Education

Five people have been appointed to a state Department of Education team to help Louisiana school districts implement new education standards and a teacher evaluation system.

State Superintendent of Education John White said in a Monday news release that the team will work with districts as Louisiana joins most other states in adopting uniform standards known as "Common Core." They also will aid in adoption of a teacher evaluation system called "Compass," which focuses on student improvement as well as other evaluation methods including classroom observation.

Two parents with children in a New Orleans voucher program and two pro-voucher groups are asking to join the state in fighting a lawsuit that seeks to block a statewide program using tax dollars to send children to private schools.

The intervention petition was filed in Baton Rouge district court Monday for the Black Alliance for Educational Options, the Alliance for School Choice and the New Orleans parents.

Politicians have touted modern manufacturing as the solution for lifting the economy and providing good jobs.

But today's manufacturing work requires strong math skills — not just adding and subtracting, but a good grasp of fractions, decimals and basic trigonometry. And job applicants who want to go into manufacturing often don't have what it takes.

So colleges and nonprofits, especially throughout Illinois, are stepping in to bridge this skills gap by combining manufacturing training with basic reading and math.

Doing Math On The Job

The president of the University of Louisiana System has announced his retirement.

Randy Moffett, who's been in the job for four years, said Monday that he will leave the position in the fall to spend more time with his family.

Moffett's retirement comes after a tenure marked by repeated budget cuts that have stripped more than $426 million in annual state financing from higher education in Louisiana. The UL System has lost nearly 46 percent of its state funding since 2008.

BATON ROUGE — Southern University will compete for a share of Baton Rouge's community college market this fall as part of a strategy to boost sagging enrollment.

The student numbers have dipped during the past several years with the introduction of tougher state admissions standards.