William Morris
July 23, 2007
Barracudas make waves at state meet
July 25, 2007
Two Terrebonne junior high schools have incorporated a ninth grade initiative, which focuses on increasing on-time promotion to the 10th grade and decreasing the dropout rates.
According to Terrebonne Parish School board data processing manager Walt Prejean, of the 1,505 ninth graders who showed up on the first day of classes for the 2006-2007 school year, only eight of them officially dropped out.
“This is by no means an indication of a dropout ‘rate’ as calculated by the state,” Prejean said.
The data finalized by the state, as of now, is a five percent drop rate for seventh through 12th grades. There is no rate supplied by grade level.
David Bourg, TPSB supervisor of Secondary Education said, “The purpose of the ninth grade initiative is to encourage and support schools implementing the reform. This provides students with the personal attention and support they need to have a successful secondary education.”
The program is geared toward increasing on-time promotion of the parish ninth graders to the 10th grade, preparing them for continued secondary educational success. The Louisiana Board of Education and Secondary Education hopes that this will also increase the graduation rate.
“Superintendent (Ed) Richard asked me what will it take for us to incorporate features of the high school redesign into the Terrebonne Parish public school system,” Bourg said. “With the ninth grade possible moving to the high school in coming years, we decided to focus on the ninth grade initiative.”
After attending several of the high school redesign meetings, Bourg and the principals from Houma Junior High and Evergreen Junior High schools decided that the ninth grade initiative would be a great start for the parish school system.
One of the concepts of high school redesign is to isolate the ninth graders in a separate facility or academy that focuses solely on the ninth grade curriculum. Unfortunately, Terrebonne Parish is currently not ready to go that far into the redesign reform, Richard said.
Recently, State Superintendent of Education Paul G. Pastorek told South Central Industrial Association members that the plan is to stop populating the high schools. He explained that as classes graduate, new classes will not replenish the school. Instead, state school officials plan to create an academy for ninth grade only.
Only two schools in the parish have ninth graders at the secondary school level, Ellender Memorial High and South Terrebonne High schools. Bourg said each of the schools was allowed to apply for grants, which helps school research and implements more phases of the high school redesign.
Out of the two schools, Ellender Memorial qualified for the grant, receiving $58,600 for the upcoming school year.
“Ellender is working on a ninth grade curriculum that is appropriate where we can give the students the kind of help and assistance they need to meet the school’s expectation so that failure is not an option,” said Ellender Principal Marilyn Schwartz.
The grant funds will be used for training staff and planning for full implementation of the high school redesign in the 2008-2009 school year.
Schwartz said Ellender staff plans to use a lot of technology and strategies, which are designed to help ninth graders become accustomed to the high school setting. The aim is for the ninth grade students to graduate in four years.
“Last term, we started implementing mentoring programs with the kids who needed them the most,” she said. “This year, we are going to develop programs where all the ninth graders have an adult advisor who they meet with once a month.”
The advisors will help the students with academic, career and life planning as well as monitor student grades and attendance.
Houma Junior High and Evergreen Junior High have redesigned their lunch periods, giving ninth graders a separate lunch in the spring semester of the 2006-2007 school year. The reform was successful for both schools. They are starting this school term off with the lunch redesign.
“Modifying the lunch hours so that the ninth graders could have a lunch to themselves was a great implementation,” Evergreen Junior High Principal Mark Torbert said.
Torbert said the high school redesign is a work-in-progress for the parish school system. “If something comes up that we can implement with no hassle, we will definitely try it,” the principal said.
A work-in-progress is right. Several components of the official high school redesign call for moving all ninth graders to separate facilities, changing curricula for the incoming 2008-2009 freshmen and increasing staffing at the additional schools.
“Regardless of whether the ninth grades are moved to the high school or a separate school the curriculum will change for the incoming freshmen in 2008-2009,” Bourg said.
As the school year progresses, Richard said more information would be given to the public on high school redesign.
Repeated calls to the Lafourche Parish School Board to learn which schools have incorporated portions of the ninth grade initiative remained unreturned as of press-time.
Houma Junior High School is among the Terrebonne Parish schools undergoing a redesign this year. * Staff photo by BRIAN FONTENOT
