For the final video in our Course Access series, we head to Louisiana.
The state is a pioneer in Course Access, a state-level policy that incorporates in-person, online and blended courses into K-12 education. Through Louisiana’s groundbreaking program, students are taking everything from Advanced Placement (AP) French to ACT Prep and career and technical education classes that allow them graduate as certified welders.
ExcelinEd’s new video series on Course Access gives a closer look at these programs, highlighting how states are redefining the possibilities of public school education. In our third video, Course Access on the Ground: Ascension Parish School District, Louisiana, you will meet some of the faces and hear some of the stories of Louisiana students using Course Access to prepare for a successful future.
Dr. Patrice Pujol, Superintendent of Ascension Public Schools in Louisiana, shares just why Course Access is so important. “We are ill-equipped, strictly within the K-12 setting, to offer all the technical training that a student may need in order to take advantage of the high-tech jobs of the future,” she said. “So we’ve got to reach outside of our walls and look at different delivery systems…These are smart kids. These are capable kids. These are kids who have bright futures ahead of them, who truly see a path for them to the American middle class.”
Louisiana’s program is called “Course Choice,” and Senator Conrad Appel, chairman of the Louisiana Senate Education Committee, believes it is having a tremendous impact.
“One of the great successes that we in Louisiana are so proud of is our focus on creating a pathway to prosperity for our students,” Senator Appel explained. “For so many, that pathway depends upon our Course Choice program, a program that provides non-college bound students with a set of skills that they can use to build a future for themselves and their families. There is no doubt that Course Choice has been a great success and will continue to be a major element of the structure of education in Louisiana for the future.”
Watch the video below, and please share to help us promote Course Access, an education without boundaries.
To learn more, watch our other video in the Course Access series:
ExcelinEd’s Course Access video series is based on a recent white paper, Leading in an Era of Change: On the Ground, authored by ExcelinEd and EducationCounsel.
