225BatonRouge.com

Few local schools have ever performed more poorly than Prescott Middle, a chronic under-achiever in one of the weakest school districts in the state.

Only a tiny fraction of Prescott students master English, math, science or social studies, with dismal scores on standardized tests year after year. It’s a dire situation that calls for drastic action.

On July 1, the Louisiana Department of Education will take over four chronically failing Baton Rouge public schools, including Prescott. The task is daunting: save a school where every previous attempt has either failed or fizzled, and whose problems extend deep into the poverty-stricken and unusually transient families it serves.

Through some of Prescott’s key stakeholders, 225 reveals some of the costs of failure, the desperate search for improvement, and what state education officials will do differently to try and turn the school around.

Why focus on Prescott?

As much as any public school, Prescott Middle epitomizes the chronic problems officials face in trying to overhaul failing public schools.

Of the four local schools the state will take over July 1, none has deeper or older problems than Prescott.

Its LEAP scores have remained among the worst in East Baton Rouge since the state started keeping track. For 8th graders to advance to high school they must earn a score of “basic” in either English or math, and at lest “approaching basic” in the other. In 2007, barely 1 in 5 Prescott 8th graders achieved basic in English, and slightly fewer earned basic in math.

Among 6th graders the scores were even worse: only 14 % achieved basic in English, while 17 % did so in math.

And it’s getting worse. The state classifies Prescott as a “school in decline.”

Click the links below to read profiles of the people involved.

The star student: JERICHO PRICE, Eighth-grader, Prescott Middle

The single mom: ANN PRICE, Single, working mother

The decorated veteran who cares: ALMENIA FREEMAN WARREN, Teacher, Prescott Middle

The fearless leader: SHONEL LEDUFF, Principal, Prescott Middle

The child advocate: Dr. Maria Pitre, Assistant superintendent for middle school instructional services at the East Baton Rouge Parish school system

Now what? State’s top school official turns to outside operators to turn around Baton Rouge’s failing schools