La. likely to create new diploma
By AP, Published July 5, 2009

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – High school students could skip college prep courses and instead take classes designed to get them into two-year higher education institutions under a plan that Louisiana lawmakers are expected to approve despite criticism that it would produce graduates who can’t find jobs.

Lawmakers are expected to send the bill to Gov. Bobby Jindal in the next few days, over the objections of some national education groups who say the changes would dilute the state’s recent work to improve public schools. They say the legislation lowers standards beginning in eighth grade and would produce graduates who struggle to find work because they never mastered basic reading, writing and mathematics.

“One way to raise achievement is to raise expectations, with a more rigorous curriculum, and Louisiana has done a good job of that recently,” said Michael Cohen, president of Achieve, a nonprofit organization that works to raise states’ academic standards. “But we’re concerned that this legislation would be a step backward.”

The governor’s aides have said Jindal supports the bill.

Under the legislation, parents could allow their children 15 and older to leave pre-college curriculum and instead take the “career option program.”

Graduates who took the new curriculum would get a career-option diploma that would not qualify them for a four-year college or university. Instead, they could attend two-year technical schools or community colleges.

Critics such as Achieve, the Education Trust and Jobs for the Future argue that the change could recreate the type of tracking system that leaves many students, particularly poor and minority students, unprepared for good careers and for further education after high school.