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Friday, February 27, 2009

Once A Lion, Always A Lion (Photos Needed)

The new business manager for the BTW Lions football team is Charity Moran. He has invited former players to submit pictures for inclusion in the year book. Please contact Mr. Moran at 318-349-2533 or email him at cmmoran@caddo.k12.la.us

Mr. Moran believes such a display will demonstrate true BTW school pride to the younger players. The foundation agrees. Please support Mr. Moran in this effort.

Thank you.

BTW Class of 1957 Makes Cash Award to School

According to a report in the February 26, 2009 edition of the Shreveport Sun, the class of 1957 presented BTW with an $1800 cash award. The money is designated for two $500 scholarships and $800 to be used as incentives for the spring GED graduates.

The Shreveport Sun photo shows class members Willie Bolding, Joyce Orr, Lucy Wright, Johnnie Thomas and principal Dr. Curley White.

The Alumni Foundation salutes the Class of 1957 for this show of school support.

Friday, January 16, 2009

District Composite Report Link

The following link will bring you to the 2006-2007 report for Caddo. In it you will find significant historical data that sheds more light on our current situation with low performing schools.

The community can take a look at this data and gear up to support the system as it struggles to bring our low performing schools up to acceptable performance standards.

We must begin to think in terms of the data and not our feelings.

http://www.louisianaschools.net/lde/pair/dcr0607/dcr009.pdf

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

BTW Issues Cited in Recent Article

According to a Times news story on January 11, 2009, state education officials spent time reviewing all low performing schools. That review of course included Caddo and our BTW. The following concerns were listed in the article.

-A lack of urgency and general level of complacency is evident toward academic improvements.
-A serious school wide problem exists with tardiness, truancy and inconsistent discipline policy enforcement.
-A reconstitution plan was developed, but there is no documentation to show all actions have been addressed.
-Few teachers are engaging students in rigorous learning activities to improve student performance.
-For a student population of 456, 904 suspensions were reported.
-About 57 percent of sophomores and juniors read and write below grade level and 65 percent function below grade level in math.
-The average school performance score is 50.6.

It is apparently against this backdrop that further state recommendations and/or actions are forthcoming for BTW.

BTW and Other Local Schools Closer to Learning Their Disposition

State superintendent Paul Pastorek has made his recommendations public as to what he wants to do with 33 low performing schools in the state. BTW is one of the 33 schools covered by today's news.

The BESE board is scheduled to further consider this matter on Wednesday, January 14, 2009. A vote could come on Thursday.

Linear Middle and Linwood Middle are being recommended to enter the Recovery district effective July 1, 2009.

BTW and other impacted Caddo schools are recommended for continued local control but under very tight state requirements. These requirements are to identified in a Supervisory Memorandum of Understanding.

The local board apparently must agree to comply with the terms of the SMU within the next 60 days and also make adequate progress toward implementation of a plan during the first year of the agreement. If not, schools will then be scooped up into the Recovery District.

Please use our link to the Louisiana Department of Education Web site for more information.

UPDATE: On Thursday, January 15, 2009, the BESE board made the above mentioned recommendations final.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Report Cards (School Accountability ) Link

This link is to the School Report Cards. You can find the Principal's Report Card as well as the Parent's Report Card. This will include the most recent as well as historical report cards.

http://www.doe.state.la.us/lde/saa/1639.html

Louisiana Graduation Rates for 2007

On January 8, 2009 the Louisiana Department of Education released its cohort graduation rates for 2007. Indicated below are the rankings for our area. You may view the complete release together with attachments at http://www.doe.state.la.us/

1. Caddo Parish Magnet High School-96.4%
-State Goal for 2016----------------80%
2. C.E. Byrd------------------------76.9%
3. Captain Shreve------------------75.6%
4. Northwood----------------------71.2%
-State Average -----------65.9%
5. Southwood----------------------65.6%
-Caddo District Average------59.4%
6. Huntington----------------------57.4%
7. BTW----------------------------55.4%
8. North Caddo--------------------54.4%
9. Woodlawn----------------------47.7%
10.Green Oaks-------------------44.2%
11.Fair Park----------------------41.6%