Act 3, Jump Start changing La. education

In two separate reports, the Acadia Parish School Board learned that two of the state’s education programs will mean more administrative duties on its end.
Ellan Kay Baggett, executive director of personnel/operations, and Steve Duplechin, supervisor of federal programs, provided more insight into Act 3 Early Childhood and Jump Start, respectively, Wednesday night during the Personnel/Insurance/Curriculum committee meeting.
Act 3 is designed to help bridge the gap between early development and kindergarten. The state of Louisiana began moving toward a unified Early Childhood System after the 2012 Regular Legislative Session, as directed by Act 3. The belief behind the move was that the system as currently run has been too fragmented, resulting in too few children prepared to be successful in kindergarten.
It is to be fully implemented in the 2015-16 school year. It is then that the local networks will expand access to high quality, publicly-funded early childhood programs to families across Louisiana to ensure more children enter school kindergarten ready.
Locally, Baggett explained, that the school board will now be training privately-owned daycare workers under specific federal or state educational funding (there are eight in the parish currently under that umbrella) to impose specific curriculum measures to their students, provide portfolios for the students and to observe and grade the progress of the facility, to which a letter grade is set to be assessed.
Head start and pre-kindergarten classes will also be doing the same.
“We have 25 pre-K classes, 21 Head Start classes and eight child care centers that are involved,” said Baggett. “(The criteria) is a set of skills that kids should have when they enter kindergarten. Daycare centers, pre-kindergarten and Head Start will all have the same skills (they will be evaluated on).”
There are problems with this plan, however, as smaller districts like Acadia feature many schools with only one pre-kindergarten class, making the issuing of their reports to the public impossible. One teacher’s evaluation is not supposed to be made public in that manner.
It also remains unclear whether teachers already being evaluated through Compass will have be re-evaluated under Class for this program or if Class will replace Compass for these teachers.
Outside of that, the plan is presenting other problems, such as funding issues.
“In pre-K, we get about $4,000 per kid, so we can hire a teacher, Head Start’s about $2,000 to $2,200, so that’s a drop,” said Superintendent John Bourque. “What does a daycare center get? Minimum wage? And (the state wants) them to go get certified.
“So, if I’m working for minimum wage and go get certification, what am I going to do? I’m going get another job.”
On the positive side, the daycare centers that must start complying with these new standards have been receptive.
One of the side projects of Act 3 also looks to make enrolling a child in one of these aspects into a one-stop shop, preventing one child from holding three spaces while others wait for that one spot.
Meanwhile, high school education is providing its own logistical headaches with Jump Start.
The program was touted as the perfect solution to a growing problem in Louisiana — the need for a skilled labor force. But, the program’s execution has been the problematic part.
Jump Start is still in midst of implementation and is a collaboration, at least in theory, between school districts, colleges and businesses designed to provide career courses and workplace experience to high school students, certifying them for the career fields most likely to lead to high-wage jobs.
Jump Start will be an elective path for students pursuing a university-preparatory diploma, and a required path for students pursuing a career diploma.
It began with 23 career pathways, according to Duplechin, that number is up to 45 total across the state, and there are still not enough options in some case.
“For many years we promoted that everybody had to go to college,” said Duplechin. “And, in the process, we created a vacuum of skilled laborers in our state. So that’s where we’re at right now.
“We have a lot of projects in our state, especially in the Lake Charles area, that are coming up and are dying for skilled laborers.”
Under current Jump Start plans, a student attends high school for their freshmen and sophomore years, but in the spring of that sophomore year, the student must choose between the Core IV – TOPS collegiate path, or Jump Start and choose a pathway.
Problems are also arising in finding teachers to fill the slots and when to schedule classes. The problem only gets amplified for students that change their minds about their path after starting down the path.
“We all know people get to change their mind,” said Duplechin. “We have to make a provision for what to do with that kid.
“We had to ask teachers to go get trained in certain credentials ... outside of what they normally do.”
Ahead of its full implementation, Acadia Parish has been trying to stay ahead of the curve with a pilot program at Iota High in the form of an after typical school hours class, which may be necessary moving forward. The district is also looking at the possible need for short courses in the summer to fill in gaps.
Still, the supervisor of federal programs continues to see the good the program can do, if implemented correctly, thus has rolled up his sleeves and taken on the task.
Bourque commended the work Duplechin, Baggett and Greg Theriot have done thus far with the programs.
“Something that was going to be minor is taking over the day for these people,” said Bourque. “And, it changes everyday.”