A new school year gets underway this week and an emphasis this year for the Louisiana Department of Education is to expand work-based learning opportunities for high school students. State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley says that means more high school students will participate in internships.
“In Louisiana, fewer high school students participate in on-job training than in many of the other states are on the country. Due to some changes that we’ve made in policy, that that will shift this year,” Brumley said.
According to Better Louisiana, just over 2,000 of about 42,000 high school students graduated with an internship credit, or about 5% of the graduating class.
Brumley says another emphasis this year is more structured physical education classes.
“What we don’t want to do is just roll out the balls and let kids walk around the gym and maybe pick up a ball and bounce it. We want to be more thoughtful than that,” Brumley said.
Brumley says structured PE classes will complement mandatory recess time for students between kindergarten and fifth grade.
“With the PE standards, we’re going to make sure that kids get active and fit with these standards. I think it’s a real opportunity for us, and I think it’s something that’s been neglected for too long,” Brumley noted.
