Rules and Regulations

• The $100 dues paid to the Southeast Louisiana District Literary Rally Association only covers the activities held at the District Rally. Please remember that State Rally dues are paid separately to the Louisiana High School Rally Association in Baton Rouge, and that your school must be a member of the Louisiana High School Rally Association in order to participate at the State and District levels.
• Each school may send as many as two students in each event, with ONLY the high scoring of the two being eligible to qualify for state competition.  Schools that elect to choose a second student in some events must submit an additional $5 fee for each second student.  The additional fees must be submitted at the District Rally Business Meeting.

Eligibility for all District Literary Events is limited to students enrolled in a LHSRA & SLDLRA member school and certified by the Director of the Southeast Louisiana District Literary Rally Association as a Bona Fide Qualifier.

Please note:  All schools who follow a block schedule should see “LHSRA Eligibility
Rules for Block Schedule Schools” regarding specific requirements for students who
attend these schools.

 Students must:

1. Test in no more than one District Literary Rally Event unless the second event is
   the Art Exhibit.
2. Students must be currently enrolled – or have been enrolled – in a course during the current school year to be eligible to participate in District Rally competition. Exception: Schools offering courses on alternating yearly or semester basis may enter students who have completed Carnegie credits in those courses.     
3. Students repeating a course for a higher grade may not participate. However, students repeating a course due to failure are eligible to participate.
4. Students must be taking a Carnegie unit in the school in which they are enrolled.
    Thus if a seventh or eighth grade student is taking a course which will earn a Carnegie Unit that will appear on the student’s high school transcript, then the student is eligible to participate in the literary event for this course.
5. Students must meet the requirements for the Carnegie Unit in the setting of the LHSRA active member school (students enrolled in a correspondence and/or dual enrollment course may participate).
6. Students must not represent their school more than once in the same event.  Exception: Spelling.
7. Students should not seek advantage by competing in events for which advanced credit has been earned or having been earned for courses in advanced standing. (e.g. competing in Physical Science after completing a course in Chemistry)

Eligibility for all 46 State Rally Literary Events is limited to students enrolled in a Louisiana High School Rally Association (LHSRA) active member school and certified by a District Rally Director as a Bona Fide Qualifier. Any student not certified as a qualifier by a District Rally Director WILL NOT be allowed to compete in State Rally. Any student found competing in State Rally who was not certified by a District Rally Director WILL BE DISQUALIFIED from State Rally competition and the appropriate sanctions may be made against his/her school by the Executive Director. Additional eligibility rules are as follows:

1. Each student may test in no more than one State Rally Literary Event.
2. Students must be currently enrolled – or have been enrolled – in a course during the current school year to be eligible to participate in District and State Rally competition. Students who are enrolled in the next level course during the current school year are not eligible to participate in the literary event for the prerequisite course.
   1. Example:  A student who attends a school that follows block scheduling completed English I during the fall semester. He is enrolled in English II during the current Spring semester. He is not eligible to participate at District or State Rally in English I because English I is the prerequisite course for English II. The student is only eligible to participate in English II because he is currently enrolled in that course.
3. Students should not seek to gain an unfair advantage by competing in events for which advanced credit has been earned or having been earned for courses in advanced standing (e.g. competing in Physical Science after completing a course in Chemistry).
4. Students repeating a course for a higher grade may not participate. However, students repeating a course due to failure are eligible to participate.
5. Students must be taking a Carnegie unit in the school in which they are enrolled.
   Thus, if a seventh or eighth grade student is taking a course which will earn a Carnegie Unit that will appear on the student’s high school transcript, then the student is eligible to participate in the literary event for this course.
6. Students must meet the requirements for the Carnegie unit in the setting of the LHSRA active member school (students enrolled in a correspondence and/or dual enrollment course may participate).
7. Students must not represent their school more than once in the same event.
8. When the calendar sets District Rally prior to March 1, students at schools that follow block scheduling will be allowed to participate in a literary event for their school if they completed the course during the preceding fall semester or are enrolled in the course during the current spring semester. Even if the student is currently enrolled in the next level course, the student will be able to participate in a literary event for a course that was completed in the prior semester, provided that the course is a pre-requisite for the course in which the student is currently enrolled.
   1. Example: A student who attends a school that follows block scheduling completed semester. He is eligible to participate at District Rally in either English I or English II

Can I use a calculator?

You may use a calculator on the LHSRA Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics tests, but not on any of the other tests offered by the LHSRA. You are not required to use a calculator.  All problems on the tests can be solved without a calculator.

WARNING:  You are responsible for knowing if your calculator is permitted.  If you use a prohibited calculator, or you use a calculator on any test other than the Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics Tests, you will be dismissed and your answer document will not be scored.  If it is determined later that you used a prohibited calculator or that you used a calculator on a test other than the mathematics, chemistry, and physics tests, your scores will be cancelled.  The TI-89 is the most common calculator taken from students who bring this model to rally events.

If you wish to use a calculator, you are responsible for bringing it to the test center and for making sure it works properly. The test center will not provide a backup calculator or batteries. You may not share your calculator with anyone else.  You may bring a backup calculator, but you may not have more than one on your desk or in operation at a time.

You may use your calculator only while you are working on the Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics tests. At all other times, it must be turned off and put away.  If you finish the tests before time is called, you must turn your calculator off and wait quietly.  Calculators with games or other functions may not be used – you may use only the mathematics functions of your calculator.

Permitted Calculators

• Any four-function, scientific, or graphing calculator, unless it has features described in the Prohibited Calculators list below.
• TI-Nspire (non-CAS) and Sharp EL 9600
• Calculators with letter keys not in QWERTY format
• For models on the Calculators Permitted with Modification list, you will be required to modify some of the calculator’s features.

Prohibited Calculators

• Texas Instruments:  all model numbers beginning with TI-89 and TI-92, and TI-Nspire CAS
• Hewlett-Packard:  HP Prime, HP 48GII and all model numbers beginning with HP 40G, HP 49G, or HP 50G
• Casio:  fx-CP400 (ClassPad 400), Algebra fx 2.0, ClassPad 300, ClassPad 330, and all model numbers beginning with CFX – 9970G
• Calculators with built-in computer algebra systems
• Pocket organizers
• Handheld, tablet, or laptop computers, including PDAs
• Electronic Writing Pads or Pen-Input devices
• Calculators built into cell phones or other electronic communication devices
• Calculators with a typewriter keypad (keys in QWERTY format)

Calculators Permitted with Modification

These types of calculators are permitted, but only after they are modified as noted:

• Calculators with paper tape – Remove the tape.
• Calculators that can hold programs or documents – remove all documents and remove all programs that have computer algebra system functionality
• Calculators that make noise – turn off the sound
• Calculators that can communicate wirelessly with other calculators – Completely cover the infrared data port with heavy opaque material such as duct tape or electricians tape (includes Hewlett-Packard HP 38G series, HP 39G series, and HP 48G).
• Calculators that have power cords – remove all power/electrical cords.

NB:  LHSRA Calculator Usage Policy is adapted from ACT Calculator Policy Updated September 1, 2023.

1. Schools may enter only ONE district rally.
2. All Literary Tests will be limited to ONE HOUR ONLY.
3. Certain educational aides are not permitted, i.e., slide rules, dictionaries, English
   handbooks, etc. A Periodic Table will be available in the classroom for those students taking the Chemistry test. Calculators ARE allowed. Please see LHSRA calculator usage policy guidelines.
4. Participants who arrive after posted event times may not participate.  Students are
   encouraged to arrive to the testing room at least ten minutes prior to the posted
   event time.  In the event that unforeseeable circumstances prevent a significant number of participants from multiple schools from arriving by the posted event time, the following steps may be taken: 
   1. High School Coordinators are responsible for contacting the Director of the District Literary Rally to inform them of the circumstances
   2. At the discretion of the Director of the District Rally, test times may be adjusted as applicable
5. Students are responsible for knowing which event they are participating in.  A roster of participants will be posted near the door of each test location.  Students will be required to initial the roster next to their name.  Students are not eligible to participate in the event if their names are not on the roster.  Any student found
   participating in a test in which they are not registered will not have their tests graded.
6. Any student engaging in or receiving dishonest assistance during an event will be
   automatically disqualified and will be denied all awards or honors he/she may have won during the current District Rally and will be barred from District Rally competition for the next academic year. The school that the student attends will be notified of such action.

Tiebreaker Policy: The most difficult questions within each literary event test will be used as tiebreakers.  These tiebreakers will compose 20% of each literary event test. Tiebreakers will not be identified to participating students.  In the event of a tie, the following policy will be applied:

• The students’ answers to the questions selected as tiebreakers will be reviewed.
• The student who obtains the highest percentage of accurate tiebreaker questions is the winner.  (Example: If there are eight tiebreaker questions and student #1 answers three out of eight tiebreakers correctly, but student #2 answers six out of eight correctly, then student #2 is the winner)
• If more than one student answers the same number of tiebreaker questions correctly, all eligible students are declared winners and will be eligible to compete at State Rally, provided that these students attend different schools.

Note: Only one student per school is eligible to participate in a literary event at State Rally. If multiple students from the same school participate in a literary event, receive the same overall score, and then answer the highest percentage of tiebreakers correctly, then the district must select one winning student to send to the State Rally. If more than one student from the same school answers 100% of the test questions correctly, all eligible students will qualify to attend state rally.

Participants who arrive after posted event times may not participate.  Students are encouraged to arrive to the testing room at least ten minutes prior to the posted event time.  In the event that unforeseeable circumstances prevent a significant number of participants from multiple schools from arriving by the posted event time, the following steps may be taken:

• High School Coordinators are responsible for contacting the Director of the District
  Literary Rally to inform them of the circumstances
• At the discretion of the Director of the District Rally, test times may be adjusted
  as applicable

Classification of Schools: Each school must determine the division in which it will compete.  This is based on the total enrollment figure submitted on the annual report to the State Department of Education as of the completion of the first month of the school year.

K-12 schools use 9-12 grade enrollment as the basis for classification. Middle, junior, 9th grade centers and other special schools use the annual report for purposes of classification.

Division Inclusive Number of Students

I     1,001 and up

II    501 – 1000

III   251 – 500

IV   151 – 250

V    1-150

Number of State Rally Qualifiers: The number of qualifiers in each event depends on the number of schools from the same division in that event according to the following schedule.

Number of schools from division per event/Number of Qualifiers from division per event

1-5

2 6-10

3 11-15

4 16-20

521 and up 6

LHSRA is committed to serving students with disabilities by providing reasonable accommodations appropriate to the student’s diagnosis.  Students who currently receive accommodations in school due to a professionally-diagnosed and -documented disability may provide documentation to support a request for special testing accommodations.

The information provided to LHSRA about the student’s disability will be treated as confidential and will be used solely to determine the student’s eligibility for accommodations.  Details about the student’s testing accommodations will be shared only with the testing staff and will not be released to anyone else.

Please select the link below to access the LHSRA Special Testing Accomodations Form.  It must be submitted to us no later than the deadline to submit your students. You may email this form to [email protected]. Once submitted we will contact you and the student regarding the requested accommodations.

LHSRA has long provided accommodations to test takers with disabilities and is committed to compliance with the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  In this regard, LHSRA has adopted the following guiding principles for responding to requests from examinees for testing accommodations:

• Requirements and procedures for testing accommodations must ensure fairness for all candidates, both those seeking accommodations and those testing under standard conditions.
• Accommodations must be consistent with ADA requirements and appropriate and reasonable for the documented disability.
• Accommodations must not result in an undue burden, as that term is used under the ADA, or fundamentally alter that which the test is designed to measure.
• Documentation of the disability must meet guidelines that are considered to be appropriate by qualified professionals and must provide evidence that the disability substantially limits one or more major life activities.  Applicants must also provide information about prior accommodations made in a similar setting, such as academic classes and other testing situations.

Confidentiality

All documentation submitted to LHSRA is kept confidential and is used solely to determine the student’s eligibility for test accommodations.  Test supervisors are also instructed to treat as confidential all information they receive relative to the examinee’s disability and accommodations.

Examples of Special Testing Accommodations

• Students with visual impairments or blindness may have assistance marking responses and may request extended time.  Students may be provided a large font type (e.g. 18-point) test, a Braille test, or an assigned test reader as appropriate to the disability.
• Students with hearing impairments whose hearing loss has caused a reading disability may be considered for extended time if documentation supports the request.  A sign language interpreter may assist with pre-test information and spoken instructions, but not normally with the test items.
• Students with learning disabilities may request extended time and/or alternate test formats.  The test format requested should be consistent with test accommodations currently provided at the school.
• Students with motor disabilities may be eligible for extended time and assistance
  marking responses.
• Students with psychological or cognitive disabilities may be eligible for extended time if the documentation supports the request.  Note: Test anxiety alone is not a disability according to federal disability guidelines.

LHSRA Special Testing Accommodations is adapted from ACT Policy for Documentation to Support Requests for Test Accommodations on the ACT, 2014.