;A&uot; given in that category.

&uot;Louisiana is leading the way in a lot of areas,&uot; Laster said. &uot;And we are trying to do the same in Concordia Parish.&uot;

Professional development is something the district provides year-round including a writing workshop for teachers this Saturday. The district periodically brings in outside sources to conduct training courses on every subject from math to social studies.

&uot;We are also continuing professional development with technology,&uot; Laster said. &uot;We start new services all the time.&uot;

Online development courses offer teachers in the rural portions of the parish to access information from their schools.

Louisiana also received an &uot;A&uot; in the standards and accountability category for their grade level expectations for each subject area.

Laster said each individual district is held to standards established first nationally, then by the state that dove tail together. She said locally the district was working to make sure teachers have what they need to work toward the expectations.

&uot;We have a committee working, and we are going to bring in principals, on model curriculum and grade level expectations. We are aligning our resources and aligning with the benchmarks to give teachers what they need.&uot;

The Louisiana grade level expectations for English received an &uot;A,&uot; while math curriculum received a &uot;C.&uot; The &uot;C&uot; in math is an improvement on the last grade given, an &uot;F&uot; in 2000. The report criticizes the development of math concepts including fraction arithmetic and an overemphasis of technology.

The state received a &uot;B&uot; for spending equity, which is a measure of the relationship between state and local funding and the wealth of each district in the state. The score was the sixth highest in the state.

&uot;We are getting the funds we need to do professional development,&uot; Laster said. &uot;We could always use more money for resources. There’s never enough money to get things like science equipment.

&uot;We have to look at how we spend our money and make sure we spend it wisely.&uot;

The low marks for the state came in the category of school climate where the state earned a &uot;D.&uot;

Laster said she felt all Concordia Parish students were in safe climates, and said the district was working hard to improve the relationship with students and parents.

&uot;You have to look at a school as a business and the children and parents as customers,&uot; she said. &uot;You have to treat them with respect and give them what they need.&uot;

Part of the state’s low school climate score was dependent on school sizes, a problem Laster said Concordia does not have.

&uot;We are in wonderful shape as far as school size,&uot; she said. &uot;And the smaller the school the better. All of ours are 450 or less and that’s a real plus.&uot;

Small schools lead to small class sizes, which in turn boosts student performance, she said.

The average Concordia high school class is in the low 20s and in the lower grades some classes are smaller than 20 students, she said.

The average elementary school class size in the state is 18.9, while the national average is 21.2.

Laster said things like class size, teacher qualifications and school rankings are reported to parents each year through the state in the form of a district report card handed out in the fall.