Louisiana high schools facing makeover

Louisiana public high schools are headed for sweeping changes that students and parents will notice.

The goal is to produce schools that are more rigorous, relevant and better able to prepare students for college or jobs. The activity stems from a view common across the nation: Public high schools are broken, and students are being penalized because of it.

Backers of the drive emphasize new state rules will be phased in and many are still under discussion.

“This is not something that you turn a switch on and everything is different,” said Leslie Jacobs of New Orleans, a key member of the state’s top school board and Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s High School Redesign Commission, the two groups behind the push.

The state is developing what could be a high school makeover. Among new policies on the way or under serious consideration:

• Phasing out the Graduation Exit Exam, which students must pass to graduate, in favor of state tests that students will take at the end of algebra I and other key subjects.

• Requiring most high school students to take a rigorous curriculum because of the growing view that most students need tougher classes even if they plan to pursue a job or job training instead of college.

• Reworking ninth grade, including separate academies in some cases, to stem dropout rates in what experts call a “watershed” grade.

In addition, a required fourth year of math to earn a high school diploma probably is on the way.

Five “lighthouse” schools received grants to finance improvements that can serve as statewide models. Another 40 or 50 schools are set to win state funds in January to focus on ninth-grade improvements.

Also, a summit on high school issues is scheduled March 2 in Baton Rouge.

Backers of the changes say traditional high schools are not doing the job.

“They haven’t changed very much, they haven’t kept up with the times … the things kids need to know nowadays,” said Stephanie Desselle, vice president of the Council for a Better Louisiana and a member of Blanco’s redesign commission.

“And I just think it is a place where, if you don’t make it, you just get let go,” Desselle said.

Lots of Louisiana students are failing to make it.

Of 60,000 ninth-graders who began high school in August, about 35,000 will leave with a diploma in 2010, according to a state report done for the commission. Fewer than 10,000 n 17 percent n will earn an associate degree by 2012 or a bachelor’s degree by 2014.

Even with a high school diploma, about one in three students who start public colleges and universities in Louisiana require remedial classes.

“The statistics say very clearly that we are not where we need to be,” said Dawn Jacobi, who teaches math at Destrehan High School and was 2004 state high school teacher of the year.

Louisiana has 190,000 high school students. Most attend schools that have changed little in the past generation. Classes are usually divided into six or seven class periods daily. Students have to pass 23 classes to earn a traditional diploma, including some specific courses.

They enjoy wide latitude on what other courses to take.

Even students say that, in some cases, course work is too easy.

End-of-year tests are designed to make courses more challenging and of similarly rigorous statewide. Exams for algebra I, initially, and up to seven others, eventually, begin on a pilot basis this spring and statewide next school year.

Exactly how they will be used has not been decided.

Algebra I is first on the list in part because it is a “gatekeeper” course, which means it serves as a good indicator of how students will fare in college.

Jacobs said support is growing on the commission to gradually substitute such tests for the traditional Graduation Exit Exam.

Critics contend there are too many variables, including differences in student abilities, to rely on a single test.

“I just don’t think that having a statewide test on one thing is going to work,” said Mike McCoy, a 30-year classroom veteran who teaches physics at Captain Shreve High School in Shreveport.

The push for a core curriculum stems from the idea that the 21st-century work force demands that high school students finish a college preplike course of study.

Curriculum changes are still under discussion by the commission, which plans to work on final recommendations at its Jan. 11 meeting.

Backers insist tougher high school classes do not mean more dropouts.

Morehouse Parish School Superintendent Richard Hartley, a member of the commission, said he is concerned about both end-of-course exams and trying to get most high school students to follow the same core curriculum.

“We have to be cautious,” Hartley said. “We are repairing the airplane while we are flying it, and we have to be very cautious.”

An earlier state commission recommended high school changes in 1999 that had little impact. Some experts contend that might happen again.

“I don’t see the local districts really buying into these new ways,” Desselle said.

Ninth grade might face the biggest change of all. Failing a class in the ninth grade is the biggest sign a student will drop out. Even topflight students know that the transition to high school can be bumpy.

Those who favor sweeping changes in high school operations agree.

“The research shows that it is incredibly important when that young adolescent leaves middle school and goes to high school, that they have to connect with that new high school setting,” Jacobs said.

Hammond High School is in the second year of operating a ninth-grade academy, which has its own assistant principal. In the academy, ninth-graders even eat lunch apart from other students.

Up to 50 schools will be targeted this month for $100,000 from the state over three years to come up with ways to improve the ninth grade.