‘Career diploma’ interest predicted

• By WILL SENTELL
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Jul 4, 2009 - Page: 1A

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A significant number of high school students will pursue Louisiana’s new curriculum designed to reduce dropouts, parish school superintendents predict.

“I definitely think we are going to have some students fervently interested in that,” said Lafayette Parish School District Superintendent Burnell Lemoine.

“There is no question,” Lemoine said. “We will have a large number of students. You need all kinds of options.”

The new curriculum is included in Senate Bill 259, which Gov. Bobby Jindal signed into law Thursday.

Backers said the aim is to offer different classes to students who plan to enter the work force or a two-year school, not a four-year college.

Those who finish the curriculum would earn a “career diploma,” with Louisiana being one of the few states in the nation to offer it.

“You are talking about breaking historic ground here with two different diplomas,” said Randy Pope, associate executive director of the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents and former superintendent of public schools in Livingston Parish.

The bill that authorized the new curriculum won lopsided approval in both houses of the Legislature.

But it also triggered criticism from state Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek and others since it lowers state education standards for some students who tackle the classes.

About 180,000 students attend public high schools in Louisiana.

Roughly one in three fail to graduate on time. Those who do often complain that required classes have no relevance to their career plans.

About one in four students fail to graduate on time nationally.

Under current rules, high school students who pursue a traditional, college preparatory curriculum pursue one set of classes.