We are pleased to present this report celebrating two rewarding and successful years of Heritage Education – Louisiana, the pilot program of the National Park Service’s Heritage Education Initiative.
Teachers developed this program, guided by their strong desire to ignite a grassroots effort among educators across the state to help children discover pride in their local heritage. The program’s goal is that the experience of discovering heritage will add color and context to subjects spanning schools of every size, location, ethnic makeup and their associated curricula. Ultimately, we hope to make the educational experience come alive for every student.
Such flexibility allows this program to achieve yet another of its goals: serving as a model for schools across the nation. Classroom teachers, preservation specialists, and education specialists are connected to ensure that the program meets preservation ethics and provides professional development for teachers in evolving educational theory and techniques.
The program meets the needs of classroom teachers who must cover not only curriculum standards and benchmarks, but must also consider high-stakes testing such as the state’s stringent LEAP (Louisiana Educational Assessment Program) test. Heritage Education – Louisiana aids teachers in creating integrated lessons and activities that use local cultural resources as the foundation.
Because Heritage Education – Louisiana encourages development of creative and individualized lessons using local community resources, the program fits any teacher, any subject, and any school. Both urban and rural schools, high and low socio-economic levels, and diverse cultural populations are represented. Even students and teachers at non-traditional schools are meeting curriculum needs and engaging students in history and heritage through this program.
In two short years, our partners have helped transform our dream of an effective and portable heritage education program into an impressive reality. We hope this report will cause you to join us as well in ensuring the future of our past.