By Jacob Brooks
The Daily News
 DAILY NEWS PHOTO/Jacob Brooks Bogalusa High history teacher Leslie Raborn (right) makes a point about Malcolm X to students in her American history enriched class Wednesday. Advertisement |
The learning continued into the history of former Presidents Nixon and Ford, and soon the classroom session flowed into a documentary presentation on Malcolm X, with Raborn pausing the video when she wanted to make certain points. Students watched on intently, taking notes.
Before watching the video, the teacher had gone over other historic events in the 1960s, such as the Cuban missile crises. Raborn related it to modern events.
"I want to know what's going on in Iran," she told the class of 11th graders, and assigned them to write a short synopsis of the latest news with Iran, due the next day.
It's a lot of information crammed into one day's history class, but that's just the way school officials want it. And the reason the history class is labeled as "enriched."
As the Louisiana Department of Education takes steps toward the often vague plan of "High School Redesign," Bogalusa High officials say their school is already implementing some of the redesign methods with enriched classes and other education methods.
BHS and Bogalusa City School officials attended the Louisiana High School Redesign Summit on April 25, and came back with an understanding that BHS is on the right path when it comes to High School Redesign.
The Louisiana Commission on High School Redesign was created in 2004 by the governor to redesign high schools enabling all Louisiana youth to graduate from high school prepared to succeed, according to the state Department of Education.
"While listening to the various speakers and presenters, we were pleased to learn that Bogalusa High School is already offering our students many of the opportunities mentioned by the Redesign Commission," according to a document from BHS Assistant Principal Theresa King.
Bogalusa High already offers online classes through louisianavirtualschool.net, a freshmen transition course, dual enrollment opportunities with participating colleges and has one-on-one technology for every student - all brought up in the high school redesign summit, King said.
With Louisiana Virtual School, run by the state, students can use laptops they are issued to take classes like Latin or psychology - courses that BHS doesn't have teachers for.
The new "freshman seminar" class at BHS has had positive results, school officials said.
"It's worked tremendously for helping us get the ninth grade students on track," King said, adding LVS allows students to take a number of advanced placement courses as well.
With dual enrollment opportunities, BHS students can take an English 101 course, receiving credits in both high school and at Southeastern Louisiana University. A variety of dual enrollment courses are available with Louisiana Technical College Sullivan Campus.
Currently there are about 16 enrichment courses available at BHS, and school officials also want to expand opportunities for "gifted" students, King said.
Current students who are gifted - deemed so by scoring at a certain level on an IQ-type test - are pulled out of other classes and given one-on-one training from a gifted teacher, King said.
However, BHS wants to expand that training by offering a class for gifted students next year, King said.
"The state expects a certain number of students are gifted (at each school)," King said, and those students should receive proper direction with educational goals.
When it comes to technology, BHS is one of only three public high schools in the state that offers a computer or personal digital assistant to every student, said Heather McDaniel, the BHS technology facilitator. Everyday at BHS, ninth-graders are issued one of more than 200 laptops the school owns, and sophomores, juniors and seniors are issued a personal digital assistant.
While high school redesign may be one factor, BHS Principal Rodney Brown said the new courses and opportunities can also act as a magnet to draw back students the district has been losing for years.
"Our main focus is trying to get students back," he said.
At one time, BHS had an enrollment of about 1,500, but now it's down to about 600. Some students left with Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but the downward trend was evident for years before that, with critics citing the district's poor reputation as the cause for the decline. Will a renewed focus on new types of classes and technology help bring back the numbers? BHS school officials hope so - one student (with laptop) at a time.
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