Longer days, smaller classes, new teachers, weekend tutoring

Longer days and smaller classes, new teachers and weekend tutoring are just some of the changes planned for students at schools taken over by the state and being run as charters, officials said Tuesday.

John Rice, a spokesman for Advance Baton Rouge, said the group will start with a collaborative planning approach to teaching. Groups of 75 students to 125 students will have the same five teachers for math; English and language arts; history and social studies; and foreign languages, Rice said.

“Those teachers will follow those same students for three to four years,” he said.

Rice also said classes for core subjects will be longer — from 80 minutes to 90 minutes long versus the standard 45- to 50-minute classes.

Advance Baton Rouge asked all the teachers to reapply for their jobs, Rice said. Rice said the school had 38 to 40 teachers before the takeover. Of those, 15 reapplied for jobs at the charter school. Eleven of those 15 have been offered teaching jobs.

Rice said teachers who reapplied for their jobs had to submit a writing sample, pass an eighth-grade general content test and turn in a 20-minute video of themselves teaching. The teachers will earn five percent more than what they were being paid to compensate for the longer days, Rice said.

“And we are still in the process of hiring teachers and enrolling students,” he said.

Following years of low student academic performance, the Louisiana Department of Education decided in February to take over operation of Pointe Coupee Central High from the Pointe Coupee Parish School Board.

After submitting requests for proposals, Advance Baton Rouge was awarded a charter to run the school in May by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. The money that will fund the new charter school will continue to come from the state and the school will have to show progress and excel in the state accountability program, which is largely based on the results of standardized testing, attendance and dropout rates.

Advance Baton Rouge has hired Replications Inc. to help run its two Baton Rouge charter schools and the middle school grades at Pointe Coupee Central High School, Rice said. The group also has hired The Institute For Student Achievement, based in Lake Success, N.Y., to help run the high-school grades in Pointe Coupee.

[Going to the game]

I think ABR will be a much needed change in our system.

[minsky]

If you think this is more than just rhetoric, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I would love to sell to you. I will cut you a really good deal on it, too.

[Supporter]

minsky wrote:

If you think this is more than just rhetoric, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I would love to sell to you. I will cut you a really good deal on it, too.

I think you are just a person that looks for negativity. Whats your idea for change Minsky?

[Jamrock]

Going to the game wrote:

I think ABR will be a much needed change in our system.

I am in total agreement Going.

[youngest]

I searched for Lake Success as a reference and could not find information.

[pragmatist]

youngest wrote:

I searched for Lake Success as a reference and could not find information.

http://www.studentachievement.org/index.htm

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/UnitedStates/E...

http://www.guidestar.org/pqShowGsReport.do...

http://www.allbusiness.com/north-america/unit...

http://www.union-city-nj.org/modules/news/art...

[MEme]

I believe its like this "If you build it , They will come" idea...if you give it possible response the people will stay, keep posting all this negative responses and this will give PCCHS people the reason to RUN....I am all for ABR taking over and I wish them luck and I know they will succeed!!I do agree though that BESE should have looked into this long before it go to out of hand....