9th Grade Initiative/Freshmen Academies

Destrehan High School (St. Charles Parish)

The administration and faculty of Destrehan High School are striving to instill rigor in everything they do.  In this way, the school seeks to help its students reach their full potential. Through its 9th Grade Initiative and as a participant in the High Schools That Work Program, Destrehan is focused on offering students a valuable educational experience during high school and beyond.   In fact, Destrehan was one of only ten high schools in the nation this summer to be awarded the High Schools That Work Silver Award for Applied Learning. Destrehan’s recent achievements also include:

• A graduation rate of 85% and an average ACT score of 20.5 for seniors;
• 74% of its 9th graders scoring Basic or above on the 2008-2009 iLEAP ELA section;
• 75% of its 9th graders scoring Basic or above on the 2008-2009 iLEAP Math section;
  89% of its 10th graders passing the GEE ELA section on their first attempt, and
• 93% of its 10th graders passing the GEE Math section on their first attempt.

If you are interested in touring Destrehan High School to get a first-hand look at this model of achievement, you may contact the school office at: (985) 764-9946.

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Peabody Magnet High School (Rapides Parish)

The first year of high school is an adjustment for students. That’s why easing students into the high school experience is a critical component of High Value High Schools. One school that has made tremendous strides in freshman transitions is Peabody Magnet High School in Alexandria. 

Peabody’s Freshman Academy houses all freshmen in one wing of the building, fostering relationships and a sense of community among students and teachers. Students not only learn together, they also help each other as they work through common academic and social issues associated with their transition. In addition, close relationships between teachers and parents help teachers address individual concerns before they become problems.

And the results of Peabody’s freshmen initiative are impressive. From the 2006-2007 school year to the 2007-08 school year, Peabody saw dramatic gains in the following measurements:

• Students earning high honor roll recognition (A+ GPA) rose from 18% to 30%.
• Students earning honor roll recognition (A-B GPA) rose from 58% to 70%.
• Disciplinary referrals among 9th graders dropped by more than 70% in one year.
• Absenteeism dropped from 120 absences per day to less than 80 per day.

For more information on Peabody Magnet High School’s Freshman Academy, please contact the school at (318) 448-3457.

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Pineville High School (Rapides Parish)

Located north of Alexandria, Pineville High School has a new freshmen transition course that is generating positive relationships for its students and parents.

In 2007, Pineville competed for and received a High School Re-design 9th Grade Initiative grant of $60,000 from the Louisiana Department of Education and subsequently received the same amount for the 2008-2009 school year.  Pineville is using funds from the grant award to implement a Freshmen Academy infused with a transition course.

The transition course is designed to support students as they make the difficult transition from middle school to high school. Pineville’s course also employs the Career Choices curriculum, which guides students in making informed decisions about their futures and the educational and career paths necessary to achieve their goals.

Teachers of the transition course have a teaming period, which allows them to discuss the ups and downs of students as well as parental conferences and involvement if needed.

PLATO credit recovery software is utilized in the transition course to provide struggling students with self-paced, real-world context learning opportunities.

Career Centers

Caddo Career & Technology Center (Caddo Parish)

With employers expecting their new hires to be ready to contribute from day one, it is never too early to start working towards a career. The Caddo Career & Technology Center (CCTC) is giving high school students in the Shreveport area opportunities to explore careers and develop skills before they even leave the high school campus.

The CCTC brings members of the surrounding business community together to provide real world experience to students through courses, counseling and mock job interviews. In some cases, students can also earn Industry Based Certifications before they graduate from high school. Caddo’s course offerings cut across many disciplines, including welding, carpentry, automotive repair, marketing, culinary arts and fashion design.

The Caddo Parish community recognizes the value of the CCTC to its future.  Through the Caddo Career and Technology Foundation, an independent organization, scholarships are provided to CCTC graduating seniors.  Both the Louisiana Department of Education and the National Association of Career and Technical Education recognize the contributions of the Foundation.  The Department has honored the Caddo Career and Technology Foundation with one of its eleven Distinguished Partners in Education Awards, and on November 20, 2009 the Foundation will receive the National Association of Career and Technical Education’s 2009 Award of Merit at its annual convention in Nashville, Tennessee.      

For more information about the CCTC program, you may visit their website at www.caddocareer.com.

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The Satellite Center, St. Charles Parish

Four years ago, St. Charles Parish opened The Satellite Center in Luling to provide students with opportunities that go far beyond the boundaries of the traditional classroom.  

Juniors and seniors  from two high schools – Hahnville and Destrehan – attend pathway-specific classes at the Center either in the morning or the afternoon and take core-curriculum classes at their feeder high schools for the rest of the day.

Students at the Satellite Center work on real-world, challenging projects. These projects require them to work directly with community members, businesses, and industry representatives, while applying knowledge and skills in their field of study to produce a final product. The Satellite Center offers Work Centers (career pathways) in Advanced Television Broadcasting, Culinary Arts, Digital Media, Engineering Design, Health Career Exploration, Patient Care, Process Technology, Students Teaching and Reaching, WebQuil, and Hotel, Restaurant, and Tourism Administration. The Center’s project-based approach to learning offers students deep field experiences, the opportunity to work with highly advanced technology and equipment, and valuable practice at building professional working relationships.

And thanks to dual enrollment, they are earning college credit while they do it.

For more information about the Satellite Center or to schedule a tour of the facility, contact the school at (985) 785-2080. For detailed information about each of the Work Centers, the facilitators, and a 360º virtual tour of each Work Center, visit http://satellite.stcharles.k12.la.us/.

Advisory Program

Plain Dealing High School (Bossier Parish)

Plain Dealing High School sits about thirty miles from Bossier City in Northern Bossier Parish.  Of the 240 students in 6th through 12th graders enrolled in the school, 85 percent participate in the free or reduced-price lunch program.  But rather than defer to the challenges associated with high poverty school communities, Plain Dealing is raising expectations and student performance.

Through its Positive Behavior Support Program and Advisory Program, the school aims to create a family atmosphere for students.  To ensure the effectiveness of its Advisory Program, Plain Dealing has revised its daily schedule so that students attend an advisory period every day for twenty-five minutes.  Students are encouraged to share their point of view with their advisors, and parents and students know they can turn to their advisor teacher when they have difficulties.

And Plain Dealing’s approach has been effective. The number of students qualifying for Honor Roll is up nearly 100%, and discipline referrals have decreased by 52% in the high school.

Plain Dealing has also had five 8(g) grants funded over the past few years, two of which were for $100K. One of its high-profile programs is Project IMPACT, which provides Promethean boards and six mobile laptop labs with wireless capability to drive their project-based learning.

In addition, Plain Dealing is a member of the International Center for Leadership in Education’s (ICLE) Successful Practices Network. It has published several Gold Seal lessons and has presented at the Model Schools Conference.   

Plain Dealing is a testimony to the gains that can be achieved when a school community takes the vision of high school redesign to heart.

Small Learning Communities

Chalmette High School (St. Bernard Parish)

Even though St. Bernard Parish lost every school during Hurricane Katrina, it has been in the midst of a major rebuilding program since the parish’s complete devastation.   Chalmette High School recently opened its new Ninth Grade Academy for the 2009-2010 school year -- a state-of-the-art facility which has been constructed specifically around research-based best practices for a “school within a school.”

Chalmette High School, which is now the only 9th through 12th grade school in St. Bernard parish, is quickly becoming one of the finest high school facilities in the state. When the campus is complete, the school will house a new gym, Olympic-sized swimming pool, a 400 seat auditorium and two libraries.

Students will also have access to state-of-the-art instructional technology in every classroom and science labs that feature the latest in technical equipment. The new facility is also located in a neighborhood that will offer a new cultural arts center for the high school, which when completed next year, will house dance and music studios, an additional library, and a performance theater.

The new school was designed with the curriculum as its main focus.  Each of the three floors of the classroom building will house its own cohort of about 100 students. Each floor offers a science lab, computer lab, and classrooms for each of the core areas, and the students will be served by a unique ‘team’ of teachers. The students will only leave their ‘floor’ to attend the Physical Education classes.  On each floor there is a planning room for the team of teachers assigned to that floor, and there is also a widened hallway at the end of each floor for grade level activities and events.

Chalmette High’s teachers began meeting last January to plan their new 9th grade program.  Administrators and teachers toured similar 9th grade programs already in operation in the state and met with several nationally-recognized 9th-grade academy consultants during the spring semester. The school also wrote and received an 8(g) grant this past spring aimed at assisting them with implementation of the program this first year. Teachers attended four weeks of professional development this summer, and when they opened school on August 12th – it was with a shared theme:  “failure is not an option!”

NEW TECH HIGH SCHOOL

Ruston High School (Lincoln Parish)

Located in the Western part of Ruston just north of the Louisiana Tech University campus, Ruston High School is home to 1,020 students. The school has undergone several renovations through the years, the most recent being completed during the 2008-2009 school year.

Like other high schools across Louisiana, Ruston has embraced the concept of high school redesign and has implemented a Freshman Academy through 8(g) funds for the High School Redesign 9th Grade Initiative. The school is also using 8(g) funds to provide READ 180 and Math 180 programs for its students.

The effort seems to be paying off for students.  The number of discipline referrals for freshmen is down from previous years, and the school has seen a 14% increase in the number of 9th grade students who earn a GPA of 3.0 or higher at the end of their first semester. For the past two years, in 2007 and 2008, Ruston has also seen an increase in its School Performance Score.

And the school is still working to improve through innovation.  For example, the district and school are working to implement the New Tech High School model. Ruston’s New Tech facility will be a 21st century high school separate from the rest of the school.  It will have a non-selective admission policy, a project-based and standards-based skills philosophy, and strong partnerships with the business community. The New Tech High School will have a 1:1 student-to-computer ratio and its students will be phased in over a two-to-three-year period, beginning with the 10th grade. It will also have its own full-time principal with staffing autonomy. The projected opening for Ruston’s New Tech High School is the 2010-2011 school year.

Ruston is also the recipient of a $1.4 million grant offered through NASA, in cooperation with Louisiana Tech University. The effort, called the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Program, incorporates a highly rigorous science program at the school. Students are initially selected for the program by scoring at least at the mastery level on 8th-grade LEAP scores in math and science. Ruston’s program currently includes STEM curricula for physical science, biology, chemistry, and robotics. During the 2009-2010 school year, Ruston will add STEM physics, forensics, and marine biology. The $1.4 million grant will be used for teacher training, classroom equipment, travel, and for Ruston’s trained high school faculty to train other school faculties throughout the state.

For more information, please visit Ruston High School’s website at http://rustonhigh.lincolnschools.org/.