Lusher must provide name of admission test, state attorney general says
In a blow to Lusher Charter School, administrators must disclose the name of its admissions test, according an attorney general’s opinion released Thursday.
The selective-admission charter school came into the spotlight earlier this year when it refused to release the name of the test given to prospective kindergarten students after a parent requested it.
Parent Jacob Landry asked CEO Kathy Riedlinger for the name only after his son took the test. His son did not get in and attends a different charter school.
According to Landry, Riedlinger told him he would have to sue to find out what test Lusher uses.
Riedlinger did not immediately respond to a request for comment this afternoon.
In June, Riedlinger said she would leave it up to the Attorney General, “to make the decision as to whether or not this policy should stand, and follow his opinion.”
Riedlinger has said that releasing the name would give some parents an unfair advantage in gaining access to the test, for instance, if they worked in education.
“Even if we don’t provide you with test questions and answer keys, if prospective parents know the name of the test, they might be able to access the test that is used year after year,” Riedlinger told Landry in a followup email.
Landry wanted the name to ensure the test being used was not an intelligence quotient examination, which is barred by the state for being used in admissions processes.
In her letter, Riedlinger said Landry asked for “information concerning the entrance exam.” She cited an exception to the state Public Records Law that shields “testing instruments” administered by the state, as well as answers or student scores for those tests.
“If the admissions exam does not fall under the above referenced exemptions, then virtually all tests given in Louisiana primary and secondary schools would be subject to the Public Records Act,” Riedlinger wrote. “For example, a parent could use the Public Records Act to request a copy of his or her child’s biology exam before it is administered.”
Landry said he just wanted to know the name of Lusher’s test.
The opinion sides with both. It says the contents of the exam may be kept private but the name must be released.
An attorney general’s opinion does not have the force of law, but it’s the state’s analysis of how a court likely would rule.
The opinion references two statutes which would prevent the school from releasing the Lusher must provide name of admission test, state attorney general says | The Lens:
