High School

Disclosure :: This post is sponsored by IDEA Public Schools. You may have read in a recent article in The Advocate that less than 8 percent of Louisiana public high school students earned college credit in high school, well below the U.S. average of nearly 22 percent for 2016. In fact, the state ranks 49th in the nation for students scoring well enough on Advanced Placement (AP) exams to get a head start on college credits. IDEA Public Schools, a public charter network expanding to Baton Rouge in 2018, understands the importance of providing students with access to AP courses and college-level classes, which is why the network developed its Advanced Placement (AP) For All Program. Through this program, IDEA Public Schools ensures...

This spring and for the first semester ever, TOPS will not be paying full tuition for Louisiana students who have earned the funding by scoring a 20 on the ACT and earning a 2.5 GPA in high school. Instead funding will be cut, and Louisiana students and their families will be forced to pay about 60% of their spring semester bill. But guess what? This mom of four, who has to pay college tuition four times over should her children choose that path, doesn't want to hear you whine about it. Nope, I don't want to hear one moan. Instead, I want to see you DO something about it. Because you, Louisiana college students, are in the unique position to make a statement about...

It's important to know when an opportunity for something great is available and as a good friend to you, I want to make sure you know about it before it's OVER! If you're interested in the Magnet School Program in East Baton Rouge Parish for your child that will be school-age in the fall of 2017, you've got a few, short weeks to get those applications in! My oldest is in first grade at one of the Magnet schools in EBRP and we LOVE it. We went through this application process two years ago. My husband and I are products of the Magnet Program, having both graduated from Baton Rouge Magnet High School. It was an experience we still treasure...

Three months ago, it seemed almost everyone in America became appalled when the father of a convicted rapist referred to his son's crime as "twenty minutes of action." We went on and on about rape culture and vilified this father, who certainly deserved every ounce of contempt directed his way. Now, after serving his three-month sentence, this rapist was recently released and rape culture is news again. But how many parents who condemned this father are raising just such a rapist? No one wants to raise a rapist or believes that they would. My guess is that this father did not have a goal to raise a rapist. He might have stated that his parenting philosophy was to raise a...

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by our partners at Pelican State Credit Union, who have been providing financial services to individuals and families in Louisiana for almost 60 years. I remember when I hit the lottery. At least, I hit the lottery according to 12 year-old me’s standards. I found out about the Accelerated Reader, or “AR,” program in school. It gave students a chance to earn prizes by reading books and taking tests on them. Anyone who reached 100 points was rewarded with a $100 savings bond! I saw that dollar sign and made it my goal to get 100 points. My friends would want to play video games, but I had books to read. If they only knew about...