Lafayette Parish School System serves 28,562 students attending 40 schools in Lafayette, Louisiana. Multiple barriers impede the success of students and school programs and impair the ongoing improvement of education options in the district. To address these challenges, Lafayette Parish School System proposes PRIDE - Promoting Rigor and Interest through Developing Excellence to establish and sustain five themed magnet schools, as follows:

Project Goals: Implementation of the project during the three-year grant period will help the district meet and exceed the following programmatic goals, which were used by the Magnet Design Team to plan and develop the proposed project: GOAL 1: Increase racial and socio-economic diversity in segregated schools. GOAL 2: Increase academic performance in underserved schools. GOAL 3: Create and sustain magnet schools that expand academic choices for students. Evaluation of PRIDE, conducted by an experienced external evaluation team, will focus on project-specific measures and required GPRA Performance Indicators. The collaborative efforts of district administrators, grant personnel, teachers, partners, parents and students will yield positive results, facilitate achievement of voluntary desegregation goals and improve the quality of education in Lafayette schools.

The Tangipahoa Parish Public Schools Board of Education will use Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) funds to start nine new magnet programs during the 2010-2011 school year and a tenth during the second and third year of the grant. The magnet schools are designed to either eliminate or substantially reduce racial isolation in participating schools while improving student achievement so that each meets all requirements set out in Louisiana’s Race to the Top Criteria and the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation. Judge Ivan L. R. Lemelle of the United States District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana approved the new magnet programs on March 5, 2010 as part a Court Order designed to do a better job of desegregating the school system.

The Court approved plan calls for $187.4 million in school construction and improvement and about $44 million a year in local operational spending from local tax funds plus state and federal grant funds for the new magnet schools. More specifically, the new magnet programs include:

New Court Ordered Tangipahoa Parish Magnet Schools
Hammond Westside Montessori Magnet School (grades PreK-6)
Roseland Montessori Magnet School (grades PreK-6)
Hammond Eastside Elementary International Baccalaureate Fine/Performing Arts (grades PreK-8)
Hammond Jr. High International Baccalaureate (grades 7-8)
Hammond High International Baccalaureate / Medical Professions (grades 9-12)
Amite Communications (grades PreK-6)
Woodland Park Communications (grades PreK-6)
Independence Middle Communications (grades 5-8)
Kentwood High Fine and Performing Arts (grades 6-12)
Central Educational Center (grades 11-12)

MSAP grant funds will be used to enhance educational quality in each of the participating schools while offering innovative program of studies that includes improved academic achievement combined with a network of services that will prevent dropouts, greatly increase the involvement of parents and the community in schools and offer enhanced and uniform discipline programs across the Parish. The Parish also proposes equal distribution of certified and advance degree teachers as well as enabling academic transfers as ways to enhance education under the proposed plan.