Inside Report for October 28, 2009

• By WILL SENTELL
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Oct 28, 2009 - Page: 9B

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Louisiana public schools face arguably their biggest challenge in the next few years.

One is to boost the high school graduation rate to 80 percent, up from 66.6 percent now.

The other is to raise school performance scores to 120, up from 91.

State educators hope to reach both targets by 2014.

Either would represent something of a sea change in public school operations, especially if students reach the graduation target.

Why so daunting?

The graduation rate gap is 13.4 percentage points.

It would have to grow by an average of 2.68 percentage points each of the next five years to hit 80 percent.

The increase has been about six-tenths of 1 percent in recent years, according to state calculations.

The 80 percent goal is included in a state law approved earlier this year. What happens if the state falls short is unclear.

Yet state educators are scrambling to make it happen, or at least to pull out all the stops along the way.

Meetings are taking place with principals and others in Louisiana’s 420 public high schools.

The aim is to pinpoint which programs that aid the graduation rate work best for which schools.