Shreveport Times

The state's lawmakers, industry leaders and education officials are clamoring for more development of workers. And the key to making it happen may be Louisiana's long neglected community and technical colleges.

Lauren Petrosh turned a personal struggle with a rare inherited ailment into a winning science fair project.

BATON ROUGE — From whether teachers in rural parishes should receive more state pay to whether scientific creationism should be included in school curriculums, education issues will be a major point of discussion during this session.

Enrollment in the area's community colleges has seen a spike in recent years. The boom can be attributed to high school graduates' college readiness, low tuition and degree programs that are specific to community needs.

Nearly a third of Louisiana students don't graduate from high school. While some of the dropouts may be linked to testing, they can have an impact on the work force, social services and crime.

Here's a formula to consider the next time you concoct a recipe for public higher education funding: Take one part enrollment figures, add a dollop of administrative costs, factor in the number of advanced degree programs, drop a pinch for "nonformula"...

Just because a student comes from a low-income neighborhood doesn't mean he can't learn, Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek said Wednesday in honoring 20 schools that support his contention.

A program that moved nearly 600 students up a grade level with intensive remediation has given students like Elliot Jones a chance to prove they can handle the same classwork as their peers.

Watch out Cookie Monster. Being blue isn't cool in Vivian. Ask Jennifer Harmon. The 39-year-old mother of one recently was told her blue hair is unacceptable after nearly a week of substitute teaching at Vivian Elementary Middle Magnet School.

It's not unusual for Austin Jolley to get up from one of his academic classrooms to go "chill" for five minutes; swing, jump on a mini-tramp or just sit in a bean bag chair in his 'safe zone.'

Autism has been thrust into the limelight in the past year with celebrity stories, books, new studies and new universal guidelines for screening.

All of Cherokee Park Elementary School's 28 teachers and 332 students are