Chalkbeat

Who’s running new virtual schools in Indiana? Lawmakers want to know.

2021-04-16T21:30:29+00:00

At a time when district-run virtual schools are growing at a breakneck pace, Indiana lawmakers are tired of being surprised by new programs.

Now they are proposing a law that would require districts that contract with outside virtual providers to submit the agreements to the Indiana Department of Education, giving officials notice of the partnerships. Those contracts would reveal details such as the costs of the programs, the staff vendors will hire, and the expectations districts set for providers.

But the new rule, which was slipped into another education bill last week, would not give the department the authority to reject vendors or keep virtual programs from opening.

“We just need to know what’s going on,” said Republican Sen. Jeff Raatz, the lawmaker behind the proposal. The guidelines are meant to ensure state officials know more about when districts launch virtual programs, he said.

An earlier proposal from Raatz would have gone further. Under that version, districts would only have been allowed to contract with virtual education providers on a new state-approved list. The plan was changed because Raatz said he “didn’t want it to be punitive.”

The rapid growth of district-overseen virtual schools began with a tiny rural district. Enrollment tripled in Union Schools in 2018 after it contracted with a national virtual school provider to open a program that drew students from across the state. Because the district gets some of the state funding for the virtual students, the deal has helped keep it afloat.

Union now enrolls 6,000 students in its virtual schools, making it the second-largest online program in the state. That’s 20 times the enrollment in Union’s local schools, which have fewer than 300 students.

The proposal lawmakers are considering is unlikely to check the rapid growth of district virtual programs.

“Let’s face it, having to just hand your contract over to the state agency — that’s a meaningless requirement. It’s just a checkbox that you have to remember to do,” said Michael Barbour, a professor at Touro University in California, who is critical of Indiana for its lax oversight of virtual schools.

When virtual schools began in Indiana, the largest operators were charter schools. But several of those schools have since closed. The state’s first online school was shuttered due to chronic poor performance. Two sister virtual schools closed amid scandal and were later accused of misspending more than $85 million in state funding.

Lawmakers have tightened regulations on virtual charter schools in a bid to improve their quality. But in recent years, the largest new virtual programs are not independent charter schools. Instead, they are district programs, operated under contracts with outside companies, which are governed by different rules.

While the state holds the local school systems responsible for student performance, the districts do not manage the daily operations of the online schools.

This year, the number of Indiana students in virtual schools run by districts exceeded enrollment in virtual charter schools. Of the roughly 18,000 Indiana students in dedicated virtual schools, slightly over half are in district programs.

In part, that was driven by new schools. The Clarksville school district opened a virtual school that enrolls more than 2,000 students. It is managed by Stride, formerly known as K12, the same for-profit company that works with Union. The Middlebury school district joined forces with a Utah-based company to offer a virtual program that caters to home-schoolers by offering flexibility and funding for educational materials.

Indiana poised to open school vouchers to families earning over $100,000

2021-04-16T00:07:02+00:00

Indiana lawmakers are poised to approve a significant expansion of what is already a broad private school voucher program, setting one of the highest family income ceilings in the nation.

Nearly half of all Indiana families already meet the income criteria to be eligible for the program. Both the House and Senate budget proposals would open voucher access even further, in some cases to families earning over $100,000 per year for a family of four.

The plans would also eliminate partial vouchers, granting even middle-income families full scholarships — which average more than $5,800 per student.

For Republican politicians, who dominate state government in Indiana, the all-but-certain expansion represents a big win in advancing their free-market vision, where parents choose what is best for their child. At the same time, the legislature plans to broaden school choice, by creating education savings accounts that would provide stipends to pay for schooling and therapies for children with special needs.

A decade after Indiana created vouchers, the program served nearly 37,000 students at a price tag of close to $173 million last year. Enrollment plateaued in recent years, and widening eligibility for vouchers could spur a surge in participation.

Public funding for private education remains deeply polarizing. While Indiana’s voucher program initially targeted students from low-income families, the Republican expansion plans would offer generous aid to middle-income families. That amounts to a subsidy for affluent families, including some who likely would have enrolled their children in private schools without aid.

Critics say expanding vouchers for the middle class could potentially divert money that could be used to increase teacher pay and shore up public schools.

The staunchest supporters of vouchers see the expansion as one step closer to universal school choice. They argue that even middle-class families who can afford private tuition should have access to per-student funding equal to what the state gives to public schools.

“It’s taxpayer money that comes out of working Hoosiers’ paychecks,” said Betsy Wiley, president of the pro-voucher Institute for Quality Education. “Why should that only go to educate those that choose one type of school?”

However, the expansion could become “a windfall for upper-middle-class families that were already sending kids to private schools,” said Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a think tank that supports vouchers.

“That starts to raise some big questions,” he said.

The potential upside of providing vouchers to middle-class families is that it could push suburban school districts to improve to compete for students, Petrilli said.

Critics of school choice, including many school districts and teachers unions from around Indiana, have raised a drumbeat of opposition to the voucher increase. They argue that aid for private schools comes at the expense of the traditional public schools that educate about 88% of Indiana students.

In a year when Republican lawmakers largely ignored pleas to boost education funding in order to help districts increase chronically low teacher pay, it is especially frustrating to see a surge in spending on private education, said Keith Gambill, president of the Indiana State Teachers Association.

It is “completely irresponsible” for the state to dramatically increase aid for private schools at a time when the state’s economy has been roiled by the pandemic, Gambill said. “It is shortsighted to not invest to make sure that our public schools are the absolute best they can be.”

Research on the academic outcomes of vouchers is mixed. Recent studies, including one in Indiana, showed dips in some state test scores. Other research shows more positive results on long-term outcomes such as college enrollment. And voucher programs do seem to slightly improve test scores in competing public schools.

When Indiana lawmakers created the voucher program in 2011, it was one of the broadest in the nation. Instead of targeting a specific group, such as students in schools a state identifies as failing, or a single city, it was open to certain low-income families from around the state. Over the years, the state has broadened access, raised the income cap for some families, and made more families eligible.

In addition to meeting income limits, students must meet certain criteria to be eligible for vouchers. Lawmakers have made it easier by adding more ways for students to qualify. Now there are eight paths, including having a sibling who receives a voucher or previously attending a public school.

“Once you actually establish a choice program, people want it more,” said Robert Enlow, president of EdChoice, which supports vouchers.

While Indiana lawmakers have repeatedly expanded the state’s voucher program over the past decade, participation has leveled off. Participation has grown by less than 5% a year since the 2016-17 school year. Last school year, it grew by less than 500 students.

Even as the state’s voucher program has become more generous and easier to access, other conservative states have adopted aggressive school choice plans. This year, West Virginia approved an education savings account program that will eventually make all families eligible for state aid for private school.

None of the Indiana proposals are that expansive. While the legislature hasn’t determined precisely how much more money it will put toward vouchers, both proposals on the table would likely make the income ceiling for Indiana’s voucher program among the highest — if not the highest — in the nation.

The more modest Senate proposal would allow certain families making up to 225% of the eligibility level for federally subsidized meals to access vouchers.

The House budget would go even further, raising the cap to 300% of the same eligibility level, about $145,000 per year for a family of four. That’s nearly double the Indiana median income for families, which is about $74,000 per year.

Kenny Roll, the administrator at Tabernacle Christian School in Martinsville, said that although the proposed income limits may seem high, some families need the aid.

Even some middle-class parents might have fixed expenses like student loans, Roll said. And the cost mounts for raising children — from sports and braces to college tuition.

The private school charges tuition of about $5,900 per year, and although that school provides aid, some families cannot afford it.

Before the state voucher program, some parents would send their first child to Tabernacle because they valued a religious education only to switch to public school once they had several children, Roll said.

“That’s where I think the voucher really has benefited us the most is the families, not necessarily with one but with two, three, and four children,” Roll said. “It adds up pretty quick.”

New Indiana budget proposal scales back private school voucher expansion

2021-04-08T14:48:13+00:00

After a chorus of opposition from public school districts and advocates, Indiana Senate Republicans significantly scaled back an expansion of the state’s private school voucher program under their budget proposal Thursday.

The Senate plan would not extend private school vouchers to as many middle-class families as suggested in the House budget proposal and other legislation discussed this session. It also would dramatically curtail a proposal for education savings accounts, which would give stipends to parents of children with special needs who do not attend public schools.

The Senate would nonetheless make the state voucher program, which currently serves more than 36,000 students, more generous than it is currently. Students from a family of four earning nearly $110,000 per year could be eligible for vouchers under the Senate plan. It would raise the eligibility for new students to 200% of the subsidized meal income qualifications and 225% for returning students and those receiving special education, instead of the House’s proposed cap of 300%.

All students who receive vouchers would be eligible for up to 90% of the amount the state would have given to the local public school, an increase for middle-class families.

Indiana’s decade-old voucher program is already one of the broadest in the nation, available to low- and middle-income families as an alternative to public schools.

The state would spend about $40 million less per year on private school vouchers under the Senate plan than the House proposal, according to projections. The voucher program is expected to cost the state about $174 million this year.

Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray said the budget reduces funding for vouchers in part because his caucus believed “philosophically” it should be lower and in part because it is more fiscally prudent.

The proposal is the latest step in developing the state’s next two-year budget. The final spending plan will be negotiated by House and Senate leaders before the session is expected to end April 21.

House leaders plan to push for higher spending on state funding for private education. Speaker Todd Huston said that the House majority, which made expanding vouchers a legislative priority, would help senators “see the light.”

“We’ll be strong on the things that matter to our caucus,” Huston said. “I would expect that we will be negotiating very aggressively around those provisions.”

The Senate proposed budget would also pull back on plans to create a new education savings account program by capping the price tag at $3 million, about $16 million less than the House budget projection. The Senate budget requires families to meet the same income eligibility requirements as the state voucher program, and stipends would only include special education grants that students would have received.

Betsy Wiley, who leads the pro-voucher Institute for Quality Education, called the Senate proposal “disappointing.” Reduced funding for education savings accounts, in particular, would make the new program largely useless for most eligible families, she said.

“I would not consider it a victory if the Senate budget were the final budget. I would consider it a very small positive step,” Wiley said.

Advocates for traditional public schools remained critical of the increased spending on school choice.

Joel Hand, general counsel and lobbyist for the Indiana Coalition for Public Education, said his organization is “very disappointed” that the budget still includes an expansion of vouchers and the creation of education savings accounts.

The Senate plan, however, is “definitely a move in the right direction,” Hand said.

The budget proposal, presented Thursday to the Senate Appropriations Committee, also offered a slightly larger increase in state funding for K-12 education than the House: $408 million over the next two years.

Most of that increase would come in the second year of the budget, with funding going up by $92 million, or 1.2%, in 2022 and $316 million, or 4.2%, in 2023.

The draft budget would also benefit many school districts by increasing the aid for educating students from low-income families, students who are learning English, and students who receive special education services.

The final plan will be shaped in part by the revenue forecast expected next week, which will give lawmakers more information on how much money they have to spend.

Terry Spradlin, executive director of the Indiana School Boards Association, lauded the budget as “enormously helpful to public education.”

“The proposed spending plan does a good job of providing increases for all schools while making strategic investments in areas of high need, including special education and English language learners,” Spradlin said in a statement.

Other areas of the proposed Senate budget included:

The proposed budget offers a new way of deciding how much extra money school districts get to educate students in poverty. It would peg the amount of “complexity” aid that districts receive at 66% of the basic per-student funding the state provides. As a result, poverty aid would increase at the same rate as overall funding for schools, a notable change in a state where funding for schools serving low-income students has stagnated.
The budget would increase funding for special education by $196 million over two years. Unlike the House budget, the Senate would increase per-student aid for children with moderate and severe special education needs by 5% in the first year and 10% in the second year.
Senate Republicans also rejected a proposal to fully fund virtual schools. Their budget would keep funding for students who are learning virtually at 85% of the amount that brick-and-mortar schools receive.
Lawmakers would increase grants for charter schools, meant to help pay for buildings and operations, to $1,000 per year, slightly less than the House budget.

Career and technical education programs in fields that are considered low-wage and low-demand, such as culinary arts and cosmetology, would be spared from funding cuts.

How cash-strapped Indiana schools plan to spend federal coronavirus stimulus money

2021-04-07T23:44:34+00:00

Facing shrinking enrollment and chronic budget problems, the South Bend district has spent the past few years bracing for painful cuts, beginning by closing two schools.

Now, however, the 16,000-student district is one of several cash-strapped Indiana school systems where leaders and community members will tackle a less common challenge: choosing how to spend a massive infusion of coronavirus aid.

The South Bend district is expecting to receive over $50 million, equivalent to about a quarter of its annual budget, from the federal stimulus package approved last month. That’s on top of about $33 million it will receive from two earlier bills.

Indiana in total will get more than $3 billion to help schools — that amounts to about 40% of what the state allocates to schools each year in the budget. That aid will be distributed to districts based on how many students in poverty they serve.

But the mind-boggling sums are one-time grants, intended in part to help students recover learning lost during the pandemic. The federal money cannot provide a long-term fix for a district that has been spending beyond its means.

So some districts will be in the incongruous position of spending big on short-term programs like summer school at the same time they make painful cuts, such as closing schools.

In South Bend, the influx of federal cash will allow it to offer students long-needed support.

“Our district needed help before the pandemic,” Chief Financial Officer Kareemah Fowler said. “There were some things that we just couldn’t afford to do.”

South Bend has a long list of plans for the federal money, including adding an hour of instruction to the school day next year, Fowler said. It will upgrade buildings to improve air quality. And it will train staff, particularly at schools that are struggling academically.

The district also plans to use the federal money to hire full-time social workers and other staff to support students at each school, Fowler said. But because the money is one-time only, funding for some of those positions won’t last, she said.

The federal boost won’t erase long-standing financial strains for South Bend and other urban Indiana districts that struggle under local property tax caps, cuts to state aid for educating students from low-income families, and decreases in enrollment that lead to less state funding.

South Bend won local voter support for increasing property taxes for education last year. But the schools will still need to make cuts to sustain the budget in the long term, Fowler said.

Districts typically spend the vast majority of their budgets on staff salaries and benefits. The federal aid all must be allocated by October 2024, making many school leaders reluctant to spend it on raises or new educators.

In the Muncie school district, CEO Lee Ann Kwiatkowski hopes to use the federal funding to provide one-time stipends to educators in recognition of the work they have done this past school year. Spending will also focus on short-term projects, such as construction, she said.

After years of financial mismanagement when the district misspent money from bonds, in 2018 the state placed the Muncie school system under the control of Ball State University. The district now has a balanced budget, but it has very limited funding to update facilities, Kwiatkowski said.

State education officials have not yet announced exactly how much each district will receive from the federal stimulus bill passed last month. But schools are expected to get roughly double the December federal allocation. Muncie schools will receive nearly $11 million from the December aid bill.

Muncie will use some of the federal money for upgrading school buildings, such as by replacing windows and ventilation systems, Kwiatkowski said. The district will also update two schools that were built in “open concept” style with large doors and few walls.

“For Muncie, this is going to be a tremendous blessing for us,” Kwiatkowski said.

The school district that stands to get the most federal funding per student is Gary. The district was so deep in debt that the state brought in an emergency manager four years ago and later stripped the elected school board of power.

Gary schools will get about $26 million in the first two rounds of federal aid. It could get close to twice that much in third round.

The influx of money could have huge implications for the district, but it is not yet clear how it will be spent.

Parents and students have a long list of improvements they would like to see, including repairs to a leaking roof, improved ventilation, and a fieldhouse for student athletes, said Tracy Coleman, a parent at West Side Leadership Academy.

Coleman argued that the state-appointed emergency manager, who is meant to be temporary, should not decide how to spend the federal relief money. The school system needs an empowered local board so that parents can have a voice in spending, she said.

The district will also get about $71 million in additional funding over eight years from a referendum recently approved by voters, and a state law gave it access to about $25 million for building repairs, renovations, and demolition.

“We have three large sources of revenue that could change our educational system for generations to come,” Coleman said. “But we have no say.”

The largest federal allocation in Indiana will go to Indianapolis Public Schools, which will receive $77 million from the first two aid bills. It is expected to receive well over $100 million from the third package.

The district’s budget is tight. As part of a campaign to win additional funding from voters more than two years ago, IPS leaders committed to dramatically cutting its spending to make it sustainable after years of shrinking enrollment.

To meet that goal, it is likely the district will need to make painful cuts — such as reducing transportation and closing schools — at the same time that it is spending the infusion of federal aid.

IPS Chief Financial Officer Weston Young has repeatedly cautioned the board not to let the surge of federal money delay it from making difficult financial decisions.

“Federal stimulus funds will mask the district’s underlying structural deficit which needs to be addressed,” he told the board in February. “We can’t lose sight of the work that we still have to do.”

“We’re shooting for sustainability,” Young said.

At these Indianapolis schools, nurses help catch academic problems

2021-03-19T22:04:39+00:00

Each month, a small team at St. Monica Catholic School gathers to compare notes on the school’s 390 students. The staff members talk not only about which students are struggling in class but also about which are visiting the nurse — and what patterns might emerge.

The 1½ -hour meeting is a simple strategy. Including the school nurse on the academic tracking team pays real dividends, Principal Eric Schommer said. Nothing falls through the cracks.

A nurse, for example, may notice that a student consistently visits with a stomachache during math class. Talk to the student, and it may turn out the problem is actually with understanding math, and the school should address it with tutoring or homework help.

“Sometimes the grades don’t demonstrate that the student is struggling,” Schommer added.

School nurses are getting renewed attention and heavier workloads during the coronavirus pandemic. But they also can play a crucial role in supporting students academically, by providing health care that improves children’s ability to learn and by collecting data to help identify students who are likely to fall behind.

It’s a valuable moment for schools to think about providing student health care, advocates say. Students are grappling with the trauma of the coronavirus. And schools have a rare opportunity to invest in health services because of the surge of federal funding they are receiving.

Last year, St. Monica started working with the Paramount Health Data Project, which is trying to bring a similar approach to more Indiana schools. The Indianapolis nonprofit is currently partnering with eight schools to increase the role of nurses in academics by helping them collect and analyze data on student health.

When students visit, the nurse collects information on the health concern that brought them to the office. The data project then combines that information with student test scores to come up with reports that help each school anticipate possible lower academic achievement based on health data, said Addie Angelov, executive director of the project.

“This is a unique piece of data that would give Indiana schools an edge in making up those learning losses that we know everyone is navigating,” Angelov said.

Because the approach ties health care to academic results, schools that are using the program can pay for nurses by tapping federal funding for educating students in poverty, Angelov said.

The idea for the project began about seven years ago at the Paramount School of Excellence, an Indianapolis charter network that has been piloting the program.

Through a partnership with a local hospital, Paramount leader Tommy Reddicks reaped a trove of health data on students. When he combined that data with the school’s academic reports, he saw that certain health problems that are common among children in poverty, such as persistent headaches or skin conditions, correlated with lower academic performance, he said.

That suggested conditions in a student’s home, such as poor air quality or mold, could affect academics, Reddicks said.

Now Paramount works with Angelov and the data project to produce reports on student health and academic outcomes at the network’s three schools. By using nurse visits, the schools identify hundreds of students each year for academic help, Reddicks said.

One benefit of the approach is that it is fast. Because Paramount typically looks at test results over time to identify students who need support, it can take several months to catch problems. With health data, the school can spot students who might need help sooner.

The schools might be sweeping in some students who would have been fine academically, Reddicks acknowledged, but because the interventions are a relatively light lift, he doesn’t think they have a downside.

Now Reddicks is pitching the strategy to other educators.

“We need to tell principals, not only is this the best thing for kids, but this will raise test scores,” Reddicks said. “This will help you change your culture. This involves another active member in your academic team.”

It’s hard to get a clear picture of the number of nurses in Indiana schools. More than 400 Indiana districts and charter schools reported employing 1,165 nurses last school year. That data might miss some: The state doesn’t always include schools that contract with hospitals or health networks to hire and train their nurses.

The appropriate number of students per nurse also depends on the specific needs of each school. Although it’s a relatively small school, St. Monica has had a full-time nurse for at least a decade. It’s a crucial service because many of their students come from low-income or immigrant families and lack access to regular medical care, Schommer said.

Improving health care for children has long-term benefits, said Claire Fiddian-Green, the president and CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation, an Indianapolis philanthropy that funds health and education initiatives. (The Fairbanks Foundation also supports Chalkbeat. Learn more about our funding here.)

“There’s a lot of data to show that education and health are intrinsically linked,” Fiddian-Green said. “Health affects the ability to succeed in school. And then, in turn, education outcomes affect future health outcomes.”

How Indiana schools are preparing to give ILEARN during a pandemic

2021-03-17T21:35:47+00:00

A few weeks after Enlace Academy middle schoolers are expected to return to classrooms in person for the first time in more than a year, they will begin taking state standardized tests.

Students will be used to it — even when learning remotely, they have been coming in person for assessments this year.

Those who remain remote can take tests in a small group setting, in the evening, or even on the weekend.

Indiana requires schools to give the state’s standardized test for students in grades three through eight in person this April and May. Indiana is likely to suspend consequences for schools, but dozens of districts still have pushed for the state to cancel ILEARN this year. Indiana education leaders, however, are committed to giving the exams, which are federally required.

Administering the exam during a pandemic will pose new logistical obstacles for schools, such as providing transportation and testing supervision for remote students.

Indiana is in a better position than are many other states. Nearly all schools are offering in-person classes, with 90% operating in person full time, according to the Indiana Department of Education.

But even schools that are open in person may struggle to get students to take tests. Some students will miss the exam because they are out of school due to quarantine or illness. And families who opted for their children to study remotely may feel unsafe sending them for in-person testing.

The federal government typically requires that 95% of students take the state test. A spokeswoman for Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner said the state is seeking a waiver from that requirement.

Enlace has had early success getting students to participate in tests in person, said Kevin Kubacki, executive director for the Neighborhood Charter Network, which runs the school.

The charter school educates 600 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. All students in sixth through eighth grades have been remote since the start of the school year, and about a quarter of elementary school students are currently learning online by choice.

When the school tested English language learners, about 98% took the exam, Kubacki said.

The school offers flexible testing options, such as letting students come in on weekends, to make families safe, he said.

“We pair it with very strong communication to the families around the importance of why we’re doing the assessments,” Kubacki said. “We need to be able to gather data on students to be able to identify what are their needs.”

Holly Lawson, a spokeswoman with the Indiana Department of Education, said the required third-grade reading test, which is currently being administered, has had high completion rates. During the first week, about 80% of students completed the test, above the rate at that time last year, Lawson said.

“Looking ahead, we’re confident we’ll see strong completion rates with other spring assessments as well, including ILEARN,” Lawson said.

Some schools anticipate, however, that even getting students who are enrolled in person to take the test could be a challenge.

Many of those students have missed weeks of school because they had the coronavirus or had to quarantine after being exposed to someone who had it.

That’s a particular worry for Stephanie Hofer, assistant superintendent of Decatur Township schools, a 6,800-student district in Indianapolis. Hofer expects the same quarantining that disrupted the school year could stymie efforts to test all of the district’s students.

“If they’re done quarantining and the assessment window is still open, we still will do our very best to get them in,” Hofer said. “But that is absolutely a concern that we have not had to worry about before.”

For many educators, the burdens of testing are not worth it.

Dozens of Indiana districts, including groups in Marion County and northeast Indiana, have called for the state to suspend standardized tests because of the coronavirus.

Many educators were already frustrated by the ILEARN exams. Students don’t face consequences if they don’t pass. But the test results are supposed to be a large chunk of the formula used to judge the quality of elementary and middle schools on the state’s A-F grading system. They are also used for teacher evaluations.

Gov. Eric Holcomb and lawmakers from both chambers have said they support suspending the consequences tied to low test results, the latest in a series of measures to hold schools harmless from drops in scores over the last five years.

That will assuage the fears of some educators. But others say that in a year when many students missed out on months of in-person schooling, tests will waste valuable time that could be used for instruction.

Because of the pandemic, the test results simply won’t be comparable to other years, said Krista Stockman, a spokeswoman for Fort Wayne schools.

Fort Wayne was one of 39 northeast Indiana school systems that recently sent a letter to Indiana leaders, asking for the state to skip ILEARN this year and instead use results from other assessments schools already give during the year.

“We’re not asking for the state to drop standardized testing,” Stockman said. “We’re not saying that there’s not a place for standardized testing. But this year, we think there’s other ways that you can get pretty good data and not go through ILEARN.”

The impact of the pandemic varies widely across Indiana. In the Bluffton-Harrison school district, a rural community outside Fort Wayne, the 1,600 students have been in classrooms all school year. Just 47 students are currently enrolled remotely, Superintendent Brad Yates said.

But Yates still believes the state should skip ILEARN because time is so precious, he said. Tally up the hours students spend on the math section of ILEARN, for example, and they miss about five days of math instruction.

Indiana lawmakers shield schools from funding loss due to virtual learning in the pandemic

2021-03-16T22:29:08+00:00

Alleviating a big worry for education leaders, Indiana legislators agreed Tuesday to provide full funding to most public schools for students studying virtually in the pandemic.

The long-expected funding fix, which state political leaders widely supported, now heads to the governor’s desk. The change will shield schools from losing as much as $161 million this spring, based on estimates from the fall.

The state will fund students who attend remotely due to the coronavirus as though they were attending in person under the measure, which applies to schools that traditionally operate in person. Last fall, state officials approved a temporary measure on an emergency basis.

The Senate signed off on the final bill 44 to 4 Tuesday.

“We did what we said we were going to do,” said Sen. Jeff Raatz, an author of the bill. “It shows the General Assembly recognized the difficulties presented by COVID and the extra effort that school districts had to put forth.”

Indiana has long provided virtual schools with less funding per student because those schools are presumed to have lower costs. Since 2019, virtual schools have received 85% of the per-student allotment for in-person instruction.

But that policy ignited an avalanche of worry this year that schools that typically operate in person would precipitously lose funding. Many districts began the school year remotely because of the pandemic, and thousands of families chose virtual options.

Indiana schools receive funding based on enrollment counts in September and February. As of September, about 360,000 Indiana students were enrolled in school virtually because of COVID-19, according to data collected by the Indiana Department of Education.

It’s likely that fewer students are learning remotely this semester because several large school districts that began the year largely online have brought more students in person. Data from the February student count is not yet available. But nearly all Indiana schools now have in-person options and 90% have returned to fully in-person instruction, according to the Department of Education.

After approving a similar stopgap measure last fall, the Indiana State Board of Education left spring funding to lawmakers, who returned to session in January.

The funding increase does not cover students who were already enrolled in online programs before the pandemic, or students who are enrolled in online-only schools.

The change only applies to the 2020-21 school year, despite efforts from some Democratic lawmakers to extend it to next school year.

But virtual funding could be different for all schools next year. Amid the pandemic, online-only schools have seized the opportunity to lobby for increased funding for virtual education going forward. And they have some powerful allies — including Indiana House Republicans, who have proposed full funding for all virtual education.

Indiana schools bristle at bill seeking efficiencies to raise teacher pay

2021-03-12T19:37:01+00:00

A seemingly uncontroversial bipartisan bill that would solicit ideas to make school transportation and facilities more efficient turned into a clash between the legislature and school districts at a hearing this week.

The idea is so nascent, the bill’s author said it is unclear what proposals it might elicit. The bill does not specify what efficiencies it is seeking. It calls for ideas for creating new structures for managing transportation or building operations, and one possibility mentioned in the House is that neighboring districts could share bus services.

But education lobbyists and district officials from across Indiana bristled, seeing the bill as a way to leave schools out of financial conversations or force them to consolidate or outsource services. The proposal also struck them as the state trying to stick schools with the bill for increasing teacher pay.

“Where’s the evidence that this will have any benefit whatsoever?” asked Terry Spradlin, executive director of the Indiana School Boards Association, at a hearing Wednesday. “This bill really cuts us out of having input. … It seems to jump ahead to make this conclusion that privatization is the solution here.”

It’s unclear what problem the bill is aiming to solve, Spradlin said. School districts already can and do hire private companies to provide services, such as busing. And districts make joint purchases and partner to provide services, such as through special education cooperatives.

The Senate Education and Career Development Committee held public comment on the bill Wednesday but has not yet scheduled a vote.

Rep. Edward Clere, R-New Albany, wrote the bill with members from both parties signing on.

A Democratic co-sponsor in the Senate seemed bewildered by the sudden backlash to the bill, which sailed through the House, passing by a vote of 87 to 1.

“What changed from one chamber to the next?” asked Sen. Eddie Melton, D-Gary. “I sincerely want to know.”

Opponents said they did not speak out against it sooner because it did not draw their attention.

Lawmakers and speakers also criticized the first sentence of the bill, which said it aimed to “improve the efficiency of school services and increase dollars to teachers.”

School districts typically pay for teacher salaries and other instructional expenses from their education funds, which come from the state. Operations funds, which pay for busing and facilities, come from local property taxes.

The bill raises the prospect that the state may ask districts to draw on local tax dollars to pay teachers, said Oliver Barie, a lobbyist representing the Northeast Indiana Public School Advocacy Consortium, who said that could be a “slippery slope.”

Democratic lawmakers pointed out that while Gov. Eric Holcomb’s teacher pay commission called for the state to substantially increase teacher pay, the Republican-controlled legislature has done little to follow those recommendations.

Supporters of the bill, however, contended that for Indiana to increase average salaries for educators, local districts must also redirect money to classrooms.

“At the end of the day, if we follow the teacher pay commission, by its merits, school districts should be looking for ways to create efficiencies,” said Committee Chairman Jeff Raatz, R-Centerville.

Lawmakers who back the bill said they were flummoxed that it was controversial.

The state has hundreds of school districts, and some of them must be less efficient than they could be, said Sen. Scott Baldwin, R-Noblesville.

“I’m trying to resolve in my mind why there would be pushback in any form at all, to a way to save money that would help children,” Baldwin said.

Sen. Shelli Yoder, D-Bloomington, attributed the vocal opposition to the seemingly innocuous bill to a breakdown in trust.

“We’ve chipped away at the trust that our local schools and the teachers have of this body,” Yoder said. “We have a track record of doing something that seems relatively minor or innocent and then the repercussions of that are really major.

“At the end of the day, so many of our schools are feeling like they’ve become an enemy of this legislature,” she added.

Indiana teachers and school staff will be eligible for vaccines at any clinic Monday

2021-03-10T22:17:29+00:00

Indiana teachers, school staff, and childcare providers will be eligible for vaccines at any clinic in the state beginning Monday.

At the direction of the White House, the state will allow educators and school staff to get vaccinated at all of the state’s roughly 400 vaccination sites, according to state officials. For the past week, educators were eligible for vaccines, but only at pharmacies partnering with the federal government for vaccines.

Those who will be eligible for vaccines now include teachers, Head Start and Early Start staff, child care providers, classroom aides, bus drivers, janitors, counselors, administrators, cafeteria workers, and substitute teachers. Staff must provide identification at vaccination appointments.

The expansion in eligibility to state sites was required by the federal government, said Gov. Eric Holcomb, who had chosen not to prioritize teachers for the vaccine before the federal intervention.

“We had a plan. We were executing that plan very methodically,” Holcomb said. Expanding eligibility to teachers “will have an impact on getting to that list of folks with comorbidities.”

“We were using data to drive all our decisions about those who are most at risk,” Holcomb said.

The announcement comes a week after Indiana teachers became eligible for vaccines at certain sites that participate in the federal pharmacy program, such as Kroger, Walmart, and Meijer. Earlier this month, President Joe Biden said he wants every teacher, school staffer, and child care worker in the U.S. to get at least one shot in March.

Teachers have lobbied Indiana to give them priority access to vaccines for months to little avail. The state has become an outlier, and at least some teachers are eligible for vaccines in 45 states, including all of Indiana’s neighbors, according to Education Week.

Currently, all Hoosiers 50 years old and older — along with those with certain health conditions that make them vulnerable to complications from the coronavirus — are eligible for the vaccine.

Going forward, the state plans to continue its age-based approach to eligibility. Next, people ages 40 to 50 will be eligible, state officials said.

Culinary arts, cosmetology programs are in jeopardy in Indiana House budget

2021-03-09T22:04:55+00:00

When Suzanne Fitts studied cosmetology in high school three decades ago, it was the start of a successful career as a hairdresser. The flexible hours let her raise her two children and assist at her church while making enough money to help support her family, she said.

Now a cosmetology teacher at the Porter County Career & Technical Center in northwest Indiana, Fitts sees the program as a good chance for students to earn affordable qualifications while in high school.

“I’ve also seen kids that it ignited more of a passion within their heart for schooling and for something that they want to do in life,” Fitts said.

But House Republicans don’t see cosmetology as a career worth investing in.

Under a proposed budget approved last month by the Indiana House, the state would cut funding for several popular career courses, including cosmetology, culinary arts, and radio and TV. This school year, more than 16,000 students enrolled in courses that could lose aid.

Without that money, schools may shut down programs that require expensive supplies and equipment. Some students may be forced to enroll in costly training programs after graduating. And others may drop out of high school altogether without the incentive of a career that excites them.

House Republicans say they are not aiming to undermine career education, and in fact, the budget projects an increase in money for career training of nearly 8% next year. But it diverts aid from programs in fields that state analysis considers low paying and low demand. That funding would instead go to courses in areas that are typically higher paying, such as nursing, biomedical science, and welding.

“That’s where the money went, and that’s where we are putting our focus,” said House budget leader Tim Brown, R-Crawfordsville, during a debate last month.

When it comes to programs like cosmetology, Brown said, “a school will still have the option of offering this class, they just won’t get extra money.”

But few observers outside the statehouse are excited about the current proposal.

Officials from the Governor’s Workforce Cabinet and the Indiana Chamber of Commerce said the cuts would be too abrupt, and any changes to state funding should be part of a broader, ongoing review of which careers to prioritize. At the same time, the potential cuts have ignited fierce opposition from career teachers who say their fields are being denigrated.

“This kind of came from left field,” said Dan Ulrich, executive director of the Indiana Association of Career and Technical Education Districts.

If the state decides to cut funding, Ulrich said, many schools will likely close programs.

The state budget is still taking shape, and the plan to cut funding could change. The Senate will produce its own proposal before the two chambers negotiate a final agreement.

P.J. McGrew, executive director of the Governor’s Workforce Cabinet, said the proposal to eliminate support for certain careers is coming at the wrong time.

The state is currently changing career training courses and reviewing the methods it uses to determine the value of courses, he said.

“Prior to going through that process, I don’t know that it is appropriate to change funding levels,” McGrew said. “The timing is a little bit off.”

In recent years, Indiana lawmakers have focused on connecting education and workforce development, part of a national trend that is widely supported by both Republicans and Democrats.

Not all students will make it through four-year colleges, and many in-demand careers require certifications rather than bachelor’s degrees, advocates say. By helping students earn credentials in high school, technical education can give them a head start on better-paying jobs.

But not all career training is created equal. While Indiana cosmetologists make about $28,000 per year on average, people who work as welders make about $42,000, according to federal data.

The state funding formula is designed to reward schools offering courses that will help students get good jobs and help employers fill positions. Courses that are considered “less than moderate value” based on state analysis already get lower funding.

Encouraging schools to offer training for high-wage, high-demand careers makes sense because it will improve opportunities for students — especially those who go straight into the workforce, said Jason Bearce, vice president of education and workforce development for the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

But state leaders should be thoughtful about deciding what programs to cut funding for, and that process will take time, he said.

“I understand there’s a sense of urgency to make some of these changes,” Bearce said. But “we need to be realistic and understanding of the plight of people who are doing this on the front lines and not just inadvertently pull the rug out from under them.”

Supporters say eliminating popular programs would narrow students’ options, limiting the chance to explore their interests without tuition bills.

A good student in high school, Jacob Klotz planned on pursuing politics. But he decided to enroll in the culinary arts program in Porter County because he was a fan of cooking shows such as “Hell’s Kitchen.”

Klotz, 20, loved his high school courses so much, he enrolled in culinary school after graduation. Now, he works as a cook at a restaurant in Valparaiso, where he largely manages the kitchen.

“I love my job. And I love the people I work with,” Klotz said. “If I didn’t have this option of culinary tech center, I probably wouldn’t be in this industry.”

Career education also has potential academic benefits that could be lost if programs are cut. Shaun Dougherty, an associate professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt University, has found that students who attend high schools dedicated to career training are more likely to graduate.

If programs like cosmetology or culinary arts are cut, some students may drop out, Dougherty said. Even if high schools add other courses that get state funding, they won’t necessarily attract the same students.

“We should not make the assumption that the students who want to do culinary arts or cosmetology are the same ones that will get transferred into these other programs,” Dougherty said. “There aren’t a group of 14-year-olds walking around saying, ‘no matter what, I want to do technical education.’ ”

Just 1 in 6 Indiana college students who study education become teachers, report finds

2021-03-04T19:21:28+00:00

Only 1 in 6 students who pursued bachelor’s degrees in education at state colleges and universities ended up working as teachers, according to a new report on Indiana’s teacher pipeline that followed students who entered college from 2010 to 2012.

The outcomes were even starker among students of color: Just 5% of Black students who entered education programs went into teaching in Indiana classrooms, according to the study from the Institute of Education Sciences, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education.

The report followed students enrolled in education programs at Indiana’s public colleges and universities to see how many received degrees, were licensed, and got jobs in teaching.

Of the roughly 11,000 students who pursued bachelor’s degrees in education, just 16% eventually received licenses and found jobs in Indiana public schools.

Indiana schools have struggled to fill vacancies in recent years as a strong economy created jobs in other industries. Teacher pay in Indiana lags behind that of neighboring states and behind salaries of other professional careers — a problem that has attracted attention from politicians and advocates on both sides of the aisle.

Schools are particularly struggling to hire more teachers of color and to fill positions in high-demand areas such as special education and math.

“This is a treasure trove of information, which prompts us to say, ‘We have a problem. Let’s figure out what the problem is,’” said Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education Teresa Lubbers.

“If the problem is we don’t have enough people interested in education or enough diversity in education, then we need to find out why,” she said.

Gathering more information is crucial for tackling those challenges, Lubbers said. Some students could be dropping out of college because it is not affordable, for example, while others could be switching to other majors.

The study did not look at other routes to the classroom. Many Indiana teachers pursue alternative teacher licensing pathways, which are open to college graduates who have not completed a university teaching degree program.

Black and Latino college students were especially likely to leave before landing in classrooms, according to the report. Of the students the study had demographic data for, students of color made up 12% of those pursuing education degrees but just 6% of those licensed. That’s a worrying trend because research has shown that having teachers of color improves outcomes for students of color.

About 34% of Indiana students are Black, Hispanic, Asian, or other children of color. But the state’s teaching force is overwhelmingly white, and just 8% of Hoosier teachers are people of color.

Another reason for the wide gap is because Black and Hispanic high school graduates are less likely to enroll in college and less likely to graduate, according to data from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, so the pool of potential teachers is smaller.

The state is already pursuing policies to boost diversity, Lubbers said, pointing to programs for Black and Hispanic college students such as scholarships and student-teaching stipends.

“There are things that we’re doing. It’s just that it’s not enough yet,” Lubbers said.

Advocates say that improving teacher diversity in Indiana’s schools will take a multipronged approach.

Blake Nathan, CEO of the Educate ME Foundation, an organization dedicated to increasing the number of teachers of color, said that college students of color could face many hurdles that make it harder for them to become teachers, including concerns about incurring student debt and then entering a relatively low-paying field.

Some college students of color may be prevented from teaching because of state licensing requirements, Nathan said. To earn licenses, prospective teachers must meet grade point average requirements and pass tests that Nathan said put candidates of color at a disadvantage and should be studied for bias.

“It needs to be a statewide initiative to support more teachers of color,” Nathan said.

All Indiana teachers now eligible for COVID vaccines — but only at certain sites

2021-03-03T21:32:25+00:00

Under a new federal directive, Hoosier teachers will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccines at certain pharmacies, a shift in a state that spent months defending its age-based vaccination plan.

Teachers who are not eligible for vaccines based on age through the state will only be able to get vaccinated at pharmacies in the federal program, including Kroger, Meijer, and Walmart, said Gov. Eric Holcomb at a briefing Wednesday.

Educators should schedule directly with the pharmacies rather than through the state website or phone system. A list of sites is available on the state website.

If a teacher lives in a county without one of those pharmacies, Holcomb said, “you might have to go a county over if you’re a teacher because you are eligible under that federal program.”

Teachers who are not eligible based on the state criteria will not be able to go to other sites, such as hospitals and mass vaccination locations.

Vaccines earmarked for educators are separate from the overall allocation the state receives, said Indiana State Department of Health Chief Medical Officer Lindsay Weaver.

The announcement comes a day after President Joe Biden said he wants every teacher, school staffer, and child care worker in the U.S. to get at least one shot in March.

The details are still uncertain because Indiana officials first learned of the federal effort at about 5 p.m. Tuesday, Holcomb said.

Vaccine eligibility for Indiana’s 79,000 teachers has been controversial for months. As of this week, 34 states, including all of Indiana’s neighbors, are vaccinating at least some teachers, according to Education Week.

“Age is the single biggest factor that contributes to your risk,” said Holcomb. By prioritizing certain professions for vaccines, “you’ll be pushing some out who are more at risk.”

Currently, Hoosiers 50 years old and older — along with those with certain health conditions that make them vulnerable to complications from the coronavirus — are eligible for the vaccine at any of the state’s nearly 400 sites. About 20,000 teachers are currently eligible for vaccines because they meet age criteria, Holcomb said.

The state plans to continue its age-based approach to eligibility, which officials say aims to reduce hospitalizations and deaths. Next, people ages 40 to 50 will be eligible, state officials said. That will make another 18,000 teachers eligible at any location, Holcomb said.

When campuses were closed, this Indiana high school cracked open its doors for a handful of students

2021-02-25T23:39:18+00:00

Before COVID-19 forced his high school to close, Paris King was enthusiastic in algebra class.

Smart and outgoing, he was the kind of student who would vigorously debate whether to use the elimination method or graphing to solve an equation. Once he understood a concept, the ninth grader was quick to help classmates.

He put in extra time, coming to tutoring on Saturdays, said Erica Mellinger, his math teacher at KIPP Indy Legacy High School in Indianapolis.

But when the pandemic forced KIPP to close the campus nearly a year ago, he started to struggle. Watching recorded lessons alone, 14-year-old King stopped turning in some schoolwork. His grades plummeted.

Stuck at home, King was bored, he said. “We didn’t know what to do.”

The coronavirus unexpectedly left thousands of Indiana high schoolers in charge of their own education in a way they had never been before. Schools scrambled to make sure students had computers, internet, and access to lessons at home.

But even if they had those tools, instead of learning alongside others overseen by teachers, teenagers were expected to learn at home in the same environment where they played video games and hung out with family. For some, that version of school proved especially difficult.

Watching previously thriving students like King flounder alarmed leaders at KIPP Indy. Just weeks after schools closed last March, they came up with a plan: They would bring students who were struggling the most back to campus.

It was an exception that needed special permission from the county health department. The students still attended classes virtually — while teachers and classmates logged on from home. About 15 students participated from the school building in the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood, supervised by staff.

“We can do the very best we can in a remote setting, but it’s impossible to replicate the level of support that we’re able to provide in person for students,” said Andy Seibert, executive director of KIPP Indy, which also runs an elementary school and a middle school. All are part of the KIPP national charter network.

Many school systems have prioritized bringing younger students back in person first, in part because they are less likely to get severely ill or to spread the virus, but also because of concerns that they struggle to learn remotely and parents need child care.

But the first students KIPP Indy decided to bring back were the small group of high schoolers who were rapidly falling behind. Those students simply have fewer years to catch up, Seibert said.

“The stakes are higher for high school students,” he said. “The older students get, the more important it is that they’re making progress and staying on track.”

Over the past year, spikes in COVID-19 cases have pushed Legacy to flip back and forth between fully remote learning and classroom instruction. But for much of that time, King has gone to school in person.

When the school year started, King would go to the Legacy campus, where a small group of students studied in the cafeteria. By January, students had moved to the KIPP elementary and middle school building, where a community center ran a remote learning site for KIPP students in all grades. Each morning, King’s mother dropped him off at the school on her way to work as a manager at a hotel.

On a Thursday in January, King got to campus, sat down at a lunch table, and fell asleep at about 7:45 a.m. Just after 9 a.m., he slipped into the classroom where one other high schooler was sitting with their teacher. He found a spot in an armchair in the corner and quickly signed on to his remote history class.

At the remote learning site, Leeta Robertson, who usually teaches performing arts, oversaw a handful of high schoolers. Rather than teaching subject matter, Robertson helped keep students on track. She could watch their screens on her own laptop. If they were late to a virtual class, she reminded them. And if they had technical problems, she helped.

“It’s the school setting. So your mindset as a teenager is just totally different,” Robertson said.

Before he came back in person, King would try to do schoolwork at home with his older brother. But if he felt like his teachers were overworking him, he would stop, he said. Sometimes, he would just watch his younger cousin play video games.

At the remote learning site, it’s different.

“I’m more focused,” King said. “My game isn’t there to distract me.”

That Thursday, King sat at his laptop in the corner for world history. The teacher pressed students to describe a painting and what it revealed about French society before the revolution.

“Exactly, Paris, that’s going to be important,” said his teacher, as King typed his observations in the chat box.

When Legacy first closed the campus last March, students were supposed to watch prerecorded lessons from teachers. But educators quickly realized students weren’t engaged. This school year, video classes were live, so students could interact with each other and the teacher.

In this virtual class, King was attentive. Even when his phone beeped with an alert, he ignored it and continued typing in the assignment sheet.

That focus in class shows in King’s grades. After plunging last spring, his grade point average is now above 3.5. He seldom misses classes. In person and online, he interacts with teachers and other students, part of what he likes about school.

After history class ended, he stood up and walked around the room to chat with classmates.

“I kind of mess with them so they can wake up,” King said.

Principal David Spencer said King is a leader in class in a way that’s unusual for high schoolers: He makes sure others are participating. When students talk in small groups about class material, King not only answers questions but also helps pull answers out of others.

When COVID-19 first closed the campus, moments like that suddenly disappeared. But bit by bit, the school has been trying to bring them back.

Legacy recently revived a meeting that helped build community and get students excited about school. Before the pandemic, students started each morning by gathering in the cafeteria. School staff would shout out students who did well the day before, chanting and clapping. It generated a “camaraderie and spirit,” recalled Mellinger, the teacher for King’s advisory group, which meets before regular classes.

By late January, Legacy reopened in person, and about 60% of high schoolers returned to campus. Still, it’s impossible to have large assemblies safely in the middle of a pandemic, Spencer said. So last month, to spark some of the same enthusiasm, Legacy started weekly, virtual meetings.

In her advisory classroom, Mellinger projects the meeting on the smartboard. From home, students watch on laptops.

It’s King, at school in person, who uses the chat box to ask students at home questions — making sure they are participating.

Frustrated teachers lose access to vaccine waitlists as Indiana cracks down

2021-02-23T21:32:51+00:00

Over a single week, Shannon Brown heard that four of her teacher friends had gotten COVID-19 vaccinations because they were on waitlists at Walmarts.

An Indianapolis high school teacher, Brown, 31, called five Walmart stores and eventually got on three standby lists for vaccines left over when people miss appointments. About a week later, all three stores told her they were removing her from the waitlist or moving her down in priority, Brown said.

“It is still incredibly frustrating to be placed in this precarious position,” Brown said. “There’s no way to keep a bubble when you’re a teacher.”

Brown was likely removed from those standby lists because even vaccine waitlists are supposed to target state priority groups, and teachers are not currently eligible for vaccinations, according to the Indiana State Department of Health.

Brown was not alone. The controversy has ricocheted around social media in recent days, as other teachers eager for vaccines shared similar stories in posts that went viral. Frustrated posters said that Indiana would rather let vaccines go to waste than inoculate educators.

In a statement, Walmart spokesman Kevin Thompson said social media rumors were not true, and the pharmacies are in line with the state on “the shared goal of never letting a dose go to waste.”

The Indiana State Department of Health issued a statement denying that vaccine was going to waste:

“Never wasting a dose is of the utmost importance in the state’s vaccine plan. The Indiana Department of Health has never told a clinic to discard unused doses. We ask every clinic to keep a standby list of people who meet current eligibility requirements so that every dose can be administered, and only one one-hundredth of the doses we have received have been wasted, primarily due to a vial or syringe breaking.”

When to vaccinate Indiana educators has been contentious for months. Some teachers are already eligible for vaccines in at least 30 states, including all of Indiana’s neighbors, according to Education Week.

But Indiana officials have not yet said when they will make educators eligible.

The state is vaccinating Hoosiers who are 60 years old and older. State officials said earlier this month that vaccinations will next be open to people 50 and older and those with certain health conditions that make them especially vulnerable to the virus.

Hoosier teachers have gotten shots in the meantime by signing up on standby lists and when health officials offered surplus vaccines. In the first weeks of distribution, educators in Evansville, Vincennes, and Knox County received vaccinations from extra available doses.

But in a Jan. 30 letter, Indiana State Department of Health Chief Medical Officer Lindsay Weaver reiterated eligibility guidelines and told clinics that vaccine standby lists “should reflect only people who are considered at high risk for hospitalization and death from a COVID-19 infection.”

For Brown, learning that teachers do not even have access to vaccines through waitlists is just the latest frustration.

Indiana teachers expected to get priority access to vaccines, she said. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend vaccinating teachers before some of the groups who are currently eligible in Indiana.

“I feel like everyone who we thanked at the beginning of the pandemic — outside of health care workers — suddenly doesn’t matter,” said Brown.

Why COVID could fuel a surge in funding for Indiana virtual schools

2021-02-16T22:13:59+00:00

A year into a pandemic that has forced more than 350,000 Hoosier students to learn remotely, Indiana House lawmakers have proposed full funding for schools that provide virtual education — including online-only schools that have long received lower allocations.

Nearly 18,000 students now attend dedicated virtual schools — a 65% jump from last school year. That figure is dwarfed by the number of children in brick-and-mortar schools who are now learning virtually due to the pandemic.

The proposal to inject more money into virtual education, part of the draft budget released by the House Republicans last week, is a victory for advocates of online-only schools who say growing awareness is helping them win support for full funding. Indiana has long funded virtual schools at a lower rate than in-person schools based on the theory that online education is less costly than traditional instruction.

Just two years ago, lawmakers cut virtual funding even further because of years of low performance. The schools now receive 85% of the per-student allotment that the state provides for in-person instruction.

But as the coronavirus upended education in Indiana, hundreds of thousands of families experienced their first virtual instruction. Schools that once shunned online education have been forced to embrace it.

“A lot of people had misconceptions about online,” said Jeff Kwitowski, senior vice president of public affairs at Stride, a for-profit virtual school operator that used to be called K12. “There are a lot of folks who just didn’t realize what it really takes — all of the support that it takes.”

Amid fears that schools that usually operate in person would face a precipitous loss in funding, the state Board of Education intervened to provide the full allocation for students who were learning remotely in the fall because of the coronavirus.

A plan to extend that policy to spring has won wide support from many Indiana lawmakers.

That decision opened the door for online-only schools to seek more money, and they are winning some powerful allies.

In a briefing before the draft budget was released, House Speaker Todd Huston said that while he has previously supported full funding for virtual schools, the pandemic now has led some skeptical lawmakers to see the light.

Rep. Ed Delaney, D-Indianapolis, a critic of virtual schools, framed it differently: “They’re trying to take advantage of the circumstances.”

The state should not increase funding because it still does not know how much it costs to educate students in virtual schools, Delaney argued.

That sentiment was echoed by some Republican lawmakers in the state Senate.

“I’m in favor, at this point in time, to leave everything exactly the way it is until we learn what’s best for students,” Sen. Jeff Raatz, who chairs the Senate Committee on Education and Career Development, told Chalkbeat before the House budget was released.

In a committee hearing last month, Senate Appropriations Chairman Ryan Mishler raised concerns about providing full funding for students who are virtual due to COVID-19 because he believes it would be a mistake to encourage students to learn remotely.

Virtual schools have a troubled history in Indiana. The state’s first online school closed due to chronic poor performance. A study released last year found that students fell further behind after transferring to virtual charter schools.

The problems go beyond academic results.

Last year, two defunct virtual schools were accused of misspending more than $85 million in state funding. And last month, auditors alleged another virtual school owes the state more than $300,000 because it inaccurately described its program as operating more than 50% in-person — a model that would entitle it to full state funding.

Proponents of virtual education say that those problems are isolated. They also argue that cutting funding because of poor academic performance makes little sense.

“You don’t improve performance with fewer resources. It’s just counterintuitive,” said Elizabeth Sliger, head of school for Indiana Digital Learning School, which is run by Stride.

Pointing to a jump in the high school graduation rate last year, Sliger said the school is improving. But low state funding ties her hands, she argued.

Because virtual schools get less state funding than brick-and-mortar campuses, they have less money to support students who are behind, Sliger said. “Virtual doesn’t mean easy or cheap.”

The pandemic has helped fuel rapid expansion at Indiana Digital Learning School, which now enrolls 6,000 students.

Sherri Shell, whose daughter is in first grade, plans to keep her in Indiana Digital Learning School even after the coronavirus numbers improve.

Her daughter, who has autism, struggled at her first school and was eventually sent to a special needs school, where she was unhappy.

At Indiana Digital Learning School, Shell said, her daughter is doing better. She likes her teacher and she can take breaks when she is frustrated.

Shell said she would like her daughter to have more live instruction. “They could do a lot more if they had the full funding that brick-and-mortar schools do,” Shell said.

While online schools save money because they don’t have to pay for such expenses as transportation and building maintenance, these costs are typically covered by property taxes at traditional public schools.

State funding is supposed to support the cost of instruction, and it should be the same for online instruction, virtual school supporters say.

But skeptics of virtual education say that there can be other cost savings at virtual programs, including the need for significantly fewer teachers.

Students in virtual schools often work independently for much of the day, doing assignments and watching videos without a live teacher. Virtual schools also rely on parents to supervise their children, especially in early grades.

Indiana Digital Learning School has about 28 students per teacher, officials said. Statewide, public schools have an average of 17 students per teacher, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

“There’s no question that with more money they could afford more teaching,” said Delaney, a Democrat on the House Education Committee. “The question is, would they deliver it?”

When the school year started, Amy Thornburg chose the virtual option the district offered. But there was no live instruction or support from a dedicated teacher. Thornburg pulled her two children out. She enrolled one daughter in a charter school for students with autism and the other in Indiana Digital Learning School.

Her third grader only spends about an hour a day in a live video class with a teacher at Indiana Digital Learning School. The rest of the day she works independently.

The schedule works for their family, Thornburg said, because she is working from home during the pandemic and her daughter is tech-savvy and interested in school.

Overseeing virtual school is an exhausting, time-consuming responsibility, said Thornburg, a nonprofit management consultant. But she said she likes being involved in her daughter’s education, and her daughter enjoys the flexibility.

“I will say my local school has more competition now than I ever thought that they would,” Thornburg said. “This is a viable option for my daughter now.”

Indiana House budget would expand vouchers, limit poverty aid for schools

2021-02-12T00:41:36+00:00

At a time when many Hoosier families are in financial distress because of the pandemic, the Indiana House Republicans’ draft budget would cap the state aid for educating children in poverty and at the same time fund a significant expansion in private school vouchers for middle-class families.

The budget proposal, which was presented to and passed by the House Ways and Means Committee Thursday, would increase state funding for K-12 education by $378 million over the next two years — a 3.8% boost from this school year. The state would spread that increase across all Indiana public schools and a host of contentious education priorities while limiting funding to districts where poverty surges because of the pandemic.

The draft is an early step in the state’s budget development process. The Senate will produce its own budget proposal before the two chambers negotiate a final agreement.

Thursday’s proposal omits any substantial increase for teacher raises that a state panel recommended last year.

Republican lawmakers hope to spend about $66 million over two years to dramatically expand state aid for private schools and to include more generous tuition subsidies for students from middle-class families.

The budget plan would also increase state funding for virtual schools to the same amount that brick-and-mortar schools receive, which is expected to cost nearly $28 million over two years.

That move would direct more money to one of the state’s most troubled education sectors. But it may also benefit many schools that typically operate in person but may offer remote instruction next school year if the pandemic does not abate.

Charter and innovation schools would get a boost in the budget. Because those schools do not typically receive local property taxes to pay for buildings and other operation costs, the state provides them a per-student grant. The budget proposes increasing that amount to $1,250 over the next two years, up from $750 this year.

The budget also would earmark $150 million in one-time funding for programs that aim to help students who have fallen behind in school during the pandemic.

House leaders touted the budget proposal as showing their commitment to K-12 education even as the state’s finances are tight.

“We did not reduce education during the pandemic, and we build on those increases in this budget cycle,” said Republican Tim Brown, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

“Parents by far and away want to make choices for their kids. They want to have options,” Brown said. “I know a lot of parents are going to be looking at hybrid models out there, and whether they even want to send their children back to school.”

The proposal was met with skepticism by Democrats on the committee, who said that it did not address the state’s pressing need to increase teacher pay.

“The school funding formula introduced today is furthering the GOP’s education ‘separate and unequal’ agenda by effectively creating ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots,’” said Greg Porter, D-Indianapolis, in a statement. “My colleagues across the aisle believe they have a right to determine which child’s future is worth investing in and which is not.”

Poverty aid

Despite more children living in poverty during the pandemic, lawmakers are proposing curbing the additional money schools could receive if the numbers of students from low-income families rise.

During the pandemic, child poverty has risen across the country. About 15% more Indiana households received food stamps in September than a year earlier.

In prior years, that increase in poverty would have driven a similar surge in the amount that schools receive from the state. The number of students who get food stamps is one factor used to calculate how much aid districts receive to educate students from low-income families.

But this year, the House is proposing a new formula that would curtail the bump in aid schools receive if more of their children are in poverty. Lawmakers say it will help reduce fluctuations in funding. Under the House proposal, the so-called “complexity index,” which is used to calculate aid for schools, would only be able to increase or decrease by a limited amount.

Two years ago, lawmakers limited the amount that complexity funding could decrease, in a bid to protect schools from big losses in aid when the economy was strong. But the new ceiling on the amount of additional aid districts can receive would eat into assistance just as students’ needs climb.

Even with the proposed cap tamping down hikes in state aid, because of the increasing need, the amount of money dedicated to educating needy students is expected to rise by about $19 million next year to reach about $689 million.

While the budget proposal calls for increasing the basic per-student payment to schools, it would keep the complexity amount flat. By increasing funding across the board, the state effectively awards larger increases to districts serving more affluent populations.

Wayne Township in Indianapolis, a district where two-thirds of students come from low-income families, is projected to see lower-than-average per-student increases in the budget plan because of a 7.3% loss in complexity funding.

“I’m just shaking my head,” said Wayne Township Superintendent Jeff Butts. “Once again, we’re creating greater inequities in funding.”

Vouchers

The budget would vastly expand state funding for children from middle-class families to attend private school.

The budget would fund a controversial proposal that would open the state’s private school voucher program to thousands of families who currently make too much money to qualify. The proposal would increase aid for middle-class students and create an education savings account program, which would give stipends to parents of children with special needs.

The plan would expand eligibility for vouchers each year. By 2022-23, a family of four would qualify if earning up to about $145,000 per year. That’s well above the state median income for families, which is about $74,000 per year.

Middle-class families would also receive more money for tuition. Currently, families receive vouchers of 90%, 70%, or 50% of the state tuition aid, with the amount decreasing for greater incomes. The budget proposal would increase all vouchers to 90% of how much the state would have spent on a child’s public education.

The expansion would cost the state about $33 million per year.

Stephanie Wang contributed reporting.

Most Indiana teachers await vaccinations, but these educators are already eligible

2021-02-10T22:40:55+00:00

While most Indiana educators are waiting to find out when they can get vaccinated, some special education teachers and assistants are already eligible, according to state officials.

Special education staff who provide close medical care to students, such as suctioning to clear mucus from airways, can get vaccinations from the state as healthcare personnel, Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box said during a Wednesday press conference.

In most cases, teaching assistants provide that care. But in classrooms without assistants, such as smaller or more rural schools, special education teachers may provide those services, Box said.

“Under those circumstances, I would most certainly want them to be able to get vaccinated,” she said.

Several other categories of healthcare professionals and assistants who often work in schools are also eligible, including occupational therapists, speech pathologists, audiologists, social workers, and nurses. The full list is available on the state website.

If Indiana teachers do not qualify under one of these categories or based on age, it could be a long wait before they are able to get vaccinated.

The state is currently vaccinating Hoosiers who are 65 years old and older and will turn next to those 60 and older. State officials said Wednesday vaccinations will then be open to people 50 and older and those with certain health conditions that make them especially vulnerable to the virus.

Many Indiana teachers have become increasingly frustrated in recent weeks that the state is not prioritizing educators in its vaccine distribution. Most Indiana districts have reopened for in-person instruction, and while other states have begun vaccinating teachers, Indiana has yet to announce when they will be eligible.

At the press briefing, Chief Medical Officer for the Indiana State Department of Health Lindsay Weaver urged people to be patient.

The state has long planned to prioritize “individuals who are at particular risk of severe illness or death associated with COVID-19 disease based on the latest evidence-based criteria,” Weaver said. “We are expanding vaccine eligibility as quickly as our supplies permit.”

Indiana lawmakers could overhaul accountability, end school takeovers

2021-02-08T21:49:42+00:00

Indiana lawmakers are considering a plan that would put the final nail in the coffin of the state’s aggressive efforts to take over schools with chronically low test results.

A proposal winning early support in the House would eliminate many of the consequences for poor test performance that typically loom over Indiana public schools. District schools with failing grades would no longer face the threat of state seizure or the steps that precede it, such as a requirement that districts attempt to improve schools by replacing personnel, giving them new resources, or working with outside experts.

Under the proposed law, charter schools with low grades would be able to seek renewals without special permission from the state. And even if they receive low marks from the state, private schools would be able to receive vouchers for new students.

To gauge how much students are learning, Indiana assigns each school an A-F letter grade every year. For this school year, House Bill 1514 would replace all those grades with “null” or “no letter grade,” because of the disruption caused by the coronavirus.

In the long term, however, Indiana would still assign schools A-F letter grades, in an effort to create a clear measure of academic performance for parents and community members. Because the stakes of those grades would be lower, lawmakers hope there would be less pressure to suspend grades when schools across the state see declines in test scores.

The plan “rolls back all the prescriptive state interventions in exchange for that increased transparency,” said author Rep. Tony Cook, R-Cicero.

The House Education Committee unanimously approved the bill last week, and it moved forward in the full chamber Monday. If the House approves it on third reading, it will head to the Senate.

The proposal comes nearly a decade after state leaders severed five troubled schools from their districts, an ambitious and controversial improvement strategy. Since then enthusiasm for state takeover has waned, and Indiana has not seized control of any other schools.

Instead, state officials have relied on local leaders to decide how to attempt to help their lowest-scoring schools.

Last year state education officials voted to return the four remaining takeover campuses to their home districts. All but two are now closed.

“Past interventions and penalties have not resulted in many successes, as we all know,” Cook said.

Under the House plan, the letter grades schools receive would still hinge on student test results, including annual state tests. The Indiana State Board of Education, which already began its own process for revamping A-F grades, would be tasked with working out the details of the new accountability system.

The state could incorporate student results on tests given throughout the year and other metrics, such as attendance, in the new calculation. The state board would also be charged with developing a school performance dashboard with more information that might be useful for parents and community members.

The bill won bipartisan support at the committee hearing last week. Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary, said that while he opposes A-F grades for schools, the bill is “light years ahead of where we were in the past.”

An unusual group of allies spoke in favor of the overhaul, including advocates for teachers and administrators, and supporters of school choice.

“Refocusing the purpose of our school accountability model to be a Consumer Reports-type transparency tool makes sense, provided that there are options for students and parents who are dissatisfied with the education they’re receiving,” said Jason Bearce of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

David Marcotte of the Indiana Urban Schools Association said that his organization supported the bill in its entirety, and was especially enthusiastic about the proposed dashboard.

“Anytime that you can have multiple measures to explain student learning is a good thing,” Marcotte said.

Some speakers opposed the plan to keep A-F grades in place, arguing that the grades largely reflect the economic status of students and that they are simplistic and stigmatizing. But a handful of parents spoke in favor of the grades as an easy, user-friendly way to assess schools.

Lawmakers hope that by abandoning the consequences that are tied to school grades, there will be less pressure to change them. Twice in the past five years, Indiana has passed laws to protect schools from receiving lower letter grades when passing rates on tests plummeted across the state, first when the state introduced new standards and again when it rolled out a new test.

Those provisions, known as a hold harmless, rendered school letter grades essentially meaningless because some school grades were based on 2-year-old test results. For years, there was also a different — more generous — grading scale used for new schools and schools that adopted charter-like agreements with districts.

“I think we have been less than honest in terms of the way we’ve computed this over time,” said House education leader Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis. A dashboard and consistent grades could give the community insight into how schools are doing.

“Let’s be honest about performance,” Behning said.

Behning framed the accountability changes as going hand in hand with a slate of plans to vastly expand Indiana’s voucher program, allowing many more middle-class parents to receive state aid for private school tuition.

The state doesn’t have to hold schools accountable when families have choices, Behning said — parents can.

Indiana voucher supporters, opponents spar at Statehouse

2021-02-04T23:12:46+00:00

A set of Statehouse proposals that would vastly expand public funding for private school education in Indiana inspired a marathon of impassioned testimony Wednesday, from both supporters and opponents of the controversial bills.

The legislature is considering opening the state’s existing private school voucher program to thousands of families who currently make too much money to qualify and increasing the stipends for middle-class students. The proposals would also create education savings accounts, which would give stipends to parents of children with special needs for their schooling.

The House Education Committee made several changes to the bill in bid to bring down the price tag to about $34 million in the first year, from the initial projection of over $100 million. A House Republican priority, the bill was approved by a vote of 8-4, and it will head to the Ways and Means Committee next.

The latest plan would delay the launch of education savings accounts until 2022. It also would reduce the potential funding for the accounts to 90% of what the state would have provided to a student’s public school, plus special education costs. And children of veterans with disabilities would no longer be eligible to participate.

Lawmakers also made several changes to the education savings accounts program at the recommendation of special education advocates, including broadening the expenses the accounts could be used for and creating an advisory council charged with providing guidance.

The Senate Education and Career Development committee is expected to make some changes before voting next week on two bills it considered.

Among the dozens of advocates and parents weighing in on the proposals, parents who benefit from the state’s existing voucher program spoke to how it helped them afford private schools they loved. And skeptics of the expansion argued that it would drain much-needed resources from a public school system that serves most Hoosier students.

By raising the income limit for vouchers, the state would open the program up to many more middle-class parents like Heidi Gant, who said that her family cannot afford to pay for private school without state aid.

Gant, who is expecting her first child in August, said that the public schools in her area are high performing, but she values religious education.

“I came to the realization that I wouldn’t be able to give my children a faith-formed Christian education that I was blessed with as a child,” said Gant, who works for the Indiana Non-Public Education Association. “How is it that we can make a decent middle-class salary and still not really have a choice about where our children receive their education?”

Opponents of the expansion of school choice argued that the money to boost vouchers should instead go to increasing teacher pay.

Kristien Hamilton, a teacher at Greencastle Middle School and the president of the district union, argued that the bill would make a “mockery of all claims that there is no money to improve teacher pay.”

“If House Bill 1005 is not decisively rejected, the future of public education in Indiana is bleak,” Hamilton said. “Our hardworking but demoralized teachers and administrators in Indiana would take this bill as a signal that the General Assembly is ready to put public education into a death spiral.”

The bill would increase all vouchers to 90% of how much the state would have spent on a child’s public education. Currently, families who make more money receive vouchers of 50% or 70% of the state tuition aid.

That could be important for parents like Brad Murray, a father of seventh-grade quadruplets who receive vouchers. When his income went up last year, the voucher amount his children received went down. At the same time, his family was no longer eligible for Medicaid, Murray said.

“There’s no way I could put my kids in the education they’ve had so far in school without this voucher,” Murray said. “I want to be able to continue to work hard and try to make better for my family.”

All the places Cheryl Kirk could afford to live had failing public schools, she said. With the help of vouchers, she was able to send her children to private high school. But there was still about a $5,000 gap between the scholarships and their tuition costs. To pay for that, she worked extra hours and a second job, Kirk said.

“There’s plenty of days I go to work, I get off work. I’m their biggest cheerleader at the football game. And I go back to work,” Kirk said. “It’s that important.”

The education savings accounts aim to serve students with special needs. But they drew criticism from some parents who said they would not help their children.

“This is not what we as parents need,” said Rachel Burke, president-elect of the Indiana Parent Teacher Association, who also has two children with autism. “There’s a lot of snake oil out there, if I’m going to be very blunt, for special education services. There are a lot of unproven things, and things we know scientifically are dangerous for students and that really do hurt learning and learning ability.”

Joel Hand, a lobbyist for the Indiana Coalition for Public Education, pointed to problems with other publicly funded programs that help families pay for educational services — like one in Indiana that could be used to buy a Netflix subscription, Chalkbeat found, or another in California that covered trips to Disneyland.

At a few Indianapolis schools, the pandemic caused huge drops in graduation rates

2021-02-03T00:11:41+00:00

In a rare bright spot for students whose senior year was fractured by the coronavirus, Indiana high schoolers in the class of 2020 graduated at about the same rate as those in the prior year.

But at a handful of Indiana schools serving some of the state’s highest-need students, graduation rates plummeted. At three Indianapolis high schools, leaders say that the challenges of the pandemic contributed to double-digit drops in graduation rates, as students struggled to complete school remotely or left school to get jobs.

Graduation rates are important because students who earn diplomas have opportunities for better-paying jobs and for higher education. The calculations also measure how well schools are educating their students.

The recent rates aren’t comparable with previous years, because the state effectively lowered the bar by suspending the graduation exam and loosening graduation requirements in 2020. State officials said students who were on track to graduate shouldn’t have their education derailed by the pandemic. But some students, particularly those already struggling, were unable to graduate within four years amid the challenges posed by the lockdowns.

Graduation rates fell by more than 10 percentage points at two of the four high schools operated by Indianapolis Public Schools. At George Washington High School, the graduation rate dropped to 63% in 2020. At Arsenal Technical High School, the district’s largest campus, the graduation rate fell to 69%.

Superintendent Aleesia Johnson attributed the dip to the pandemic, which denied students in-person connections with staff. When campuses closed, those schools struggled to keep students engaged, particularly students who were already “on the edge,” she said. Some students did not have computers to log in from home.

Johnson said there were definitely some gaps in reaching students and making sure that they finished. For example, the district has more students who are still working on credits needed to graduate, even after four years in high school.

“I attribute that to the fact that the level of engagement was just lower than what we’ve seen before once we were not seeing them in person every day,” Johnson said.

More than 65% of students at Tech and George Washington come from low-income families, who have suffered through a disproportionate financial strain during the pandemic.

The district was more successful at helping students graduate at its other two campuses, particularly Shortridge High School. In spite of the pandemic, the graduation rate at Shortridge jumped by nearly 8 percentage points, to reach 87%.

Shortridge Principal Dennis Thomas said that when the pandemic hit, nearly all juniors and seniors already had late-model MacBooks required for their visual arts and International Baccalaureate programs. And students were familiar with the district’s online platforms. This, he said, positioned them to weather the transition to remote learning more easily than those at other high schools.

At the onset of the pandemic, the district scrambled to ensure students had access to the internet and computers at home. Staff called families to check if high school students had the technology and internet for online learning. In April, the district gathered more than 6,000 devices to give to high school and middle school students in advanced classes. A survey revealed that just half of students were ready to learn remotely with technology at home.

Thomas also noted that school staff were aggressive about tracking student progress and checking in with seniors about whether they were on track to graduate.

District officials said George Washington and Arsenal Tech staff checked in consistently with students and provided support services. But both schools also had higher rates of students moving in and out of the schools and of students having to work to support families.

To keep students on track to graduate, last spring the district and schools deployed “success agents” who have met regularly with students and communicated with parents monthly, monitored attendance and academic progress, and documented meetings and supportive services, district officials said.

This school year, IPS high schoolers have gone back and forth between in-person and remote instruction. Currently, students are back on campus for part of each week.

Johnson hopes that reopening campuses will help academics and engagement.

“You can’t undervalue the power of those in-person touch points to be able to see kids and just really have a very clear sense of what’s happening,” Johnson said. “It makes a huge difference.”

Johnson said the district has some work to do to improve graduation rates at George Washington and Tech. This school year, the district has added graduation services to ensure students are on track and to find where they go when they leave, Johnson said.

Even in a normal year, graduation rates fluctuate, particularly at small schools where a handful of students dropping out can move the needle. Some of the Indiana schools with the largest declines told Chalkbeat the drops were unrelated to the pandemic. And graduation rates fell at several schools after the state audited whether students were properly marked as leaving to home school.

At the schools that saw dips because of the pandemic, practical barriers such as limited access to computers and the internet may have gotten in the way, said Russell Rumberger, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

“These were things that are kind of correctable,” Rumberger said. “Hopefully that means that next year, it should recover some.”

Rumberger cautioned, however, that even at schools where graduation rates held steady, students missed out on weeks of in-person instruction. Because of relaxed graduation requirements across the country, many students who earned diplomas may be unprepared for college.

That fear was top of mind for Christina Lear, the principal of Indianapolis Metropolitan High School, a west side charter school operated by Goodwill Education Initiatives. When the state allowed schools to give diplomas to students who were on track before the pandemic even if they didn’t do remote schoolwork, Indy Met leaders decided to keep their graduation expectations the same.

A diploma is more than a piece of paper, Lear said. Unprepared graduates may enroll in college, incur debt, and then fail classes. Or they may think they are not college material.

“I’m worried when students don’t graduate. That’s why we do this work, is because we want to see our students meet this milestone and then be ready for what is next,” Lear said. “But I am equally worried about kids that have a diploma ... that are not prepared.”

In part because of the decision to require students to complete work remotely, Indy Met had the largest drop in graduation rates in the state. About 61% of students in the class of 2020 graduated within four years — more than 20 percentage points lower than the year before.

Lear said she was already expecting a dip in the graduation rate because a few years ago, the school began to focus on serving students who struggled in other high schools, and those teens often take longer to graduate.

But remote school was harder for students, and there were some who had been on track before the pandemic who just couldn’t keep up, she said.

Lear said she felt better about the decision to keep requirements in place because the staff worked hard to help those students, providing devices and Wi-Fi hotspots, expanding summer school, and helping family members find jobs. And if students didn’t graduate, educators didn’t give up.

As an alternative school, Indy Met encourages students who are behind to stay for a fifth year. And Goodwill also operates Excel Centers, a network of adult high schools where students sometimes transfer. About a third of Indy Met students who were expected to graduate in 2020 remained in school, according to state data.

“It kept the integrity of our diploma at a level that aligns with our mission,” Lear said. “But we also knew that it wasn’t game over for those kids, because we already had these robust systems in place to continue them on into a fifth year if they needed it.”

Correction: Feb. 4, 2020: This story has been updated to remove a description of the student population at Shortridge, which serves a similar proportion of students from low-income families as George Washington and Arsenal Technical high schools.

Indiana bill would offer $150 million for COVID learning recovery

2021-01-28T22:15:18+00:00

A bill speeding through the Indiana House would provide a $150 million boost for programs that aim to help students who have fallen behind in school during the pandemic.

A top priority for House Republicans, HB 1008 won unanimous support from committee members Wednesday, an early step in the legislative process. Students across the country missed out on months of in-person instruction during the pandemic, and research shows that many have fallen behind academically — raising fears that children will suffer educationally for years to come.

The current proposal would allow local schools, universities, and other organizations to apply for $150 million in competitive grants to help students catch up.

The commitment to fund learning recovery drew praise from everyone who spoke at a hearing Wednesday. But some advocates argued that only schools and districts should be eligible for the grants because they have the expertise and responsibility to help students catch up.

“If we truly want to make the best use of these dollars, we recommend that grant recipients be professionals in teaching and learning,” said John O’Neal, a lobbyist for the Indiana State Teachers Association.

“The bill as written takes the approach that pretty much anyone or any group can do this,” O’Neal said. “But if we’ve learned anything over the last year, with remote learning and the challenges during the pandemic — especially parents — it’s that not everyone can do this work.”

An administrator in the Evansville schools, bill author Wendy McNamara said she believes efforts should focus on enrichment for children, and she had seen students thrive in programs from the local Boys & Girls Club. If grants were restricted to schools, similar community organizations would not be eligible.

“If you exclude groups like Boys & Girls Club or whatever it might be, I fear that we’re missing out on an opportunity,” said McNamara, R-Evansville. “Sometimes students are going to learn in a different atmosphere other than what they are exposed to in a school building each day.”

In Indianapolis, organizations and educators have already begun planning for a summer program that would include community groups.

The Mind Trust, which supports Indianapolis charter schools, and the United Way of Central Indiana, announced last week that they will spend $500,000 to devise a plan for summer learning in partnership with schools and community organizations.

The effort will build on the network of community learning sites for students in remote schooling that The Mind Trust helped fund and coordinate this year.

“It’s going to take years and years to mitigate a lot of the academic hardships that have happened in the past 12 months,” said Brandon Brown, CEO of The Mind Trust. Given the scale of the challenge, “it’s unfair for us to put all the onus on schools, and if the community can step up and play a critical role, then that’s only going to ensure that schools have more capacity.”

While there is some disagreement over the best approach, politicians and advocates agree that increasing remediation efforts is essential.

Educators across the state are seeing in their classrooms how the coronavirus has hampered student learning. Eddie Rangel, executive director of Adelante Schools, said that when teachers assessed students in the fall, the results were “really alarming.”

First-grade students, for example, struggled with reading after missing months of kindergarten. Many could not hear and break apart the sounds in words in order to read them, for example. And because they were reading so slowly, they struggled to comprehend what they read.

Creating a summer program for students will be crucial to help fill gaps, Rangel said. But doing so will be a costly logistical challenge because staff need to plan transportation for students and ensure the program they offer is safe.

“If we were to wave a magic wand, it wouldn’t be your traditional remediation program,” Rangel said. “It would look more like a camp. Because another big piece that’s missing for kids is the social-emotional learning and being around kids — being able to build relationships with their peers.”

Indiana parent sues education board over virtual funding in the pandemic

2021-01-27T23:18:42+00:00

An Indianapolis mother is suing the Indiana State Board of Education over a policy that sought to prevent brick-and-mortar schools from facing funding cuts when students were educated virtually due to the coronavirus.

Letrisha Weber, who has two children who attend virtual schools in Indiana, argued that a rule to fully fund students who attend remotely because of the pandemic violates several laws and is unfair to children who were already enrolled in virtual schools.

The suit seeks to increase money for online-only schools that existed before the pandemic by threatening the funding bump that the state awarded schools that shifted to remote learning due to the coronavirus.

Indiana typically provides 85% of the per-pupil allocation for virtual school students. With the rise of virtual education this fall, school leaders were afraid state support would plummet. To stave off cuts, the state board used emergency powers to approve a widely supported policy to increase per-pupil funding for students who would normally be in classrooms but are learning online because of the pandemic.

The new policy left funding at 85% for students such as Weber’s, who were already enrolled in online programs last year or students who transferred to virtual charter schools.

“The timing of when the student went online determines the ‘worth’ of the student and some students are worth 15% less than others,” Weber said in a press release from the Indiana Chapter of the National Coalition for Public School Options. “In my opinion, all students are equal and should be funded equally.”

The coalition lobbies in support of virtual schools. In a September letter to the state board arguing that the proposed virtual funding policy was unfair, Weber said she was the chair of the Indiana chapter of Public School Options and a member of the board of the national coalition.

Virtual schools have traditionally received less money in Indiana, and lawmakers further cut per-student funding for virtual schools in 2019 after years of dismal performance. A year ago, a special investigation by state auditors found that officials from two Indiana virtual charter schools misspent more than $85 million in state funding.

The complaint, filed this week in the Marion County Superior Court, names the Indiana State Board of Education and Executive Director Brian Murphy. It calls for the court to invalidate the rule and prevent the state from appropriating money under it “until the General Assembly fully and fairly allocates funding for all public school students.”

The spokeswoman for the Indiana State Board of Education declined to comment on pending litigation.

The lawsuit claims the rule fully funding schools exceeds the state board’s rulemaking authority, goes beyond the scope of the governor’s emergency order, and violates the equal protection provisions of the U.S. and Indiana constitutions.

But one legal expert said the plaintiffs are unlikely to prevail.

“My guess is this lawsuit will be quickly dismissed,” said Brad Desnoyer, an associate professor at Indiana University’s McKinney School of Law.

It made sense for the board to maintain funding for schools that would have faced a funding cliff because those campuses still had fixed costs for maintaining buildings, he said. Fully virtual schools simply don’t have the same expenses.

For the courts to overturn an agency rule, it must be considered “arbitrary and capricious,” Desnoyer said.

“This is not an arbitrary rule. This decision was made to keep our schools funded,” Desnoyer said. “What she’s asking for is so detrimental to the students of Indiana that I don’t see it happening.”

The purpose of the lawsuit is to boost funding for fully virtual schools, not to reduce funding for brick-and-mortar schools, Ann Coriden, the Columbus attorney representing Weber, wrote in an email.

“This lawsuit is not about reducing funding for others. Ms. Weber would like the legislature to fully and fairly fund all public school students, including her children,” Coriden wrote. “The rule adopted by SBOE creates a situation where two students at the same school receiving the same education can be funded at different levels. Ms. Weber does not believe her children are worth only $0.85, when another student participating in the same program is worth $1.00. This is patently unfair and should be addressed by the legislature.”

When the state board made the funding change in September, it relied on special power granted by the governor during the pandemic. But the board did not make the same change for spring funding, because staff said its authority was limited to a public health emergency and it was unclear whether the outbreak would improve.

Five months later, with thousands of Hoosier students enrolled virtually and the pandemic unabated, lawmakers have pledged to keep school funding intact.

The same day the lawsuit was filed, the Indiana House approved a bill that would continue the policy of fully funding some virtual students for the spring semester. The change must be approved by the Senate and the governor before going into effect.

Voucher expansion, education savings account plan could cost Indiana $100 million

2021-01-21T23:56:55+00:00

Indiana politicians are seizing on the upheaval caused by the pandemic to push forward a vast expansion of taxpayer funding for private education, which could cost the state more than $100 million next year.

A top priority for House Republicans, House Bill 1005 would offer aid to thousands of students from middle-class families and children with special needs.

It could increase the number of students receiving state stipends by about 40% in 2021-22, according to an estimate from the Legislative Services Agency.

About 12,000 students who already attend participating private schools but don’t currently qualify for state aid could become eligible.

In addition to expanding eligibility for state vouchers to more students from middle-income families, the bill would create a form of school choice — known as education savings accounts — that would give stipends to parents of children with special needs to spend on their education.

The Republican effort comes at a time when some parents are frustrated with remote schooling during the pandemic and many students with special needs lost out on crucial therapies when schools were remote. Last week, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into whether Indiana schools are providing appropriate special education services during the pandemic.

But lawmakers would also be making a costly investment in school choice even as they have not backed substantial increases in education funding as recommended by a state commission on teacher pay.

Indiana’s voucher program, which primarily funds religious schools, is one of the largest in the country. The proposed expansion is the latest in a yearslong campaign to expand private school funding.

“Taxpayers should be allowing parents to send their child to the education that best meets the needs of their child,” said Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, who chairs the House Education Committee and authored the bill. “Empowering parents to have a little bit greater ability to decide what’s in the best interest of their child makes perfect sense at this time.”

Critics say that expanding the state’s voucher program bleeds money from traditional public schools, reducing the quality of schools that educate most students in the state.

“We’re funding two separate systems instead of really investing in one,” said Jennifer Smith-Margraf, vice president of the Indiana State Teachers Association. Without more state funding, schools cannot offer competitive teacher pay and students suffer, she said.

“We think that the issues that parents are having in terms of public education are coming from the fact that we can’t fund the programs that we know that we need to have,” Smith-Margraf said.

The bill would open up the state’s existing voucher program — which serves 37,000 students from low- and middle-income families — to wealthier families. By 2022-23, a family of four would qualify if earning up to about $145,000 per year. That’s well above the state median income for families, which is about $74,000 per year.

It would also increase the tuition stipend that middle-class students receive to 90% of the amount the state would have provided to their public district.

The voucher program cost the state about $173 million last school year.

Proponents originally pitched Indiana’s decade-old voucher program as a way to help low- and middle-income families who couldn’t afford tuition to send their children to private schools. As the state has expanded eligibility, opponents have argued it is draining money from public schools to underwrite middle-class students who could attend private school without vouchers.

School choice supporters like Betsy Wiley, who leads Institute for Quality Education, argue that parents are entitled to money for private school tuition because they are taxpayers. Wiley said that there are families who cannot afford private schools who would be able to send their children under the expanded program.

“This does allow a number of working, middle-class families to potentially offer a better educational fit for their kids,” Wiley said. “We are talking about a very real, important educational opportunity for a number of kids, that can make a huge difference in their future.”

The most costly element of the proposed legislation would create education savings accounts focused on students with special needs. The program would be more generous than vouchers by providing the full amount the state would otherwise spend on a child’s schooling. Parents could choose to receive money for special education, instead of services. In addition to paying tuition, parents would be able to use that money for expenses such as tutoring and therapy.

The bill also makes the accounts available to children in foster care and the children of some military members and veterans.

But while the bill appears designed to help students with special needs, some advocates for those students worry that in practice, children would not get the services they need. The Arc of Indiana, an organization that supports people with disabilities, currently opposes the bill, CEO Kim Dodson said.

Dodson flagged several practical issues, including that private schools may be less likely to offer services if parents can purchase them through the savings accounts. Ultimately, Dodson said, only children with proactive parents who have time to navigate a cumbersome system seem likely to benefit.

To make the savings accounts work for more families, Dodson said, the legislature should create a special education ombudsman to help parents navigate the system and a parent council to oversee it.

“It’s really hard to argue against giving families money and control of their education. That sounds fantastic,” Dodson said. “However, it works differently for every family, and the devil is always in the details.”

Without offering a plan, Holcomb repeats his promise to raise teacher pay

2021-01-20T00:34:43+00:00

In his State of the State address Tuesday, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb called increasing teacher pay a matter of “when,” not “if,” but stopped short of offering a concrete plan for how to make that happen.

In a pre-recorded address, Holcomb set an ambitious goal for teacher salaries in Indiana, which currently pays educators less on average than do neighboring Midwestern states.

“When we do this, we will be one of the best in the Midwest for teacher pay,” Holcomb said, “and we’ll be better able to attract and retain teacher talent, including attracting more minority candidates.”

Holcomb did not specify when and how that would be accomplished. Instead, Holcomb, a Republican entering his second term as governor after winning re-election in November, reiterated his call for a modest increase in education funding in the next budget.

Because of Indiana’s strong finances before the pandemic, the state can afford to add $377 million to education spending over the next two years, Holcomb said. That includes a 2% boost for education in the first year and an additional 1% increase in the second year.

That increase falls far short of the $600 million a year state and local sources will need to spend to make teacher pay competitive with neighboring states, according to a report released last month by a commission Holcomb created.

Holcomb announced the pay commission two years ago as teacher activism was rising around the country. At the time, the goal was to search for ways to improve salaries and propose action in 2021. But with the state’s economy battered by the coronavirus, Holcomb has not called for a significant increase in school funding.

“The Teacher Compensation Commission Report identified 37 different state and local ideas to reduce costs and increase revenues for our public schools,” Holcomb said, “and we should examine them closely to put more funds into teachers’ pockets.”

Still, even a small boost in funding is more than many school leaders anticipated a few months ago. While other agencies were forced to cut spending during the pandemic, the budget for K-12 schools remained the same, Holcomb noted. And schools can now look forward to an influx of federal money for coronavirus relief.

Database: Find your Indiana high school’s 2020 graduation rate

2021-01-15T21:56:52+00:00

Despite the upheaval of the pandemic, nearly 88% of Indiana students from the class of 2020 graduated high school, a slight uptick from the prior year, according to data released Friday by the Indiana Department of Education.

The state’s graduation rate has been stagnant for about a decade, with only minor fluctuations. In 2020, the four-year graduation rate rose by 0.5 percentage point from the prior year. Statewide, 213 public high schools had higher graduation rates and 177 had lower rates.

But the increase in graduation rates may not reflect how much students learned because the state relaxed requirements after schools were forced to finish the year remotely. The state waived graduation exams that are normally required, and it allowed students who were on track to graduate to earn diplomas. At the same time, many districts adopted more generous grading policies for the end of the semester.

While graduation rates are flawed, they are one of the few state data points showing how Indiana students fared during a tumultuous semester when state tests were canceled.

“This modest improvement in Indiana’s 2020 graduation rate is encouraging, especially as Hoosier students and educators have tackled unprecedented challenges throughout the pandemic,” said Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner in a statement. “As evidenced by data and research, we know a person’s educational attainment impacts their future quality of life, health, living wage employment and sustained earning.”

Other places have also reported improvements in graduation rates amid relaxed requirements, including New York City and Florida. In Colorado, where the graduation rate also rose, officials cautioned that graduation rates could dip in future years because the pandemic disrupted education.

In contrast, Tennessee saw its first drop in graduation rates since 2013.

Indiana public school four-year graduation rates

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District	School	2019	2020	Change
Adams Central Community Schools	Adams Central High School	99.0%	100.0%	1.01
North Adams Community Schools	Bellmont Senior High School	92.5%	94.1%	1.63
South Adams Schools	South Adams High School	86.3%	92.1%	5.83
MSD Southwest Allen County Schls	Homestead Senior High School	94.6%	96.3%	1.64
Northwest Allen County Schools	Carroll High School	96.1%	97.9%	1.86
Fort Wayne Community Schools	North Side High School	83.6%	88.3%	4.63
Fort Wayne Community Schools	R Nelson Snider High School	91.7%	95.5%	3.8
Fort Wayne Community Schools	South Side High School	80.0%	89.0%	8.95
Fort Wayne Community Schools	Wayne High School	93.8%	95.7%	1.97
Fort Wayne Community Schools	Northrop High School	80.9%	92.6%	11.78
East Allen County Schools	Leo Junior/Senior High School	94.1%	92.2%	-1.93
East Allen County Schools	Heritage Jr/Sr High School	89.7%	86.2%	-3.56
East Allen County Schools	Woodlan Jr/Sr High School	91.8%	89.4%	-2.48
East Allen County Schools	New Haven Jr/Sr High School	84.3%	89.5%	5.18
East Allen County Schools	East Allen University	100.0%	96.9%	-3.12
Bartholomew Con School Corp	Columbus North High School	86.4%	87.9%	1.48
Bartholomew Con School Corp	Columbus East High School	86.4%	85.0%	-1.36
Flat Rock-Hawcreek School Corp	Hauser Jr-Sr High School	86.3%	91.2%	4.93
Benton Community School Corp	Benton Central Jr-Sr High School	94.9%	84.9%	-10.02
Blackford County Schools	Blackford Jr-Sr High School	93.8%	92.3%	-1.49
Western Boone Co Com Sch Dist	Western Boone Jr-Sr High School	98.4%	95.2%	-3.23
Zionsville Community Schools	Zionsville Community High School	96.8%	96.9%	0.12
Lebanon Community School Corp	Lebanon Senior High School	82.7%	93.8%	11.07
Brown County School Corporation	Brown County High School	96.5%	82.3%	-14.24
Carroll Consolidated School Corp	Carroll Senior High School	92.9%	94.4%	1.51
Delphi Community School Corp	Delphi Community High School	91.3%	84.5%	-6.76
Pioneer Regional School Corp	Pioneer Jr-Sr High School	90.4%	96.3%	5.94
Lewis Cass Schools	Lewis Cass High School	97.2%	92.9%	-4.28
Logansport Community Sch Corp	Logansport Community High School	90.6%	81.6%	-8.98
West Clark Community Schools	Henryville Jr & Sr High School	87.5%	89.5%	2.03
West Clark Community Schools	William W Borden High School	93.6%	88.7%	-4.94
West Clark Community Schools	Silver Creek High School	94.6%	96.1%	1.55
Clarksville Community School Corp	Clarksville Senior High School	96.7%	90.9%	-5.83
Greater Clark County Schools	New Washington Middle/High School	92.8%	96.1%	3.33
Greater Clark County Schools	Charlestown Senior High School	93.1%	97.6%	4.5
Greater Clark County Schools	Jeffersonville High School	94.3%	97.1%	2.75
Clay Community Schools	Clay City Jr-Sr High School	96.2%	90.5%	-5.75
Clay Community Schools	Northview High School	89.0%	72.7%	-16.3
Clinton Central School Corporation	Clinton Central Junior-Senior HS	88.1%	92.7%	4.59
Clinton Prairie School Corporation	Clinton Prairie Jr-Sr High School	92.0%	91.6%	-0.38
Community Schools of Frankfort	Frankfort High School	90.8%	88.0%	-2.85
Rossville Con School District	Rossville Middle/Senior High Sch	91.8%	91.6%	-0.23
Crawford County Community Sch Corp	Crawford County High School	77.7%	84.4%	6.77
Barr-Reeve Community Schools Inc	Barr Reeve Middle/High School	100.0%	100.0%	0
North Daviess Com Schools	North Daviess Jr-Sr High School	90.9%	93.8%	2.84
Washington Community Schools	Washington High School	98.2%	95.8%	-2.4
Sunman-Dearborn Com Sch Corp	East Central High School	96.5%	97.1%	0.57
South Dearborn Community Sch Corp	South Dearborn High School	97.1%	90.0%	-7.19
Lawrenceburg Community School Corp	Lawrenceburg High School	93.8%	92.6%	-1.18
Decatur County Community Schools	South Decatur Jr-Sr High School	98.6%	97.5%	-1.05
Decatur County Community Schools	North Decatur Jr-Sr High School	92.4%	97.7%	5.24
Greensburg Community Schools	Greensburg Community High School	96.2%	84.8%	-11.4
DeKalb Co Eastern Com Sch Dist	Eastside Junior-Senior High School	96.7%	88.4%	-8.35
Garrett-Keyser-Butler Com Sch Corp	Garrett High School	93.4%	95.2%	1.77
DeKalb Co Ctl United Sch Dist	DeKalb High School	85.5%	90.8%	5.23
Delaware Community School Corp	Delta High School	91.2%	94.7%	3.51
Wes-Del Community Schools	Wes-Del Middle/Senior High School	98.2%	98.5%	0.27
Liberty-Perry Community Sch Corp	Wapahani High School	89.1%	86.6%	-2.52
Cowan Community School Corp	Cowan High School	96.5%	90.6%	-5.92
Yorktown Community Schools	Yorktown High School	98.0%	97.2%	-0.81
Daleville Community Schools	Daleville Jr-Sr High School	93.8%	87.7%	-6.06
Muncie Community Schools	Muncie Central High School	91.7%	83.3%	-8.36
Muncie Community Schools	Youth Opportunity Center*		3.3%
Northeast Dubois Co Sch Corp	Northeast Dubois Jr/Sr High School	93.3%	89.9%	-3.47
Southeast Dubois Co Sch Corp	Forest Park Jr-Sr High School	96.4%	95.9%	-0.51
Southwest Dubois Co Sch Corp	Southridge High School	93.2%	95.7%	2.58
Greater Jasper Consolidated Schs	Jasper High School	95.6%	95.1%	-0.49
Fairfield Community Schools	Fairfield Jr-Sr High School	92.6%	97.5%	4.91
Baugo Community Schools	Jimtown High School	91.7%	92.1%	0.4
Concord Community Schools	Concord Community High School	89.6%	87.6%	-1.99
Middlebury Community Schools	Northridge High School	90.5%	92.9%	2.49
Wa-Nee Community Schools	North Wood High School	92.2%	91.7%	-0.5
Elkhart Community Schools	Elkhart Central High School	84.5%	93.2%	8.68
Elkhart Community Schools	Elkhart Memorial High School	89.0%	94.9%	5.87
Goshen Community Schools	Goshen High School	93.2%	90.7%	-2.47
Fayette County School Corporation	Connersville Sr High School	91.2%	88.8%	-2.39
New Albany-Floyd Co Con Sch	New Albany Senior High School	91.7%	88.6%	-3.05
New Albany-Floyd Co Con Sch	Floyd Central High School	95.6%	95.3%	-0.34
Attica Consolidated School Corp	Attica High School	98.0%	100.0%	2
Covington Community School Corp	Covington Community High School	95.7%	96.9%	1.27
Southeast Fountain School Corp	Fountain Central High School	89.0%	81.8%	-7.2
Franklin County Community Sch Corp	Franklin County High	88.1%	88.6%	0.47
Rochester Community School Corp	Rochester Community High School	94.4%	93.0%	-1.45
Caston School Corporation	Caston Jr-Sr High School	89.1%	91.1%	1.94
East Gibson School Corporation	Waldo J Wood Memorial High	82.6%	85.7%	3.1
North Gibson School Corporation	Princeton Community High School	92.0%	76.9%	-15.11
South Gibson School Corporation	Gibson Southern High School	91.2%	93.9%	2.7
Eastbrook Community Sch Corp	Eastbrook High School	96.0%	97.5%	1.51
Madison-Grant United School Corp	Madison-Grant Jr./Sr. High School	95.8%	98.8%	3.03
Mississinewa Community School Corp	Mississinewa High School	90.3%	95.1%	4.74
Marion Community Schools	Marion High School	93.0%	87.7%	-5.29
Bloomfield School District	Bloomfield Jr-Sr High School	97.9%	92.5%	-5.42
Eastern Greene Schools	Eastern Greene High School	95.7%	83.5%	-12.16
Linton-Stockton School Corporation	Linton-Stockton High School	97.8%	89.8%	-7.98
MSD Shakamak Schools	Shakamak Jr-Sr High School	100.0%	84.9%	-15.15
White River Valley School District	White River Valley High School	94.2%	91.6%	-2.65
Hamilton Southeastern Schools	Fishers High School	97.0%	98.2%	1.24
Hamilton Southeastern Schools	Hamilton Southeastern HS	94.9%	97.0%	2.16
Hamilton Heights School Corp	Hamilton Heights High School	95.2%	91.6%	-3.56
Westfield-Washington Schools	Westfield High School	98.3%	98.2%	-0.07
Sheridan Community Schools	Sheridan High School	88.4%	95.5%	7.08
Carmel Clay Schools	Carmel High School	97.6%	95.2%	-2.42
Noblesville Schools	Noblesville High School	96.9%	96.9%	-0.02
Southern Hancock Co Com Sch Corp	New Palestine High School	94.2%	94.4%	0.2
Greenfield-Central Com Schools	Greenfield-Central High School	93.3%	94.6%	1.24
Mt Vernon Community School Corp	Mt Vernon High School	94.1%	97.8%	3.66
Eastern Hancock Co Com Sch Corp	Eastern Hancock High School	96.6%	99.1%	2.52
Lanesville Community School Corp	Lanesville Jr-Sr HS	95.2%	93.2%	-2.01
North Harrison Com School Corp	North Harrison High School	90.8%	99.2%	8.43
South Harrison Com Schools	Corydon Central High School	92.7%	94.5%	1.86
South Harrison Com Schools	South Central Jr & Sr High School	90.9%	96.8%	5.86
North West Hendricks Schools	Tri-West Senior High School	96.5%	97.1%	0.57
Brownsburg Community School Corp	Brownsburg High School	99.1%	98.8%	-0.3
Avon Community School Corp	Avon High School	96.7%	97.8%	1.1
Danville Community School Corp	Danville Community High School	94.6%	93.2%	-1.46
Plainfield Community School Corp	Plainfield High School	93.3%	93.7%	0.39
Mill Creek Community Sch Corp	Cascade Senior High School	97.1%	94.2%	-2.95
Blue River Valley Schools	Blue River Valley Jr-Sr High Sch	92.7%	97.3%	4.62
South Henry School Corp	Tri Junior-Senior High School	96.6%	90.6%	-5.92
Shenandoah School Corporation	Shenandoah High School	89.4%	94.7%	5.26
New Castle Community School Corp	New Castle High School	93.4%	88.0%	-5.45
C A Beard Memorial School Corp	Knightstown High School	89.5%	91.9%	2.39
Taylor Community School Corp	Taylor High School	90.1%	86.4%	-3.71
Northwestern School Corp	Northwestern Senior High School	97.7%	98.0%	0.33
Eastern Howard School Corporation	Eastern High School	99.0%	95.7%	-3.39
Western School Corporation	Western High School	95.0%	95.3%	0.31
Kokomo School Corporation	Kokomo High School	95.1%	95.5%	0.39
Huntington Co Com Sch Corp	Huntington North High School	94.6%	90.6%	-4.09
Medora Community School Corp	Medora Jr & Sr High School*	80.0%
Seymour Community Schools	Seymour Senior High School	93.6%	91.6%	-2.05
Brownstown Cnt Com Sch Corp	Brownstown Central High School	97.7%	88.3%	-9.43
Crothersville Community Schools	Crothersville Jr-Sr High School	91.7%	92.9%	1.19
Kankakee Valley School Corp	Kankakee Valley High School	94.1%	94.9%	0.85
Rensselaer Central School Corp	Rensselaer Central High School	82.8%	92.4%	9.58
Jay School Corporation	Jay County Jr/Sr High School	90.3%	83.3%	-6.99
Madison Consolidated Schools	Madison Consolidated High School	86.0%	88.5%	2.49
Southwestern-Jefferson Co Con	Southwestern High School	92.2%	94.9%	2.72
Jennings County School Corporation	Jennings County High School	95.9%	90.4%	-5.44
Clark-Pleasant Community Sch Corp	Whiteland Community High School	90.3%	91.7%	1.42
Center Grove Community School Corp	Center Grove High School	95.9%	96.4%	0.54
Edinburgh Community School Corp	Edinburgh Community High School	98.3%	93.6%	-4.7
Franklin Community School Corp	Franklin Community High School	87.0%	91.3%	4.28
Greenwood Community Sch Corp	Greenwood Community High Sch	92.4%	92.4%	0.03
Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson United	Indian Creek Online Academy		50.0%
Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson United	Indian Creek Sr High School	95.7%	92.2%	-3.52
North Knox School Corp	North Knox Jr-Sr High School	96.8%	93.1%	-3.71
South Knox School Corp	South Knox Middle-High School	96.6%	100.0%	3.37
Vincennes Community School Corp	Lincoln High School	94.0%	84.9%	-9.13
Wawasee Community School Corp	Wawasee High School	91.0%	90.0%	-1.04
Warsaw Community Schools	Warsaw Community High School	95.5%	91.9%	-3.55
Tippecanoe Valley School Corp	Tippecanoe Valley High School	87.9%	95.7%	7.77
Whitko Community School Corp	Whitko Jr/Sr High School	88.9%	87.5%	-1.39
Prairie Heights Community Sch Corp	Prairie Heights Sr High School	93.8%	90.8%	-2.98
Westview School Corporation	Westview Jr-Sr High School	94.3%	91.7%	-2.62
Lakeland School Corporation	Lakeland Jr/Sr High School	83.6%	88.7%	5.17
Hanover Community School Corp	Hanover Central High School	91.7%	97.5%	5.79
River Forest Community Sch Corp	River Forest High School	81.7%	89.8%	8.13
Merrillville Community School Corp	Merrillville High School	93.0%	91.8%	-1.23
Lake Central School Corporation	Lake Central High School	95.4%	92.9%	-2.49
Tri-Creek School Corporation	Lowell Senior High School	95.8%	96.6%	0.8
Lake Ridge New Tech Schools	Calumet New Tech High School	100.0%	98.1%	-1.9
Crown Point Community School Corp	Crown Point High School	97.7%	98.6%	0.91
School City of East Chicago	East Chicago Central High School	72.8%	72.8%	0.01
Lake Station Community Schools	Thomas A Edison Jr-Sr HS	87.8%	87.0%	-0.8
Gary Community School Corp	Theodore Roosevelt Car & Tech Acad	48.8%	57.8%	8.93
Gary Community School Corp	West Side Leadership Academy	58.5%	64.7%	6.2
Griffith Public Schools	Griffith High School	84.7%	76.9%	-7.76
School City of Hammond	George Rogers Clark Md/HS	77.3%	85.0%	7.63
School City of Hammond	Donald E Gavit Middle/High School	89.4%	87.4%	-2.04
School City of Hammond	Hammond High School	79.4%	75.0%	-4.36
School City of Hammond	Morton Senior High School	79.4%	81.4%	2.02
School Town of Highland	Highland High School	94.7%	93.5%	-1.24
School City of Hobart	Hobart High School	87.5%	92.5%	4.99
School Town of Munster	Munster High School	95.5%	94.3%	-1.11
School City of Whiting	Whiting High School	92.3%	94.5%	2.19
New Prairie United School Corp	New Prairie High School	96.5%	97.6%	1.01
MSD of New Durham Township	Westville High School	91.5%	91.7%	0.21
Tri-Township Cons School Corp	LaCrosse School	96.3%	95.1%	-1.18
Michigan City Area Schools	Michigan City High School	94.4%	91.2%	-3.2
South Central Com School Corp	South Central Jr-Sr High School	95.3%	97.3%	2.01
LaPorte Community School Corp	LaPorte High School	86.0%	89.2%	3.25
North Lawrence Com Schools	Bedford-North Lawrence High School	88.4%	89.6%	1.16
Mitchell Community Schools	Mitchell High School	78.5%	75.8%	-2.7
Frankton-Lapel Community Schools	Frankton Jr-Sr High School	90.5%	93.3%	2.85
Frankton-Lapel Community Schools	Lapel Sr High School	91.7%	100.0%	8.33
South Madison Com Sch Corp	Pendleton Heights High School	96.1%	96.3%	0.26
Alexandria Community School Corp	Alexandria-Monroe High School	95.7%	89.9%	-5.82
Anderson Community School Corp	Anderson High School	80.3%	87.4%	7.08
Elwood Community School Corp	Elwood Jr-Sr High School	90.7%	97.1%	6.41
MSD Decatur Township	Decatur Central High School	90.3%	88.2%	-2.08
Franklin Township Com Sch Corp	Franklin Central High School	97.6%	95.2%	-2.41
MSD Lawrence Township	Lawrence Central High School	93.0%	92.1%	-0.89
MSD Lawrence Township	Lawrence North High School	92.4%	93.4%	0.99
Perry Township Schools	Perry Meridian High School	96.9%	90.0%	-6.91
Perry Township Schools	Southport High School	84.3%	85.0%	0.67
MSD Pike Township	Pike High School	87.8%	90.6%	2.74
MSD Warren Township	Warren Central High School	86.1%	86.5%	0.42
MSD Washington Township	North Central High School	89.9%	90.5%	0.62
MSD Wayne Township	Ben Davis High School	91.2%	87.0%	-4.26
MSD Wayne Township	Achieve Virtual Education Academy	48.8%	36.9%	-11.83
MSD Wayne Township	Ben Davis University High School	100.0%	100.0%	0
Beech Grove City Schools	Beech Grove Sr High School	79.3%	88.6%	9.33
Indianapolis Public Schools	Impact Academy	5.3%	2.6%	-2.63
Indianapolis Public Schools	Arsenal Technical High School	80.0%	69.3%	-10.69
Indianapolis Public Schools	Crispus Attucks High School	88.7%	85.6%	-3.15
Indianapolis Public Schools	Shortridge High School	79.4%	87.4%	7.93
Indianapolis Public Schools	George Washington High School	75.6%	63.3%	-12.29
School Town of Speedway	Speedway Senior High School	96.9%	96.7%	-0.2
Culver Community Schools Corp	Culver Community Middle/High Sch	90.9%	91.4%	0.47
Argos Community Schools	Argos Comm Jr-Sr High School	85.7%	87.5%	1.79
Bremen Public Schools	Bremen Senior High School	92.9%	94.1%	1.26
Plymouth Community School Corp	Plymouth High School	92.2%	88.1%	-4.15
Triton School Corporation	Triton Jr-Sr High School	91.6%	86.3%	-5.3
Shoals Community School Corp	Shoals Community High School	75.5%	93.9%	18.37
Loogootee Community Sch Corp	Loogootee High School	95.7%	89.9%	-5.79
Maconaquah School Corp	Maconaquah High School	93.3%	92.1%	-1.19
North Miami Community Schools	North Miami Middle/High School	95.5%	96.1%	0.6
Oak Hill United School Corp	Oak Hill High School	91.5%	96.9%	5.45
Peru Community Schools	Peru High School	96.1%	89.9%	-6.15
Richland-Bean Blossom C S C	Edgewood High School	91.3%	90.9%	-0.35
Monroe County Community Sch Corp	Bloomington High School South	96.5%	97.2%	0.71
Monroe County Community Sch Corp	Bloomington High School North	95.1%	90.1%	-4.96
Monroe County Community Sch Corp	The Acad of Sci & Entrepreneurship	96.7%	100.0%	3.33
Monroe County Community Sch Corp	Bloomington Graduation School	42.9%	56.8%	13.9
North Montgomery Com Sch Corp	North Montgomery High School	95.5%	92.4%	-3.12
South Montgomery Com Sch Corp	Southmont Sr High School	97.5%	88.4%	-9.12
Crawfordsville Community Schools	Crawfordsville Sr High School	85.0%	86.0%	1.01
Monroe-Gregg School District	Monrovia High School	89.1%	90.5%	1.41
Eminence Community School Corp	Eminence Jr-Sr High School	91.9%	87.1%	-4.79
MSD Martinsville Schools	Martinsville High School	93.5%	84.9%	-8.59
Mooresville Con School Corp	Mooresville High School	94.4%	95.8%	1.41
North Newton School Corp	North Newton Jr-Sr High School	89.7%	83.7%	-5.94
South Newton School Corp	South Newton Senior High School	79.3%	91.1%	11.76
Central Noble Com School Corp	Central Noble Junior Senior HS	90.1%	88.5%	-1.59
East Noble School Corporation	East Noble High School	88.6%	92.5%	3.95
West Noble School Corporation	West Noble High School	91.5%	89.6%	-1.89
Rising Sun-Ohio Co Com	Rising Sun High School	96.4%	88.9%	-7.54
Orleans Community Schools	Orleans Jr-Sr High School	96.8%	96.2%	-0.6
Paoli Community School Corp	Paoli Jr & Sr High School	89.1%	89.6%	0.51
Springs Valley Com School Corp	Springs Valley Comm High School	93.9%	97.1%	3.25
Spencer-Owen Community Schools	Owen Valley Community High School	92.7%	87.6%	-5.14
Southwest Parke Com Sch Corp	Riverton Parke Jr-Sr High School	77.5%	83.1%	5.6
Perry Central Com Schools Corp	Perry Central Jr-Sr High School	95.2%	93.9%	-1.29
Cannelton City Schools	Cannelton Elementary & High School	62.5%	83.3%	20.83
Tell City-Troy Twp School Corp	Tell City Jr-Sr High School	90.6%	92.1%	1.5
North Central Parke Comm Schl Corp	Parke Heritage High School	87.2%	88.6%	1.36
Pike County School Corp	Pike Central High School	93.3%	90.3%	-3.01
MSD Boone Township	Hebron High School	98.0%	100.0%	2
Duneland School Corporation	Chesterton Senior High School	92.7%	92.7%	-0.01
East Porter County School Corp	Morgan Township Middle/High School	100.0%	100.0%	0
East Porter County School Corp	Kouts Middle/High School	98.7%	98.5%	-0.21
East Porter County School Corp	Washington Twp Middle/High School	95.8%	96.6%	0.78
Porter Township School Corp	Boone Grove High School	91.7%	94.2%	2.49
Union Township School Corp	Wheeler High School	95.1%	96.1%	1.06
Portage Township Schools	Portage High School	90.8%	93.3%	2.45
Valparaiso Community Schools	Valparaiso High School	91.8%	92.9%	1.06
MSD Mount Vernon	Mount Vernon High School	89.8%	88.8%	-1
MSD North Posey Co Schools	North Posey High School	94.6%	90.8%	-3.72
Eastern Pulaski Community Sch Corp	Winamac Community High School	93.5%	89.8%	-3.68
West Central School Corp	West Central Senior High School	92.9%	88.3%	-4.53
South Putnam Community Schools	South Putnam High School	96.6%	98.0%	1.41
North Putnam Community Schools	North Putnam Sr High School	95.2%	93.8%	-1.4
Cloverdale Community Schools	Cloverdale High School	97.8%	96.7%	-1.08
Greencastle Community School Corp	Greencastle Senior High School	93.7%	93.0%	-0.74
Union School Corporation	Union Junior & High School	90.5%	77.3%	-13.21
Union School Corporation	Indiana Digital JR and High School	30.0%	90.9%	60.91
Union School Corporation	Indiana Digital Alternative School*		32.0%
Randolph Southern School Corp	Randolph Southern Jr-Sr High Sch	95.7%	97.6%	1.91
Monroe Central School Corp	Monroe Central Jr-Sr High School	93.1%	98.8%	5.68
Randolph Central School Corp	Winchester Community High School	92.1%	94.6%	2.51
Randolph Eastern School Corp	Union City Community Jr/Sr High	97.0%	90.3%	-6.65
South Ripley Com Sch Corp	South Ripley High School	89.8%	94.7%	4.91
Batesville Community School Corp	Batesville High School	91.7%	97.6%	5.85
Jac-Cen-Del Community Sch Corp	Jac-Cen-Del MS/HS	91.2%	97.3%	6.15
Milan Community Schools	Milan High School	90.4%	95.0%	4.6
Rush County Schools	Rushville Consolidated High School	94.4%	92.9%	-1.44
John Glenn School Corporation	John Glenn High School	94.9%	95.8%	0.91
Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp	Penn High School	97.4%	97.1%	-0.25
School City of Mishawaka	Mishawaka High School	92.7%	93.8%	1.03
South Bend Community School Corp	Clay High School	74.4%	78.1%	3.66
South Bend Community School Corp	Adams High School	90.6%	91.1%	0.56
South Bend Community School Corp	Riley High School	81.3%	82.0%	0.68
South Bend Community School Corp	Washington High School	73.9%	82.0%	8.08
South Bend Community School Corp	Rise Up Academy at Eggleston	10.7%	30.7%	19.98
Union-North United School Corp	LaVille Jr-Sr High School	84.2%	86.8%	2.58
Scott County School District 1	Austin High School	75.0%	84.7%	9.69
Scott County School District 2	Scottsburg Senior High School	85.5%	85.6%	0.03
Shelby Eastern Schools	Morristown Jr-Sr High School	100.0%	93.2%	-6.82
Shelby Eastern Schools	Waldron Jr-Sr High School	90.3%	80.0%	-10.32
Northwestern Con School Corp	Triton Central High School	92.0%	93.5%	1.46
Southwestern Con Sch Shelby Co	Southwestern High School	93.9%	96.2%	2.21
Shelbyville Central Schools	Shelbyville Sr High School	91.6%	92.2%	0.61
North Spencer County Sch Corp	Heritage Hills High School	96.8%	94.4%	-2.38
South Spencer County Sch Corp	South Spencer High School	91.2%	93.6%	2.47
Oregon-Davis School Corp	Oregon-Davis Jr-Sr High School	77.1%	79.5%	2.41
North Judson-San Pierre Sch Corp	N Judson-San Pierre Jr Sr High Sch	90.4%	88.4%	-2.01
Knox Community School Corp	Knox Community High School	94.4%	92.7%	-1.76
Fremont Community Schools	Fremont High School	88.2%	90.3%	2.12
Hamilton Community Schools	Hamilton Community High School	100.0%	84.6%	-15.38
MSD Steuben County	Angola High School	80.2%	85.9%	5.72
Northeast School Corp	North Central Jr/Sr High School	88.8%	85.7%	-3.04
Southwest School Corporation	Sullivan High School	97.1%	97.1%	-0.08
Switzerland County School Corp	Switzerland Co Senior High School	94.6%	91.4%	-3.17
Lafayette School Corporation	Oakland High School	50.0%	56.3%	6.25
Lafayette School Corporation	Jefferson High School	81.5%	79.3%	-2.17
Tippecanoe School Corp	McCutcheon High School	94.1%	92.5%	-1.6
Tippecanoe School Corp	William Henry Harrison High School	95.6%	95.4%	-0.17
West Lafayette Com School Corp	West Lafayette Jr/Sr High School	97.5%	94.0%	-3.5
Tri-Central Community Schools	Tri Central Middle-High School	92.2%	92.0%	-0.19
Tipton Community School Corp	Tipton High School	94.0%	89.0%	-5.05
Union Co/Clg Corner Joint Sch Dist	Union County High School	94.7%	95.7%	0.91
Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp	Benjamin Bosse High School	86.8%	91.8%	4.99
Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp	Central High School	91.4%	94.9%	3.5
Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp	Francis Joseph Reitz High School	96.0%	96.0%	-0.03
Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp	North High School	92.4%	95.1%	2.76
Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp	Academy for Innovative Studies	12.1%	21.4%	9.35
Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp	Harwood Career Prep High School	47.9%	60.3%	12.41
Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp	William Henry Harrison High School	92.5%	93.4%	0.84
Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp	New Tech Institute	97.1%	97.0%	-0.05
North Vermillion Com Sch Corp	North Vermillion High School	92.2%	96.9%	4.72
South Vermillion Com Sch Corp	South Vermillion High School	82.8%	86.3%	3.52
Vigo County School Corp	Terre Haute North Vigo High School	89.0%	84.7%	-4.37
Vigo County School Corp	West Vigo High School	93.0%	96.3%	3.3
Vigo County School Corp	Terre Haute South Vigo High School	77.8%	87.3%	9.52
Vigo County School Corp	Vigo Virtual School Academy		54.6%
Vigo County School Corp	Booker T Washington Alt Sch	77.8%	59.1%	-18.69
Vigo County School Corp	McLean Education Center (Alt)	47.1%	28.0%	-19.06
Manchester Community Schools	Manchester Jr-Sr High School	95.4%	94.4%	-1
MSD Wabash County Schools	Northfield Jr-Sr High School	98.4%	94.6%	-3.86
MSD Wabash County Schools	Southwood Jr-Sr High School	97.2%	98.6%	1.41
MSD Wabash County Schools	White's Jr-Sr High School	49.2%	55.8%	6.53
Wabash City Schools	Wabash High School	93.3%	91.8%	-1.52
MSD Warren County	Seeger Memorial Jr-Sr High School	99.1%	97.8%	-1.31
Warrick County School Corp	Tecumseh High School	98.7%	100.0%	1.28
Warrick County School Corp	Boonville High School	83.7%	87.7%	4.01
Warrick County School Corp	Castle High School	92.1%	92.8%	0.66
Salem Community Schools	Salem High School	93.0%	97.0%	4.02
East Washington School Corp	Eastern High School	85.3%	81.1%	-4.26
West Washington School Corp	West Washington Jr-Sr High School	90.9%	94.3%	3.38
Nettle Creek School Corporation	Hagerstown Jr-Sr High School	97.3%	95.5%	-1.88
Western Wayne Schools	Lincoln Sr High School	75.3%	94.1%	18.83
Centerville-Abington Com Schs	Centerville Sr High School	93.1%	91.7%	-1.43
Northeastern Wayne Schools	Northeastern High School	97.9%	97.6%	-0.36
Richmond Community Schools	Richmond High School	95.8%	94.5%	-1.31
Southern Wells Com Schools	Southern Wells Jr-Sr High School	97.0%	96.2%	-0.86
Northern Wells Community Schools	Norwell High School	93.6%	94.2%	0.62
MSD Bluffton-Harrison	Bluffton High School	98.1%	98.1%	-0.01
North White School Corp	North White High School	78.3%	90.0%	11.67
Frontier School Corporation	Frontier Jr-Sr High School	92.0%	89.1%	-2.91
Tri-County School Corporation	Tri-County Jr/Sr High School	92.3%	98.1%	5.77
Twin Lakes School Corp	Twin Lakes Senior High School	86.5%	89.1%	2.55
Smith-Green Community Schools	Churubusco Jr-Sr High School	94.3%	97.8%	3.58
Excel Center - Bloomington	Excel Center - Bloomington		0.0%
Whitley County Con Schools	Columbia City High School	86.6%	94.2%	7.57
Dynamic Minds Academy	Dynamic Minds Academy*
CSUSA Howe	Thomas Carr Howe Comm High School	85.4%	76.3%	-9.15
CSUSA Manual	Emmerich Manual High School	56.9%	60.9%	4.02
Purdue Polytechnic High School Ind	Purdue Polytechnic High School Ind*
Indiana Connections Career Academy	Indiana Connections Career Academy	61.9%	63.4%	1.49
James & Rosemary Phalen Leadership	James & Rosemary Phalen Leadership*
Excel Center - Clarksville	Excel Center - Clarksville	21.4%	21.4%	-0.01
Excel Center - Hammond	Excel Center - Hammond	3.0%	5.8%	2.78
Gary Middle College West	Gary Middle College West	14.3%	25.6%	11.29
Insight School of Indiana	Insight School of Indiana	36.6%	37.2%	0.58
Riverside High School	Riverside High School*
Excel Center - Muncie	Excel Center - Muncie	10.9%	10.0%	-0.91
Excel Center - Gary	Excel Center - Gary	10.0%	4.4%	-5.65
Excel Center - Richmond	Excel Center - Richmond	25.0%	17.4%	-7.61
Signature School Inc	Signature School Inc	100.0%	100.0%	0
Community Montessori Inc	Community Montessori	92.3%	93.8%	1.44
Options Charter Schools	Options Charter School - Carmel	45.7%	43.0%	-2.69
Options Charter Schools	Options Charter School Noblesville	32.0%	45.5%	13.45
Irvington Community School	Irvington Community School	70.7%	72.0%	1.35
Excel Center - Lafayette Square	Excel Center - Lafayette Square	18.9%	17.2%	-1.73
Excel Center - Lafayette	Excel Center - Lafayette	32.0%	34.4%	2.36
Excel Center - Kokomo	Excel Center - Kokomo	11.0%	23.7%	12.69
Christel House Academy South	Christel House Academy South	77.4%	87.9%	10.46
Christel House DORS	Christel House DORS	23.7%	32.9%	9.25
Charles A Tindley Accelerated Sch	Charles A Tindley Accelerated Sch	81.1%	97.5%	16.37
Thea Bowman Leadership Academy	Thea Bowman Leadership Academy	78.9%	79.8%	0.97
Indiana Agriculture and Technology	Indiana Agriculture and Technology*		53.7%
Gary Lighthouse Charter School	Gary Lighthouse Charter School	89.9%	85.2%	-4.7
21st Century Charter Sch of Gary	21st Century Charter Sch of Gary	98.4%	94.4%	-4
Victory College Prep Academy	Victory College Prep Academy	88.7%	95.5%	6.77
Burris Laboratory School	Burris Laboratory School	88.9%	96.3%	7.41
Indiana Academy for Sci Math Hmn	Indiana Academy for Sci Math Hmn	98.7%	98.5%	-0.23
Herron Charter	Herron High School	97.1%	98.1%	0.97
Hope Academy	Hope Academy*	86.7%
Indianapolis Metropolitan High Sch	Indianapolis Metropolitan High Sch	82.3%	60.5%	-21.73
Hammond Academy of Science & Tech	Hammond Academy of Science & Tech	89.9%	97.2%	7.32
Neighbors' New Vistas High School	Neighbors' New Vistas High School	26.4%	33.8%	7.41
Excel Center - Anderson	Excel Center - Anderson	23.3%	24.7%	1.47
Smith Academy for Excellence	Smith Academy for Excellence*
Anderson Preparatory Academy	Anderson Preparatory Academy	91.4%	90.2%	-1.22
Excel Center - University Heights	Excel Center - University Heights	5.5%	6.5%	1
Excel Center - Noblesville	Excel Center - Noblesville	44.4%	45.2%	0.72
Rock Creek Community Academy	Rock Creek Community Academy	97.0%	100.0%	3.03
Career Academy High School	Career Academy High School	90.4%	95.8%	5.45
Gary Middle College	Gary Middle College	16.1%	13.2%	-2.84
IN Math & Science Academy - North	IN Math & Science Academy - North	74.3%	76.1%	1.8
Excel Center - South Bend	Excel Center - South Bend	0.0%	3.6%	3.57
Indiana Connections Academy	Indiana Connections Academy	61.4%	63.9%	2.5
Excel Center for Adult Learners	Excel Center For Adult Learners	9.7%	11.9%	2.13
Marion Academy	Marion Academy	3.0%	2.1%	-0.86
Damar Charter Academy	Damar Charter Academy	8.0%	6.5%	-1.55
Dugger Union Community School Corp	Dugger Union Community School Corp	82.9%	88.1%	5.17
Steel City Academy	Steel City Academy		80.0%
Seven Oaks Classical School	Seven Oaks Classical School*
Excel Center - Shelbyville	Excel Center - Shelbyville	24.1%	29.1%	4.95

2020 Graduation Rates

* Schools with fewer than 10 students are suppressed.

Indiana reverses decision to count hundreds of hidden dropouts

2021-01-14T00:12:37+00:00

The Indiana State Board of Education on Wednesday quietly rescinded an earlier decision to count nearly 1,100 additional students who left school without diplomas as dropping out.

Instead, under a new, more lenient policy, the state will only categorize about 470 students from the class of 2020 as having dropped out because they did not have the proper documentation to show they were learning at home.

The decision means some 600 students will no longer be counted as dropping out and therefore won’t negatively impact schools’ graduation rates.

A Chalkbeat investigation found some schools inflated graduation rates by mislabeling students who should be counted as dropping out as home-schoolers. Sometimes schools recorded few or no dropouts but dozens of home-school withdrawals.

Wednesday’s board decision means high schools’ 2020 graduation rates will not decline as steeply as previously expected. It mutes the impact of a state law meant to reduce the incentive for schools to report as home-schoolers students who actually dropped out.

The new, less strict policy may detect fewer students who are mislabeled, and state board officials said they may recommend changing it in future years. But they argue that the policy will still help improve the accuracy of graduation rates.

The board approved the decision, which rescinded a December vote, without discussion or dissent. Board members Patrick Mapes and B. J. Watts, who work for school districts that are affected, recused themselves from the vote.

After the meeting, board member Pete Miller told Chalkbeat that some schools were likely to appeal the board’s prior decision, and board members decided to reverse course before facing those appeals.

“We’re admitting we made a mistake,” he said.

With Wednesday’s vote, the board will no longer penalize schools for about 600 students who were behind on credits when they withdrew, which could have been a sign they were essentially dropping out after struggling to pass classes. The board decided to no longer count those students as dropping out but as home-school withdrawals — as if they never had gone to school.

Some students who were behind on credits may have been misclassified as leaving to home-school, Miller acknowledged. But if schools have forms that were signed by their parents, the state has no way of assessing whether students legitimately withdrew to home-school, he said.

“It’s someone’s signature. That’s where, after reconsideration, where we are redrawing that line,” Miller said. “We got to go with the information we have.”

Indiana parents have the right to withdraw their children to home-school. But because the state does not track or oversee home schooling, it is impossible to say how many students who are marked as withdrawing to home-school continue their education.

An Indianapolis mother told Chalkbeat last year that she intended to allow her son to drop out but later learned that his high school had her sign a home-school withdrawal form. If the proper form were filled out, students like her son would still be left out of graduation rates under the new policy.

The state law, passed in 2019, requires high schools with large numbers of students leaving to home-school to demonstrate “good cause” to the state board before removing them from the graduation calculations. The state audited over 100 high schools this school year.

Determining what is “good cause” falls to the state board of education. The board approved a policy in July that required schools to show they had proper documentation for students who withdrew and that those students were on track to graduate. The board replaced that policy with the one approved Wednesday, which only requires schools to produce paperwork.

Republican Rep. Bob Behning, who chairs Indiana’s House Education Committee, said that determining whether home-school data is accurate will take more than auditing forms. The state, for example, may need to speak to the parents of students who were withdrawn. Behning said he was open to additional legislation if it is necessary to help the board determine what should be considered “good cause.”

The additional scrutiny and attention that the law has brought will help mitigate the problem, Behning said. But the state needs to move faster to address the problem.

“Every year, another kid’s life is impacted,” Behning said. “We have to keep focused on this.”

State officials said the new standard is only for the class of 2020. The board will reconsider how to judge “good cause” and what it means for students to be on track to graduate.

“It’s about improvement,” said Brian Murphy, executive director of the state board. “We have to get our feet wet.”

Even under the more generous policy adopted Wednesday, many of the schools audited by the state will see significant drops in their graduation rates, said Chad Ranney, general counsel for the state board.

“Is it a perfect process to get every student? I don’t know,” Ranney said. “But I would definitely consider this a crackdown.”

Left out of referendums, Indiana charter schools see opening for more funding

2021-01-12T01:05:57+00:00

Nearly two decades after the first charter schools opened in Indiana, a years-long campaign to increase their funding is gaining momentum in the state legislature.

Charter schools enroll about 44,000 Indiana children, including nearly 20% of Indianapolis public school students. But the schools miss out on about $3,300 per student in local funding because they don’t get the property tax money that traditional districts use to pay for buildings, transportation, and technology.

That long-standing gap grows when districts successfully pass referendums to increase property taxes, which can be used to foot the bill for higher teacher pay. Charter advocates have been making a case for more than a year for lawmakers to give the schools more money, arguing the independent public schools serve a disproportionate share of students from low-income families.

“I believe that there is a broad recognition of the need here,” said former Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson, who leads Hoosiers for Great Public Schools, a political action committee that donated about $250,000 to state politicians in 2020.

In a year where state revenue is stagnant because of the coronavirus, a funding boost is far from certain. But Peterson pointed out that lawmakers could increase money for charter schools in several ways, including increasing an existing state charter supplement of $750 per student, giving schools more money to educate students from low-income families, or giving charter schools a slice of local property tax dollars.

“There’s more than one way to skin this cat,” said Peterson, who is president of Christel House International, which runs several Indianapolis charter schools.

In the most recent session, legislators narrowly approved a measure allowing districts to divert some referendum proceeds to charter schools, which many saw as a step toward making it mandatory.

But calls for increased charter school funding must compete with other priorities, such as a massive influx in state funding recommended in December by Gov. Eric Holcomb’s teacher pay commission to help increase educator salaries.

“If you’re going to increase charter school funding, it’s at the expense of the traditional public schools,” said Keith Gambill, president of ISTA, the state’s largest teachers union.

The gap in charter school funding is attracting more attention because it’s growing wider in Indianapolis, the hub of the state’s charter schools. Two years ago, Indianapolis Public Schools passed a referendum that raises $220 million over eight years to fund raises for teachers. Starting pay in the district rose to $47,800 this year, up from $40,000 in 2017-18.

Nineteen Indianapolis charter schools are part of the IPS innovation network, which gives the district credit for their enrollment and academic results. Despite that connection, many schools have missed out on the influx of cash from the referendum, advocates say.

That makes it hard to keep up with rapidly increasing teacher pay and compete for high-quality teachers, said Juli Woodrum, vice president and chief financial officer of Indianapolis Classical Schools, which includes Riverside and Herron High Schools.

Each year, the network’s two campuses struggle to hire new teachers who could often make thousands more at nearby schools. Their beginning pay is about $42,000 a year, nearly $6,000 below the district, Woodrum said.

A sought-after charter school in an affluent neighborhood, Herron has fewer students from low-income families than many Indianapolis high schools. But about 65% of Riverside students are economically disadvantaged, a higher percentage than at many traditional public schools in the Indianapolis township districts. Educating those students on a shoestring budget is especially difficult, Woodrum said.

“We operate really lean because of the situation that we’re in,” said Woodrum. “It’s really hard because about 80-85% of our budget is salaries and benefits.”

When IPS boosted teacher salaries, Purdue Polytechnic High School increased its own pay to stay competitive, said Head of School Scott Bess. The charter network, which is affiliated with Purdue University, has won grants and in-kind support that have helped prop up the budget.

But even Purdue Polytechnic has been forced to delay hiring and has brought on lower-paid staff to supervise online classes instead of certified teachers, Bess said.

If Purdue Polytechnic’s two Indianapolis campuses were traditional public schools, they could get close to $4,000 per student in local funding — more than $2.5 million.

Educational outcomes are better for students at schools with more funding, said Bess. Yet many schools across the state continue to get less.

“Let’s figure out how we can use state money, over some time, to at least narrow the gap,” he said.

Local funding means low-income students receive different levels of support depending on the district or school they attend. That’s sometimes a difference of thousands of dollars per student, said Republican House education chair Bob Behning at an education panel discussion in December.

“Why should there be such disparity? That to me is an equity issue, or an equality issue, that we’ve got to try to wrestle with,” said Behning, a staunch school choice supporter.

Joel Hand, general counsel and lobbyist for the Indiana Coalition for Public Education, argues that since property taxes come from the community, they should be used to sustain traditional districts that voters control through elected school boards.

Despite his opposition, however, Hand believes the legislature is likely to take some action to boost charter school funding.

“I do think that they will be successful with getting more funding for charter schools, even in light of the pandemic,” Hand said, “because I think that legislators are going to place a higher priority on what they refer to as ‘choice schools’ over the traditional public schools.”

Indiana leaders: Students should take tests, but the results don’t have to count

2021-01-07T22:49:48+00:00

Gov. Eric Holcomb and Indiana Republican education leaders support protecting schools from repercussions from declining test scores. But they are committed to requiring schools to administer standardized exams this spring.

The Republican backing for testing comes despite the turmoil caused by the pandemic and calls for increased flexibility from the state’s largest teachers union and Indiana’s outgoing schools chief.

Many districts have spent weeks or months teaching remotely, and thousands of students are signed up for entirely virtual instruction, creating logistical challenges in administering assessments.

As a result, some advocates argue that the federal government should offer states greater flexibility or even allow them to skip tests for a second year — after suspending them last year. That decision will rest with Joe Biden’s administration. Indiana is poised to push forward with testing regardless of the federal decision, but it could join other states in eliminating the consequences for low scores.

If Indiana lawmakers approve a hold-harmless measure, low student test scores would not affect teacher evaluations and would not be used to calculate letter grades for schools. Low grades, which are often based largely on test scores, can trigger state intervention.

Holcomb “believes assessments are a tool for gauging the impact the pandemic has had on students’ learning,” spokeswoman Rachel Hoffmeyer said in a statement.

“He recognizes the unprecedented strain the pandemic has had on our schools and supports accountability hold harmless to prevent unfair consequences,” Hoffmeyer added. “The primary goal is to gather information to best support schools, educators, and students.”

Lawmakers in both chambers echoed Holcomb’s view. Senate education leader Jeff Raatz said that administering ILEARN, the state’s annual test, is crucial to gather data to compare against future results. Other tests mandated by the state, such as the third-grade reading exam, provide valuable information for teachers and schools, he added.

“If nothing else, we have to set a baseline,” said Raatz, noting the state only has one year of data from ILEARN, which was first administered in 2019. “Somewhere along the way we’ve got to begin to move forward.”

Republican Rep. Bob Behning, who leads the House Education Committee, said he would support delaying exams until later in the spring, when vaccinations have helped check the spread of the virus. But testing students is essential.

“We need to know so we have some idea as to where our kids are and ... how great the learning loss problems are,” Behning said. “It is more imperative today than it was last year.”

In a sign of her split from Republican leaders, state schools Superintendent Jennifer McCormick urged lawmakers to consider allowing districts to skip state tests. Her recommendation comes as one of her final acts as Indiana’s top education official. In a Dec. 22 letter to Holcomb and leaders of both chambers, McCormick also called for lawmakers to enact a hold-harmless provision.

McCormick also informed lawmakers in the letter that she had asked the federal Department of Education to allow Indiana to skip federal grades and to not have to identify struggling schools this year.

Protecting schools from consequences for declining results has gained traction among other leaders. Raatz said that he planned to propose a provision to prevent low test scores from impacting schools and teachers. Behning suggested the state go a step further, permanently removing consequences from accountability grades.

Twice in the past five years, Indiana has passed laws to protect schools whose state letter grades have fallen, first when the state introduced new standards and again when it rolled out a new test.

But laws designed to protect schools and teachers from declines in test results have also distorted the state’s grading system. For the 2019-20 school year, for example, some Indiana schools received A-F grades based on test results from 2018.

Accountability advocates argue that those practices render letter grades, which are designed to be easy for parents and communities to understand, all but useless. Behning said he supports something like null grades for all Indiana schools during the coronavirus, instead of giving schools static grades based on old test results.

“I want to stop this madness,” he said.

Virtual program switches school districts after Indiana scrutinizes stipends

2020-12-17T22:28:01+00:00

After drawing scrutiny from the state, a school that offers Indiana families financial support to educate their children at home is switching to a new district partner.

Tech Trep Academy, a Utah-based company, opened its first Indiana program this year through a partnership with the Middlebury Community Schools district outside Elkhart. The unusual school uses state education funding to give parents $1,700 stipends for classes and materials to educate their children at home. Parents can provide much of the instruction, with help and oversight from certified educators.

But just weeks after Tech Trep Academy began enrolling students in Indiana, the state notified Middlebury officials that reimbursing families for purchases violated a law that bars schools from offering enrollment incentives. To avoid running afoul of the law, the school told parents that it would make purchases for them directly from vendors.

After the state flagged the issue, Middlebury officials decided they had had enough.

When the state department of education said the program violated the law against incentives, “it was a mess,” said Superintendent Jane Allen. Tech Trep resolved that issue, “but by that time, we had already said, ‘you know what, we better not continue the agreement,’” said Allen, who will retire at the end of this year.

Tech Trep also hadn’t attracted as many Amish students as the district had initially hoped, reducing the local benefits, Allen said.

Instead of closing the school, which enrolls about 165 students, the district worked with Tech Trep to find a new partner. Next semester, the school will move under the auspices of the Cloverdale Community Schools, a 1,000-student district in a farming community near Greencastle.

Running statewide virtual education programs is a lucrative venture for some Indiana school systems. Cloverdale plans to keep 20% of the state funding it receives for each student and pass the rest on to Tech Trep, which will hire teachers and pay for materials for families. But Superintendent Greg Linton said the monetary benefits were not a significant factor in the district’s decision to partner with the Utah company.

The district is in good financial shape, Linton said, adding that because the program is relatively small, it won’t generate that much money this year.

Cloverdale already runs a virtual program with about 100 students, and the district sees a partnership with Tech Trep as a way to serve more students, Linton said.

“We really are more interested in the footprint that we can leave in the state of Indiana,” he said. “We just felt like it was an opportunity for us not only to support a good program but also to maybe learn from their expertise and even bolster our own local online program that we’re offering our students.”

Tech Trep is likely to continue attracting opposition from advocates who see the school as the latest diversion of taxpayer funds to low-performing virtual education. But the most vocal opponents are home schooling advocates, who say the program opens the door to state funding and regulation of home education, which they oppose.

For parents who are satisfied with the program, however, Tech Trep’s new partnership provides welcome assurance that it will remain in Indiana at least for this school year.

Carla Gull enrolled her 8-year-old son in Tech Trep because she is concerned about the risks of his returning to school in person during COVID-19. She’s been happy with the support she gets from Tech Trep teachers and the flexibility of the program, which doesn’t have a set schedule as many virtual programs do.

“It’s a great option for families,” Gull said. “It is definitely a relief to know that the program can continue with very few changes.”

Tech Trep has tweaked its approach to stipends to comply with Indiana law, said Janet Cox, program director for Tech Trep in Indiana.

The school doesn’t reimburse parents for purchases. And in order to avoid the appearance the stipend is a cash incentive, the school converted to a point system, with families receiving 85,000 points per student each semester. Those points can be used to ask the school to purchase approved materials including curriculum, educational toys, and instruction such as piano lessons.

To shift to the Cloverdale program, families will need to fill out a transfer form. But Cox said families will have access to the same special education support and teachers.

The move to Cloverdale will change one thing, Cox said: The district is opening up second-semester enrollment to new families.

Holcomb calls for school funding to increase, without committing to how much

2020-12-17T18:58:03+00:00

Gov. Eric Holcomb appears poised to continue his slow push to increase teacher pay in Indiana, pledging Thursday to review recommendations from his commission but stopping short of calling for a substantial funding increase.

Holcomb’s legislative priorities, announced Thursday morning during a conference hosted by the law firm Dentons, called on lawmakers to boost education spending this legislative session “in an amount to be determined.” Holcomb will base his funding requests on the state revenue forecast, released Wednesday, which projects steady income but leaves little room for a dramatic addition to the K-12 budget.

“We’re living in a time of a public health emergency that had an equal impact on our finances,” Holcomb told reporters after his announcement Thursday. “We have to obviously play the hand that we’re dealt.”

A commission created by Holcomb two years ago recently recommended a sizable state funding increase to raise teacher salaries. Its 182-page report released Monday called for Indiana to significantly raise teacher pay, at a cost of $600 million each year, in order to compete with neighboring Midwestern states.

Holcomb said he has made teacher pay a top priority and noted that the state protected K-12 schools from funding cuts during the coronavirus and increased education funding in the last budget.

When it comes to increasing teacher pay, “we will try to make as much gain as we can every single year that we are here,” Holcomb said.

To achieve the goal of paying teachers an average $60,000 salary, the commission said, the state will more than likely need to increase revenue. But there is little indication that lawmakers will support a tax increase amid the financial turmoil of COVID-19. Holcomb said he was not looking to raise taxes.

Educators may have to wait until 2023, when lawmakers hash out the next budget, to achieve the funding increase recommended by the teacher pay commission if lawmakers have an appetite for it at all.

As Holcomb goes into his second term, he’s also taking more control of education. He is calling for consolidating state education agencies under his first appointed schools chief, who replaces an independently elected official. He proposed putting the operations of the once-competing Indiana State Board of Education under the state Department of Education, in addition to putting the state charter school board staff under his appointee’s control.

The governor also put his support behind a plan to maintain full funding for virtual learning during the pandemic. Schools typically receive about 85% of the typical per-pupil funding for educating students remotely.

A bill to increase virtual funding appears likely to pass quickly. Lawmakers promised during a panel discussion Thursday that they would expedite a bill early in the session.

“We’re going to run a fast-tracked bill so it’s seamless,” said Senate education Chairman Jeff Raatz. “There will never be a question on the 100% piece.”

Stephanie Wang contributed reporting.

Indiana’s stable budget forecast buoys hopes to avoid school funding cuts

2020-12-16T21:50:10+00:00

Indiana’s revenue is expected to remain stable over the next two years, increasing the chances lawmakers maintain steady funding for schools despite the economic turmoil caused by the coronavirus.

The state projects about $34.95 billion in revenue over the next two years, a marginal increase from the most recent $34.6 billion budget, according to a forecast released Wednesday. That financial picture could change in the coming months, but for now, lawmakers said they were cautiously optimistic.

“The way today is playing out, a flatline is a win, even in K-12, when other states are making drastic cuts,” said Republican Sen. Ryan Mishler, chair of the appropriations committee. “In Indiana, I don’t think you’re going to see a cut in K-12 like other states.”

The revenue forecast serves as the starting point for crafting the state’s two-year budget. The state will release a second forecast in April before lawmakers approve a final budget for 2021-22 and 2022-23.

Earlier this year, Indiana spared schools when cutting other state agency budgets because of steep declines in state revenue. In the months since, district leaders have braced for potential losses next year. But even while the virus continues to rage, Indiana’s economic outlook has improved.

That’s part of a national trend that has helped states avoid cuts to school funding that education leaders and advocates initially feared.

The tepid revenue forecast could undermine any momentum for increasing school funding to pay for raises for teachers. The forecast comes on the heels of recommendations from a state teacher pay commission, convened by Gov. Eric Holcomb, which called for increasing state funding for schools by hundreds of millions of dollars each year. That funding increase is essential to boost average salaries in the state to $60,000 per year, the report found.

With so little wiggle room in the next budget, there is not much chance lawmakers will give schools a funding increase on that level, said Denny Costerison, executive director of the Indiana Association of School Business Officials. But under the circumstances, even a flat budget is encouraging, he said.

“It definitely could’ve been worse,” Costerison added. “This is workable.”

Cash-strapped districts are facing new and costly challenges posed by the virus, including finding a way to help students catch up on education interrupted by the pandemic. But some educators will be relieved if lawmakers can avoid cuts.

Superintendent Travis Madison, who leads the Barr-Reeve school district, has been hoping that funding will remain stable while girding himself for the possibility it could decline.

Madison was pleased with the revenue projection and optimistic that it could help legislators “keep things on the even keel” for schools without making other cuts, “because everybody’s hurting — businesses and schools alike,” he said.

A small rural district in southern Indiana, Barr-Reeve recently passed a referendum that will increase property taxes for schools. With that money, the district likely will be able to continue giving teachers annual raises if the state maintains funding, Madison said.

In response to the forecast, legislative leaders touted their fiscally conservative stewardship in prior years, which helped Indiana accumulate reserves that it has tapped during the pandemic — putting the state in a stronger fiscal position than many others.

Some lawmakers have hinted that schools could see a small increase in funding this year.

“Funding K-12 education is always the top priority for lawmakers,” Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray, a Republican, said in a statement. “It is our goal to fund K-12 above what we provided in the last budget. However, at this point in time, it’s too early to commit to increases for anything in the budget.”

Indiana report calls for $600 million more from districts, state to increase teacher pay

2020-12-14T15:50:20+00:00

A report released Monday pressures Indiana school districts to pay a large part of the estimated $600 million a year needed to raise teacher pay. But it acknowledges the state also must substantially increase funding to make salaries more competitive.

Gov. Eric Holcomb’s teacher pay commission has been working on the recommendations for nearly two years. The commission calls for increasing average teacher salaries to $60,000 per year, up from about $51,000.

The report includes 37 recommendations to increase teacher pay. About a dozen suggestions offer ways for local districts to trim costs or increase revenue, including reducing healthcare spending, cutting staff, and asking voters for property tax increases.

The remaining recommendations focus on legislative changes, including establishing a minimum salary of $40,000 per year beginning in 2022-23 and requiring districts to spend at least 45% of state funding on teacher salaries.

Most education funding comes from the state, and to achieve the commission’s goal, lawmakers must significantly boost how much schools receive. Indiana could generate new revenue from strategies such as reducing tax breaks and increasing income taxes, the report said.

“The recommendations in this report are not collectively a silver bullet,” commission Chairman Michael Smith said at a briefing Monday. “Achieving competitive teacher compensation is critically important and will take everyone involved at every level working together toward that goal.”

Since 2000, Indiana has seen the largest decline in teacher pay adjusted for inflation of any state, according to the National Center on Education Statistics. Comparatively low pay makes it harder to recruit and keep teachers, especially in high-demand areas like special education. That has consequences for students, who benefit from lower teacher turnover.

Lawmakers could use the recommendations as a blueprint to increase teacher salaries in Indiana, which has lower average pay than neighboring Midwestern states. But the political weight the governor puts behind the effort and the report’s reception from legislative leaders will determine its ultimate impact.

“I am grateful to the commission for its dedication to developing these recommendations,” Holcomb said in a statement. “The report provides a wide range of actions for all to review and consider moving forward. The options offer a base for continuing these important conversations about making compensation for our hard-working teachers more competitive.”

Legislative leaders said they welcomed the recommendations but didn’t commit to additional funding.

The recommendations come at a time of financial uncertainty for Indiana, as the state faces the prospect of lower revenue because of the economic devastation wrought by COVID-19. As a result, lawmakers are less likely to significantly increase school funding in the upcoming two-year budget.

Greencastle math teacher Kristien Hamilton, who leads her local union and has met with lawmakers to advocate for higher teacher pay, was awaiting the report. She is glad it confirms the state is far behind in pay. But many of the suggestions for districts — such as increasing money raised from private donations — won’t make a big difference.

“Most of us are already rubbing pennies together to try to get things done,” she said.

When Hamilton moved from Illinois to Indiana about seven years ago, she took about a $15,000 pay cut. The average teacher in Greencastle makes about $45,000 per year, and Hamilton said her take-home pay has slowly fallen as the cost of healthcare has risen.

Hamilton is considering leaving the field and returning to her prior career as an accountant, she said.

The report calls for school districts to raise more revenue by asking voters to approve higher property taxes through referendums. It also recommends that lawmakers eliminate the requirement that districts seek new referendums every eight years.

Wayne Township Superintendent Jeff Butts said that the Indianapolis district has already pursued some of the steps recommended in the report, including passing local referendums and reducing prescription costs. Average teacher pay in Wayne is the second highest in the state, and to increase it further the district would need new revenue, Butts said.

There are other recommendations in the report Wayne considered but chose not to pursue — revealing how complex cost-cutting measures can be. For example, the commission recommends that districts limit working spouses’ participation in health care plans. But in Wayne, allowing spouses to join plans actually reduced costs because it increased the size of the pool, Butts said.

State education funding remains substantially lower than it was before the Great Recession. When adjusted for inflation and enrollment, Indiana schools receive about 7% less from the state than they did in 2020, a gap of about $580 million, the report found.

Chronic underfunding of the school system has put Indiana’s teacher pay behind the rest of the region, said Dan Holub, executive director of the Indiana State Teachers Association, the state’s largest teachers union.

“The state can’t solve this problem by moving money around locally or taking health insurance from educators’ spouses or retirees,” said Holub, who sat on the teacher pay commission. “The legislature has not kept up its responsibilities to fund public schools at a level necessary for compensation to be competitive.”

Despite the challenge posed by COVID-19, the legislature must act now to increase taxes and boost school funding, or it could be several years before schools get access to new revenue, Holub said.

The report also calls for the state to send more money to districts to help educate students from low-income families. That could help high-poverty districts pay teachers more.

It recommends a cost analysis of virtual schools and programs, which are typically funded at about 85% the amount other schools receive per student, “to determine the appropriate amount of funding per student they should be receiving.”

Holcomb created the commission as teacher activism was rising around the country after West Virginia teachers went on strike for nearly two weeks. It was tasked with developing long-term strategies for addressing teacher pay in Indiana. Last fall, so many educators went to a statehouse rally for increased teacher pay that districts across the state closed because they couldn’t staff schools.

Indiana’s COVID enrollment dip driven by 10,000 fewer preschoolers, kindergartners

2020-12-10T20:23:26+00:00

When Pike Township opened a new child care center in 2019, it was expected to grow each year. But instead of expanding this fall, enrollment at the fledgling preschool fell by nearly 40% from last year to 130 children.

At the same time, the number of kindergartners in the Indianapolis district dipped by more than 20%.

Pike Township is not alone. As Indiana parents keep their children home because of the coronavirus and opt out of online learning, districts are reporting the largest enrollment drops among young children. About 10,000 fewer preschool and kindergarten students enrolled in Indiana schools this fall, a Chalkbeat analysis found. That 10% decline drove statewide enrollment losses compared with last year.

The trend could have significant repercussions for thousands of Hoosier children who are missing out on early education that experts say is crucial to developing the social and self-regulation skills to thrive in school. That could be particularly severe for students from low-income families and English language learners, who often benefit the most from early childhood education. Even Indiana’s youngest students could benefit from programs to help them rebound from the educational disruptions wrought by COVID.

If the missing students enroll next year, schools and parents will need to decide whether to hold them back a grade or to put them into kindergarten or first grade without the preparation they would normally receive. Educators will have classes with students at widely different levels. How prepared children are will depend not only on whether they missed school last year but also on the kind of experiences their parents are able to offer during the pandemic.

“My concern is that some students have better access to resources than others. And so it unevens the playing field,” Pike Superintendent Flora Reichanadter said.

In kindergarten, students are learning pre-reading skills. “If they enter first grade without those reading skills, they’re going to be behind,” she added. “Now, it doesn’t mean that we can’t catch them up, but they walked in with a disadvantage.”

Indiana doesn’t require children to attend school until they are 7 years old, so parents can keep their children out of school if they hesitate to send them in person during a pandemic, worry about putting them in front of a screen for hours, or cannot supervise virtual instruction.

The most important benefits children get from preschool and kindergarten are soft skills, like learning to listen to teachers and work with other students, many experts and educators say.

Research shows that when it comes to learning those skills, “the earlier the better,” said Chloe Gibbs, an economist at the University of Notre Dame who studies early childhood education. As a result, catching children up could prove difficult, she said. Communities, schools, and policymakers should try to help families as soon as possible, such as by connecting them with learning materials or parenting resources.

“Are there ways that we can try to supplement what’s going on in the home to recreate some of these things, so that it’s not a lost year?” Gibbs said. “We really should be thinking carefully about, what can we do to target resources and attention and time to the kids who need it most?”

Experts and advocates are touting programs to help students who have missed months of in-person instruction recover from the disruption. That includes support for ambitious ideas like tutoring corps or expanded summer school. The focus of those discussions is usually students who are already in school. But Gibbs argued those types of programs could also play a vital role in helping children who miss preschool and kindergarten.

One of the most important questions is which students are missing out on early childhood education, said Daphna Bassok, a professor at the University of Virginia who is studying preschool and kindergarten enrollment trends in Virginia during COVID. In Virginia, by far the largest decline in preschool participation is among students from low-income families.

That’s concerning because it suggests that delays in school enrollment could exacerbate inequality, she said.

“The implications really differ if what you’re doing instead of going to kindergarten is a really engaging thing,” Bassok said. “The type of experiences kids are having this year really, really range.”

Across the state, enrollment is down by about 1.6% for all grades combined. The bulk of the decline is in preschool and kindergarten. Kindergarten enrollment fell by about 5,700 students this year, down 7% from last year. More than 65% of districts have fewer kindergartners this year than in 2020.

Springs Valley Community Schools, an 800-student district in French Lick, has one of the highest rates of enrollment decline in Indiana. The elementary school, which offered in-person instruction until it was forced to go remote last week, enrolled 46 kindergartners this year, about 40% fewer than last year.

Because enrollment was so much lower than expected, one of the kindergarten teachers shifted to another grade, Superintendent Trevor Apple said. The three remaining kindergarten classes have about 15 students each — a few students less than in a typical year.

For now, the rural school district can withstand the financial hit that results from state funding cuts because of lower enrollment, Apple said. But he hopes that the dip is temporary due to the pandemic and that the district sees enrollment rebound next year, he said.

“I’m slightly concerned but I’m hoping that it just will bounce back,” Apple said. “I’m going to suspend my judgment until next fall.”

Enrollment declines in Indiana are steepest in preschool, which is optional and only offered at some districts. Declines could also be unusually large because many school systems, including Pike, charge families fees because the state does not provide the same funding as it does for K-12 education. Many private child care centers that are not affiliated with districts — and not included in state enrollment data — also offer preschool programs.

Preschool has been growing in Indiana in recent years, with more students enrolled in public school programs each year. This fall that trend reversed, and over 4,000 fewer students enrolled in district-run preschool, a drop of almost 20% from last year.

Pike will furlough one preschool teacher at the end of the semester and reduce hours for several assistants because preschool enrollment is lower than projected, according to the district. Kindergarten teachers are protected from furloughs or layoffs by their contract, Reichanadter said.

There is other evidence that preschool participation is down. Low-income families in Indiana are eligible for vouchers from On My Way Pre-K, a limited program that began in 2015. The vouchers pay for tuition at high-quality school-based and private preschools.

On My Way Pre-K scholarships plummeted this year. About 2,000 children participated in the program, down over 40% from 2019-20. In Marion County, participation fell by nearly 70% to about 350 children.

Declines in participation are particularly large in urban communities across the state, said Marni Lemons, a spokeswoman for Indiana Family and Social Services Administration.

“We believe this reflects families’ uncertainties related to the coronavirus and uncertainty relating to school being held in person or online,” Lemons said.

Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee contributed to this story.

Indiana cracks down on loophole, counting 1,000 ‘hidden dropouts’

2020-12-10T00:03:03+00:00

Over 1,000 Indiana students who left high school without diplomas will be counted as dropping out, after a state audit cracked down on districts using a legal loophole that a Chalkbeat investigation found inflates graduation rates.

This is the first time the Indiana Department of Education audited schools under a new law designed to ensure the state is accurately tracking how many students drop out. Schools had originally categorized these students as withdrawing to home-school, which would have left them out of graduation rates. But it’s unclear whether they ever continued their education.

The state added back students whose home-school withdrawals weren’t properly documented or those who had fallen behind on credits. The review found that nearly 60% of home-school students audited were behind on credits when they left school, suggesting that many of those who leave to home-school may essentially be dropping out after struggling to pass classes.

“It’s really kind of depressing that it’s that large a number that, unfortunately, were not on target to graduate,” said Rep. Bob Behning, an Indianapolis Republican who chairs the House Education Committee.

Chalkbeat’s investigation found that at some troubled schools, the practice of marking students who leave as home schooling has hidden dropouts for years.

Just over 500 students at the audited schools this year were properly labeled as leaving to home-school, according to the state review. The Indiana State Board of Education on Wednesday approved the results of the audit.

The new audit process is “an opportunity to shine the light” on schools that focus on increasing graduation rates on paper and encourage schools to focus instead on improving outcomes for struggling students, Behning said.

Hopefully, the new process will make graduation rates more accurate in the future by reducing the incentive for schools to mark students as leaving to home-school, state board member Pete Miller told Chalkbeat.

“We need to do a better job of getting 100% of kids to get a high school diploma,” Miller said.

Statewide, schools claimed that about 3,200 Hoosier students who were expected to graduate in 2020 instead withdrew to home-school. The education department reviewed withdrawals at 104 schools that were selected because they had large numbers of students marked as leaving to home-school. Schools can appeal the decisions through an administrative process.

Nearly all the schools that were reviewed will see their graduation rates fall, with a median decline of about 7 percentage points. Lakeland Christian Academy, a 300-student private school in northern Indiana, will see the largest decline in its graduation rate — a drop of nearly 19 percentage points.

The change will also lead to significant drops in graduation rates at some large public high schools. At Northview High School, a 1,000-student campus outside Terre Haute, the graduation rate will drop by 16 percentage points.

Leaders of some audited school systems told Chalkbeat that they hope to keep struggling students in school until graduation and reduce the number leaving to home-school with efforts such as alternative schools and career training.

Indiana teachers will be part of the second phase to receive COVID vaccine

2020-12-02T22:47:56+00:00

Indiana teachers are expected to be part of the second phase of Hoosiers to receive COVID-19 vaccinations, state officials said at a press briefing Wednesday.

The state will make the first doses of the vaccine available to front-line health care workers who are likely to have contact with COVID patients, State Health Commissioner Kristina Box said. The state hopes to have enough vaccine for those front-line workers and long-term care residents by the end of this month, she said.

Schoolteachers would be part of the second phase of workers eligible for the vaccine, said Lindsay Weaver, chief medical officer for the Indiana State Department of Health. That group is expansive, including such people as firefighters, police, and retail workers, according to a preliminary state plan.

“Teachers are part of our critical infrastructure workforce,” said Weaver, who did not say when the second phase of vaccinations will begin.

“A lot about who we’re going to start vaccinating will depend on how much vaccine we get, when we’ll be getting it, and what is the safety and efficacy for that vaccine,” she said. “We are already in full planning mode to be able to start vaccinating that critical infrastructure when we have the vaccine and we’re ready to do so.”

Many Indiana schools have halted in-person instruction in recent weeks amid a surge in COVID cases across the Midwest. Last month, the Marion County Public Health Department limited schools to virtual instruction across Indianapolis at least until Jan. 15 because of rising COVID cases.

Staffing shortages have forced some schools and districts to close campuses because teachers and support staff were out sick or required to quarantine.

Weaver said she anticipates teachers being vaccinated will help schools stay open. Weaver also said new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reducing the length of quarantines could mitigate staffing shortages at schools.

The guidance issued Wednesday allows for quarantines of 10 days if people do not have symptoms or seven days if they also test negative for COVID. The CDC still recommends a more conservative 14-day quarantine, with the shorter options as alternatives.

States must submit details to the federal government by Friday on who should receive the first available vaccines. A federal advisory panel recommended Tuesday that health care workers, as well as residents and staff of nursing and long-term care facilities, should be the first to be vaccinated.

The vaccine will not be mandatory for any of the groups, Gov. Eric Holcomb said.

New Indiana law puts pressure on high schools to reduce home-school withdrawals

2020-11-24T22:39:22+00:00

One in five Indiana high schools are facing scrutiny that could lead to lower graduation rates because they marked a large number of students who didn’t graduate as leaving to home-school.

The state will review over 100 schools under a new law that aims to stem the tide of students who leave without diplomas but are not counted as dropping out. Schools under audit must show that they have properly documented each withdrawal and that the students who withdrew were on track to graduate. Students who were behind on credits when they left will be re-categorized as having dropped out.

Statewide, schools claimed that about 3,200 Hoosier students who were expected to graduate in 2020 instead withdrew to home-school. The total reflected a dip from the prior year. A Chalkbeat investigation found that because the state does not track or oversee home schooling, it’s impossible to say how many of those students continued their education.

The new law aims to prevent students who fall behind in school from withdrawing and disappearing from graduation rates. Indiana data for the class of 2019 showed that more than half of students who left high schools to home-school may have fallen behind on credits.

The growing focus on home-school withdrawals is pressuring schools to provide options for struggling students, such as alternative programs or career training. But it is too soon to say whether state attention will dramatically increase the number of students earning diplomas.

“Home schooling was pretty much a dumping ground for kids until lately,” said Greg Prange, principal at Seymour Senior High School, a 1,500-student school in an agricultural community about an hour south of Indianapolis.

When he began as assistant principal over two decades ago, frustrated students could leave as soon as they turned 16. After the state made dropping out more difficult, some of those students started leaving to home-school, Prange said. Parents who are tired of fighting with their teens about school withdraw them, he added.

At Seymour, the district is relying on new career training programs to keep students engaged in school, including a fledgling agriculture science program that allows students to learn about landscape management, horticulture, and animal science, Prange said. The program also helps students earn diplomas under the state’s new graduation pathways even if they are not able to pass the state exam.

Those efforts seem to be paying off. Seymour will not face a state review this year because the school has drastically reduced the number of students leaving to home-school. Fourteen Seymour students in the class of 2020 withdrew for home schooling, about a third of the number in the prior class.

“We’ve changed so much over the years trying to provide for kids in the community,” Prange said. “We’re not losing those kids.”

But at schools with some of the highest rates of students leaving to home-school, those strategies haven’t shown results yet.

At Lincoln High School, a 700-student campus in southwest Indiana, Principal Steve Combs expects the graduation rate to fall by about 10% because of the new law. Combs was frustrated about the law marking students who are behind on credits as dropping out, a requirement imposed after students in the class of 2020 had withdrawn from school.

“I’m all for accountability. I just would like to know what the rules are,” Combs said.

In the class of 2020, Lincoln had 31 students who were marked as leaving to home-school. Most of them were behind on credits, and about 10 who were on track to graduate will likely be counted as dropouts because of a problem with documentation, Combs said.

When students fall significantly behind on credits, withdrawing to home-school and pursuing a high school equivalency can seem like the best option, Combs said. “That’s difficult to battle against.”

In the long term Combs hopes the school will be able to keep more of those students in school by offering more options. The district launched an alternative high school this year where students can catch up on credits more quickly through online classes with the support of teachers.

Whether students are counted as dropping out or leaving to home-school, when they leave school without diplomas it can have enduring consequences for them and for the community, Combs said.

“I live in this town. I absolutely worry about them,” he said. “But I do feel good about the services that we try to provide while they’re here.”

Katie Jenner named Indiana’s first education secretary, replacing McCormick

2020-11-19T16:37:47+00:00

Katie Jenner will serve as Indiana’s first appointed education secretary, the beginning of a new era for a state where the top education official has been elected and often vocally independent.

Her appointment was announced Thursday by Holcomb’s office.

An adviser to Gov. Eric Holcomb, Jenner formerly served as a vice president at Ivy Tech Community College. Jenner has experience in school administration as an assistant principal and assistant superintendent in Madison Consolidated Schools in southern Indiana. Jenner is also on the governor’s commission tasked with making recommendations for how to improve teacher salaries.

Jenner will begin her new role Jan. 11. She has worked alongside Holcomb for over a year, allowing for a smooth transition. It seems likely that her policy priorities will mirror those of the Holcomb administration, which has touted the importance of technology access during the pandemic and pushed for increased teacher pay.

The secretary of education will report directly to Holcomb as part of the cabinet, unlike the independently elected state superintendent. That will allow Holcomb to drive the state’s education agenda without the risk of butting heads with the state’s top educator.

“This is an incredibly important time for education in Indiana. Dr. Katie Jenner has focused her entire career on investing in students, teachers and staff, and she will continue to build the relationships needed to move our state forward in constructive ways,” Holcomb said in a statement. “As Indiana’s Secretary of Education, Dr. Jenner’s certification, work at nearly every level of education and her remarkable depth of experience will lead our state into this exciting next chapter.”

Jenner takes the helm of the department at a tumultuous moment when schools across the state are halting in-person instruction due to the surging pandemic. In addition to helping schools navigate the coronavirus and develop plans for helping students catch up after months of interrupted instruction, Jenner will help shape and implement state policy on testing, school accountability, and education funding.

“My priorities are to ensure high quality education for all students and families, and to provide solution-focused support for our teachers and educational leaders,” Jenner said in a statement.

Jenner will replace Superintendent of Public Instruction Jennifer McCormick, the state’s last elected schools chief. Four years ago, McCormick won election in a wave of Republican support in Indiana, defeating popular Democratic incumbent Glenda Ritz. But she soon won over supporters of traditional public schools.

In the years since she has clashed with fellow Republicans, and this fall, she endorsed Holcomb’s unsuccessful Democratic challenger.

The change to the office was already in the works before McCormick found herself at odds with other politicians. Holcomb began pushing to make the position appointed soon after he won his first term.

McCormick will join EES Analytics as a senior vice president, according to a press release posted Wednesday by the company. EES Analytics, which will launch in January, will offer data analysis for educators.

Leading Indiana lawmaker vows to fully fund schools’ virtual learning

2020-11-18T00:43:19+00:00

Indiana Speaker of the House Todd Huston said Tuesday that lawmakers will move quickly to provide full state funding for K-12 students who are educated virtually — a crucial step to prevent schools across the state from losing revenue this spring.

Legislative leaders also said they hoped to stave off cuts to education in the coming budget — or even try to boost funding. But in the midst of a recession brought on by the coronavirus, leaders say the budget will hinge on coming revenue forecasts.

Lawmakers gathered at the Statehouse Tuesday for the ceremonial beginning of the 2021 session. They discussed how the legislature would adapt to the pandemic, including how to respond when people test positive, whether to allow members to vote remotely, and whether to require masks.

When the session reconvenes in January, lawmakers will face a host of pressing policy issues, and education will dominate that list.

Earlier this year, the Indiana State Board of Education suspended rules that limited payments to districts for virtual students to 85% of the state’s per-pupil allocation. Instead, the board fully funded students whom districts were educating online due to the pandemic. But to continue full funding for the spring, lawmakers must take action when they return.

During this crisis, we have “learned the nimbleness and flexibility needed to ensure children have access to high-quality education, no matter what the circumstances,” said Huston, a Republican. “We will continue to support full funding this academic year for all of our K-12 schools.”

Districts across the state regard maintaining full funding for virtual students as essential. Although Indiana schools are taking a patchwork of approaches to handling the crisis, many are returning to virtual instruction as the virus makes its second surge.

Indianapolis health officials announced last week that they will require all schools to suspend in-person instruction at least until Jan. 15. Other school districts, such as the suburban Hamilton Southeastern, have been forced to close buildings because they did not have enough staff due to sickness and quarantines.

Another important question for schools is how much money the legislature will allocate to education in the next two-year budget. Following the 2008 housing crash, Indiana slashed funding to schools to address a massive deficit. This time around, lawmakers hope they will be able to preserve funding for schools.

Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray, a Republican, said that lawmakers do not expect to cut K-12 education funding and instead actually would “like to give it a little bump.” But he said it’s too soon to provide specifics.

Indiana teachers began the year with strong momentum for increasing school funding and teacher pay after months of activism. But it may be challenging for teachers to persuade lawmakers amid a shrinking budget and other competing needs.

Indiana teachers union calls on lawmakers to expand bargaining rights amid COVID

2020-11-16T20:56:13+00:00

At a time when educators’ jobs have become more difficult because of the pandemic, Indiana’s largest teachers union is calling on lawmakers to restore the right to bargain over working conditions, such as hours, prep time, and class sizes.

The Indiana State Teachers Association, which represents nearly 40,000 educators, said that some districts are deciding how to respond to the coronavirus without substantive input from educators. If unions had the right to bargain for better working conditions, more teachers would have a voice in those decisions.

“The right to come together to negotiate the terms of our work allows us to create better learning conditions for our students and better workplaces for ourselves and those who will follow us as educators in the future,” ISTA President Keith Gambill said at a union press conference Monday ahead of the start of the legislative session.

The state stripped Indiana teachers unions of the right to bargain over most work conditions in 2011, as part of a controversial overhaul of collective bargaining.

It’s not clear whether the Republican majority, which pushed to restrict collective bargaining, would seriously consider reinstating some bargaining rights.

At a legislative preview hosted by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce Monday, lawmakers didn’t address bargaining rights, but did touch on several other education issues, including the need to help students catch up after months of disruption in their education and how to fund virtual instruction.

The coronavirus pandemic is sparking new frustration among educators after a year of pressure on lawmakers to boost school funding and teacher pay.

Pointing to a union survey, Gambill said that 95% of teachers said their workload increased and 86% said they were more stressed during COVID.

Indianapolis teacher Jack Hesser said that while all jobs are more stressful during the pandemic, expectations of teachers have dramatically changed.

“We’ve doubled and tripled the workload given to our educators,” Hesser said. “We’ve given our teachers this impossible choice between … work outside of school for free or fail our students.”

A middle school science teacher from Richmond schools, Tiauna Washington said she spends hours each Sunday at school preparing for the week by making copies, making videos, setting up labs, and planning both in-person and virtual lessons.

“This combination of refusing to pay teachers what they are worth and expecting them to do more and more with less and less is just totally unsustainable,” Washington said.

ISTA is also continuing calls to pay Indiana teachers more, to start salaries at $40,000 per year, and for the state to increase funding for education.

The movement to increase teacher pay and education funding in Indiana gained momentum last year, but whether teachers will be able to sustain pressure on lawmakers is uncertain. A year ago, a Red for Ed rally at the statehouse drew so many teachers that districts canceled school for about half the state’s students.

Lawmakers, however, delayed substantively addressing the issue until the biannual budget is crafted in 2021. Amid the economic toll of the pandemic, the union may have a harder time winning an increase in school funding or teacher pay despite vocal support from the governor.

IPS charter supporters outspend and repel opponents

2020-11-13T00:22:43+00:00

Four years ago, education advocate Elizabeth Gore won a surprise victory in the Indianapolis Public Schools board race, defeating two people, including a far better-financed incumbent backed by supporters of school choice.

In the next election, two other challengers who were skeptical of partnerships with charter schools seized board seats, raising the profile of their viewpoints.

But last week’s election dashed critics’ hopes to claim control of the seven-member school board.

Gore and three other candidates supported by the teachers union lost, solidifying board support for dramatic changes in the district, including controversial partnerships with charter schools.

As the dust settles on the contentious battle for control of the district, there is deep disagreement about what to make of the results. Supporters of the four winners say the victories show that voters are happy with the direction of the district. Those who lost the race, however, say that the election came down to money, where they had a significant disadvantage.

The starkest funding gap was in the at-large race where Gore lost to newcomer Kenneth Allen. A Gary native and father of school-age children, Allen raised over $174,000 — the most money for an IPS board seat in recent memory. About 90% came from political action committees that are friendly to school choice.

Even though Gore — who raised about $22,000 primarily from the state teachers union PAC — has seen school board campaigns escalate spending in recent years, the flood of money into the IPS race stunned her.

“I’m speechless,” said Gore, who lost the race by about 2 percentage points. Gore believes that candidates who are skeptical of the direction of the district are so vastly outspent they have little chance of claiming seats.

“When you add it all up,” Gore said, “the power of money at this point is the thing that seems to be working.”

Allen declined an interview request from Chalkbeat, saying that he needed to focus on work and family after the campaign.

About 37% of IPS students now attend innovation schools, which are managed by outside charter or nonprofit operators. Those schools are controversial in part because teachers are not represented by the union and they are not directly controlled by the administration.

Some who backed the winners downplay the role of money. Justin Ohlemiller, executive director of Stand for Children Indiana which runs a PAC that spent at least $140,000 on the race according to the candidate reports, instead credited voters who learned about the issues and then supported the changes in the district.

It takes money to pay for outreach, such as mailers and text messages to voters telling them about candidates. In a race where many voters are not familiar with the candidates or issues, Ohlemiller argues that it is crucial to inform them.

“I don’t buy into the premises that spending has anything to do with the outcome,” Ohlemiller said. “End of the day, voters make decisions. ... That decision should be honored.”

Sashah Robertson, an IPS parent who was on the Stand committee that chose candidates to endorse, didn’t realize how much money was spent on the election. But she dismissed the idea that the seats were bought.

The group worked hard to research and pick candidates to endorse and to tell thousands of parents about their choices, Robertson said. “I just want the best for our kids.”

Incumbent Diane Arnold, who defeated a challenger to win reelection in District 4, said that it takes more than money to win a board seat. During the campaign, she made 500 phone calls and walked over 20 miles going door to door to meet voters and hand out flyers.

Arnold pointed to prior candidates who won despite funding deficits. But she was also surprised at the surge in fundraising this election, and she raised concerns about the “optics” of spending so much on the election.

“I think they probably need to reevaluate what they’re doing and see if it’s too much,” said Arnold, referring RISE Indy, a newly formed PAC funded by national school choice advocates that endorsed Arnold and the other winning candidates.

RISE Indy did not respond to interview requests.

Over the last eight years, the battle for control of IPS has become contentious and politicized, with candidates backed by allies of charter schools facing off against candidates backed by the teachers union.

The ideological split did not dominate either side’s campaign, and campaign literature largely didn’t mention charter schools. Many voters may not have been aware of the ideological debate or what is going on in IPS schools. Others likely voted based on factors like who they trust or who friends recommend.

Shanta Williams chose a candidate who was supported by the union and one backed by charter-friendly PACs. The mother of a high schooler, Williams moved to the district four months ago. When it came time to cast her ballot for school board members, she voted for incumbents — Diane Arnold and Elizabeth Gore — because she heard IPS was getting better.

“I don’t think your common people know anything about innovation schools,” Arnold said.

The vigorous campaigns for board seats help spread information among voters and give them access to information, Arnold said. People “at least have the opportunity to be more informed than in the other surrounding districts.”

Incumbent Venita Moore, who was backed by RISE and Stand, won re-election with 79% of the vote, the most decisive margin in the race. Another RISE-supported candidate, newcomer Will Pritchard, handily won the District 1 seat on the east side.

Moore believes that voters supported her because they see her as independent and sincere, she said. But she also argued that the success of the four candidates who support the current direction of the district shows that “more people are benefiting from the decisions that we’re making than are not.”

All four defeated candidates were backed by the IPS Community Coalition, a group that’s consistently critical of the current administration. Coalition leader Jim Sheurich blamed the loss on outside money that poured in.

In 2018, two coalition-backed candidates won their uphill battle because many voters were angry that the district had recently closed several high schools, Scheurich said.

If IPS closes more schools, as is widely anticipated, “we will be back in the same situation because that’s going to upset a ton of people,” he said.

Christina Smith, who helped found the coalition and ran against Arnold to represent District 4, said supporters of partnerships with charter schools invested heavily in this race because they lost two seats in 2018.

“They realized that if they didn’t step up their game, that they would lose again,” said Smith, an activist and parent. Smith, who lost by about 4 points, said she was encouraged that two races were close despite the fact she and her allies raised significantly less than their opponents.

While the coalition’s candidates were defeated, the fight for control of the district is not over, Smith said.

That’s one thing she and Arnold agree on.

Where 4 new IPS board members stand on racial equity, school closures, budget cuts

2020-11-12T23:07:52+00:00

After a vigorous campaign, four candidates backed by charter school friendly political action committees won seats on the Indianapolis Public Schools board: Kenneth Allen, Will Pritchard, Venita Moore, and Diane Arnold.

The two incumbents and two newcomers to the board have nuanced views on the pressing challenges the district will face under their leadership, including how to live up to its commitment to racial equity, tackle looming budget cuts, and address the educational impact of the pandemic.

During the election, Chalkbeat Indiana and WFYI asked candidates to respond to the biggest issues facing the district and how they would represent their constituents. Candidates showed support for the district’s recent Racial Equity Mindset, Commitment & Action policy and concern for keeping students academically on track during the pandemic. Below are answers from the four candidates who won seats.

Indiana plans to revamp school A-F grades

2020-11-10T23:47:35+00:00

The Indiana State Board of Education aims to overhaul the A-F grades it gives schools to include new measures of how much students are learning and better reflect the state’s education priorities.

At a meeting Tuesday, the board discussed a framework drafted by its staff that offered several ideas for updating the school accountability system. The revamp will likely include many of the same metrics that schools are currently judged by, such as state test scores and graduation rates, but the board is also considering adding measures and tweaking some of the existing ones.

The proposal raises several possibilities, including incorporating science and social studies test scores in elementary school grades, using student attendance as a measure of success, and changing the way that graduation rates influence school grades.

The state will hold several discussion sessions in the coming weeks to gather feedback and ideas from parents, teachers, and administrators.

School grades, which the state began using in 2011, play a crucial role in Indiana’s efforts to improve educational quality. They are designed to offer parents and community members an easily understood assessment of how schools are doing. And schools with chronically low marks face state intervention.

The accountability system has always been controversial, in part because it relies heavily on state test scores. Elementary and middle schools currently receive A-F grades based on how well students do on the math and English portions of the state ILEARN exam, an approach that some critics say leads schools to narrow their curriculum and misses other important information on school quality. High school grades also incorporate school graduation rates and measures of college and career readiness, such as how many students earn college credit or certifications.

Because of precipitous declines in standardized test scores when the state made changes to its assessment, schools were held harmless from dips in passing rates for three of the last six years, and many schools received state letter grades based on old scores.

Indiana operates two parallel accountability systems, with each school receiving a state grade and another assessment to comply with federal law.

It’s unclear whether the new model will eliminate the need for separate federal evaluations of schools.

“Indiana’s accountability system will do what’s best for kids,” said state board chair B.J. Watts. “If that mirrors the federal system, then that’s great. And if it does not, then I’m OK with that.”

Many state leaders hope the overhauled A-F grades will incorporate more than student test scores. But experts caution that it can be hard to create reliable, comparable metrics of student success besides standardized test results. That’s because schools often use different approaches to tracking priorities such as whether students are chronically absent or on track to graduate, and the results can be easily manipulated.

The board is also considering creating a new dashboard with supplementary information on how schools are doing.

Christy Hovanetz, a senior policy fellow at the Foundation for Excellence in Education, a nonprofit that consults with states about accountability systems and how to improve them, argued that it would make more sense to include additional information in the dashboard.

The initial framework the board is using starts from the right goals and values, Hovanetz said. But, she added, the board needs “to be more critical about which indicators are appropriate for a rating versus which should be on their dashboard.”

School enrollment dropped by almost 15,000 across Indiana

2020-11-06T23:06:29+00:00

Nearly 15,000 fewer students are enrolled in Indiana schools this school year than last year, a dip of about 1.5% that mirrors declines seen across the country amid the pandemic.

Many urban, suburban, and rural Indiana districts had fewer students this year, according to state data released Friday. At the same time, in a sign that some families were choosing online schools, enrollment surged at a virtual charter school and in a tiny district that runs several online schools.

It is unclear precisely what factors contributed to the dip. The state has not yet released detailed enrollment data, including information by grade level, race, or school. The drop is part of a national trend. In Chicago, for example, enrollment fell by 4% this year. One reason for lower enrollment nationally is parents are not sending their children to kindergarten, with some school systems seeing drops as steep as 15%.

In Indiana, enrollment appears to be lower at all types of schools, although it held steady in some districts. At Fort Wayne Community Schools, one of the largest school systems in the state, enrollment dropped by almost 800 students, about 3% down from last school year. Last week, Indianapolis Public Schools said enrollment was down nearly 4% and attributed the decline in part to fewer students enrolling in kindergarten.

Many suburban and rural districts also had fewer students this year. In the Hamilton Southeastern district outside of Indianapolis, enrollment was about 400 students lower this year, a decline of almost 2%. In Benton Community Schools, a rural district that educates about 1,600 students, enrollment was down by almost 6% or about 100 students.

While many Indiana districts lost students, a handful saw significant increases. Indiana Connections Academy, a large virtual charter school, enrolled 6,700 students — a jump of almost 40% over last year.

Union Schools, a rural district that operates several statewide virtual schools managed by the for-profit K12 Inc., had an even larger increase in enrollment. The district now educates 6,500 students, almost 50% more than last year.

Charter allies sweep IPS school board election to win four seats

2020-11-06T14:35:11+00:00

Candidates favoring charters and school choice claimed a sweeping victory in the Indianapolis Public Schools election, winning all four seats on the ballot when county officials largely finished tallying votes Thursday.

In the at-large race, Kenneth Allen eked out a victory over incumbent Elizabeth Gore with 40% of the vote. Gore garnered 38% of the vote, with the remainder going to Kendra McKnight (17%) and Ellis Noto (5%).

In another close contest, incumbent Diane Arnold held on to her seat with 52% of the vote, beating challenger Christina Smith. Arnold represents District 4, the west and south side of the school system.

Marion County took more than two days to count the results because of the large numbers of mail-in and early ballots. As a result, the winner of those close contests didn’t emerge until late Thursday, when fewer than 100 votes remained to be counted.

Two other candidates easily sailed to victory. Incumbent Venita Moore reclaimed a seat representing District 2, on the north east side of the district, with 79% of the vote. Newcomer Will Pritchard won 63% of the vote to represent District 1, the east side.

The four winners will join a seven-member board that sets the priorities and direction of the 31,000-student district. The board faces a host of challenges, including how to cut the district’s spending, how to fulfill its commitment to racial equity, and how to stem the learning loss wrought by school closures during the pandemic.

The victories in the hard-fought campaigns all but ensure that the district will expand partnerships with charter schools. The strategy has won it attention from national observers and advocates for “portfolio” districts, where the central office runs its own schools and also oversees the quality of independently managed schools.

Charter-friendly political action committees invested heavily in the IPS board election, and the four winning candidates raised over $390,000 combined — nearly 10 times as much as their opponents did.

Election 2020: Control of the IPS school board up in the air with two close races

2020-11-04T05:20:32+00:00

Supporters of Indianapolis Public Schools Superintendent Aleesia Johnson’s administration appear poised to hold on to at least two seats in the race for control of the school board. But with many votes uncounted, the outcome of two other races remain undetermined.

Marion County Clerk’s Office was counting ballots until nearly midnight Tuesday.

Ten candidates were competing in races for four seats — a majority of the seven-member board.

The winners will help set the direction of the 31,000-student district by overseeing the superintendent, setting priorities, and signing off on the budget. The vigorous campaign pitted well-financed supporters of the current IPS administration against opponents who are critical of the district’s collaboration with charter schools.

Incumbent Venita Moore, who was backed by groups that support charter partnerships, was winning nearly 80% of the vote late Tuesday. Moore’s District 2 seat covers the north east slice of the district. Challenger Daqavise Winston, who formerly worked in discipline in IPS, trailed with 20%.

In District 1, IPS parent Will Pritchard led with about 65% of the votes. A political newcomer, Pritchard was supported by choice-friendly groups. His opponent, teachers union-backed candidate Brandon Randall, a program director for a youth services nonprofit. The east side district was previously represented by Michael O’Connor, who favored partnerships with charter schools and did not run for reelection.

The two other races remained extremely close late Tuesday. At-large candidate Kenneth Allen, a newcomer with the backing of several choice-friendly political action committees, was just one percentage point ahead of incumbent Elizabeth Gore, who was supported by the teachers union. Each of them had about 40% of the vote, while Kendra McKnight and Ellis Noto trailed significantly behind.

In one of the hardest-fought races in the election, incumbent board member Diane Arnold held a slim lead over activist and IPS parent Chrissy Smith. Arnold represents District 4, which includes the west and south side of the district.

Candidates for school board often can win by small margins. The seats represent relatively small regions, and many voters do not cast a ballot — in part because they may not know about the race or the candidates in the non-partisan contest. In 2018, nearly 32,000 IPS residents who cast ballots did not vote for an at-large candidate for school board. Susan Collins won the seat by about 700 votes.

Outside the polling place at Irvington Community School on Election Day, Jeremy Stephens said that he supported Pritchard for the District 1 seat because he seemed like a trustworthy family man. But Stephens, who has two children at School 57, chose not to vote in the at-large race because he didn’t feel well-informed about the candidates.

Lejuan and Casey Harris, who voted Tuesday at Brookside Park, supported Venita Moore and Elizabeth Gore. But the couple, who sent their children to IPS, were distrustful of district leaders and frustrated that programs had been cut and schools closed.

“I’m 45 years old, and I went to IPS. There’s been problems with IPS since I went to school. Lack of funding. You know what I mean. Teachers are underpaid,” Lejuan Harris said. “Everybody knows this. And everybody says they are going to change it, and nobody has done it yet.”

Earlier this week at the Indianapolis City-County Building, early voter Brian Gill said he favored Kenneth Allen for the at-large seat. He wants to see better pay for teachers, which he believes will improve education for students.

Gill primarily decided to support Allen because of good word-of-mouth when he asked people he knew about Allen, he said. “That’s why he’s getting my vote.”

IPS teacher Ilana Shinkle, who voted early during fall break, said that she chose Elizabeth Gore because “she supports our neighborhood public schools” rather than partnerships with charter schools, she said.

Allies of the administration vastly outraised their opponents. Candidates friendly to charter schools raised over $390,000 by the election, out of a total of more than $430,000 raised for the campaign.

At-large candidate Allen raised at least $174,000, an enormous sum for a local school board election. Largely bankrolled by pro-charter political action committees, Allen’s campaign deluged voters with flyers, text messages, and advertising.

Incumbent Gore, meanwhile, raised about $12,000. Her largest contribution was an $8,000 donation from the political action committee of the state teachers union.

Political spending is particularly influential in school board races because voters often know little about the candidates or issues. In 2016, however, Gore herself proved it is possible to win a seat on the IPS board without a large war chest. She defeated the incumbent to win a seat after raising about $1,200.

The two other candidates for the at-large seat, Noto and McKnight, did not file campaign finance reports.

Charter backers battle to preserve edge on IPS school board

2020-10-29T00:42:52+00:00

Advocates of school choice and charter schools are fighting to preserve control of the Indianapolis Public Schools board, in a race that has attracted national attention and hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations.

Supporters of the current administration are hoping to hold on to a thin majority, while challengers seeking more schools to be directly managed by the district see a chance to wrest control after seven years of charter-friendly policies.

With four seats on the seven-member board up for election, the outcome could easily shift the balance of power in the district.

Nearly 40% of IPS students now attend innovation schools, which are run by outside charter or nonprofit operators. The city has become a model for communities seeking to embrace the “portfolio” approach, where the central office goes from only running its own schools to overseeing the quality of independently managed schools.

Supporters of the district’s model, who believe it has improved school quality and attracted more families, are zealously working to maintain control of the board. Political action committees supporting school choice have spent more than $200,000 on the race.

The race is drawing large contributions from out-of-state donors. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave $100,000 to RISE Indy, a new political action committee backing choice-friendly candidates, and Walmart heir Alice Walton gave $200,000 to the same group.

That funding is helping to inundate voters with mailers, text messages, and social media advertisements in support of incumbents Venita Moore (District 2) and Diane Arnold (District 4), and newcomers Kenneth Allen (at-large) and Will Pritchard (District 1).

Even while advocates for more independently run schools are throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars into the race, they are trying to downplay political motivations.

Jasmin Shaheed-Young, who leads RISE, describes the group as committed to amplifying community voices.

When asked if the group was created because IPS school board members who supported school choice lost seats in the 2018, Shaheed-Young said she created it because she wants to boost awareness of school board races.

“I wanted RISE to be different in the sense of, let’s bring everyone together and let’s center students,” Shaheed-Young said. “Let’s stop talking about the us versus them. Let’s stop talking about governance model.”

The parent-organizing group Stand for Children Indiana, which often lobbies IPS to hand management of low-performing schools to charter operators, has reported spending about $49,000 on the school board election.

Justin Ohlemiller, executive director of Stand, said that the focus on innovation schools is misplaced. The parents they work with are invested in improving failing schools, not in school type, he said.

“They want a great public school, and they want the district to focus on delivering that great public education,” Ohlemiller said. “I think that that debate is driven by, frankly, more elites.”

Supporters believe that under the leadership of Superintendent Aleesia Johnson, the district has also taken steps to improve areas such as teacher retention, salaries, and diversity.

“There’s tremendous capacity right now and a lot of momentum toward positive change,” said Sarah TeKolste, an IPS teacher who helped found Teachers Alliance for Equitable Public Schools, a PAC that endorsed choice-friendly candidates. “And I think there are certain candidates who would not support that direction and who want to pause some of the progress that we’re making.”

Opponents of district-charter partnerships see a rare opportunity to win control of the school board.

Candidates they endorsed won two spots on the IPS board in 2018. Now, advocates are hoping to win at least two more seats to stymie the expansion of innovation schools.

Jim Scheurich, a professor at IUPUI, believes the campaign this year is especially hard fought because supporters of the current administration are worried about losing control of the board.

“I think they were extremely surprised that we took two seats last time around,” said Scheurich, president of the IPS Community Coalition, a political group opposed to innovation schools. “Because they got scared last time, they have really upped their game.”

Four candidates for the IPS board are waging campaigns with backing from the Community Coalition: incumbent Elizabeth Gore (at-large), and newcomers Brandon Randall (District 1), Daqavise Winston (District 2), and Christina Smith (District 4). Although some of them are getting substantial funding from the state teachers union, their war chests are significantly smaller than their opponents’.

After criticism from opponents for failing to register as a PAC, the Community Coalition filed campaign finance disclosures with the county: It reported spending $297. Scheurich said the group has no paid staff and virtually no budget.

“If our message didn’t resonate, no one would be paying attention to us,” he said.

The vocal criticism of school choice in Indianapolis is part of a national trend, said Carol Corbett Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, which opposes charter schools and endorsed candidates in the IPS race. The group didn’t donate to or spend money on the campaigns, but it did share its endorsements with members, Burris said.

“Republican Party support for charter schools is growing. Betsy DeVos is sort of the poster child and I think has actually galvanized resistance to charter schools,” Burris said. “You’re seeing a higher degree of skepticism about charter schools, especially in progressive communities, and especially in the Democratic Party.”

Those messages resonated with several people voting early outside the Indianapolis City-County Building in mid-October.

Summer Daily, a software engineer, and Jon Maci, a college philosophy professor, said they were skeptical of charter and magnet schools, and they planned to vote for Brandon Randall and Elizabeth Gore.

When researching the IPS board before voting, they were looking for candidates who were “interested in supporting public interests and not private interests when it comes to education,” Daily said.

Not even a global pandemic can distract from the debate over whether to partner with charter schools in IPS. But the school system is facing a host of other issues, including ones that are likely to dominate the school board’s agenda.

The focus on school choice is eclipsing more urgent topics, said Pritchard, who is running for a spot on the board and supports innovation schools.

The school district was under financial pressure before the coronavirus, said Pritchard, an IPS parent who is on the district finance committee. Now, the pandemic has made its budget woes even more severe.

The first important job of the board will be tackling those issues, and it’s crucial to have board members who are up to task, Pritchard argued. “Your public outrage over innovation schools is going to mean nothing if you get on the board, and you’re faced with a huge financial gap that requires you to close five schools.”

Correction: Oct. 29, 2020: This story has been updated to clarify that Sarah TeKolste was referring to progress in areas besides the growth of innovation schools.

IPS board candidate resigned from his post in a political group after financial questions

2020-10-22T17:00:54+00:00

A candidate for the Indianapolis Public Schools board resigned from his position as president of the Indiana Young Democrats this spring amid a controversy over his unauthorized withdrawal of $3,800 from the group’s account.

Daqavise Winston told Chalkbeat he made the withdrawals but said they were a mistake and that the controversy is not relevant to the school board election. He has repaid the organization.

Five months after the incident, the 26-year-old former IPS behavior specialist filed to run for school board, saying he wants to ensure families who have been ignored have a voice in the school system. Winston is challenging incumbent Venita Moore for the IPS District 2 seat, which represents the north east side. The board is charged with deciding policies in the 33,000-student district, overseeing the superintendent, and signing off on the budget.

Daqavise Winston is running for a seat on the IPS school board.

Winston took over as president of the Indiana Young Democrats in January. Three months later, other board members of the group said that he withdrew $3,800 from the Young Democrats’ bank account without authorization and asked him to resign his position, according to an email obtained by Chalkbeat.

“This situation, frankly, has caused us to lose confidence in your ability to lead the Indiana Young Democrats,” several board members wrote in the email to Winston.

Winston withdrew the money in increments of $300 and $500 over a period of three weeks in March, according to public campaign finance reports filed by the Indiana Young Democrats.

Winston told Chalkbeat he inadvertently withdrew the money because he mixed up the Indiana Young Democrats debit card with one he had for his personal account at the same bank.

Four seats for the IPS board are up for election. The vigorous campaign is inspiring acrimony on social media and drew over $200,000 in spending from charter-friendly political action committees that support the current administration.

Winston, who has raised $3,100 for his campaign and has called for the district to stop new partnerships with charter schools, said the emergence of the Young Democrats conflict less than two weeks before Election Day is a political smear campaign designed to undermine his candidacy.

“I didn’t abuse my position when I was leading the Young Democrats. That was an accident that happened, and we fixed it promptly,” Winston told Chalkbeat. “There was no harm or intention to do harm.”

When the withdrawals were first discovered, Winston gave the same explanation to other board members, according to the email. They asked Winston to repay the missing money. When he did not meet their deadline, the vice president, treasurer, secretary, and national committee representative sent a joint email asking him to resign.

Winston said the deadline only gave him one day, which was not enough time for him to make the transfer in part because some banks were closed due to the coronavirus. But Winston said the controversy eventually led him to resign his position.

He began repaying the group in April, and by May 18 he had paid back all $3,800, campaign finance documents show.

In response to an interview request, Indiana Young Democrats Executive Director Christopher Roman emailed a statement from the executive committee: “An irregularity was discovered by our Treasurer, was addressed by our board in accordance with our Bylaws, and our organization has closed the chapter in this matter. Under our new leadership, our focus continues to be electing young Democrats up and down the ballot.”

Political groups give over $200,000 to charter-friendly candidates for IPS board

2020-10-18T00:21:04+00:00

Deep-pocketed political action committees have thrown over $200,000 into four races for Indianapolis Public Schools board seats, helping candidates who support partnerships with charter schools to far out-raise their competitors.

With significant donations from PACs for Stand for Children Indiana, RISE Indy, and the Indy Chamber, District 4 incumbent Diane Arnold, District 1 hopeful Will Pritchard, and at-large challenger Kenneth Allen have each raised between $57,000 and $123,000, according to pre-election campaign finance reports due Friday. The filings include contributions through Oct. 9.

Those school choice-friendly groups also endorsed Venita Moore in the District 2 race. Moore raised $55,000, according to reports she filed Sunday. She told Chalkbeat that she missed the deadline due to technical problems.

Four candidates backed by the IPS Community Coalition, a group critical of the current administration, have raised less than $20,000 in total, according to disclosures. Those candidates are District 4 challenger Christina Smith, District 2 challenger Daqavise Winston, District 1 candidate Brandon Randall, and at-large incumbent Elizabeth Gore.

The gulf in fundraising was most apparent in the four-way at-large race. Bolstered by donations from PACs, Allen brought in more than $123,000 — dwarfing the $1,700 raised by Gore. Gore herself, however, has shown that candidates can overcome fundraising deficits. She won the seat in 2016 after raising about $1,200.

Reports were not available for two at-large candidates: Ellis Noto, who said his campaign was not required to file a report because it has not yet received or spent over $500, and Kendra McKnight, who said she was not aware of the reporting requirement.

The outcome of the race will shape the district for years to come because a majority of seats on the seven-member board are up for election. Over the past six years, IPS has been transformed by innovation schools, which are considered part of the district but run by outside managers. In part because teachers at the schools are not unionized, the approach is controversial.

Critics of the district’s approach defeated incumbents to win two board seats in 2018. But the balance of power on the board has remained largely supportive of innovation schools.

The money flowing into this school board race is more transparent compared with recent elections because spending by Stand for Children Indiana will be publicly reported, according to Executive Director Justin Ohlemiller. For the past several years, Stand has led extensive campaigns through an independent expenditure committee, also known as a 501(c)(4), which the government exempts from having to disclose all of its political activity.

This year, Stand is contributing directly to candidates and campaigning for them through a political action committee, which is required to disclose spending. That committee has spent about $49,000 on school board races so far this election, according to the disclosure. That includes cash contributions to candidates and in-kind support, such as phone outreach to voters.

RISE, an education advocacy group formed last year, spent about $243,600, including $105,000 for digital advertising and $55,900 for campaign mailers. Some of that spending went toward other political offices, but at least $100,000 of that was spent on the IPS school board races, according to candidate filings.

The political arm of the Indiana State Teachers Association contributed $11,500 to candidates who are critical of innovation schools, a fraction of the amount the union spent on the 2018 election.

Here are the totals by race:

At-large

Kenneth Allen raised $123,000, including two large contributions received after Oct. 9, the close of the window covered by the pre-election report.

Elizabeth Gore raised $1,700.

Ellis Noto did not file a report.

Kendra McKnight did not file a report.

District 1

Will Pritchard raised $64,800, including a large contribution received after Oct. 9, the close of the window covered by the pre-election report.

Brandon Randall raised $1,800.

District 2

Daqavise Winston raised $3,100.

Venita Moore raised $55,000, including two large contributions received after Oct. 9, the close of the window covered by the pre-election report. Moore also had $3,900 remaining in her campaign coffers.

District 4

Diane Arnold raised $57,300 including a large contribution received after Oct. 9, the close of the window covered by the pre-election report.

Christina Smith raised $12,500, including a $11,000 donation reported by the teachers union. Smith told Chalkbeat she did not include the contribution in her own disclosure because she did not deposit it until after Oct. 9, the end of the reporting period.

Update: Oct. 19, 2020: This story has been updated to include the amount Venita Moore raised. Her reports were filed after the deadline.

To woo home-schoolers, a new Indiana virtual school offers $1,700 stipends

2020-10-01T16:43:24+00:00

When Amy Cannon heard about a new home education program that promised support from trained teachers and a $1,700 stipend for supplies, she was intrigued. Her daughter struggled with e-learning in the spring, and she wanted to home-school her 5- and 7-year-old children.

“I don’t think I would have felt confident enough to home-school without the support,” said Cannon, an Indianapolis stay-at-home mother. “Going in person wasn’t an option for our family, and seeing how virtual school has gone, I’m so glad we’ve home-schooled.”

Cannon’s children enrolled in a new K-6 public virtual school, called Tech Trep Academy, that caters to home-schoolers. Families have the flexibility to teach their children however they wish because the school doesn’t require students to take traditional classes or complete homework. Officials assume students are in attendance unless a parent says otherwise.

But unlike traditional home schooling, Tech Trep is publicly funded.

Within weeks of launching, it’s come under scrutiny for wooing families with dollars, which state education officials say could be an illegal enrollment incentive. The state will pay more than $860,000 toward Tech Trep this school year with scant assurance that the money will be spent on education. The Middlebury Community Schools district is overseeing the school and stands to gain nearly $1,000 in state funding for each student it enrolls.

The program’s unusual approach has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. It’s not certain if that attention will curtail Tech Trep’s growth in Indiana.

“They’re diverting money from public control for private benefit,” said Rep. Ed DeLaney, an Indianapolis Democrat who sits on the House education committee. “If you wanted to create a situation for chaos … this is the structure you would set up.”

Rep. Bob Behning, the chair of the House education committee, raised concerns about whether the program fits into current state law and how much it could cost if it attracts families who are currently home schooling without state funding.

“It appears to be realistically more support for home-schoolers than what I think the current definition of virtual education is,” said Behning, an Indianapolis Republican. “We may need to do a better job of defining what a program like this looks like and how we are going to fund it moving forward.”

‘It’s not a blank check’

The school, which is called Inspire Digital Learning School in state records, accepts virtual students from across Indiana. It has enrolled 173 students this year, fewer than 20% of whom live in Middlebury boundaries. Daily management is handled by Tech Trep, a Utah-based for-profit that runs virtual programs under the same brand in several states, including Idaho, Wyoming, and Tennessee.

The company is hiring five certified teachers, or about one per 35 students, according to Middlebury. Teachers advise parents and review learning plans and student work. Tech Trep will also arrange for students to take required state tests.

The district plans to closely oversee the management company, according to officials. Middlebury has staff monitoring enrollment, services for English language learners, special education, testing, and accuracy in reporting data. The district will also track student performance by requiring students to meet goals every two weeks, and students will receive report cards with their grades.

“This is certainly not a hands-off type of partnership,” said Middlebury Assistant Superintendent Robby Goodman. “We want to know what our students are learning. We want to make sure that they’re being held accountable. We want to see their progress.”

Goodman said the school is designed to attract parents who want their children to learn at home even though they are too young to study online independently.

Cannon never intended to home-school. When the pandemic ends, she plans to send her children back to school. But this year, she believes the support Tech Trep offers is especially valuable to her as a new home-schooler. When she submits work showing what her children have learned, the teacher writes feedback and notes of encouragement for them. And her children are taking online classes in science and social studies that meet once a month.

The funding has helped the family pay for textbooks, math manipulatives, refurbished Chromebooks, and piano lessons, Cannon said.

“It’s being monitored,” she said. “It’s not a blank check to spend the money on whatever you want. It’s to get your kids supplies for school.”

A warning from the state

The education stipend is one of the most unusual and controversial elements of Tech Trep’s program. Parents can use it not only for textbooks, but also for music lessons, educational toys, museum passes, and even Netflix subscriptions if they plan to access its educational content, said Janet Cox, program director for Tech Trep in Indiana. When the program launched, parents could make purchases themselves and request reimbursement from Tech Trep after submitting receipts.

Home school support programs in other states also offer this type of financial benefit to families. But in Indiana, Tech Trep is hitting a speed bump. In September, officials from the Indiana Department of Education told Middlebury administrators that they could not offer the stipend because it violates a state law meant to prevent incentives from influencing enrollment choices, according to spokesman Adam Baker.

As a result, Tech Trep has tweaked how parents receive the $1,700 benefit. Instead of buying items themselves, the company will make the purchases for them, according to a letter from Tech Trep to parents that the department of education shared with Chalkbeat.

Cox and Middlebury did not respond to questions from Chalkbeat about new restrictions on the stipend or if parents would be reimbursed for purchases they made before the new policy.

In a Facebook group for parents, Cox said Tech Trep would make sure it was within the law. But, she added, “we will honor our promises to parents as well and not leave you stuck with expenses for educational materials that you bought expecting us to pay for.”

In the same Facebook group, a post from Tech Trep promised it would approve additional online sites where parents could choose materials that the school would purchase for them.

Baker referred questions about the legality of the arrangement to the State Board of Accounts. “We do not audit or approve expenditures,” he wrote.

The State Board of Accounts did not respond to questions from Chalkbeat.

Indiana’s troubled history of virtual schools

Even before the pandemic made online schooling a more popular option, district-run schools across the state have been launching lucrative virtual programs run by outside companies. Like Tech Trep, many of them are created to compete with fast-growing virtual charter schools.

State lawmakers have raised concerns about whether school districts can properly oversee large, statewide virtual programs, and they banned districts from chartering virtual schools after two online schools under the watch of the Daleville district siphoned tens of millions of dollars in public money.

A state audit found that Indiana Virtual School and its sister school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, misspent more than $85 million over three years.

The state hasn’t stopped districts from starting their own online schools — which aren’t subject to the oversight called for in state charter laws.

Districts can make a lot of money through online schools. In Modoc, Indiana, for example, a booming virtual school tripled enrollment for Union School Corp. and rescued the tiny rural district from budget shortfalls.

Where the public funding goes

The state will pay more than $4,990 for each student who enrolls in Tech Trep. Middlebury will keep a 20% cut for oversight, and Tech Trep will receive the rest, or nearly $4,000 per student, to run the program and pay for supplies for families, according to the contract.

For the 173 students enrolled this year, the state will hand out more than $860,000. And that could be just the beginning. A Tech Trep partnership with a rural district in Idaho helped fuel surging enrollment. Two years after launching, it grew to about 1,000 students, according to reporting by Idaho Ed News.

Because virtual students and teachers don’t come to school in person, experts and advocates worry that many students are not actually attending classes or studying class material. Indiana law requires elementary school students to have at least five hours of instructional time, but at virtual schools, that doesn’t mean they have to be online for five hours a day.

Although Tech Trep requires parents to submit student work every other week, when it comes to attendance, it uses the honor system. It counts students as absent only if parents explicitly say their children are not in school, said Cox.

The Indiana Department of Education requires schools to submit calendars. The department offers guidance and leaves it up to corporations to ensure they provide enough hours, Baker wrote.

“If we discover they have not provided sufficient instructional days or instructional time, we will take action up to and including tuition support reductions for failure to provide 180 days of instruction,” he said.

A critical time for home education

Middlebury officials said that in light of problems with other virtual schools, they are working to ensure they provide proper oversight of Tech Trep. For example, they will require the company to provide semi-annual financial reports that show how the money the company receives is spent.

Despite the problems virtual schools have had in Indiana, families want alternative options, said Goodman, the assistant superintendent. Middlebury already offers online high school courses, he said. Tech Trep seemed like a good option for younger children, who need more parental support.

“It’s important for us to make sure we have the pulse of what our families are needing and wanting and asking for,” Goodman said.

At a moment when many parents are anxious about the health risks of the coronavirus and frustrated that their children are spending hours on computers each day, Tech Trep is appealing to families from across the state.

When schools closed down last spring, Shaina Dwiel had to educate her 6- and 8-year-old daughters at home. But she didn’t want her children to spend hours online learning each day. So this year, she decided to home-school.

Dwiel, a stay-at-home mom in Bloomington — 200 miles south of Middlebury — enrolled her daughters in Tech Trep because it helps pay for curriculum and classes such as ballet while also giving her flexibility.

“If we’re going to all have to school at home,” Dwiel said, “we want to do it our way.”

By blending elements of home schooling and elements of traditional public school, Tech Trep could be an ideal fit for some families, Cox said. While parents direct how their students learn, the program provides support including state-certified teachers, curriculum advisers, educational materials, and parent training sessions.

“If I can provide something to those kids who aren’t successful in public school, but maybe need more support than traditional home schooling,” she said, “it’s just another choice.”

Online learning blurs the home schooling line

Interestingly, the most vocal criticism of Tech Trep comes from home-school parents, who see the model as potentially threatening their liberty.

In early August, Kylene and Bryan Varner drove nearly three hours to attend a Middlebury school board meeting. The home-school parents raised a host of concerns about Tech Trep — from how the district would monitor issues such as attendance to whether it would violate state law to give money to families.

Indiana has among the most lax home schooling regulations in the country. Home-schoolers don’t need to take state tests, provide documentation of their education, or tell officials that they are educating their children at home. They are only required to track the number of days of instruction.

As a result, it’s impossible to say how much students are learning, whether they are keeping up with peers in public schools, or even how many Indiana students are home-schooled.

Historically, parents have often chosen to home-school to avoid government involvement in their children’s education. Many parents oppose taking public funding in part because doing so invites state scrutiny of the education they are providing. Those same parents are often vocal critics of publicly funded virtual schools because they blur the distinction between public education and home schooling. Tech Trep goes a step further by specifically targeting home-school families.

With its new program, Bryan Varner told the board, Middlebury is “creating a poison pill … which may be used to encroach on home-school liberties and parental rights for the entire state of Indiana.”

Although publicly funded home-school support programs are common in some states and communities, their reputations are mixed. In California, for example, charter schools that specifically serve home-school families stirred controversy last year, because parents were using state funding to buy luxuries such as Disneyland passes.

Some advocates for oversight of home schooling say that well-run programs can have clear benefits. In Alaska, for example, a program supports families while still imposing restrictions on what they can spend public money on and requirements to monitor children’s education, said Rachel Coleman of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, a group that supports regulation of home schooling.

“It is simply the case that having access programs like the ones in Alaska improve the education that children receive,” Coleman said — and accountability measures are key to ensuring programs are not “pocketing a bunch of public money.”

Want to know where IPS school board candidates stand? Check our voter guide.

2020-09-25T00:08:13+00:00

Four seats are on the November ballot for the Indianapolis Public Schools’ Board of School Commissioners, putting the district’s future in the hands of voters at a pivotal moment.

The winners will join the board as the state’s largest school district faces the unfolding fiscal and educational impact of the pandemic. The next board will also weigh in on crucial issues, including: a reckoning with racial equity; potential school closings or consolidations; and the district’s ongoing commitment to partnerships with charter school operators.

Now, the 10 candidates face a challenging campaign landscape. The pandemic curtailed face-to-face meetings and shifted the interaction with voters into the digital space. Candidates are relying on videoconferencing to meet constituents. Others are supported by texting campaigns organized on their behalf by outside groups.

Chalkbeat Indiana and WFYI asked candidates to respond to the biggest issues facing the district and how they would represent their constituents. Candidates showed support for the district’s recent Racial Equity Mindset, Commitment & Action policy and concern for keeping students academically on track during the pandemic. Below are their answers.

You can learn even more about the candidates and hear them answer questions from reporters at a virtual forum Tuesday.

Districts 1, 2, and 4: 5:30 p.m. to 6:20 p.m.

At-large 6:30 p.m. to 7:20 p.m.

Register for the virtual event and submit your questions for the candidates here.

School of adaptation: How an Indianapolis high school is getting to know students virtually

2020-09-21T23:38:55+00:00

At 8 a.m. on a recent Friday at KIPP Indy Legacy High School, the teachers are dancing in the empty cafeteria.

The halls of the building are quiet because the school’s 250 students are logging on virtually. For teachers who will spend most of the day alone, the 45-second dance ritual generates a burst of energy to help fuel them through a long day ahead.

Then, for the next 19 minutes, teachers prepare for the day — reciting school values, discussing lessons, and setting goals. The meetings are also a moment to share what’s going on in their lives outside of school.

“You can’t be your best self at work if you are holding in all of these things,” Principal David Spencer told Chalkbeat. “We have been forced to make these very personal connections.”

Teachers at Legacy are among thousands in the U.S. leading classes over video this fall. Without the daily interactions in classrooms and halls that help them get to know students, they are spending the first weeks of school building relationships. Because they are not in the same room with students, teachers are striving to find new ways to keep their attention in class and push them to do schoolwork.

Educators must do more than muddle through remote learning at Legacy. The stakes are too high to let hardship derail high school even during a pandemic.

But it’s not easy. The coronavirus has upended students’ lives and education. While going to class virtually, they also are looking after younger siblings, working jobs, and dealing with illnesses in their families.

Over the coming months, Chalkbeat will follow how the pandemic is changing life for students, families, and educators at Legacy in Martindale-Brightwood, a predominantly Black neighborhood northeast of downtown. The high school, which currently has students in ninth and 10th grades, began the year entirely online. Leaders are expected to decide in the coming days whether to bring students back in person next month.

In the morning meeting, Spencer flashes a slide of grade-point averages for his teachers. Average GPAs are improving, but they are still low. Ninth graders averaged about 2.1 on a four-point scale, while 10th graders averaged 1.6.

This is what Spencer said keeps him up at night. Those figures are about a point lower than he would expect if students were attending in person. Many KIPP students are eligible for Indiana’s college promise program, which offers free tuition to state schools. In order to receive the funding, however, students must have a 2.5 GPA.

“What happens right now, COVID or not, is going to impact what your junior and senior year look like,” Spencer said later. “So much of high school dictates what the rest of your life looks like.”

Shelene Baiyee teaches a remote lesson in chemistry and Principal David Spencer sets up a computer at KIPP Indy Legacy High School.

The technical problems start just a few minutes into Shelene Baiyee’s first-period chemistry class. Some students aren’t able to type their responses to questions in an online assignment on ions and isotopes. Her internet connection falters, and students struggle to hear her clearly.

“Do you remember what an isotope is?” Baiyee asks a student. As she waits for an answer, she murmurs to herself under her breath, “Can you hear me?” before calling on another student whose microphone is already on.

About halfway through her lesson, Baiyee’s audio breaks up so badly that Principal Spencer steps in to bring her his laptop, after he observed the problems while watching her lesson. With the extra laptop, she gets going again with her slides on one computer and her audio on another.

A first-year chemistry teacher less than six months out of college, Baiyee is optimistic and eager to improve. Two days before, Baiyee and a colleague watched videos of each others’ lessons to spot ways they could be better. The other teacher suggested tips for keeping students focused, such as narrating what is happening in the class and cold-calling on students. But it’s hard to practice those strategies if the audio breaks up so badly they cannot hear the lesson.

It’s especially frustrating when internet problems hinder lessons because staff at Legacy have put so much work into making sure students log on. When schools abruptly switched to remote learning in the spring, Legacy relied on recorded videos and homework. But attendance was lower than they wanted, and staff felt like ”the connection that made our school what it was was missing,” Spencer said.

So this fall Legacy changed its approach, and teachers hold live lessons that students are expected to attend for several periods each day. Because virtual classes can be exhausting, the school cut back on the hours students spend in class, Spencer said. Teachers typically lead lessons half the week.

When teachers are not instructing, they help out by taking attendance in colleagues’ classes and calling to track down missing students. At the start of the year, if students missed an entire day, they could get as many as five calls. Sometimes, a call is all it takes to roust a student who overslept. Other times, calls reveal that students are having issues with computers or internet connections the school can help troubleshoot.

“We made a commitment to do whatever it takes,” said Spencer, who believes the unrelenting follow-up during the first month of school has paid off. Legacy is averaging about 94% attendance each day.

With all the internet problems, Baiyee’s class that morning stands out in frustration and obstacles requiring last-minute improvisation, she said.

As a new teacher, “there’s always just so many things to think about,” she said, and technology problems add one more worry to that list.

But Baiyee keeps up her enthusiasm for atoms, ions, and electrons. “If you’re not excited, what makes you think they’re going to be excited?” she asked. “You have to show that you’re as invested in the subject as they should be.”

Kara Davis-Myers’ teaches with three screens, so she can watch students complete assignments as well as their videos.

Down the hall, writing teacher Kara Davis-Myers runs a virtual class with two laptops — her own and one borrowed from an administrator — and an extra monitor. On one screen, she welcomes students as they log on; on another she shares her screen; and on the third she looks at the assignments they are completing in real time.

That day, her students are writing neutral summaries of an opinion piece from the New York Times about whether athletes should kneel during the national anthem.

While students write in Google Classroom, Davis-Myers simultaneously monitors their behavior and reads their work — repeating what the assignment asks for and what they are doing well.

“I love the text evidence that you chose. Explain why you chose it,” she tells one student. “Very strong.”

“Way to go back and edit for paragraphs one through five,” she tells another. “I would say, delete this for now,” she adds, highlighting some text on her screen.

“All right, awesome,” Davis-Myers tells the class, before pausing to caution another student, “if there’s a reason your camera’s not on, I need to know.”

In person, Davis-Myers’ ninth-grade composition class usually relies on small-group discussions. Because that’s not feasible virtually, she spends more time talking, calling on students to unmute or submit answers in the video chat box.

As a teacher, “you have to just be pumped up. You have to be full of energy,” she said. “You just have to give a lot — which is exhausting.”

When Davis-Myers thought about coming back remotely, she was anxious she wouldn’t get to know new students. But in some ways, she’s now managed to feel closer to them.

This year, administrators eased some of the school’s strict rules because of the pandemic and economic hardship. While they decided students must have their cameras on so teachers know whether they are there and can be called on, Spencer said, now students are allowed to wear do-rags and bonnets over their hair.

“We don’t know all of the things that could impact whether or not students could get their hair cut or get their hair done,” Spencer said. “Our students should not feel like, ‘for the next four hours, I have to feel vulnerable in front of everyone because I have to have my camera on.’”

Davis-Myers believes the relaxed rules have helped make students more comfortable. And the requirement that they keep their cameras on has offered a peek into students’ environments.

All that has helped Davis-Myers forge bonds with her new students.

“It’s like they’re more themselves because they’re feeling comfortable in what they’re wearing and who they are,” she said about remote learning. “It’s more natural than I thought it would be.”

IPS plans a staggered in-person return after a cautious online start

2020-09-15T22:00:08+00:00

After a cautious start, Indianapolis Public Schools plans to reopen classrooms in person for students in all grades next month.

The plan is based on improved coronavirus data in Marion County. Students up to fifth grade will return full time, and middle and high schoolers will return for two days of in-person learning each week. The city’s average positivity rate — the percentage of people who test positive for the coronavirus — has hovered near 5% for several weeks, according to state data.

“We have been watching our health data very closely and are excited to have seen some movement,” said Superintendent Aleesia Johnson at a media briefing Tuesday.

The plan will be presented to the school board Tuesday, but members do not need to approve it because the resolution to return virtually gave the administration latitude in reopening, according to a district spokeswoman. It could affect close to 33,000 students who attend schools tied to IPS, although some independent innovation schools are already operating in person. Families will have the option to sign up for virtual instruction.

The decision to reopen classrooms is a significant step for the district, which first chose to return 100% virtually in July when positivity rates were higher and many feared the outbreak was getting worse. IPS is now one of just two districts in Marion County that have not resumed in-person instruction. The other, Washington Township, approved a plan Tuesday to return in person.

The IPS reopening will be phased in over the first three weeks of October. Students in prekindergarten through third grade will return for a week of in-person school on Oct. 5. The next week, which was initially part of a fall break, all students will have remote learning.

Classrooms will reopen for all students on Oct. 19. Elementary school children will attend full-time in person, and sixth through 12th grade students will attend in person two days per week and study remotely three days per week.

While the safety concerns of reopening in person weigh heavily on most school leaders, there are also many reasons to return. Parents rely on schools to provide childcare. And they are a crucial connection for the most vulnerable children, providing food and access to healthcare.

At the same time, the education students receive remotely is unlikely to be as good as it would be in-person. In IPS, the average attendance rate has reached almost 80%, but that’s lower than the district would expect in person, officials said.

Even students who attend class may struggle to stay motivated staring at a screen. And it’s especially challenging, parents say, for small children to focus on online classes.

IPS will offer an optional full-time virtual program. It is still in the works, but it may vary by school, said Warren Morgan, the district’s chief academics officer. That’s different from the plan outlined in the summer when the district had intended to have a small number of teachers educate students from multiple elementary schools.

Virtual instruction could entail teachers educating students both in-person and remotely, creating specialized sections for virtual students, or relying on other staff in the building, Morgan said.

“We’re learning from other districts,” he said. “A big piece of that is actually gathering the data of how many students actually opt in.”

After IPS announced plans to return to school virtually, county and state officials have released more guidance. The Marion County Public Health Department allows in-person classes to continue for some students if the positivity rate remains below 13%. IPS is creating its own metrics that are similar to the county guidelines but slightly more cautious. If the rate goes above 11%, only pre-K through third-grade students would remain in person.

Other districts across Indiana that began the school year virtually are now grappling with the same question of when and how to resume in person. School systems including Hamilton Southeastern, South Bend, and Portage have either returned or begun discussing plans to reopen.

Why an Indy charter network is planning a virtual school for next year

2020-09-09T00:27:05+00:00

A small Indianapolis charter network is seeking to open an entirely virtual school next academic year — and making a bet that many parents will want to keep their children at home for months to come.

Paramount School of Excellence, which has a reputation for strong test results, plans to model its first virtual school on its in-person campuses, with a maximum of about 550 students in kindergarten through eighth grades. Leaders say the plan responds to demand fueled by the coronavirus for virtual schooling that they anticipate could continue even if the pandemic recedes or a vaccine proves effective.

“This isn’t a choice that the education sector is making. This is a choice that parents are making,” said Tommy Reddicks, CEO of Paramount, which runs three schools on the near east side. “We can either tell our parents, ‘I’m sorry, we refuse to serve you in that manner. You can go look elsewhere.’

“Or we can try to create something that’s more responsible.”

Several new virtual programs have opened or are in the works in Indiana, including one from Phalen Leadership Academy, a fast-growing Indianapolis charter network that launched a virtual school this fall.

The new virtual schools could help transform online education by serving more diverse families. Typically, students in online schools are more likely to be white and less likely to come from low-income families than are their peers at other schools. For example, at Indiana Connections Academy, over 77% of the 5,000 students enrolled last year were white. Statewide, about 67% of students were white.

By contrast, both Phalen and Paramount are dedicated to improving results for low-income students and children of color. More than 75% of Paramount students, for example, come from low-income families, according to state data.

Phalen is known for overhauling struggling neighborhood schools, and it operates several campuses in a heavily Black community on the far east side of Indianapolis. In their charter application, Phalen leaders wrote that they “expect that many more parents of all races” will pursue virtual education because of COVID-19 and the disproportionate number of deaths the virus has caused in the Black community.

Education One, the charter office of Trine University, has authorized the Phalen charter and is considering Paramount’s request for a charter. (The Indianapolis mayor’s office, which oversees the other Paramount campuses, cannot authorize a virtual school under state law.)

These new virtual schools will test whether schools that have produced strong results for students in person can replicate their success for online students. Virtual schools typically have among the worst test results in the state.

Not that long ago, Reddicks of Paramount said he would have described virtual education as “unethical, immoral, and a money grab.” But the coronavirus forced him to rethink his views, and about half of Paramount students are currently enrolled in a virtual program offered because of COVID-19.

Educators at the school, which once shunned virtual instruction, are now dedicated to figuring out how to do it well.

Paramount tested students when it shifted to remote instruction in March and at the end of the semester, said Kyle Beauchamp, chief academic officer for the network.

“We had academic growth during that time that was very close to on par with the growth we typically see in the on-campus environment,” Beauchamp said. “We’re very excited about that trend.”

If Trine approves the charter request and the network launches the school next year, Paramount’s virtual program would mirror much of its in-person model, officials said, with similar curriculum, teacher training, and support for families. The planned school would have no more than about 30 students per teacher. Staff would work in an office at one of the Paramount campuses, where they would attend weekly meetings and work with other teachers in the network.

Students in the virtual school would also have some of the same opportunities as their peers attending school in person, such as getting tutoring, visiting the school’s farm, or joining the robotics team.

How Indianapolis Public Schools plans to pay for $27 million in coronavirus costs

2020-08-28T00:43:37+00:00

Indianapolis Public Schools will take on over $5 million in debt to help pay for tech devices for e-learning during the pandemic.

The state’s largest district, which returned to school entirely virtually last week, is spending over $27 million to respond to the coronavirus, with the largest chunk going to laptops and tablets for all students and wireless hotspots for those without home internet, according to district officials. A significant portion of the coronavirus-related costs will be reimbursed by federal sources, but just how much funding the district will receive remains uncertain.

“We are absolutely thankful for the federal funding we’ve received and philanthropy that we’ve received,” Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said. “But we also know that there are some additional gaps that we need to cover in terms of the cost to go fully 1-to-1.”

The school board decided unanimously Thursday to issue over $5 million in bonds, which will help cover technology purchases since March.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse the district about $4.4 million for expenses such as buying personal protective equipment, and the district also expects $11 million to $14 million in other federal coronavirus relief funding for schools. The district plans to pay for the remaining coronavirus-related costs with philanthropic funding and reserves.

The final cost “depends upon the degree and the duration of this COVID impact” on the economy and families “and how we choose to respond to that,” said IPS chief financial officer Weston Young.

IPS also faces uncertainty over just how much state funding it will receive this year. Indiana law provides less funding for students who attend school virtually. The district could lose out on as much as $28 million unless lawmakers change that policy, according to the district.

Johnson said she is hopeful that lawmakers will fully fund schools, and IPS has not begun planning for cuts. But, she said, “if we were to be funded at the 85% level, given the impact of a reduction, we would have no choice but to make significant and, quite frankly, severe cuts that would be really catastrophic.”

IPS could save some money by beginning the school year entirely online. But how much it saves hinges on whether it pays all staff members. When schools closed due to the coronavirus in March, IPS continued to pay hourly staff the same amount they would have if school was in session.

IPS is currently paying all employees, Johnson said. The human resources department is reviewing whether staff have enough work in their current roles, and if not, whether they can take on other responsibilities to support the district, she said.

Although the district has different staffing needs because students are studying remotely, when classrooms reopen it will need those support staff. Some skilled workers, such as bus drivers, are in high demand.

By far the largest coronavirus-related cost for the district was purchasing devices. IPS is spending $16.5 million on devices for students, about a third of which will be paid for with the bonds. That includes about 20,000 Chromebooks, 12,000 iPads, and 7,000 wireless hotspots.

The technology is essential for virtual instruction. When classrooms closed in the spring, IPS elementary and middle school students received paper assignments because the district did not know whether families had devices or internet access. IPS estimated as many as 40% of students did not have reliable broadband. The district repurposed devices from various parts of the school system to provide high school students with laptops. This year, IPS has pledged to provide every student a device.

After a remote start, an Indianapolis district sets a strict bar for reopening

2020-08-27T02:21:54+00:00

Six weeks after Washington Township became the first Indianapolis school district to decide to reopen entirely online, the board approved a coronavirus threshold for when students will be able to return to classrooms.

The district, which enrolls about 11,000 students, will begin reopening schools when the average positivity rate — the percentage of people who test positive the coronavirus — reaches 5% in Marion County for two weeks. Elementary schools would return full time. Middle and high school students would remain indefinitely on a hybrid schedule where they attend in person some days and virtually on other days.

In a sign of how widely coronavirus plans vary, the metric is significantly more conservative than guidance from the local health department and than the approaches taken by several neighboring school districts, which have already returned to classrooms. But Indianapolis Public Schools, which began the year entirely remotely, is also pegging its reopening to a 5% positivity rate.

The positivity rate in Marion County is currently 6.9%, according to the Marion County Public Health Department. County guidelines allow partial school reopenings if the rate is below 13%.

The board discussed the plan for more than two hours Wednesday and voted after weeks of deliberation on the best way to approach reopening. Board members split on using 5% positivity as the measure for reopening classrooms. Only three of the five board members voted for the plan. One member abstained.

“I think the percentages are too conservative,” said board member John Fencl, who voted against the plan and argued that the costs of keeping students out of school were too high.

For students in early grades, remote learning and spending time on Zoom is especially difficult, Fencl said. And even older students are struggling socially and emotionally.

“There is a need to get back in school,” he said.

Anxiety over the potential health risks of reopening too soon, however, led other board members to support the conservative approach.

“Obviously I want our kids to be back in school too. None of this is lost on me or any of us,” board member Donald Kite said. But he ultimately supported a strict standard for reopening to help protect students, teachers, staff, and parents.

“I’d rather somebody call me and folks who support this a nervous Nelly than to be cavalier when it comes to health.”

If school buildings reopen under the plan, students will gradually return, giving schools time to ramp up. Kindergartners and first graders will come back first, with later grades joining over the next two weeks.

The Washington Township school district made news in July when the board voted to reopen schools entirely virtually because coronavirus cases were rising. In the weeks that followed, several Indiana schools and districts also shifted to entirely virtual plans.

One reason why school districts have pursued such different reopening plans is because state and county officials have taken a relatively hands-off approach. The Marion County Public Health Department did not release clear metrics for when and how schools should reopen until July 30, after several school districts had already called off in-person instruction.

The state released school reopening guidance on Wednesday, weeks after many students returned to classrooms.

The new hybrid model: How an Indianapolis middle school is trying to balance safety with face time

2020-08-19T23:11:19+00:00

Outside Chapel Hill 7th and 8th Grade Center, metal benches are arranged in clusters for an experiment in open-air learning. Inside, signs caution students and staff to wear face masks, keep 6 feet apart, and avoid drinking from the water fountain.

But the biggest change at the Indianapolis junior high school, which enrolls over 1,300 students and reopened last week, is that fewer than half the students are on campus each day.

Chapel Hill, in the west side district of Wayne Township, is using a hybrid model to teach during the coronavirus pandemic. Students come to campus two days a week and study from home the rest of the week, working on materials independently or meeting with teachers and classmates by video. About 300 students are signed up for fully online school.

To make hybrid instruction work, Chapel Hill had to invent a new approach. Educators must create lessons for the children in the building and those who are at home, and make the most of the time spent together in person.

Education leaders hope that with hybrid instruction and safety measures such as masks and outdoor classes, students will be able to get the benefits of attending in person while reducing the likelihood of transmitting the disease. At Chapel Hill, classrooms that once held over 30 students now have 15 or fewer, and there is more space for social distancing in the cafeteria and hallways.

“We missed our kids,” said Principal Kelin Mark. “For us to give them the opportunity as a district, where they can come in even for a couple of days, we think is going to help them socially, academically, personally.”

Last month, the Marion County Public Health Department issued guidance requiring most middle and high schools to use hybrid or remote instruction, citing the current coronavirus infection rates in the county. Elementary school students can attend in person full time. Some Indianapolis school districts, including Indianapolis Public Schools, have switched to entirely remote instruction. But most of the county’s districts are using a hybrid model like the one in Wayne.

Elsewhere, though, hybrid instruction may be the least popular plan for restarting schools, national research suggests. When the Center on Reinventing Public Education surveyed a nationally representative sample of districts in late July, about 12% were planning to reopen with a hybrid model. Almost 40% of districts planned to fully open in person, and 14% planned to reopen with remote learning. Information was not available for the others.

Hybrid reopening plans were more common in urban and suburban districts, where about 20% of districts were planning to use the approach. Because much of the country saw a surge in coronavirus infections over the summer and school district plans are in flux, the survey results could be outdated, said Betheny Gross, associate director of the CRPE.

The clear advantage of hybrid instruction is that “you at least get some face time with the kids,” Gross said. But hybrid schools still face some of the same challenges as entirely remote options. “The biggest question is figuring out how to keep kids productively engaged when they’re at home,” Gross said.

At Chapel Hill, students who enroll in the entirely virtual option log on for video lessons taught by Chapel Hill teachers during what are traditionally prep periods, said Dominic Day, the Wayne curriculum coordinator for secondary schools. Those teachers are paid for the extra work.

In the hybrid model, teachers don’t teach in-person and online students at the same time, Day said. Instead, teachers focus on working with students who are in the classroom, essentially spending two days a week teaching each cohort.

On days when students are at home, they are expected to work independently, following a daily schedule that includes practice work, tests, and recorded videos of the teachers, Day said. On Fridays, no students attend in person. Instead they spend some time working independently at home and some time meeting with teachers and classmates over video.

When students are at school, the district is encouraging teachers to focus on the kind of learning that is hard to do independently, Day said. It’s a good time, for example, for collaborative work, using the science lab, or tackling real-world applications of math skills.

“We know that it’s not a perfect situation,” Day said. But he said the district would try to make it equal to the quality of education before the pandemic “or even a better experience.”

Math teacher Sequoia Lee, who is new to Wayne Township this year, is optimistic that she will be able to keep students on track academically using the hybrid model.

“The location is different,” Lee said, because students are practicing skills at home. But teachers are always making decisions about what concepts are most important and where to devote their limited time. “These kids are smart,” she said. “They can blaze through some of these lessons.”

Lee is more worried about the social side of teaching during a pandemic. She used to be able to tell when children were having rough days and quickly check on them. Now, most days they will be at home, and if she connects by video, they might be uncomfortable opening up to a teacher with their family in the background. Even at school, the new health guidelines could constrain such interactions.

“It’s a relationship,” Lee said. “Just imagine being in a relationship and you can’t really show too much affection — whether it’s a high five, a hug, or a smile.”

A mix of frustration and relief as IPS goes back to school, all online

2020-08-18T00:04:03+00:00

Yajayra Guzman’s day began with tears.

Her son got upset when they had trouble logging on for his first day of online preschool. Her daughter, a first-grader who remembers in-person school, didn’t like the virtual substitute.

“She was just crying, saying that this was boring, that this is not what school is like — that she doesn’t get it, and she doesn’t know what are they talking about,” Guzman said.

Then, Guzman herself started to fall apart. She loved her children’s school but keeping them enrolled and engaged felt increasingly untenable.

Indianapolis Public Schools, which has more than 25,000 students in district-run schools, began the year entirely online today, joining a national experiment in remote instruction amid the coronovirus pandemic. It will test whether the school experience can be replicated online, whether students will learn as much with remote instruction as they would’ve in classrooms, and whether online school can be more than a stopgap measure.

And the results will be measured household by household, day by day.

For Guzman, even high-quality online instruction won’t solve her essential problem: She and her husband both work full time, and most days her children will be with her mother, who does not speak English and won’t be able to help them navigate virtual school.

“I would not mind if they were a little bit older. ... They would know how to read. They would know their numbers,” said Guzman, who took time off work to help her children with the start of school. But without her there to supervise, she said, “they’re going to be left behind.”

Now, Guzman is considering withdrawing her children from IPS and enrolling them in Warren Township, which is offering in-person instruction.

Present in the classroom

Although IPS offered a hastily developed version of remote instruction when schools closed due to the coronavirus in March, officials say this time will be different. All students will get district-provided Chromebooks and iPads. Students will be expected to follow a daily schedule. And teachers will spend more time leading their classes through live video.

For Juli Cooper, who teaches sixth and seventh grade at School 87 northwest of downtown, the morning began with setting expectations. Rather than teach from home, she chose to go to her classroom so students could see her present at the school building. She wanted them to know she took remote school seriously, and that they should, too.

As she worked with a small group on vocabulary, Cooper looked at a grid of student faces on her monitor. She checked in with them one by one to be sure they knew the next steps to make flashcards. She guided them through the process of logging on for art, their next lesson. When she gave them the choice to stay on the video call or log off while they worked, faces began slowly disappearing until the screen was empty.

The first morning went unexpectedly smoothly, Cooper said, with all but one of her 28 students logging on. Cooper spent hours preparing for the year, figuring out how to transform lessons for the internet. She tried to think of everything students would’ve had in the classroom, even sending home bags of rubber bands for their index cards. “It’s like your first year teaching again,” said Cooper, who has taught for 19 years.

‘The easiest day’

There have been some bumps in the road for IPS. On Sunday before school started, IPS announced that a technical glitch could sometimes prevent teachers and classmates from seeing video of students, although audio should work for everyone. The district is updating accounts to fix the issue and expects it to be resolved by Tuesday morning, the statement said.

Some families struggled with technical problems, child care, and other barriers on the first day of school. Others seemed happy to send their children back to virtual classes, posting cheerful photos on social media of them studying at desks.

Whether students, especially young children, have a good experience with remote instruction will likely hinge on whether their parents are able to supervise closely or get help from others.

Hannah Northup, who has a daughter in kindergarten and a son in third grade, said that the first day went really well — especially compared with the chaos of the spring. She and her husband both work, and managing remote learning last school year was overwhelming. So this fall, they are using money in a child care flexible spending account to pay someone to help.

The woman they hired has experience in education and spent the day supervising the children when they learned online. “I know we are very fortunate. Not all parents are getting to do this,” Northup said. “It’s been the easiest day for me as far as e-learning goes.”

For Brittany Hernandez, whose son is in preschool, the morning also began relatively smoothly. He joined his class online to meet his preschool teacher. With Hernandez by his side, he did school work on his tablet, and while he was often distracted, he was also excited by some of the work.

Hernandez left her job as an insurance agent earlier this year, but she hopes to go back to work soon. She’s unsure how she will handle child care once she does. “If we continue doing virtual,” she said, “I really don’t know how it’s gonna be for us once I start working.”

Sites will offer free child care, e-learning support to Indianapolis children

2020-08-14T21:28:22+00:00

Several Indianapolis nonprofits are creating a multi-site community child care network that will provide e-learning supervision for students whose schools are operating remotely this year.

The Mind Trust, an Indianapolis nonprofit that supports schools, is organizing the effort and giving $200,000 in grants to the sites. The child care will be free, and 11 sites will begin operating by Aug. 24 and run at least until Oct. 16, according to a release from the organization.

The sites will initially have space for at least 500 students. Providers will focus on serving students who attend schools in Indianapolis Public Schools boundaries, but other students can participate based on need. For more information visit CommunityLearningSites.org. All sites will provide daily breakfast and lunch.

Thousands of Indianapolis students will be in school remotely this year, putting intense pressure on working parents whose children are learning virtually and lack child care. Districts including IPS and multiple charter schools shifted to virtual instruction for the start of the year because of coronavirus safety concerns.

“Marginalized families in Indianapolis continue to shoulder a disproportionate burden as a result of COVID-19,” said Brandon Brown, CEO of The Mind Trust, in a statement. “As many schools make the understandable decision to begin the new school year virtually, families continue to tell us and our community partners that they need support navigating the many obstacles they currently face.”

The sites aim to address the concern that children without sufficient academic supervision and support at home will fall behind in school. The Mind Trust is also looking to hire facilitators to work with small groups of students at the sites on e-learning.

The Mind Trust chose the child care providers based on their interest, capacity to begin programming, and location in high-need areas, according to the release. The sites can use the funding for personnel costs, facility costs, wireless infrastructure, meals, personal protective equipment, and transportation support for families.

The child care sites are:

Chaney Microlearning Center
Christamore House
Cornerstone Lutheran Church Indianapolis, in partnership with Shepherd Community Center
Crossroads AME Church
Edna Martin Christian Center
Freedom Academy Inc. (The Reset Center)
Hawthorne Community Center
Kids Inc., in partnership with Shepherd Community Center
Shepherd Community Center
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Westside Missionary Baptist Church

Update: Aug. 14, 2020: This story has been updated to reflect a change in location for a child care site. Child care will be offered at Shepherd Community Center.

Indiana blocks some charter schools from $10 million coronavirus relief grant program

2020-08-14T19:43:04+00:00

A $10 million grant program meant to help Indiana schools grapple with the impact of the coronavirus is pitting charter and traditional public schools against each other and creating tension over how to divvy up federal aid.

The state notified several Indiana charter schools last week that they had won competitive grants to help them serve the most vulnerable students. But then the schools learned that restrictions that weren’t mentioned in the initial application would prevent them from accepting the grant.

The Indiana Department of Education is withholding federally funded coronavirus relief grants from schools that also received money through the federal Paycheck Protection Program, according to interviews with and documents shared by school leaders.

Dozens of Indiana charter schools received federal PPP funds — forgivable loans aimed at helping small businesses continue paying employees during the pandemic. Charter schools qualified for the loans because they are run by nonprofits, but traditional public school districts were not eligible.

The loans to charter schools drew outrage from some people because charter schools were still receiving public funding and some have wealthy benefactors. (Chalkbeat is also a nonprofit and received federal paycheck protection funding.)

The two funding streams have different purposes. While schools must spend the PPP money on salaries and facilities in order for the loans to be forgiven, the Indiana Department of Education grants are meant to help schools serve students and could go to other expenses, such as technology. The grants are a small slice of Indiana’s federal CARES Act allocation, which included $215 million for schools.

In a memo to schools in May, the department told schools it would prioritize applications from rural districts with limited resources; hard-hit areas; education-related organizations like juvenile correctional facilities; and schools that serve at-risk students, such as English learners and homeless students.

For Matchbook Learning at School 63, the grant seemed like a natural fit. Nearly 37% of the school’s 600 students are English language learners, and 98% come from low-income families. The school’s west side Indianapolis neighborhood has also been hit hard by the coronavirus, said Eric McGuire, director of personalization. Matchbook planned to use the grant to hire a social worker with experience in therapy to help students deal with trauma, officials said.

But after learning that the school was awarded more than $77,000, Matchbook leaders realized the school wasn’t eligible. To receive the funding, they’d need to formally state that the school had not gotten a PPP loan. Matchbook received a $753,000 PPP loan, according to CEO Amy Swann.

“This grant was specifically intended for schools and communities like ours,” McGuire said. “We’re just so frustrated and upset and devastated for our families and our kids.”

The Indiana Department of Education did not respond to several requests for comment from Chalkbeat.

This is just the latest dispute over school funding during the pandemic. As schools have incurred millions of dollars in extra costs to cope with the coronavirus, the argument over how to distribute federal assistance has put private, charter, and traditional public schools in competition for money.

Earlier this year, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos ignited controversy when her department initially put out guidance that would have directed more federal money than expected to private schools. In Indiana, State Superintendent Jennifer McCormick instructed schools to ignore that guidance in favor of a more straightforward reading of the law that directs more money to public schools.

Schools across the state are also waiting to see whether the Indiana legislature will provide them full funding for students who attend virtually this school year or leave in place a law that only funds virtual students at 85%.

Charter school leaders and advocates say that the Indiana Department of Education’s decision to withhold the coronavirus relief grants from some schools conflicts with McCormick’s public statements about supporting students who are most in need.

“This seems like a political decision, rather than a decision that was based on the merits,” said Brandon Brown, CEO of The Mind Trust, an Indianapolis nonprofit that supports charter schools. “It is surprising that an elected official that has staked her tenure on resisting politics is now doing the very same thing that she spent the last four years criticizing.”

Brown called the exclusion “disgraceful” and said it will harm Black, Latino, and low-income students who attend Indianapolis charter schools.

The decision made Kristie Sweeney, head of school for Southeast Neighborhood School of Excellence, feel like McCormick was “getting back at us because she’s not a charter school supporter,” she said. The policy prioritizes “the students most in need who go to traditional public schools, not students most in need whose parents elect to have choice.”

Sweeney said it was especially frustrating because she had no indication that her school wouldn’t be eligible. The staff spent significant time preparing the application. Last week, the school heard it would receive almost $130,000 to purchase Chromebooks and Wi-Fi hotspots. But now the award won’t materialize because the school received a $742,100 PPP loan, according to Sweeney.

Indiana charter school leaders and advocates point out that charter schools lack access to many sources of education funding, such as property taxes that help pay for facilities and transportation, and ballot referendums to supplement budgets.

Why many Indianapolis charter schools are reopening classrooms despite the coronavirus

2020-08-10T20:19:28+00:00

Eight days before the campus reopened to students, more than a dozen teachers at an east side charter school sat mostly alone in quiet classrooms watching a training video of the school nurse downstairs in her own office, one of several coronavirus safety precautions.

School begins this week for Paramount School of Excellence, albeit with plexiglass dividers, assigned lunch seats, and music classes largely without singing. The network expects more than half its students to show up, a sharp contrast with Indianapolis Public Schools, which will begin the year entirely online.

More than 16,000 students attend charter schools within IPS boundaries, over 35% of public schoolers in the area. Charter schools typically have more flexibility in planning than do district schools because they are often smaller, making it easier to communicate directly with teachers, parents, and students. At the same time, they are not constrained by teachers union contracts or the pressure that unions can exert. And many of them are more responsive to parent wishes.

The Indianapolis education system allows parents to choose schools and gives school leaders the freedom to pick curriculum, hire teachers, and direct spending. Now, with limited and delayed oversight from state and county officials, the same philosophy is pushing local education leaders to respond to the pandemic in myriad ways.

“From the outset of this, what we wanted to do is put control in the parents’ hands and say, ‘Hey, this is your choice. Do you want to come back?’ “ said Tommy Reddicks, CEO of the three-school Paramount network. In the absence of a consistent, countywide approach, he said, “we felt like we were in a really good position to do the very best we could to safeguard those students whose parents wanted them in school.”

The Indianapolis mayor’s office, which authorizes the majority of the charter schools in the city, said that about half the 43 schools it oversees will offer some form of in-person instruction.

Whether and how to open schools are not easy decisions for anyone — teachers, parents, and school leaders. There’s no absolute right answer, said Brandon Brown, who leads The Mind Trust, an Indianapolis nonprofit that supports charter schools, and “whatever answer you do end up choosing is going to have negative consequences.”

Tucked on the west side of downtown, School 63 is a publicly funded, privately managed neighborhood school. Operator Matchbook Learning expects about 80% of students at the school to return in person, CEO Amy Swann said.

School 63 has created a hybrid middle school schedule, required masks for all students and staff, and moved some classes outside. But returning in person will be especially tough because it is an innovation school, managed under a contract with IPS that includes busing. With the district operating virtually and not running buses, most families will need to provide their own transportation.

While many school districts have faced pressure from teachers and teachers unions to reopen virtually, charter schools may be less likely to see that pushback since their teachers are not typically unionized. At School 63, one teacher who had come out of retirement was particularly concerned about the health risks of going back to classrooms and she chose to retire again, Swann said. She thinks that for the most part, teachers who are worried are also hopeful and excited.

Swann said it makes sense for schools to make their own decisions because communities vary so widely. Although affluent families with large houses can set aside rooms for virtual learning, “a lot of our kids don’t have that,” she said. Some families live in single rooms with a hot plate. Sixteen percent of students are homeless or in foster care, she said.

“We really need to be guided not by the politics that we’re hearing out there, not by what other people are doing and saying, but by the community we serve and by the health department,” Swann said.

Many schools in IPS serve families facing similar challenges, which is one of the reasons leaders stayed committed to an in-person reopening for weeks before shifting to a virtual start. Now, IPS is hoping to meet the needs of some of those students through “hubs” for children who are homeless or have insecure housing.

Because charter schools and networks are typically smaller than districts, they can more easily make adjustments based on specific details, such as their buildings. Purdue Polytechnic High School, a network of charter schools with three campuses, will run its two Indianapolis schools on a hybrid schedule, with most students coming in two days per week and studying remotely the rest of the week, said Scott Bess, head of schools for the network. At the South Bend campus, which has lower enrollment, the network is planning to have students in person four days a week.

While school leaders rely on public health guidance, Bess said he believes that schools should be given wide latitude because the same plans that work for a small campus like Purdue Polytechnic runs wouldn’t necessarily work for a larger high school.

Schools can’t have it both ways, Bess said, by demanding local control in ordinary times and then deferring to other officials in times of crisis. “We’re making the best decision we can, and if it’s wrong, then that should be on me.”

But even as some charter schools consider the wishes of families and the conditions at their campuses, some educators argue that county health officials should take a stronger role in determining what is safe for the entire community and whether and how schools reopen.

“Administrators or teachers, we were not trained to manage a public health crisis,” said Tim Mulherin, chief executive officer of Irvington Community Schools, a charter network that runs elementary, middle, and high schools on the east side.

One reason why, Mulherin said, is because parents can be confused when they see schools taking such different approaches to health and safety. Irvington elementary school students can return to classrooms part-time, while the middle and high schools are entirely virtual.

“They say it’s an advantage to be somewhat independent,” Mulherin said. “But at a time like this, we sure would like most people to be on the same page.”

‘No simple fix’: IPS school board votes to open virtually

2020-07-31T01:39:21+00:00

The Indianapolis Public Schools board unanimously voted Thursday to begin school entirely virtually and delay the return to classrooms at least until October.

District officials have been planning for weeks for students to return to classrooms in person. But as the date to reopen approached and the coronavirus pandemic worsened across Indiana, many teachers and parents became increasingly anxious. This week, IPS leaders concluded that they did not see a way to reopen classrooms safely when the school year begins Aug. 17.

“These are not easy decisions to make, but our children’s lives matter,” said school board member Elizabeth Gore.

As IPS officials presented the plan to the board, they spoke to how they would attempt to mitigate the problems with remote learning, from improving instruction to offering supervised sites where students without stable housing can go during the day. But they also acknowledged that the decision would be a burden on many families.

The abrupt shift to remote instruction in March was a struggle for the district, where many students lacked access to technology and support at home, and many educators were unprepared for a fundamentally different approach to teaching.

Officials said this time around it would be better. Having devices for every student will allow teachers to connect with them more regularly, including through more live lessons, Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said. Because they will have consistent, live lessons, students will have more structured days.

“I couldn’t sleep last night because I know what this means for so many of our families and what they will be up against and challenged with over the next several months,” Johnson said, “but I told our team and our principals, we’re going to need to work and teach like we have never done before because that is what our children and our families deserve.”

The administration also provided more details on the in-person resources that will be available for some children. The district will create learning “hubs” in IPS buildings where students who are homeless or housing insecure can go while they do remote learning. Students with disabilities who receive services such as speech therapy may choose to have those services in person.

Finally, the district is working with community partners to create a “student support network” where other students who need supervision and structure can go to do virtual work.

“There is no simple fix for children who will be left at home if parents must work,” said school board member Diane Arnold. “It is our most vulnerable students who need this in-person care and academic support. This component is the most challenging aspect of the proposed plan.”

Indianapolis health officials cap middle and high schools at 50% under new coronavirus guidance

2020-07-30T21:52:43+00:00

Indianapolis middle and high school buildings may operate at no more than 50% capacity in an effort to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, under a public health order announced Thursday by the Marion County Health Department.

Elementary schools, however, will be able to fully reopen for all students to return to classrooms five days a week. The public health order calls for all students in third grade and above to wear masks, permanent seating charts, and staggered passing periods. Marion County Public Health Department Director Virginia Caine also recommended that high-risk teachers and students be allowed to opt-out of in-person instruction.

For the first time since the pandemic began, local health officials are giving education leaders a clear way of knowing what restrictions may be placed on school buildings as the spread of the coronavirus worsens or improves. A new four-level system, ranging between green, yellow, orange and red, specifies what level of school reopening is considered safe based on the COVID-19 test positivity rate in the community.

Marion County had a seven-day average positivity rate of 9.2% as of Sunday. It is considered “yellow” under the new system, the first level triggering restrictions on schools that will remain in place for at least two weeks. The positivity rate must drop below 5% for schools to operate with no restrictions on in-person learning. If the county reaches a positivity rate of 13% or higher, schools should not offer in-person instruction.

The last-minute guidance comes after several school districts have already called off in-person instruction in a city where students routinely return to classrooms in late July or early August. It is forcing adjustments at schools that have spent months drafting and refining reopening plans.

“We needed this guidance in June,” said Tommy Reddicks, executive director of Paramount Schools of Excellence charter network, which shifted to a hybrid model for middle school because of the health order. “One week’s notice to make a gigantic organizational shift adds trauma and chaos to your organization and might be unfeasible, especially for our larger school districts.”

Still, Reddicks said, it will be a valuable tool in the coming months as conditions on the ground change. “We need something to be able to follow to understand why decisions are being made and how they impact us,” he said.

Marion County Health Department reopening guidelines for schools.

The rule limiting capacity to 50% does not apply to middle and high schools with fewer than 400 students that are able to maintain distances of six feet apart in classrooms.

Many schools around the county are prioritizing bringing elementary school students back to classrooms because they appear to be less likely to become infected or spread the virus.

“Our hope is that these benchmarks will give school boards, superintendents, principals, other school leaders, the tools necessary to make decisions about how to best serve their students based on current and known public health trends,” said Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett at a press briefing.

The city’s largest district, Indianapolis Public Schools, announced plans Wednesday to begin the year entirely virtually. IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson also proposed more cautious guidelines for determining when it would be safe to come back to classrooms: The district would look for the community to go for 14 days with an average positivity rate of 5% or less before returning in-person.

IPS to begin school year fully online as coronavirus cases rise in Indiana

2020-07-29T15:58:33+00:00

Indianapolis Public Schools is poised to start the year entirely virtually, a reversal from the district’s initial plan to open classrooms for in-person instruction full time and a concession to the worsening coronavirus pandemic in Indiana.

Under a plan announced Wednesday by Superintendent Aleesia Johnson, which the school board is expected to consider Thursday, the district will remain entirely remote at least until October. The first day of school is Aug. 17, set after IPS delayed the start of school to see if COVID-19 cases would decline.

The state’s largest district previously planned to bring students and teachers back in person while also offering a virtual option. Johnson has held to that plan since June, saying that it is the best option for student learning and well-being. Now, Johnson is acknowledging that the district cannot safely bring students and teachers back to classrooms while Indianapolis remains in the midst of an out-of-control pandemic. Over 1,000 COVID-19 cases were reported in Indiana on Friday, more than on any other day of the crisis.

“The goal is still to get our kids back in person as soon as we can, but we have to do it in a way that feels safe,” said Johnson at a media briefing after the announcement.

IPS is the latest Marion County school district to shift to an entirely remote start to school. Over the last two weeks, several districts have delayed reopening or gone entirely virtual. Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett, who has taken a relatively hands-off approach, announced last week that Marion County schools could not reopen in person at least until Aug. 5.

Hogsett and Marion County Public Health Department Director Virginia Caine are expected to release additional guidance this week for the city’s 11 districts, charter schools, and private schools.

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, however, continues to allow schools to make their own reopening plans. While Marion County schools are taking increasingly cautious approaches to reopening, other districts in the state have moved forward. On the same day IPS announced its change in plans, Avon schools — a suburban district less than 15 miles west of Indianapolis — held its first day of school for students to return to classrooms full time.

The news that IPS would begin the year virtually drew mixed reactions on social media, with some parents feeling relieved and others left in a desperate situation.

IPS will attempt to mitigate some of the downsides of the shift to remote learning by forming “learning hubs” with community partners where some students will be supervised and receive help as they do school work, according to the district. Those hubs will also serve students who receive physical or mental therapy that cannot be done virtually.

The change in course comes at a moment when Indianapolis teachers have voiced growing concerns about the safety of returning in person. In a letter submitted to the board and posted online Monday, the IPS teachers union called for the district to begin the year remotely.

“This is not the time to expose our school communities to this mysterious and unpredictable virus. Neighboring school districts have delayed the start of in-person classroom instruction; we should replicate their plans and not risk the lives of our children and school personnel,” wrote Ron Swann, president of the Indianapolis Education Association.

Bernade Flournoy, an IPS parent and elementary school art teacher, said that she believes beginning school fully virtually is the best decision for safety since the COVID-19 numbers are going up. She also believes it will be hard to get young children to follow health guidance that requires them to keep a distance from others and wear masks.

“Our students, they’re not little robots,” she said. “Let’s not experiment on the children and the staff.”

Kyandra Pittman-Chandler, a special education assistant in IPS, said that she trusts her principal to manage reopening safely, but she believes beginning entirely virtually is the right approach for now. She can still work with students remotely because she’s experienced and creative, she said. “Especially if you already built a background with the family, it is not going to be that hard. But it can be challenging for someone who has not had the experience.”

IPS struggled with the abrupt shift to remote instruction in the spring, as educators sought to serve students who struggled with food insecurity, limited access to internet and technology, and uneven supervision from working parents.

It’s not yet clear how well the district used the summer months to improve the delivery and quality of instruction and student support. IPS has spent about $12 million on devices for all students in anticipation that it might be forced to go all remote, and it plans to provide hot spots for students without internet access.

For IPS parent Tamiko Bass, who had already chosen to have her fourth grader and ninth grader learn online from home, the proposed switch to start the school year remotely felt like confirmation that she had made the right decision.

“I’m not the only one. Someone else is thinking on a higher level that this may be the best thing to do,” Bass said. “Maybe everything is not ready for these kids to go back.”

E-learning was a “no-brainer” because she didn’t want to put her family at risk of exposure, but Bass said she also believes IPS is improving its approach to remote learning. The district’s efforts felt “very uncoordinated” in the spring, she said, but now IPS’ remote learning plan calls for more daily interaction with teachers.

The district is increasing its focus on live lessons and encouraging teachers to build relationships with students and families, Johnson said. “Remote learning doesn’t mean that a student or a family should feel like they are on a remote island by themselves.”

Stephanie Wang contributed reporting.

Indianapolis charter schools test a $1.5 million bet that there’s a better way to teach math

2020-07-27T23:47:49+00:00

When Brian Metcalf started observing math classes at Tindley charter schools, where he took the helm last year, he noticed something was often missing: Deep discussions.

Teachers focused on making sure students got the answers right, said Metcalf, who is CEO of the network. But they didn’t consistently ensure that students understood why a method worked or could explain why they chose a particular formula.

That approach to math has been used for years, and it’s probably how most teachers themselves were taught when they were students. But when Indiana changed its expectations for what students should learn six years ago, it raised the bar. State tests are now tougher, and they aim to measure whether students truly understand the material they’ve been taught.

In the years since Indiana rolled out its new guidelines for what students should learn, however, results on state tests have stagnated — raising concerns that class materials and instruction are not matching the expectations the state has set for students.

Tindley is one of three Indianapolis charter networks participating in a new, $1.5 million grant-funded pilot that seeks to test whether focused, intensive teacher training can help schools change how they teach math and improve students’ conceptual understanding.

“This isn’t just about getting math right,” Metcalf said. When students learn to think critically, it sets them up for success in college and for careers, even if they have jobs that don’t rely heavily on math, he said.

“You can put any problem in front of them and they’ll start to think about multiple ways of solving that particular problem,” said Metcalf, who compared those skills to what he learned in an analytics class when he was working on his doctorate.

The three-year pilot is funded by the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation and managed by The Mind Trust, a nonprofit that supports charter schools. (The Fairbanks Foundation also supports Chalkbeat.)

Teacher and staff training is led by Instruction Partners, a Nashville-based nonprofit that has developed a set of skills that co-founder and CEO Emily Freitag said are crucial to strong math instruction.

During the first year, the nonprofit will spend 30 days at each school observing and coaching teachers on math instruction and 10 days working with school leaders, said Tina Seymour, senior director of school support for The Mind Trust.

Mind Trust leaders hope the project will improve instruction and teacher skills and will create a playbook other schools can follow, said Seymour.

Here’s an example Freitag of Instruction Partners offered of how conceptual teaching is different from a traditional, procedural approach: When it comes to the multiplication of double-digit numbers, such as 36 times 42, students used to learn one, standard algorithm.

Typically, they begin by multiplying two and six, move over a place value, and multiply two times three. It’s a process that works and it’s what most teachers were likely taught in school themselves, she said.

But “it turns out, they’re actually like four different ways you can multiply 36 times 42,” Freitag said. By teaching other methods, educators can help more students understand why procedures work and remember them, she said.

“If 50% of students really didn’t learn the standard algorithms successfully, and felt like ‘oh, I’m just not a math person,’ we’re losing out on their talent if we can’t find other ways to help them learn,” Freitag said.

Indianapolis mayor delays school reopening until Aug. 5

2020-07-23T21:13:47+00:00

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett is ordering schools not to reopen classrooms until after Aug. 5, a rare intervention as coronavirus infection rates are rising in Indianapolis and across Indiana.

Several of Marion County’s 11 districts have decided in recent days to delay reopening or begin the school year online only. But five school districts were planning to reopen before Aug. 5, Hogsett said. Some charter and private schools also will be forced to push back their classroom reopenings.

The city announced several other restrictions outside of schools, such as limits on restaurant capacity and hours. In recent weeks, other states, such as Florida and Texas, have seen surges in infection rates, Hogsett said.

“Unlike those places, however, we still have an opportunity to stop this rising rate of infection and hopefully preserve many of the aspects of our daily lives that have returned in recent weeks,” he said.

City officials plan to offer more guidance on school reopening next week. Hogsett and Marion County Public Health Department Director Virginia Caine plan to meet with Indianapolis superintendents to discuss whether and how K-12 schools may reopen. The city is also working to prepare for COVID-19 testing once schools reopen to minimize delays in results, officials said.

Caine said the change to school reopening plans responds to changing conditions. In Marion County’s most recent seven-day average, 10% of people tested for COVID-19 had the virus, according to Caine. In June, the positivity rate had dropped to 4.2%, but after July 4, it began rising again.

The safety of reopening schools hinges on details such as “the structure of the school, the number of students in the building, the number of students in a classroom,” Caine said.

The city will also review school reopening plans and look at the impact of student sports, Caine said.

A $2.4 million project aims to help Indiana teachers improve online learning

2020-07-22T22:17:07+00:00

As school districts across Indiana prepare to begin the year remotely or offer virtual options, a new $2.4 million effort aims to improve educational quality by offering educators lesson plans, training, and a virtual place to collaborate with colleagues from across the state.

The Indiana eLearning Lab website, which launched Wednesday and is free to use, will be a single hub where teachers can connect with others tackling the same challenges, find high-quality learning material vetted by experts, and ultimately improve remote schooling. The website will also have resources for families. A live help desk will be available on weekdays.

The lab, which is one of the projects paid for through the Marion County e-learning fund, comes at a moment when it is increasingly clear that many Indiana schools will rely on remote instruction in the coming months as coronavirus infections increase in Indiana. A growing number of districts — including Washington Township, South Bend, and Gary — have announced plans to begin the year virtually. Several other districts have delayed the start of the year.

“Teachers are going to have to be more flexible and adaptive to the situation than ever. And so we hope this is a resource they go to often as things change for them,” said Claire Fiddian-Green, president of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation, one of the groups behind the e-learning fund. (The Fairbanks Foundation also supports Chalkbeat.)

The lab will be funded in part by an $800,000 contribution from the College Football Playoff Foundation and the Indianapolis host committee for the 2022 championship.

“Rather than reinventing the wheel district by district, the lab gives superintendents [and] school leaders a critical tool to support our teachers, social workers, counselors during a challenging time,” said Shawn Smith, superintendent of Lawrence Township schools, at a press conference Wednesday.

The e-learning fund is dedicating a large portion of its money to making sure students have devices and internet access for remote learning. In April, it distributed $1.5 million to help Marion County public schools pay for badly needed technology for students. And it is currently reviewing proposals for a possible citywide cellular network for students.

But those technical investments must coincide with efforts to improve the quality of remote learning, which schools statewide were forced to shift to overnight, Fiddian-Green said.

“The good news is that e-learning isn’t new.… There have been pioneers in e-learning, including in Indiana, for almost a decade,” she said. “The plan is to try to take those more micro levels of success and help scale that up.”

Indiana school reopening updates: Gary will open online only

2020-07-22T19:41:35+00:00

July 22

Gary Schools will open online only, citing safety

Gary Community Schools announced Wednesday it will start the school year with all online classes — a reversal that comes a week after districts in Lake County jointly announced all schools would open for in-person learning.

District leaders pointed to the high number of COVID-19 cases in the area, which recently began trending upward again. Lake County has been one of the hardest hit areas in the state, with more than 6,300 cases and 258 deaths so far, according to the Indiana State Department of Health.

“After releasing our original plan of giving parents the choice between e-learning and in-classroom instruction, we soon learned that public opinion had drastically changed,” said Paige McNulty, the district’s emergency manager.

Last week, Washington Township in Indianapolis became the first district to U-turn, saying it will offer only virtual classes in the fall. On Monday, South Bend Community Schools also announced it would start the year virtually. A growing number of Indiana districts have pushed back their start dates, including two of the state’s largest: Evansville Vanderburgh and Indianapolis Public Schools.

Gary will still start on Aug. 12. Like Washington Township, administrators in Gary don’t plan to remain online-only for the entire school year. But neither set an end date for remote learning.

Gary struggled to provide remote learning for students last spring, initially resorting to passing out paper packets of work because a large portion of students lacked access to a computer or reliable internet. This year, all of the district’s 4,850 students will receive a Chromebook with an internet hotspot.

July 15

Warren Township may use hybrid virtual model, delay reopening

Warren Township Schools on the east side of Indianapolis would use a hybrid model where students in grades 6-12 attend in person on alternating days if the school board approves the reopening plan posted on the district website Wednesday.

The district plan also delays the first day of school until Aug. 6, a week later than previously planned. Warren, which educates nearly 12,000 students, is the first district in Indianapolis to announce plans for a staggered schedule, where students attend school some days and study remotely on other days. But the approach is similar to plans in other states, including in New York City.

“I believe that is critically important to have our students back in our care and I know that the plan being put forth will not please everyone,” Superintendent Tim Hanson wrote in a letter announcing the plan.

All students except preschoolers would have the option to enroll in a full-time virtual program. If families opt for in-person instruction, students in grades 6-12 would be divided in to two groups that come to school in person on alternate days. Students in kindergarten through fifth grade would be able to attend school in person full time.

July 14

Indiana school reopening updates: Wayne Township delays reopening

The Wayne Township School Board voted Monday to delay the start of school until Aug. 12 to allow the district more time to prepare.

The Indianapolis district, which enrolls about 17,000 students, will give families the option to enroll children full time in person or to sign up for virtual education. Students were originally scheduled to return July 29.

“Moving the date back will help us ensure that we have the things we need in place regarding both technology and PPE to give our students the best start possible to the school year,” district spokeswoman Mary Lang wrote in an email.

The decision came hours after Washington Township became the first school system in Indianapolis to decide only to offer virtual instruction indefinitely.

Both decisions point to growing anxiety in Marion County that school districts are not prepared to safely bring students back to classrooms amid the coronavirus pandemic. Indianapolis districts typically begin school in late July or early August.

Most of the city’s districts, including Indianapolis Public Schools, are expected to return to school on schedule with the option to enroll full time in person.

Marion County Public Health Department Director Virginia Caine said Monday that it is safe for Indianapolis schools to reopen, based on current coronavirus data.

During a town hall livestreamed by IPS Monday night, Caine pointed to declines in the number of people testing positive for the virus and in the number dying. Indianapolis currently has a positivity rate of about 7%, Caine said.

If Marion County starts to see “our numbers go in the wrong direction, that’s something that we would quickly, very rapidly be able to inform our schools in order to make it safe for our children,” Caine assured town hall viewers.

July 13

In a reversal, Washington Township Schools won’t offer in-person instruction

Washington Township will only offer virtual instruction when school begins this year, a shift in course for the Indianapolis district that had planned to open in-person and full-time with an online option.

The Washington Township School Board voted 3-2 Monday morning to indefinitely delay the return to classrooms as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage across the country and amid concern from teachers and parents about the safety of reopening.

Washington Township, which enrolls about 11,000 students who will return to school July 30, is the first Marion County district to announce plans to offer only virtual instruction and not reopen classrooms. Many Marion County districts are planning to offer full-time, in-person instruction in the fall in addition to virtual options, including the state’s largest district, Indianapolis Public Schools, which released a reopening plan Friday.

Indiana educators brace for the return to classrooms despite coronavirus health risks

2020-07-16T23:33:44+00:00

Indiana parents who are worried about health risks from the coronavirus have a tough but straightforward choice — enroll their children in brick-and-mortar schools this year or keep them home in remote programs. But for teachers and school staff, working from home often isn’t an option.

Instead, staffers who are at increased risk for severe illness from the coronavirus are facing difficult choices about whether to return to school in person, seek medical leave — or leave their jobs altogether. Even in schools and districts that are offering virtual programs, it’s unclear how many teachers will be dedicated to remote instruction and whether those positions will go to teachers who are high risk. For support staff, like bus drivers or food service workers, it may be impossible to do their jobs remotely.

With few good options, some educators are bracing themselves for the return to classrooms despite health risks. Others are pushing for Indiana school systems to delay reopening altogether or begin the year remotely.

“We have the ability to do our jobs remotely,” said Amber Seibert, a high school English teacher in Indianapolis who thinks schools should start the year virtually. “If there’s an alternative where no one could possibly die, why is that not our first choice?”

The 11 school districts in Marion County joined together in June to announce that they would reopen on time with online and in-person options for families. But in the weeks since, as COVID-19 cases rise in Indiana and nationally, districts have begun changing their plans. So far, two have delayed their reopening to buy more time to prepare, and Washington Township will start the year entirely remotely, after days of advocacy from teachers who felt that reopening campuses was unsafe.

Whether to reopen schools became increasingly politicized after President Trump began threatening to withhold funds from schools returning to remote instruction. Across Indiana, teachers and parents are divided over whether schools should reopen campuses as they weigh the health risks against the substantial downside of switching to all-virtual learning. But because concerned parents have the option to enroll their children in virtual programs, districts are likely to see the most pushback against returning to classrooms from teachers and staff.

Just what options staff have varies widely based on their contract, job, and health concern. Employees with underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19 may be entitled to accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Those accommodations vary, but they could include masks, remote work, or leaves of absence.

Resistance to reopening is gaining steam. The Indiana State Teachers Association met with Gov. Eric Holcomb this week to discuss safety concerns ahead of school reopenings.

Last week, Seibert and a former colleague launched a private Facebook group for educators, staff, parents, students, and community members who want to delay in person school reopening. Eight days later, it has over 10,000 members.

Seibert said that she is at high risk for severe illness if she contracts COVID-19, and she does not feel safe returning to school in person, where she expects to teach about 150 students. She’s considering options like applying for remote teaching jobs.

Although she hopes remote positions go to teachers who are vulnerable, she’s not sure how districts would determine who is most at risk. As more and more young people are hospitalized, “I kind of feel like everyone’s at risk,” she said.

It’s unclear how many remote learning jobs will be available. In Indianapolis Public Schools, which has about 1,700 educators, officials expect to hire fewer than 20 dedicated remote teachers with school-based teachers supplementing their instruction. Teachers who are COVID vulnerable won’t have priority, and the district will make hiring decisions based on who is the best prepared to offer remote instruction.

“We want to make sure that teachers who are providing remote learning are teachers who are comfortable in that online space,” Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said last week. “It’s a very different space than what teachers traditionally have had to do.”

That’s also the approach in Wayne Township, an Indianapolis district with about 17,000 students. Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Shenia Suggs said that although she expects some teachers to apply for remote positions because of health concerns, Wayne plans to hire virtual teachers based on who is comfortable in that role.

If staff do have health conditions that make them vulnerable to COVID-19, they should speak to their doctor and to the human resources department, Suggs said. The district will work to make accommodations, and they may be eligible for time off under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. That’s typically unpaid leave, but staff can use accrued sick days.

“This is all new territory for us,” Suggs said. Some jobs are simply harder to modify than others. “You can’t drive a bus from home or prepare meals from home.”

Wayne Township teacher Alison Case, who is 61 and has diabetes, believes she would be eligible for leave and has months of sick days banked. Still, she’s not considering staying home. “I miss my kids. I feel like, they’re going back. I’m going to go back,” she said. “We’re kind of all in this together.”

Case said she would prefer if the district began the year virtually or delayed reopening until September. But there are other educators who want school to reopen in person, and she understands why leaders think returning to classrooms is best for students and families, Case said. “I’m glad I’m not the one that has to be ultimately responsible to make that call,” she added.

Indianapolis special education assistant Marie, who asked to be identified only by her middle name because she is concerned about losing her job, said that she wants to see schools delay returning to classrooms. But if they don’t, she plans to go to work in person because she cannot afford to take unpaid leave or quit her job.

Marie has an autoimmune disorder that makes her more likely to get infected with COVID and more likely to have severe symptoms if she does contract it. Even without a global pandemic, she is hospitalized several days a year with illnesses, and she routinely uses all of her sick days. On top of her own health concerns, Marie’s daughter is immunosuppressed because she was born prematurely.

Her district did a good job of planning for the reopening, but she’s still worried, Marie said. “There’s just so much we don’t know about this disease.”

GlenEva Dunham, president of the Indiana affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, said that workers with health conditions that compromise their immune systems should talk to their doctors and ask for accommodations, including potentially taking leave.

But Dunham pointed out that people in other fields that are considered essential — including lower-paid staff in meatpacking plants and grocery stores — are already back or never stopped working. “Our people make a good salary,” she said.

Districts can take steps to make schools safer, such as requiring masks, said Dunham, who leads the union in Gary. If there are problems in schools, they can close again, she said. “It’s hard. You are stuck in between a rock and a hard place and lives are on the line.”

Washington Township Schools won’t offer in-person instruction in a reversal

2020-07-13T13:39:22+00:00

In a joint statement posted on the district website, the Washington Township board acknowledged that it must “address students’ educational, social and emotional needs” but also pointed to rising coronavirus rates.

“The board is in a difficult position given limited specific guidance from the governor, the mayor, and public health officials,” the statement said. “It is the board’s judgment that the best course of action in the near term is not to have students return to the classroom while coronavirus indicators increase.”

The about-face demonstrates the fraught issues district leaders across the country must grapple with as they decide whether and how to reopen schools at a time when the pandemic is growing worse in many communities. Schools are a crucial resource for families. They offer stability and essentials like food for the most vulnerable children. For parents who must work, school is a source of safe, reliable child care. And experts estimate that students have lost months of learning because of the abrupt closures in the spring.

At the same time, there are deep fears that prematurely returning to school in person will endanger the health of staff, students and family members who may be especially at risk if they contract COVID-19. In Indiana, the seven-day average for new cases is at its highest since May 20, according to the IndyStar.

Washington Township initially planned to reopen classrooms, but as the start of the year approached, COVID numbers rose across the country, and anxiety built, the district reconsidered. The board has received a barrage of emails about the reopening plan, said school board President John Fencl, who estimated he received about 10 emails per hour on Sunday.

Please email the School Board today and urge them to vote Monday for an ALL online reopening of MSDWT.
Posted by WTEA Info on Sunday, July 12, 2020

At the Monday board meeting, union President Sabra Gage thanked the board for listening to feedback from teachers who were opposed to reopening in person.

Teachers worked with the administration for a week to try and find a solution for returning to classrooms they were comfortable with, Gage said through tears. “We miss our students. We miss being in community with them. … The teachers are in agony that we are not able to see our students.”

Nonetheless, Gage added, “We believe that we need to lead the way in Indiana for those school districts and communities that feel that they cannot go back at this time for the safety and health of their communities.”

The Washington Township boundaries include some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Indianapolis as well as many low-income areas. The district’s decision could blaze a trail for neighboring districts that are hashing out reopening.

Indianapolis City-County Councillor Ali Brown said in a statement that she hopes other districts will follow Washington Township’s lead. “These choices are very hard for schools and parents, but we cannot allow our teachers and children become sacrifices to the economy,” she said.

Because school districts are offering virtual options for students, however, families with health concerns will be able to opt out of in-person school. As a result, pressure to delay reopening is more likely to come from teachers and staff who can’t easily choose to work from home.

In a letter sent Saturday, the Washington Township Parent Council Network raised a host of questions and concerns about the reopening plan but declined to take a position on whether students should return to classrooms. The letter noted that under guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reopening options are categorized by level of risk, with virtual instruction considered the least risky and in-person instruction without social distancing or other precautions considered the riskiest.

“There is considerable fear among many parents that we might be jumping back into the highest risk category too soon,” the letter said.

School board member Wanda Thruston, who teaches at the Indiana University School of Nursing, said that Black residents are already at greater risk of infection with COVID-19, and reopening schools could exacerbate that problem.

“As an African American, I’m concerned about the disparities. ... I’m concerned about our families, our vulnerable families who would probably be at school, and then those students taking the infection back to their home and increasing the health disparities that already exist in our community,” said Thruston, who had COVID-19 earlier this year.

Thruston was one of three board members who voted to delay returning to classrooms. But two board members felt the cost of keeping school buildings closed was too steep.

“I am concerned about the social-emotional health of our children and the kids that aren’t doing well because they’re not in school,” said Fencl, who voted against the all-virtual option.

While schools across Indiana are releasing in-person reopening plans, many districts in other states are opting not to fully reopen school buildings. In New York City, for example, students are expected to have staggered schedules and come to school in person part time.

Whether to reopen schools full time has become a political lightning rod in recent days, as U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and President Trump have called for schools to fully reopen and threatened to withhold federal funding from schools that don’t.

That debate is coming at a moment when Indianapolis schools are on the cusp of reopening. Most schools in Marion County begin in late July or early August — several weeks before schools typically return in Northeastern states.

IPS will require face masks for K-12 students as part of school reopening plan

2020-07-10T16:40:46+00:00

Indianapolis Public Schools will require all students and staff to wear face masks, make space for physical distancing in buildings, reduce the number of students riding buses, and install touchless water fountains, according to a reopening plan released Friday.

The reopening plan for the state’s largest district will cost at least $15 million and reshape the daily operations in schools across the school system. But just what schools look like this fall — and what adaptation will be necessary — hinges on a factor that’s still uncertain: How many parents will choose to send their children back to school buildings while the pandemic rages on.

Families can choose between full-time virtual learning and full-time in-person attendance. Parents have until July 17 to decide whether to enroll their children in the remote option. High schoolers who choose the virtual option will learn remotely for the full semester. Elementary and middle school students in the remote program may choose to return to school in person after the first quarter.

With the rapidly shifting nature of the pandemic, however, the plan could change over the coming weeks and months, said IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson.

“We want to be sure we are responding to what’s happening in our community from a health perspective,” Johnson said. “Literally everyone is navigating uncharted waters.”

Districts across Marion County are expected to take a similar approach, offering in-person or virtual instruction, according to a statement released last month. That’s a contrast with districts in some other states, such as New York City, where students are expected to have staggered schedules and come to school in person part time as a way of increasing distancing and reducing contact with others.

But by the time the national political debate reached a peak, Indianapolis districts were well into planning for the school year. Most schools in Marion County begin in late July or early August — several weeks before schools typically return in Northeastern states.

Once the school year begins, if an IPS student or staffer tests positive for coronavirus the district will decide how to respond based on the individual situation, Johnson said. Officials aim to have enough information to do contract tracing so that they can limit the number of people who must quarantine. In some cases, for example, the student’s class might need to quarantine while the rest of the school remains open, she said.

The cost of responding to the pandemic continues to rise. IPS has spent $15 million so far, with the largest chunk, about $12 million, going to purchasing devices for students. The district is also buying masks, hand sanitizer, and at least 80 touchless, filtered water fountains.

Here are some of the biggest changes to IPS schools this year:

Masks

IPS is requiring nearly all staff and students in grades K-12 to wear masks at school and on buses. The district will provide one reusable mask to each child and staff member, and it’s purchasing 200,000 disposable masks for backup if someone arrives to school without a mask.

Students will get mask breaks throughout the day and be allowed to remove their masks to eat and drink.

There will be exceptions for students with health conditions that prevent them from wearing masks and students who are too young or unable to remove their own masks.

The district is also purchasing 3,200 face shields for teachers in earlier grades who need to teach lessons where their mouths are visible, such as when showing students how to make letter sounds.

Public health experts recommend wearing masks, but whether to require them is also a point of political controversy. Some Indiana districts are not requiring students or staff to wear masks.

Social distancing

IPS will require students and staff to remain 3 feet to 6 feet apart, an expectation that will lead to changes throughout the school day. Some hallways will be designated as one way, and bell schedules will be staggered.

Students will pick up lunch in the cafeteria at staggered service times. Many students will take lunch back to their classrooms to eat. Gym classes will only include activities without physical contact, such as running. Music classes will be smaller to allow for social distancing.

IPS has many schools where enrollment is below capacity, which should make social distancing easier. But some campuses are crowded. Johnson said the district asked any principals who felt their buildings do not have the capacity for social distancing to reach out for help adapting spaces, such as cafeterias. IPS does not anticipate that any schools will need to use a hybrid model, where students stay home from school some days.

“That being said, we know that all options have to be on the table and that we need to be ready to respond if the context changes,” Johnson said.

Transportation

IPS is hiring about 18 crossing guards to help more students walk to school safely — and reduce the number of children on buses. Previously, some students who lived close enough to walk to school took the bus because they would need to cross busy intersections. The district is also asking parents who can to drive their children to school.

The district goal is for buses to have social distancing with only one child sitting in each seat. But officials acknowledge that may not be possible. Students will be required to wear masks on buses, and buses will be cleaned before and after each route.

IPS will continue a partnership that allows high school students to ride public IndyGo buses to and from school for free.

Health screening

IPS will have staff trained at every school to screen students and staff who may be experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. Each IPS building will have an isolation room.

The district is also asking families to monitor their children for symptoms of COVID-19. If children have fevers or other symptoms, they should not go to school.

Virtual instruction

The district will provide students in the remote program with devices and wireless hotspots if needed. A district survey of parents found that about one-third would enroll their children in virtual instruction if it was offered. But whether families will follow through once they know more about reopening is uncertain.

District-level teachers will provide daily video recordings for the virtual program while teachers at the home school will continue to provide other support, such as small group instruction. But how instruction is divided will depend on each student’s school and grade level. The district is hiring about 12 to 14 teachers to teach K-8 virtually. High school students will receive instruction through an online platform, and they will be supported by staff at their home schools.

Correction: July 11, 2020: This story has been updated to clarify that IPS is aiming for buses to have no more than one child per seat.

New policy aims to stop Indiana high schools from writing off students who fall behind

2020-07-09T20:44:04+00:00

A new policy will add extra scrutiny to Indiana high schools’ graduation rates, aiming to stop schools from pushing out struggling students and mislabeling dropouts as home-schoolers.

Nearly 3,700 Indiana students who were expected to graduate in 2019 left high school without diplomas, but it didn’t affect graduation rates because they were labeled as leaving to home-school. A Chalkbeat investigation found that some of those students actually dropped out.

The new policy, which was approved by the Indiana State Board of Education Wednesday, outlines how the board and the Indiana Department of Education will enforce a law passed by the legislature last year that applies to schools with large numbers of students labeled as leaving to home-school. It focuses on whether schools have the appropriate documentation for students who withdraw — and on whether those students were on track to graduate when they left.

“It’s definitely a great move forward,” said Rep. Bob Behning, an Indianapolis Republican who chairs Indiana’s House education committee. “It’s a positive first step. … The light of day always has a way of changing behavior.”

Because of its narrow approach, the law may not get to the root of the problem that high schoolers are leaving school without diplomas and not continuing their education at home. Although it will reduce graduation rates at schools where large numbers of students who are falling behind leave to home-school, it won’t capture problems at schools with small numbers of home-school withdrawals. And it won’t prevent students who are behind in credits from leaving to home-school.

The policy will target high schools with more than 100 students in the graduating class if more than 5% leave to home-school, beginning with the class of 2020. For schools with 100 or fewer students in the graduating class, the threshold is 10%.

If schools meet either threshold, the Department of Education will require them to provide additional documentation to show “good cause” for labeling each student as leaving to home-school. Schools must submit transcripts for students that show how many credits they had earned before withdrawing. If students were not on track to graduate, they will likely be re-categorized as dropping out.

That requirement could result in many students who were behind on credits when they withdrew being added back into graduation calculations as dropouts. In January, a state analysis of the class of 2019 found that more than half of the roughly 3,700 students who left Indiana high schools to home-school may have been behind on credits.

State board member Pete Miller said that by looking at whether students are on track to graduate, the state gets crucial information on schools.

“If most of those kids are on track to graduate, it’s less likely that someone’s trying to game the system,” he said. If many of the students who leave to home-school are behind on credits, however, “that’s a pretty big red flag.”

The regulations also say schools must provide a copy of the home-school withdrawal form parents are supposed to sign when removing their children from high school. If they don’t have that form or it is missing required information, the student could be counted as a dropout. The requirement is similar to the documentation schools must provide if their graduation rate is audited by the state as part of a regular process.

Adam Baker, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Education, said in an email that the home-school review process is different from regular audits of graduation data because it “is more granular in focusing on the ‘on-track’ versus ‘off-track’ students exited to home-school.”

While the new policy will result in scrutiny of high schools with large numbers of students labeled as leaving to home-school, it won’t identify all the struggling students who receive that label when they withdraw. At schools without many students leaving to home-school, the label could be misused without drawing notice.

Rachel Coleman, executive director of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, criticized officials for pursuing a change in policy that still allows parents to home-school without oversight. “This change does not put any onus on home-schoolers,” she said.

“Any change to try to fix some of these problems is good,” said Coleman, but she said, “this shows more interest in the bookkeeping of graduation rates than in the education of students.”

Although Behning had supported more aggressive policy approaches — such as designating all high schoolers who leave to home-school as dropouts when calculating graduation rates — he said that preventing students from withdrawing to home-school is out of step with Indiana’s approach to school choice.

“In a state where we’ve embraced choice, it is a little bit difficult to say, ‘well, we believe in choice, but you can’t exercise that choice to go to home-school,’” Behning said. “I think it will work very effectively and should work to mitigate and actually target the audience that we’re most interested in targeting, which is [school officials] turning [students] away because they’re not on track to graduation.”

Indianapolis students in 6th grade and above must wear face masks at school, new guidance says

2020-07-02T21:41:48+00:00

Indianapolis teachers, school staff, and students in sixth grade and above will be required to wear face masks when they return to classrooms this year, according to guidance from the Marion County Public Health Department released Thursday.

Children in fifth grade and below are not required to wear masks or coverings under the recommendations. Other exceptions include students and staff with health conditions that make wearing a mask a risk and students who cannot remove a mask on their own. The guidance says that a face shield may be an appropriate alternative for teachers in pre-K through fifth grade if a mask is “determined to impede a student’s learning.”

Staff and students may remove masks when necessary, such as to eat or drink.

Although face masks are recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, they are not required in Indiana. Masks will be required in public spaces in Indianapolis beginning July 9, Mayor Joe Hogsett announced Thursday.

The guidance offers new insight into what schools could look like as buildings reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic. Indianapolis schools typically begin in late July or early August.

In addition to requiring masks, the guidelines also recommend keeping students 3 to 6 feet apart and teachers 6 feet from students; eliminating “pod” or group table seating and facing students’ desks in the same direction; moving classes outside if possible; and grouping students in cohorts as much as possible.

In a letter posted Thursday, the superintendents of Marion County’s 11 public school districts said that they would provide additional, district-specific guidance to families.

“These guidelines are the minimum standards and therefore, individual school corporations may develop procedures that are greater than, but not lesser than, these guidelines,” the letter said.

More than 150,000 students in Indianapolis public schools moved to remote learning in March due to the coronavirus. Districts and charter schools announced in June they would offer full-time, in-person instruction to any student who wished to attend or online learning for families who chose to keep their children home.

IPS board says ‘Black lives matter’ and vows to address racial disparities

2020-06-25T23:40:36+00:00

The Indianapolis Public Schools board voted without dissent Thursday to approve a racial equity policy that bluntly outlines the role the district has historically played in upholding institutional racism and commits to anti-racism.

Leaders of Indiana’s largest district said the new policy will guide IPS as it pursues several priorities, including reducing racial disparities in academic outcomes and discipline, recruiting diverse job applicants, and providing culturally relevant class materials.

Although the policy has been planned for months, it also reflects the current political conversation about race, following the police killing of George Floyd last month in Minneapolis. The resolution begins by describing how Floyd’s death and the subsequent anti-racism protests have “pulled back the curtain on the many ways that systems and institutions have preserved and maintained white supremacy, and a culture that diminishes, devalues, and destroys the lives of Black Americans.”

IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson, who took the helm last year, has been vocal about her commitment to racial justice in a district where white students and students of color often have vastly different academic outcomes.

But some of the most controversial decisions Johnson faces, such as whether to redraw school boundaries and close campuses to save money, still lay ahead. Johnson said the racial equity policy will help frame those choices. “You actually can’t make those decisions without considering the impact of or the influence of race and who benefits and who doesn’t,” she said at a press briefing Tuesday.

District leaders have taken steps in that past to expand access to popular magnet schools to more students of color. But those choices have consistently proved controversial.

The moment gives the school system an opportunity to be “bolder” in the steps it takes to fight racism, said school board member Venita Moore, who on Thursday released her own plan to address educational inequalities for Black students.

“Now is the time to really try to make bold and different changes that can impact our children for centuries to come,” Moore told Chalkbeat.

Moore’s plan calls for reducing racial disparities in suspensions and expulsions, ensuring students have civil rights education, requiring all district police to attend racial equity training, and prohibiting the employment of any officers with a verified record of excessive force or of a discrimination complaint. While research shows that the presence of police in schools increases arrest rates, particularly of Black students, Moore said they are still essential to school safety.

Police officers in Indianapolis Public Schools are significantly more likely to arrest Black students than their white peers, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of state data from 2018-19. About 83% of IPS students arrested were Black, while Black students made up just 46% of enrollment.

Moore, who has been an advocate for racial equity since her election to the board in 2016, drafted her own plan after participating in recent Black Lives Matter protests.

“That eight minutes and 46 seconds — I think it did something to a whole lot of people,” she said, referring to the length of time that prosecutors initially said a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck.

Here’s the board’s resolution affirming that Black lives matter.

IPS Res No 7863 Black Lives Matter (PDF)IPS Res No 7863 Black Lives Matter (Text)

Why are school police twice as likely to arrest Black students in Indiana than white students?

2020-06-24T22:01:07+00:00

As schools nationwide scrutinize their use of police, a Chalkbeat analysis of state data shows that school police are 2.5 times as likely to arrest Black Indiana students than white students.

More than a quarter of the 1,217 arrests in Indiana schools in 2018-19 were of Black students, even though they only made up 14% of the state’s student population, raising questions of racial bias and educational inequity.

The consequences can be dire: Students who are arrested are less likely to graduate or succeed academically and more likely to be involved with the criminal justice system in the future, research has found.

“It’s state-sanctioned abuse,” said JauNae Hanger, president of the Children’s Policy and Law Initiative of Indiana. “We really need to look at our systems and how our systems are causing harm and start to address that.”

But while school systems in cities such as Minneapolis, Portland, and Denver have cut ties with local police departments, there appears to be little momentum for such action in Indiana. It’s hard to say how many police officers work in Indiana schools or how many of them have special school resource officer training for interacting with students, since the state doesn’t track that data or require the training.

In some districts, including Indianapolis Public Schools, officials say the disproportionate number of Black students arrested is “unacceptable,” and they want to reduce arrests in school. Still, officials defend the presence of police in schools as essential for student safety.

“It’s going to take a lot of work for us to get to an environment — particularly in a post-Columbine environment, post-Noblesville — where schools are going to be wholly safe without officers,” said IPS Chief of External Affairs Ahmed Young, referring to school shootings in Colorado and Indiana.

Reform advocates worry that schools face no consequences for arresting large numbers of students or disproportionately arresting Black students. Although districts are required to report arrests to the state, the figures receive little public scrutiny. That could allow teachers, administrators, and school-based police officers to over-rely on arrests, Hanger said, instead of addressing the factors leading to the incidents. Because people hold implicit biases, Black students are particularly vulnerable to arrest for minor infractions.

Even if a student is believed to have committed a crime, state law calls for the Department of Education to offer a model school discipline plan that supports arrests in schools only when “necessary to protect the health and safety of students or school employees.”

Hanger argues that many of the student arrests likely didn’t meet that standard, questioning the hundreds of student arrests that year for possession of marijuana, disorderly conduct, and possession of tobacco. The only more common offense was battery, according to state data, a charge that some contend should only be leveled in the most serious cases.

“We’ve got to be more circumspect about what we’re actually having kids arrested for,” said Gwen Kelley, co-chair of the Positive School Discipline Initiative, a project of the Children’s Policy and Law Initiative that helps Indiana schools reduce exclusionary discipline.

Student arrests fall into a larger pattern of schools imposing harsher discipline on Black students. Indiana has been highlighted for having among the worst racial disparities in the nation for suspensions, a gap that has held despite statewide efforts to soften disciplinary consequences and improve awareness of implicit bias.

One reason why attention to the problem has not brought dramatic change is because switching to less punitive discipline, such as restorative justice, is a difficult culture shift. Many educators continue to believe that strict discipline and removing disruptive students from classrooms is a more effective way to keep schools calm.

At New Haven High School, a 1,100-student campus outside of Fort Wayne, educators have zero tolerance for fighting and disrespect, said Deborah Watson, assistant superintendent of secondary schools for the East Allen district. “In order to enforce that, sometimes you have to send that strong message,” she added.

With 49 arrests last year, New Haven had one of the highest arrest rates in the state, and police were more likely to arrest Black students than white students.

Watson said that it’s hard to explain why the rate is so high without knowing more about the specific situations that led to arrests. She is certain, however, that the racial disparity does not reflect prejudice in the building.

“There is not a problem at New Haven High School,” Watson said. “I’m not going to say that I believe there is racism in that building, even in this era of George Floyd. I’m not going to say that, because I don’t believe that to be the case.”

***

As fears have risen over school shootings, Indiana schools have sought more money in recent years to hire school resource officers, applying to a state school safety fund and asking voters to raise taxes.

Some districts have their own police departments, but many schools work with local police departments. Because the state does not track police in schools, it’s unclear whether the number of officers in schools has been growing. The latest federal data, from 2013-14, shows that about 35% of Indiana schools had police.

The public and parents look to school police officers to provide security not only from shooters, but also from more common problems, such as drugs, bullying, or fighting. Advocates for placing police in schools argue that if they are properly trained, school resource officers can serve as support for students — mentoring, building trust in law enforcement, and de-escalating conflict.

For police to be considered school resource officers under Indiana law, they must undergo 40 hours of training that addresses issues including implicit bias, adolescent brain development, and restorative justice practices, said Chase Lyday, president of the Indiana School Resource Officers Association.

If districts remove resource officers from schools, “they are making a grave mistake,” Lyday said. “What they should be focusing their efforts on is not eliminating the presence of police in school. It should be on focusing on the required screening and the necessary training.”

Even without police on campus, schools will need to call in outside law enforcement, Lyday said. But the officers who respond may not have training or experience in working with adolescents.

Last year, for example, Indianapolis Public Schools’ police department called in city police officers to help when a fight broke out among students at Shortridge High School. After the fight, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Officer Robert Lawson ordered a woman to leave and punched a 17-year-old Black student. The incident was captured on video, and Lawson faced criminal charges including misconduct and battery.

But the regular presence of police in schools can also have negative consequences for students.

“When police are in schools, we see higher arrest rates almost across the board,” said Ben Fisher, an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Louisville. He co-authored an analysis of federal data that found the increase is particularly large for Black students.

One reason why students are more likely to face arrest is because police officers become part of the school discipline system, Fisher said. “We’ve seen this increased criminalization of sort of minor behaviors that don’t quite conform to what the schools are asking of students but aren’t necessarily doing a lot of harm.”

In IPS, where the administration has called for public conversations on racism, the district is working to change its policing approach from the “traditional policing framework to a more nurturing framework,” said Young, the chief of external affairs.

As it stands, police are far more likely to arrest Black IPS students than other students. While Black students made up 46% of the district’s 32,000 enrollment in 2018-19, they made up 83% of the 58 students arrested.

Chief Tonia Guynn, a veteran of IPS’ police department who took over last year, said that she is aiming for all officers to go through school resource officer and racial equity training.

The police force, which has 42 officers, has also been shrinking in recent years. But Young said removing police from schools altogether is not an option district officials are considering.

The racial disparity in school arrests also affects younger students. Most Indiana students who are arrested are high schoolers, but more than 350 children in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades were arrested in 2018-19. The middle school with the highest rate in the state was in Kokomo, a small city about an hour north of Indianapolis.

At Maple Crest Middle School, which enrolled about 450 students, there were 19 arrests in 2018-19. Officers arrested a disproportionately high number of Black students.

Spokesman David Barnes of Kokomo schools declined several requests for interviews from Chalkbeat and did not respond to written questions about the arrest numbers: “Kokomo Schools has NO comment,” he wrote in an email.

Even districts that say they are attempting to reduce arrest rates also defend arresting students as an essential tool for maintaining school safety. Fort Wayne Community Schools, the state’s second-largest district, recorded 100 arrests, a higher rate than the statewide average. The district reported more arrests of Black students than of any other racial group.

Fort Wayne has made changes over the years to try to address those statistics, said spokeswoman Krista Stockman, including adding therapeutic counselors at elementary schools to address trauma and school resource officers at middle schools to build relationships.

“Having 100 arrests is still too many,” Stockman said. “Having 20 arrests would be too many. Because that isn’t what we want for our students.”

Fort Wayne is not considering reviewing the role of police officers in schools, she said. School resource officers and security officers form important bonds with students just as cafeteria workers and teachers do, she said, and the district relies on police to keep schools safe.

“I don’t think students like seeing other students arrested, but if a student brings a weapon to school, they also need to know that’s what’s going to happen,” Stockman said.

Rep. Greg Porter, the leading Democrat on the Indiana House Ways and Means Committee, is frustrated that discipline disparities have persisted for so many years. State lawmakers too often hope conversations on race will just “go away,” Porter said.

But if they wanted to, he believes lawmakers could take action to address racial disparities in education such as the discipline gap by putting money behind strategies proven to improve outcomes for Black students.

“We can’t sprinkle moon dust in the air and hopefully people will change,” he said. “We don’t need any more focus groups. We need some action groups.”

Clarification: June 26, 2020: This story has been updated to remove the race of a person quoted. The detail was included for context, but providing the race of only one person did not meet our standards.

Indianapolis districts will open in-person and online on scheduled start dates

2020-06-24T13:53:18+00:00

School districts across Indianapolis will reopen for the upcoming academic year with in-person instruction and offer virtual instruction for students who are uncomfortable or unable to return to classrooms, according to a letter shared by districts Wednesday.

The announcement comes about a month before many Indianapolis schools are scheduled to begin the school year in late July or early August. More than 150,000 students attend the city’s 11 districts and dozens of independently managed charter schools.

Districts will release more detailed plans in July on safety procedures to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, including how they will screen for symptoms, use face masks, and promote social distancing. The mayor’s office of education innovation, which oversees most of the city’s charter schools, said more guidance is also expected on whether Indianapolis charter schools will return to full-time, in-person instruction on schedule.

District schools will allow any students who wish to attend in-person to come full-time. Officials had discussed several steps that could mitigate the spread of the virus and ensure that fewer students were in buildings, such as alternating between in-person and online instruction or having certain grades continue remote learning.

Indianapolis Public Schools, the state’s largest district, has been surveying parents about returning to school. Of the nearly 4,500 responses received as of Tuesday, about a third said they would enroll their children in a full-time virtual option if it is available.

Bus transportation poses a particular challenge. Officials are likely relying on many parents to choose to keep their children home or to drive them to school rather than relying on buses.

Educators have warned that reopening schools will likely be an expensive venture. Last week, for example, IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said the district had spent nearly $1 million on hand sanitizer.

The state announced earlier this month that Indiana schools would be allowed to reopen and issued recommendations for screening students and staff, creating individual health plans, and maintaining social distancing. But Indianapolis has been hit particularly severely by the coronavirus compared to the rest of the state, and Marion County leaders delayed announcing whether campuses would reopen.

Coronavirus cases have been falling in Marion County. As of Tuesday, Indiana had 43,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to the State Department of Health. More than 2,300 people have died.

Indianapolis Public Schools to expand anti-racism training and review police in schools

2020-06-12T21:41:04+00:00

Indianapolis Public Schools is aiming to expand racial equity training to all schools and staff as the state’s largest district works to foster open discussions of racism.

At a moment when protesters across the country are calling attention to racism in the wake of the Minneapolis police killing of an unarmed Black man, IPS leaders are aiming to provide resources for families and educators, train staff, and talk publicly about the racism facing many of the district’s students.

“Everybody is responsible for the children in our schools, and everybody lives and breathes the same air of racism that exists in our country,” said Superintendent Aleesia Johnson during a video conversation about race livestreamed Friday. Ultimately, the goal is for all staff to go through racial equity training.

Johnson also said the district, which has its own police department, is examining the role of police in schools following other districts’ decisions to remove police from schools. IPS officials review data regularly and have reduced the size of the department since 2015, Johnson said. (IPS did not immediately respond to a request for more information on how many officers are in its department and how much it has shrunk.)

Johnson, who has been vocal about the need to talk honestly about race since she was hired nearly a year ago, was joined by IPS board President Michael O’Connor, Vice President Evan Hawkins, IPS communications chief Kristian Stricklen, and Pat Payne, a 58-year veteran of the district who was instrumental in pushing for equity training.

Racial Equity Institute trainings, which draw wide praise from participants, are the linchpin of efforts to combat bias in a school district where 42% of children are Black and 31% are Hispanic. The effort began five years ago, and staff at 29 schools have been through the training, Payne said.

As a result of the pandemic, the training will be offered virtually and significantly more people will be able to participate, Johnson said.

It’s crucial for educators across the district to understand the role of racism so that they don’t accept worse outcomes for Black students, Payne said. Parents and educators should question why Black boys are more likely to be in special education classes or face harsh discipline and less likely to be in classes for high-ability students, she said.

“Students will bend to meet your low expectations, just like they will rise to meet your high expectations,” Payne said.

Much of the video conversation reflected the broader discussion of racism that is taking place in school districts, churches, and communities around the country. Hawkins, who is Black, spoke about what it was like to be followed by the police as a child, to be pulled over for no reason, and to be the only Black man in business settings.

“This is important that we get it right because this is crushing,” he said.

O’Connor, who is white, said that white people must not only grow and improve but also ask forgiveness for not acting sooner.

“I’m going to try to do better,” he said. “When I see [racism] I will call it out.”

Indianapolis officials wait to green-light schools reopening

2020-06-11T21:47:12+00:00

While Indiana officials have given approval for schools across the state to return this fall, Marion County officials are delaying a decision about Indianapolis schools until they better know how the city’s gradual reopening has affected the spread of COVID-19.

State officials announced last week that school buildings will be allowed to reopen after July 1, but they left the final decision to districts and local health departments. The pandemic has struck Indianapolis particularly severely compared with the rest of Indiana, and the city has also been slower to reopen other institutions, such as restaurants and shopping.

At a media briefing Thursday, Marion County Public Health Department Director Virginia Caine said she is “very optimistic” that schools will be able to reopen, and she aims to have a definitive answer by July 15.

Indianapolis Public Schools, the state’s largest district, is scheduled to return Aug. 3.

The city is expected to move into Stage 4 of its reopening plan next Friday, which allows movie theaters, bowling alleys, and museums to reopen at 50% capacity. Restaurants, retail stores, and indoor religious services may increase capacity.

City health officials have been meeting regularly with district superintendents and the archdiocese, which oversees most of the county’s Catholic schools, Caine said. She also aims to meet with other private schools and charter schools before reopening.

Marion County schools are planning how they will address safety when they reopen. Indianapolis Public Schools officials said last month that they have several steps they will take, including offering a remote learning option and social distancing in schools. But some school leaders have been frustrated that the state is not providing more guidance on student health.

Mayor Joe Hogsett said that public school superintendents are “understandably anxious” for guidance on reopening.

“There’s just a lot of planning that needs to be done before opening day comes,” Hogsett said. Nonetheless, “we’re going to follow the data and obviously be as careful as is predictably and reasonably possible.”

Why this Indianapolis teacher wants white students to learn about racism

2020-06-10T20:14:49+00:00

When outrage over George Floyd’s killing by a white Minneapolis police officer and ongoing police brutality against black residents led to demonstrations across the country, it was natural for the ninth-grade boys in Kara Davis-Myers advisory to talk with her about it.

All year long, they had been discussing racism and its deadly toll on black men — a national conversation that has simmered throughout her students’ lives. The first semester, her composition class talked about Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old who was killed by George Zimmerman in Florida eight years ago. And they spoke of the football player Colin Kaepernick kneeling to protest police brutality and racial inequality.

As a wave of rage consumed the country, students shared social media posts and chatted with Davis-Myers, who teaches at KIPP Indy Legacy High, where nearly all the students are black or brown.

As a white woman from the South, however, Davis-Myers believes that society needs to do more to encourage schools that teach predominantly white students to offer a fuller education in social justice.

“I just keep thinking about my hometown school and the private school I went to in seventh through ninth grade,” she said. “What can I do to reconnect, build relationships, and see what I can do about getting similar topics taught in schools of primarily white people?”

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

You typically talk about current events with your students. Are you discussing the death of George Floyd?

I teach composition. My class mainly focuses on citizenship and social issues that are going on in the world today. Before we closed school buildings due to the spread of COVID-19, we were focusing on a unit called social protests, where we were learning about police brutality and the protests that were engendered from the news of that brutality. So we were focusing on what were effective ways of protest and the kneeling of Colin Kaepernick.

We just had the last week of school. In the humanities department, for one of their final papers, students are writing letters to the mayor’s office about whether police officers should be required to wear body cameras. Some of the kids have put in the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd.

Are students more interested when you talk about current issues?

Yeah, absolutely. So much so that even outside of class, students will still be having these conversations. We did a unit on the opioid crisis and safe injection sites this year, and students were debating outside the class and talking to family members about it. There was a high level of engagement. They were able to see not only each other’s perspectives but the perspectives of their family.

When they get these real-life issues, they feel empowered, because they feel like they know how they fit into the world and how their voice matters.

Have you heard from parents, teachers, and students?

I have a group of about 10 boys that I check in with every day and I help get through work. We have a group message where we say, “good morning, let’s get up, these are things we have to do today.” Some of my students brought it into the group chat and were wondering if we had read about it. One of our students wrote about the George Floyd killing on Instagram. He wrote about the injustice of it: This is what we should do as a society to come together to acknowledge that this is happening and then find a solution.

How have you talked about it when students bring it up?

I have been listening mostly to a lot of their feelings and their thoughts and then encouraging them. I think that they feel comfortable talking about it with me too, because of the content that we learn about at school, and because of my class. I’m very honest with them about my situation. I was born in the South, and there are people in my family who are very biased and who are racist and who have a place of power and don’t recognize our privilege.

It’s been a reflection process for me as well. Yes, I can teach my students these things. And yes, I can have the curriculum in front of them, but I also need to use my privilege and my voice to talk and to share with white people the injustice that is happening and change other people’s minds about it. So I’ve been really open and honest with my students about that as well.

What does it mean to use your privilege?

My curriculum focuses on social justice and oppression, and I want to know what I can do to make sure these topics are being taught in primarily white or more privileged schools. Are these issues, facts, and data being brought up in white schools?

My students, they get it. They know. It’s very important for them to be agents of change. But it’s also very important for people who are in places of power to know about it as well. It’s not going to change if the misunderstanding of what privilege and racism are keeps widening.

How has it changed these difficult conversations when you are not seeing students?

This sounds contrary, but I think being in this weird space that no one has experienced before has made parents share more vulnerability with teachers, and teachers more vulnerability with parents and students. I feel more connected to their lives and what’s going on daily. Their parents will FaceTime me. So it’s almost more natural to have the conversation now.

How these Indianapolis teachers are using Minecraft for hands-on learning

2020-06-04T21:28:39+00:00

When Indianapolis schools closed due to the coronavirus, Gregg Nowling’s engineering and design students were in the middle of building projects using foam core, hot glue guns, and X-Acto knives.

With only a few days notice, Nowling had to find a way to teach some of the same concepts remotely to his students at the downtown campus of Purdue Polytechnic High School, a charter school with a focus on project-based learning and backing from the well-funded school reform group XQ. (XQ is a project of the Emerson Collective, which is a funder of Chalkbeat through the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.)

He shifted to using SimCity, a computer game where players design and grow their own metropolises. That soon sparked an idea from one of his students: Maybe they should build a community in Minecraft?

Gregg Nowling in his home office.

A game that’s been embraced by educators globally, Minecraft is flexible to adaptation, and it allows students to build with digital blocks and learn coding skills. Nowling soon paired up with Andy Mundell, an engineering, design, and physics teacher at Purdue Polytechnic, to see how they could give students the tools to build in Minecraft from their homes.

“So much of online learning is staring at a screen,” said Mundell, who has taught for 12 years and also mentors the robotics team. Minecraft is still on a screen, he acknowledged, but students must set up their computers and code. “We really didn’t want to give up hands-on learning.”

Eventually, Nowling and Mundell settled on a version of Minecraft that would work that runs on Raspberry Pi computers, which are popular among hobbyists. They are about the size of a 1-inch-thick credit card and cost the school less than $100 each, Mundell said. Students hooked them up to televisions and monitors provided by the school. Then, students use the coding language Python to build in the Minecraft world.

“I’m a 47-year-old man who doesn’t play video games, so I had to learn all of this,” said Nowling, who has taught for over a decade. “It’s been exciting for me to see that it was really in fact kids that came up with class.”

We spoke with Nowling and Mundell about the Minecraft project, what it’s been like to adapt to remote project-based learning, and ways they are finding joy while home-schooling their own children.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

What has been your favorite lesson to teach remotely and what about it works well?

Mundell: For me, it’s definitely the thing that me and Gregg are doing. It’s a Raspberry Pi with a simplified version of Minecraft on it. And we’re learning and teaching Python coding to the students, letting them interact with that world in ways that wouldn’t be possible without coding.

It just works so well because it brings those things together. And it does it within an environment that the students are already excited for — because maybe they played Minecraft. But maybe they don’t actually know as much as they think they do because they maybe have never coded in Python or they’ve never used a Raspberry Pi. It’s kind of a nice little space between their comfort and their interest and pushing them outside of that zone as well.

Nowling: This class is amazing — to get to see the artistic ability that these kids have, the ability to build. At the end of this class, Andy is designing this world, and each kid will have a block of space where they can put their building. They have to orient their houses, or whatever they’re building, so that they all face the inside of the street. They’ll get to pick who their neighbor is and how those houses connect and what their yards look like. And at the end of all this, they’re going to send us their code, and you will be able to walk around and go from house to house to house or building to building to building in a virtual way.

An assignment by Purdue Poly student Clark Miller.

What are your students learning from the Raspberry Pi project and have they surprised you in how they use the devices or approach their work?

Mundell: One of the main things that I’m looking for — and I’m kind of focusing a little bit on the coding side of this — is logical thinking, writing code, and how you organize it and plan it to accomplish what you want. And so I’ve already been very impressed with what students have done. I created some little tutorials about Python code. And I gave them a basic assignment that said, write code that simulates a magic eightball.

Many of them did the response in a way that I didn’t expect but I could tell that either they had a little bit of coding knowledge in the past or they had gone and explored how to make these things more efficient.

Nowling: For me, I’m looking at creativity and how complex their designs are. What materials are they using, and what are the design elements? From the get-go, I’ve been absolutely blown away with what these kids are coming up with. One of the first projects we had to do was to build a house in Minecraft and one of the kids built a castle along with a Trojan horse. Another kid built a lakefront cottage. It’s just amazing to me the things that they know how to do, but also just the depth of quality that some of them are really putting in. That’s the thing that has impressed me the absolute most — just seeing the artistic side of them coming out.

What misconceptions did you have about online learning when schools first shuttered due to the coronavirus?

Nowling: All in all, it’s been a really seamless thing. The negatives are what the negatives are. You don’t get to see your kids in person. You don’t get to hold them as accountable. But from an educator standpoint, I think in some ways we’re doing some exceptionally remarkable stuff. Even before the coronavirus, all of the academic classes, like math and science and English, had already been taught online at Purdue Polytechnic. So for us, a lot of this is just business as usual. Except that we’re teaching these passion projects online.

Mundell: I think the misconception is that you’re just gonna continue your classroom as it was. Because you absolutely can’t. You have to have different ways of connecting with the students. You even have to have some different expectations for what they can learn or what activities are worthwhile in this environment.

We do have some students whose lives are chaotic. Especially right now. If our goal is to go through the algebra standards and hit all of them, we’re just gonna make this miserable for everybody. But what can we do to keep learning fun, to keep learning meaningful, and to keep that school community? I think the goals we have right now have to be a little bit different.

What advice would you give parents who are being asked to help teach their children at home while school buildings are shuttered?

Mundell: The first advice is, the teachers are still there, so still email, still call. Another thing I’d say is, try to enjoy it. I’ve got a kindergartner and it’s kind of fun to go through some of those kindergarten lessons that I don’t ordinarily do and to connect. Being a teacher, I’m trying to instill how valuable education is and how fun it is to learn.

Nowling: I think being positive is 98% of it. If you, as a parent, are knocking what your kid’s being expected to do or what they’re trying to learn, then they’re just not going to take it seriously. I have a sophomore in high school — he’s a student at our school. I have to be on top of him to make sure that he gives me the amount of time that I feel like he should put in during the course of the week. The other cool thing is that I get to watch what my son is doing in his other classes. One of our teachers was doing a baking thing, and I got to watch him bake bread or muffins or something like that. So in some ways, it’s a super cool time to be a part of my kid’s education.

6 ways Indianapolis Public Schools will be different when buildings reopen

2020-05-28T23:35:06+00:00

State and local leaders have not yet announced whether Indiana school buildings will reopen next academic year. But if campuses do welcome students back, Indianapolis Public Schools will likely look very different, with fewer children in classes, new safety protocols, and a full-time e-learning option, said Superintendent Aleesia Johnson.

The decision on when to reopen Indianapolis schools will be made in collaboration with state and city officials. Gov. Eric Holcomb is expected to release statewide guidance on school reopenings around July 4 at the earliest. Even if schools in other parts of Indiana reopen, Marion County could wait longer before returning to in-person instruction because it has been especially hard hit by the coronavirus.

With the next school year rapidly approaching, the state’s largest district is planning for the challenges it must tackle for staff and students to return safely for in-person instruction, Johnson said. Students at most IPS schools are scheduled to begin the year August 3.

“Everyone is wondering, what’s next year going to look like?” Johnson said at a press briefing Thursday. She noted that while reopening will hinge on state and local guidance, IPS officials have “identified some non-negotiables that will guide our work as we consider the various scenarios.”

Here are the six requirements Johnson laid out:

1). Social distancing

If schools reopen, IPS will implement social-distancing rules, with caps on group sizes and larger distances between people. Getting young children to stick to that guidance could be a challenge, Johnson acknowledged, so classrooms may need to have fewer students and staggered school days.

“The only way you’re able to do it is if you have some students who are attending some days and some students who are not,” she added.

One of the biggest areas of concern is transportation to school since social distancing will be especially difficult on school buses.

Other schools that have reopened in the U.S. and internationally have taken varying approaches. In Montana, one of the first schools to reopen uses 6-foot pool noodles to demonstrate the distance students should keep from others.

Germany has brought older students back to school first, in part because they are better able to follow guidance. But other nations, including France, are taking the opposite tack by bringing back younger students first.

2). COVID-specific safety protocols

IPS officials say that all schools must have specific protocols in place to promote health and safety. Those would include disinfecting surfaces regularly. Johnson said the district is not yet sure whether teachers and staff will be required to wear face masks.

3). E-learning option

Even when schools restart in-person instruction, a full-time e-learning option must be available for families that choose it, Johnson said. Some parents may keep their children home out of concern for their health or the safety of their families. The district will begin a survey in the next few days to see whether parents are comfortable sending their children back to school and what would make them feel more secure.

4) A closure plan

Should COVID-19 cases force specific school buildings to close, IPS must have a plan to quickly shift back to e-learning for students, Johnson said. While IPS elementary and middle school students have relied on paper packets for school work during the closure this spring, the district plans to shift instruction online. IPS is spending about $12 million to ensure every student has a device, such as a Chromebook or iPad, by next school year.

5). More learning time

The district could change the school calendar or hours to ensure that students who missed out on learning time this year have a chance to catch up, Johnson said. Many educators are especially concerned about the impact school closures will have on vulnerable students, including those without access to the internet at home, those whose parents are not able to dedicate time to help with school work, and those who were behind before the pandemic.

6). Emotional support

The district will prioritize social and emotional learning for students, Johnson said. That’s a common refrain among Indiana educators, as schools try to support children who are facing existing traumas or those brought on by the coronavirus crisis, such as the illness or death of a family member, or food or housing instability brought on by a parent’s job loss.

How the politics behind rural internet access leave parts of Indiana ‘in the dark ages’

2020-05-28T21:31:02+00:00

Before the coronavirus crisis, schools in hilly, forested Brown County, Indiana, didn’t expect students to work online at home.

Even with a growing fiber network in the area, too many families couldn’t connect to the internet, and those who did often used hot spots or unreliable connections. So schools used workarounds: Students did their assignments offline at home and logged on once they got to school to upload work, said Superintendent Laura Hammack.

But during the pandemic, that approach no longer works, and school leaders are finding longstanding access gaps more difficult to bridge.

“I’m quite disappointed in myself that I have not made broadband expansion and internet connectivity more of a priority,” Hammack said. “It has just illuminated the inequity that happens, and access to education is fundamentally impaired if you don’t have connectivity.”

The disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak has jolted new urgency into the promise of internet connectivity in parts of rural Indiana. The digital divide cuts differently through the small towns and spread-out country homes than it does in the larger cities. While Indiana’s urban hubs tend to struggle more with the affordability of internet service, some rural areas aren’t on the broadband grid at all.

A generous estimate puts as much as 90% of the state connected to broadband, but that coverage drops to only 40% of rural areas, one expert says — and that’s still likely overinflated.

Some worry that solving rural connectivity will take more than time and money. Access depends on the cooperation of a politically connected internet industry, which heavily lobbies and donates to state politicians while it seeks to protect business interests.

Industry leaders say the state has made significant progress in broadband access, even though some areas remain unserved. But as state leaders tout a $100 million rural access initiative, some experts and advocates fear that powerful internet providers can stifle those expansion efforts.

“For some reason, these telecommunications carriers are extremely concerned about these universal access programs, even though they don’t serve the areas and they don’t have an interest in serving the areas,” said state Rep. Matt Pierce of Bloomington, the ranking Democrat on the House committee on utilities, energy, and telecommunications and a senior lecturer at Indiana University. “But I think their basic concern is… they may create competition for them in the long run.”

Some liken the rural internet access issue to the push to bring electricity to farms in the 1930s during the Great Depression — expensive but essential. Without basic electricity, rural areas were stuck far behind bigger cities until a presidential effort gave way to a federal program to run power lines out to remote homes.

In 2020, the stubborn internet gap is similarly holding back rural Indiana, limiting the economy, health care, and — now more than ever — education.

Outside of Delphi, for example, the internet service is so unreliable that Jennifer Houston and her two daughters use a hot spot instead — one that throttles speeds once they hit the data cap. Sometimes the high schoolers stay up after midnight to do their homework, when the internet runs a bit faster. And a couple of days a week they drive to their sister’s college apartment to use her internet.

Compared to their friends, her daughters think “we live in the dark ages,” Houston said.

***

In 2018, Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb pledged $100 million toward expanding rural broadband access, a significant public investment to subsidize some of the cost of reaching isolated areas. It was an acknowledgement of the importance of the problem and an attempt to nudge slow progress along.

“Hoosiers need affordable, quality internet regardless of where they live, work or go to school,” Holcomb said last year about the initiative. “Access to broadband brings countless opportunities.”

It’s hard to say exactly how many Hoosiers remain unconnected because internet companies don’t have to report very specific data to the Federal Communications Commission. By the broad numbers, the FCC estimates some 202,000 households in Indiana have no access to high-speed internet, though there’s wide agreement that the real figure is likely much higher.

Rural connectivity has been a lingering issue for decades. Even with federal grants and some cities forging ahead with plans, whether a community could get on the grid often largely depended on whether providers wanted to serve them. Building infrastructure to reach isolated areas costs a lot, and sparsely populated areas don’t hold the potential for many new subscribers.

“In the case of broadband, there are areas that we all have known are areas of the state where it hasn’t rolled out as quickly as it probably either could have or should have,” said Neil Krevda, president of the Indiana Broadband and Technology Association.

In order for broadband expansion to no longer be so heavily reliant on providers, local communities now have to play a much larger role. Holcomb’s rural broadband grants are meant to go to places where communities and service providers apply together.

So far, the state has doled out $28 million for projects to connect about 11,000 people in the next two years, and a second round of the grant is in the works. But some say the incentive still comes with a catch — one that could let internet companies impede expansion as they seek to protect their profits and investments.

Companies can challenge proposals if they already serve or plan to provide services to a community. But some question whether providers are challenging proposals out of a desire for efficiency or from a self-serving motive. In the first round of the broadband grant, providers filed more challenges than applications. The 89 valid challenges quashed more than half of the 64 proposals, and the state ultimately funded 14 projects.

“The reason they behave this way is not so that they can provide it — it’s just to keep other people out,” said David Terrell, executive director of the Indiana Communities Institute at Ball State University, who once led the state’s rural affairs office. “That’s monopolistic behavior, and that’s a real problem. That’s a real, real equity problem.”

A spokeswoman declined to make officials for the state’s broadband initiative available for a phone interview. In an email response to questions last month, then-executive director of the Office of Community and Rural Affairs Jodi Golden said the challenge process is legally required and gives the state more detailed data from providers about how far and how fast their services extend.

“This also ensures state funds are not competing with private investment or funding from other federal sources as well,” wrote Golden, who was recently promoted to the lieutenant governor’s co-chief of staff.

***

The telecommunications industry holds seats in discussions about the state’s broadband strategy and tries to influence policy through campaign contributions and lobbying. Part of the industry’s power stems from a successful lobbying effort some 15 years ago, when telecommunications companies pushed to remove the state’s regulatory control over their businesses.

Companies argued that fewer rules would foster more competition, which would in turn spur faster expansion of internet service. In some places, deregulation created opportunities — such as local telephone companies extending internet services in parts of Monroe, Perry, and Spencer counties. But it also fed the dynamic that has allowed some areas to continue to languish without connections.

“We’re still over-relying on the private sector to make good on these promises, and the private sector hasn’t delivered,” said Kerwin Olson, executive director of the Citizens Action Coalition, a consumer advocacy group that focuses on utility and environmental issues in Indiana. “No question about it, campaign cash and lobbying influence has a lot to do with why so many folks lack access to this service. But it’s also relationships. The industry becomes the go-to people for recommendations on policy.”

Last year, for example, AT&T Indiana was the fourth-largest spender among groups lobbying the legislature, according to state data, in large part driven by its lobbyists’ salaries and more than $7,000 in gifts, such as taking lawmakers to dinner and sporting events. An AT&T official did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Krevda, who leads the broadband association and formerly oversaw Verizon’s governmental affairs in the Midwest, disagrees that lobbying gives the industry an edge.

“I don’t see the broadband industry any different or any more influential than anyone else,” he said. “We’re deemed as a resource of education. … All we can be is a sounding board on what the next technology evolution is going to be.”

Over the past four years, three large internet providers — AT&T, Comcast, and Spectrum — and telecommunications political action committees have contributed nearly $750,000 to campaigns across the state, according to state data. That includes about $125,000 toward Holcomb’s campaign for governor in 2016 and his re-election bid this fall.

In a statement, Holcomb’s campaign spokeswoman Holly Lawson said his rural broadband initiative was not affected by campaign contributions: “Governor Holcomb’s goal is to get high-quality, affordable broadband access to all Hoosiers. He has been clear on that and his policies reflect his goal. Campaign contributions have had no impact on that policy, nor will they.”

Bridging rural access gaps is too complicated of a problem for any one player to solve alone, said Roberto Gallardo, assistant director of the Purdue Center for Regional Development and Purdue Extension specialist.

If left up to providers, “we see what we see now — and we can’t blame them, they’re a business,” said Gallardo, who works with communities to develop broadband plans. “However, we cannot also leave these [rural] guys behind, so what is going to be the middle point?”

For Indiana to truly solve the issue, it will likely take millions more in state incentives — and political will, he added.

“It’s really just a matter of, do you have the money, and who are you going to give it to?” Gallardo said.

Thousands of Indianapolis students don’t have internet. An ambitious plan could help.

2020-05-27T22:33:37+00:00

For the first weeks after the coronavirus pushed Indianapolis to close down school buildings, Azah Gillespy’s 5-year-old son worked on assignments that came by mail.

The family didn’t have high-speed internet at home, so her kindergartner wouldn’t be able to join his teacher and classmates on the video lessons his school began holding each day.

Even though she was losing hours at her job packing FedEx shipments because of the shutdowns, Gillespy soon decided the family needed Wi-Fi so her son could do schoolwork. But the cost was out of reach: AT&T required a $250 deposit, she said, plus $75.99 per month.

“It’s not right that kids have to suffer because their parents are trying to make ends meet,” said Gillespy, who eventually got help paying for Wi-Fi. “I had to call my mom — like, ‘Ma, I need $250. I gotta get Wi-Fi.’ “

During the coronavirus outbreak, U.S. schools are using online instruction more than ever before. Affluent suburban districts quickly shifted to virtual teaching, sometimes hosting regular classes by video each day. But lots of students simply don’t have the reliable, high-speed internet access they need to participate. The problem is a particular concern in Indiana, where about 150,000 children lack access to the internet, according to the 2018 American Community Survey.

After years of neglect, the coronavirus pandemic is drawing attention to gaps in urban access — and sparking new interest in ensuring students have broadband for school work. In Indianapolis, an ambitious proposal would create a citywide cellular network for students, an idea that could improve educational opportunities long after the pandemic. But as local communities and school systems struggle to piece together plans, long-term solutions could take months.

In Indiana, internet affordability has long gotten less focus than expanding broadband to new communities. State policymakers have devoted years — last year granting $28 million in incentives — to expanding broadband access in rural areas, with mixed success. Indiana officials have had no clear strategy, however, for increasing the number of broadband subscriptions in wired communities where fees can be unaffordable for low-income families.

During the pandemic, several internet providers have created new programs offering temporary, free service to some families. Yet while politicians and media coverage in other U.S. cities have successfully pressured companies to remove restrictive policies on those programs, the plans remain inaccessible to many financially challenged Indiana families.

Gillespy said she was not aware of internet deals when she signed up. AT&T offers a service plan for low-income families that does not require a deposit or charge installation fees, said company spokesman Jim Kimberly, but customers have to sign up through a specific website or phone number.

Educators say limited internet access poses one of the most significant barriers to remote instruction.

“Education is supposed to be the ultimate equalizer,” said Nicole Fama, who leads the Phalen Leadership Academies middle and high school on the far eastside of Indianapolis. “When we’re not giving our kids the same resources as kids who live in a different zip code, we’re not really giving them the same opportunities.”

Why it’s so hard for some students to get connected

When school buildings closed, the Pike Township district in Indianapolis began offering two kinds of education. Students with internet access could attend class by video, practice math facts online, and tour museums virtually. Meanwhile, hundreds of students without reliable internet instead had to work through paper booklets and keep in touch with teachers by phone.

“The reality is that you can’t replicate what you can do with a device and internet,” said Flora Reichanadter, superintendent of the 11,000-student district, where more than 70% of children come from low-income families. “We are living in a have and have-not world right now.”

Before the pandemic, students without internet access at home could still get online by staying late after school, going to the library or visiting other public spaces with free internet, like McDonald’s. Now, those options are off the table, and the divide between students is stark.

Some of the state’s poorest school districts seem to be disproportionately affected by limited access. Fewer than half of households who live in the deeply troubled Gary school district have wired, high-speed internet, according to data from the 2018 American Community Survey. And the former industrial communities of Richmond and Anderson also lag behind the state average of about 63% of households with home broadband subscriptions.

Don’t see the graphic above? Click here.

For someone who regularly uses computers and internet at home, it can seem surprising that many families living in cities don’t subscribe. But getting broadband can be expensive. And if you use your phone just to browse online and for social media, it may not seem like an essential expense.

Indianapolis middle-school teacher Michelle Smith, who works in Perry Township, bristles at the suggestion that students can access their lessons by phone. She blew through her own cell phone data in two days helping families look up resources or get signed up for internet deals. “The cost is prohibitive for most, if not all of our families,” Smith said.

Wired broadband is also often relatively expensive. Many areas only have one or two providers offering the fastest internet speed, according to data from the Federal Communications Commission. But unlike gas and electric utilities, internet prices are unregulated. Without competition driving down prices, the median cost of internet in the U.S. is $66 per month, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of bills.

As a short-term solution to get students online, schools have aggressively promoted free or low-cost internet deals that are being offered by providers such as Comcast, Spectrum, and AT&T. But getting access to those programs can be challenging. Undocumented immigrants may be reluctant to sign up for service that asks for a Social Security number, and some providers block families from deals if they have past-due bills.

Even for parents who are eligible, signing up isn’t always easy. Companies may have long wait times, lack customer service representatives who speak a parent’s primary language, or charge unexpected fees.

After a mother told Fama, the Phalen principal, that she wasn’t able to get the internet, the veteran educator decided to set up a three-way call to sign up. The family didn’t owe the cable company any money, but the mother was told she would need to pay an equipment fee because she had bad credit, Fama said. “When people are struggling to buy food, it’s not in the budget to buy a router or modem or a laptop,” she said.

During the crisis, internet providers say they have worked hard to expand access for low-income families. In addition to offering promotions, they have also opened up hot spots, increased speeds, lifted data caps, and suspended disconnections for customers who are unable to pay due the crisis.

“We have been long committed to bridging the digital divide and trying to get people connected long before COVID-19,” said Joni Hart, executive director of the Indiana Cable and Broadband Association. “We know that there’s still a lot of work to do and too many remain unconnected to this important resource right now.”

In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio excoriated providers for denying free deals to some parents, leading to changes in company policies. But Hoosiers leaders have been more muted. When asked last month about internet connectivity, Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb said he hadn’t received requests for companies to grant free internet access to families with past due bills.

Students without internet access can rely on other educational resources, he said.

Holcomb’s spokeswoman Rachel Hoffmeyer said he is applying for funding through the federal CARES Act to improve “our quality and readiness for future remote learning.” Hoffmeyer added that Holcomb’s office plans to share more details “in the coming weeks.”

Could Indianapolis be blanketed in wireless for students?

Many school districts have responded to the crisis by pursuing the quickest solution to expand access — giving students wireless hot spots. But in Indianapolis, where about three out of five households have wired broadband, leaders have raised the tantalizing possibility that they may pursue a city-wide internet network they say could benefit students long after they are able to return to school buildings.

“COVID-19 has exposed what has been a long-standing issue,” said Claire Fiddian-Green, president of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation, one of the groups behind a Marion County e-learning fund to respond to the crisis, which supports 11 school districts and dozens of charter schools. (The Fairbanks Foundation also supports Chalkbeat.)

“We shouldn’t be thinking just short term,” she said. “We should be thinking — what do we actually need to help support good access to educational options in our communities?”

Don’t see the graphic above? Click here.

Wi-Fi hot spots can help solve the problem quickly, but they could carry costly ongoing fees. That’s why the fund sought proposals for a private cellular network, which would be similar to ones created for private businesses or universities, said Paul Mitchell, CEO of Energy Systems Network, who is advising the e-learning fund on technical options. Under that option, students would likely still need to have a tablet or computer that connects to cellular networks or a hot spot to get service, but the ongoing costs could be lower.

There are a few ways to create a network. One would be to use service from a traditional cellular company, such as Verizon or AT&T, essentially purchasing dedicated data for school children. Another option could be for districts in Marion County to use the fiber cable that already provide internet to many campuses, including those in Indianapolis Public Schools, Mitchell said. Schools could be used as hubs with towers that broadcast cellular signals for students in the surrounding areas.

It’s still uncertain whether the fund will pursue a private network or how much it might cost, since proposals were due this week. But if Indianapolis is able to find a way to foot the bill for student internet going forward, it could provide a model for other school systems.

“This should be something that has a long term sustainable business model,” Mitchell said. Whether the pandemic keeps students at home or families become accustomed to remote instruction, he added, “we may be in an environment where there’s some blended model of more e-learning for years to come.”

Where school leaders may find the funding

Without city- or community-wide plans, school districts are cobbling together solutions with grants and charity. But they are hoping for ongoing state or federal funding.

Schools will likely rely on the first wave of coronavirus relief funds to pay for technology. Through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, emergency federal dollars could also be used to install Wi-Fi or provide devices for students living in public housing. But leaders are looking for sustainable funding streams to provide long-term service.

In Jay County, a rural community along the Ohio border where fewer than half of households have wired broadband, the school district is paying for internet installation, equipment, and subscriptions for about 70 families that aren’t connected yet.

The program is funded by local philanthropy for now, said Superintendent Jeremy Gulley. But he hopes to find another way to pay for it long term. Like many school districts in Indiana, Jay already provides Chromebooks to all of its students. Parents are charged a rental fee for the devices, and if they are low-income, the state offsets the cost. That’s an approach Gulley suggested could be adapted to pay for internet service.

“This is a well established model in Indiana,” Gulley said. “We started out with textbook rental. Then they opened it up where you could consider a device a textbook. I think the next horizon is taking this model into internet access for those families that are on free and reduced-price lunch.”

Another source of money many education leaders are looking to is the federal E-rate program, which provides funding for internet connectivity for public schools. The latest Democratic Congressional proposal to respond to the coronavirus would add $1.5 billion to E-rate for schools to be used for devices such as Wi-Fi hot spots and routers for students.

Currently, E-rate funding is not available to fund home internet access for students. But if the government loosened restrictions, it could be crucial for funding a private network for Indianapolis students, said Mitchell, the adviser to the e-learning fund. Educators, including IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson, have called on the Federal Communications Commission to allow schools to use E-rate funding to help students get broadband at home.

If local, state, or federal organizations don’t ensure that students have internet access, yet another burden is placed on the most vulnerable families, Johnson said.

“We are putting the onus on families who in most cases are already disproportionately feeling the impact of this crisis because they are no longer able to work or from a health standpoint,” said Johnson, pointing to data showing that black people are particularly hard hit by the coronavirus. “ ‘We’re saying to them — ‘it’s on you to figure this out.’ “

Since internet access has become so crucial to education, Indianapolis mother Lena Dickerson believes the government needs to step in to help. Her first-grade daughter’s school doesn’t offer robust online lessons since so few families have internet access at home, so instead she does paper packets and one-on-one reading lessons with her teacher over the phone.

“Every child enrolled in school needs to have a device with internet,” Dickerson said. “I just feel like that needs to come from a state level or maybe even a federal level.”

MAPA: Lugares en Indianapolis donde puedes recibir comida gratis para tus hijos mientras están cerradas las escuelas

2020-05-21T17:17:49+00:00

Después del cierre de las escuelas, los distritos escolares y las organizaciones comunitarias están trabajando para llevar alimentos a miles de estudiantes que dependen de las comidas escolares.

Las familias de Indianápolis pueden encontrar comida a través de la aplicación Community Compass app o por enviando un mensaje de texto con la palabra “hola” al 317-434-3758.

El siguiente mapa muestra los sitios de distribución de alimentos de Indianápolis.

Los sitios de distribución de comida en Indianápolis para los estudiantes mientras están cerradas las escuelas.

Horarios y tipos de alimento varia. Lee el documento en español.

Instrucciones

Abra el mapa y haga clic sobre el botón de búsqueda.
Busque tu dirección de domicilio para encontrar un sitio cercano. Horarios y tipos de alimento varia.
Seleccione el sitio preferido y haga clic en el butón de direcciones.
Encuentre las direcciones al sitio preferido en Google Maps.

Instrucciones para uso en celular

No tengo Google Drive y Google Maps instalados en mi celular.

Abra el mapa y váyase a su barrio.
Seleccione al sitio para ver el horario y tipo de comida.
Haga clic sobre el butón de direcciones para ir al Google Maps.

Tengo Google Drive y Google Maps instalados en mi celular.

Abra el mapa y haga clic en la barra de búsqueda.
Entregue tu dirección de domicilio para encontrar los sitios más cercanos.
Haga clic sobre el sitio preferido para ver el horario y tipo de comida. Haga clic sobre el butón de direcciones para ir al Google Maps.

Nota: Este mapa fue actualizado 7/7/2020 11 a.m. CDT .

Estamos haciendo todo lo posible para mantener este recurso actualizado. Debido a nuestro límite de personal, solo vamos a estar actualizando este mapa una vez al día. Es posible que los sitios de distribución hayan cambiado, o cerrado, y puede haber sitios nuevos de los que no sabemos todavía. Recomendamos que llame antes de ir a un sitio o que confirme con el distrito en su página de internet para asegurarse que el sitio está abierto. Si tiene información que debemos saber sobre un sitio que está o no en este mapa, favor de mandarnos un correo a meals@chalkbeat.org. Debido a que esta situación está cambiando rápidamente, es probable que vamos a cambiar nuestro modo de mantener este recurso al paso que cambien las circunstancias. Escucharemos sus opiniones al hacer estas decisiones y los mantendremos informados. Estamos tratando de comunicar claramente mientras navegamos estos tiempos extraordinarios.

MAP: Where Indianapolis children can get free meals during coronavirus shutdowns

2020-05-21T17:17:26+00:00

Lee aquí en español.

With campuses across Indiana now closed for the remainder of the school year, districts and community organizations are working to get food to thousands of students who rely on school meals.

More than 100,000 Indianapolis students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, and all students in Indianapolis Public Schools receive free meals because the district qualifies for a federal community eligibility program. With more businesses shuttering to fight the spread of the new coronavirus, the U.S. is seeing record unemployment claims, and more families are likely struggling to afford groceries.

School districts and food banks are stepping in to help families find food during the crisis. Indianapolis Public Schools is handing out free meals at 16 sites five days a week to any children 18 or under, even if they don’t attend district schools. The state’s largest district is also partnering with Gleaners Food Bank to distribute 17-pound boxes of food to families at two dozen sites.

In addition to distributing meals at several schools, Wayne Township is delivering meals to more than 1,000 bus stops. In many other township districts, families can pick up packages with several days’ worth of meals. Indy Parks is offering meals at many locations, including several that also have meals for adults in partnership with Second Helpings.

Marion County families can find food through the Community Compass app or by texting the word “hi” to 317-434-3758.

The map below shows Indianapolis food distribution sites.

If you click the map, you can enter your address and find the site closest to you. We also compiled the dates and times of food service. We will continue to update as more information becomes available.

If your school district pickup site or community agency isn’t on the map, please send the information to us at in.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Instructions (Desktop)

Open the map and click the Search button.
Search for your address to find nearby meal distribution sites. Schedules for breakfast and lunch pickups vary by site.
Select the meal distribution site and click the Direction button.
Find the directions to the meal distribution sites on Google Maps.

Instructions (Mobile)

I don't have Google Drive and Google Maps installed on my device

Open the map and scroll to your neighborhood.
Find and select the meal distribution site to view the schedule for breakfast and lunch.
Tap the direction buttons to go to Google Maps.

I have both Google Drive and Google Maps installed on my device

Open the map and tap the Search bar.
Search for your address to find nearby meal distribution sites.
Tap the name of the meal distribution site to view the schedule for breakfast and lunch. Tap the direction buttons to go to Google Maps.

Here’s where Indianapolis children can get meals during the three-week school shutdown for coronavirus

Schedules for breakfast and lunch pickups vary. If your school or community agency isn’t on the map, please send the information to us at meals@chalkbeat.org. Open the address sheet document here.

Instructions (Desktop)

Open the map and click the Search button.
Search for your address to find nearby meal distribution sites. Schedules for breakfast and lunch pickups vary by site.
Select the meal distribution site and click the Direction button.
Find the directions to the meal distribution sites on Google Maps.

Instructions (Mobile)

I don't have Google Drive and Google Maps installed on my device

Open the map and scroll to your neighborhood.
Find and select the meal distribution site to view the schedule for breakfast and lunch.
Tap the direction buttons to go to Google Maps.

I have both Google Drive and Google Maps installed on my device

Open the map and tap the Search bar.
Search for your address to find nearby meal distribution sites.
Tap the name of the meal distribution site to view the schedule for breakfast and lunch. Tap the direction buttons to go to Google Maps.

Editor's Note: This map was last updated 7/7/2020, 11 a.m. EDT.

We're doing our best to keep this resource up to date. Given our limited staff resources, we'll be updating this map about once a day. It's possible meal distribution sites on this map may have closed or moved, and there could be other sites in the area we don't know about yet. We recommend calling ahead or checking local district websites to confirm that a location is still open. If you have information we should know about a site that is or isn't on this map, please email us at meals@chalkbeat.org. Given how fast this story is developing, we will likely change our approach to maintaining this resource as circumstances shift. We'll listen to you in making the decisions, and keep you updated as things change. We are trying to be as transparent as possible as we all navigate these extraordinary times.

Ex-leader of IPS teachers union sentenced to prison for embezzlement

2020-05-19T01:37:20+00:00

The former head of the Indianapolis Public Schools teachers union was sentenced Monday to 16 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud, according to a filing with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.

Rhondalyn Cornett, 55, was also ordered to pay more than $154,000 in restitution to the Indianapolis Education Association and will serve two years of probation.

“Ms. Cornett held a position of public trust and authority over the students and her fellow colleagues at IPS,” said U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler said in a statement Tuesday. “She violated that trust and took advantage of her authority to line her pockets with others’ money. She now faces the reality of her greed.”

Cornett led the union for five years before resigning in 2018, when officials began investigating missing funds. As president, she embezzled more than $100,000 by writing checks from the union to herself and using a union debit card to pay personal expenses and make cash withdrawals, according to her plea agreement.

Ron Swann, president of the IPS union, said in a statement that he prays that Cornett’s faith “will redirect her to become a very productive citizen again in the near future.”

Cornett’s attorney could not be reached for comment.

Indiana releases more data on 2019 A-F grades — with new insight into student growth

2020-05-18T21:40:56+00:00

Chalkbeat has obtained more detailed information about how schools are educating students, months after 2019 A-F grades were criticized for holding little meaning due to a two-year hold harmless exemption that shielded schools from falling grades.

The unredacted A-F grades, released by the state after a public record request, include schools’ growth scores, which offer new insight into whether they are helping students catch up to grade level. The growth scores, searchable in the database below, measure students based on how much they learn in a year compared to their peers. They give potentially crucial information in a year when state standardized tests were canceled and students will miss months of in-person instruction in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

“For us, the growth is critically important,” said Jeff Butts, superintendent of Wayne Township Schools. “It’s something that we analyze on a much deeper level.”

Many experts and advocates argue that growth scores, which make up one piece of a school’s state grade, are a better way to judge whether schools are serving students well than passing rates on tests because they capture gains at schools where children are far behind when they enroll.

In districts like Wayne, where mobility and poverty are high, student test scores are driven by factors teachers cannot control, Butts said. Growth data offers better insight, he said, because students who do not pass the state’s ILEARN exam can still score well if they show improvement.

The state department of education didn’t initially release growth scores when A-F grades were released in March, saying at the time that doing so would “undermine the hold harmless.” This year, the state protected A-F grades from falling because of low passing rates on a new, more difficult test.

Because of that, A-F grades looked rosier this year than how schools actually performed on tests. With the protection in place, about 32% of schools received top marks, and about 11% got the lowest grades.

But more than 1,000 schools — more than half statewide — would have earned a lower grade without the hold harmless, the data show. Statewide, 14% of schools would have earned A grades while about 33% of schools would have earned D or F grades.

Many educators argue that the declining grades would be a reflection of the changing test rather than an accurate representation of student’s knowledge or teacher’s success — a common critique of Indiana’s accountability system.

“A school isn’t a B one day and then suddenly they’re an F, that’s not realistic,” said Krista Stockman, a spokeswoman for Fort Wayne Community Schools, where several schools would have seen their grades fall if not for the hold-harmless provision. “This isn’t something that we spent a lot of time doing an autopsy on.”

Unlike A-F grades themselves, growth scores are not easy for the public to understand, and it’s difficult to draw any statewide conclusions about growth. But education leaders, observers, and policymakers rely on them to judge how schools are doing comparatively. In Indianapolis Public Schools, for example, officials typically use growth as a factor in assessing which schools are struggling the most.

Like a number of states, Indiana uses a hybrid formula for growth, known as “growth to proficiency,” that also accounts for how close students are to meeting state standards. This approach favors schools with students who enter at higher levels, which also corresponds to family income. Schools with low proficiency, however, can still earn top marks on growth.

“I would hesitate to say we should keep data like this in the closet,” said Rep. Bob Behning, House Education Committee chairman. “I think we should be as transparent as possible and let parents make the decision… I think you’d want to know why [one] school was able to do so much better than [another] school.”

Parents should be entitled to full information, said Justin Ohlemiller, executive director of Stand for Children Indiana, a parent organizing group that often shows parents state letter grades for their own schools.

“Never have we had a parent tell us, ‘Hey, it’s better if the system kept information from us,’” said Ohlemiller. As his organization has spoken to parents during the coronavirus crisis, one of the top issues they bring up is whether their children will be behind because they missed school.

“Now is definitely a time where our system needs to provide more transparency, more data,” he said, “because parents are hungry for it.”

Indiana officials ultimately decided to release the information after further discussion, which was delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic, said education department spokesperson Adam Baker.

“It is never our objective to keep from the public, let alone the media, that which helps tell a more complete story of Indiana education,” Baker wrote in an email to Chalkbeat.

Find your school’s 2019 growth score and projected A-F grade in our database below. Download the full data here.

School	Growth Points Grades 4-8	Growth Points Grades 10-12	Projected Grade	"Hold Harmless" Grade
Adams Central Middle School (Adams Central Community Schools)	96.5		C	A
Adams Central Elementary School (Adams Central Community Schools)	88		C	C
Adams Central High School (Adams Central Community Schools)		101.2	A	A
Bellmont Senior High School (North Adams Community Schools)		99.3	A	A
Bellmont Middle School (North Adams Community Schools)	91.7		D	B
Bellmont Elementary (North Adams Community Schools)	77.6		F	C
South Adams Middle School (South Adams Schools)	95.1		C	B
South Adams High School (South Adams Schools)		92.6	B	A
South Adams Elementary School (South Adams Schools)	90.4		C	A
Aboite Elementary School (M S D Southwest Allen County Schls)	83.2		C	B
Whispering Meadow Elementary Sch (M S D Southwest Allen County Schls)	69.2		F	C
Homestead Senior High School (M S D Southwest Allen County Schls)		117	A	A
Summit Middle School (M S D Southwest Allen County Schls)	94.4		C	A
Lafayette Meadow School (M S D Southwest Allen County Schls)	76.1		D	B
Woodside Middle School (M S D Southwest Allen County Schls)	86.3		D	A
Haverhill Elementary School (M S D Southwest Allen County Schls)	80		D	D
Deer Ridge Elementary (M S D Southwest Allen County Schls)	88.6		C	B
Covington Elementary School (M S D Southwest Allen County Schls)	76.6		F	B
Arcola School (Northwest Allen County Schools)	80.8		D	B
Maple Creek Middle School (Northwest Allen County Schools)	100.6		B	A
Hickory Center Elementary School (Northwest Allen County Schools)	79.7		D	C
Huntertown Elementary School (Northwest Allen County Schools)	94.3		C	C
Carroll Middle School (Northwest Allen County Schools)	101.3		C	B
Carroll High School (Northwest Allen County Schools)		118.3	A	A
Perry Hill Elementary School (Northwest Allen County Schools)	100.8		B	A
Oak View Elementary School (Northwest Allen County Schools)	93.2		B	B
Cedar Canyon Elementary School (Northwest Allen County Schools)	102.4		B	B
Eel River Elementary School (Northwest Allen County Schools)	95.2		C	B
North Side High School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)		94.6	C	B
R Nelson Snider High School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)		76.9	B	B
South Side High School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)		79.1	C	C
Blackhawk Middle School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	90.1		D	C
Jeff H Towles Intermediate School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	86.9		D	C
Jefferson Middle School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	84.1		D	C
Kekionga Middle School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	74.8		F	D
Lakeside Middle School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	79.1		F	C
Lane Middle School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	77.8		F	D
Memorial Park Middle School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	83		D	B
Miami Middle School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	77.5		F	D
Northwood Middle School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	78.3		F	D
Portage Middle School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	62.2		F	D
Weisser Park Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	100.9		C	B
Fairfield Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	93.5		F	B
Merle J Abbett Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	78.3		F	F
Adams Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	95.7		F	B
Bloomingdale Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	73.7		F	F
Bunche Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	86.9		D	C
Brentwood Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	84.3		F	B
Fred H Croninger Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	103		B	A
Forest Park Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	80.5		F	C
Franke Park Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	103.9		C	C
Glenwood Park Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	115.3		B	B
J Wilbur Haley Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	95.9		D	C
Wayne High School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)		79.4	B	B
Harrison Hill Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	88.6		D	C
Mabel K Holland Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	106.1		B	A
Indian Village Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	88.8		D	C
John S Irwin Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	74.2		F	C
Lindley Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	89.1		D	C
Maplewood Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	77.9		F	C
Willard Shambaugh Elementary Sch (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	104.8		C	C
Northcrest Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	97.7		D	C
Northrop High School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)		83.9	B	B
Francis M Price Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	99.3		C	B
Saint Joseph Central School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	95.4		C	B
Robert C Harris Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	71.2		F	B
Shawnee Middle School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	73.1		F	D
Whitney M Young Early Childhood (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	100.9		C	B
Levan R Scott Academy (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	89		F	F
South Wayne Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	80		F	C
Study Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	94.4		D	D
Washington Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	88.7		D	B
Washington Center Elementary Sch (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	80.7		D	B
Lincoln Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	91.1		D	B
Waynedale Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	94.9		D	D
Arlington Elementary School (Fort Wayne Community Schools)	109.4		C	B
Prince Chapman Academy (East Allen County Schools)	89.9		F	D
Leo Junior/Senior High School (East Allen County Schools)	84.1	116.6	B	A
Leo Elementary School (East Allen County Schools)	88.9		B	A
Heritage Jr/Sr High School (East Allen County Schools)	78.3	96.9	B	B
New Haven Primary School (East Allen County Schools)	91.6		D	B
Heritage Elementary School (East Allen County Schools)	88.2		D	B
Woodlan Jr/Sr High School (East Allen County Schools)	80.2	117.2	B	B
Cedarville Elementary School (East Allen County Schools)	88.9		B	A
Paul Harding Jr High School (East Allen County Schools)	96.8		D	C
New Haven High School (East Allen County Schools)		113.3	B	B
New Haven Middle School (East Allen County Schools)	108.9		C	B
New Haven Intermediate School (East Allen County Schools)	91.6		D	B
Southwick Elementary School (East Allen County Schools)	89.9		F	D
Woodlan Elementary School (East Allen County Schools)	88.9		C	A
East Allen University (East Allen County Schools)		107.6	A	A
Clifty Creek Elementary School (Bartholomew Con School Corp)	104.6		C	C
CSA Lincoln Campus (Bartholomew Con School Corp)	128.1		A	A
Mount Healthy Elementary School (Bartholomew Con School Corp)	113.3		B	B
Parkside Elementary School (Bartholomew Con School Corp)	111.5		B	B
W D Richards Elementary School (Bartholomew Con School Corp)	114.5		B	A
Rockcreek Elementary School (Bartholomew Con School Corp)	111		B	A
Lillian Schmitt Elementary School (Bartholomew Con School Corp)	97.6		D	C
L F Smith Elementary (Bartholomew Con School Corp)	105.9		C	B
CSA Fodrea Campus (Bartholomew Con School Corp)	84.6		D	B
Taylorsville Elementary School (Bartholomew Con School Corp)	102.3		D	C
Central Middle School (Bartholomew Con School Corp)	73.7		F	C
Southside Elementary School (Bartholomew Con School Corp)	112.8		B	B
Northside Middle School (Bartholomew Con School Corp)	98.6		C	B
Columbus North High School (Bartholomew Con School Corp)		83.6	B	B
Columbus East High School (Bartholomew Con School Corp)		74.2	B	B
Hope Elementary School (Flat Rock-Hawcreek School Corp)	84.1		C	B
Hauser Jr-Sr High School (Flat Rock-Hawcreek School Corp)	75.2	84.5	C	B
Otterbein Elementary School (Benton Community School Corp)	94.5		C	B
Boswell Elementary School (Benton Community School Corp)	82.6		F	C
Benton Central Jr-Sr High School (Benton Community School Corp)	94.4	101.2	B	B
Prairie Crossing Elementary School (Benton Community School Corp)	100.7		C	C
Montpelier School (Blackford County Schools)	71.6		F	B
Blackford High School (Blackford County Schools)		82.3	B	B
Blackford Junior High School (Blackford County Schools)	78.9		D	C
North Side Elementary School (Blackford County Schools)	108.3		B	A
Southside Elementary School (Blackford County Schools)	108.3		B	A
Granville Wells Elementary School (Western Boone Co Com Sch Dist)	110.3		B	B
Thorntown Elementary School (Western Boone Co Com Sch Dist)	87.5		C	B
Western Boone Jr-Sr High School (Western Boone Co Com Sch Dist)	92.2	110.8	B	B
Zionsville West Middle School (Zionsville Community Schools)	103		B	A
Zionsville Middle School (Zionsville Community Schools)	101.7		B	A
Zionsville Community High School (Zionsville Community Schools)		106	A	A
Eagle Elementary School (Zionsville Community Schools)	130.3		A	A
Zionsville Pleasant View Elem Sch (Zionsville Community Schools)	122.7		A	A
Union Elementary School (Zionsville Community Schools)	113.3		A	A
Stonegate Elementary (Zionsville Community Schools)	136.2		A	A
Boone Meadow (Zionsville Community Schools)	121.2		A	A
Perry Worth Elementary School (Lebanon Community School Corp)	87.1		C	B
Lebanon Senior High School (Lebanon Community School Corp)		91.3	B	B
Lebanon Middle School (Lebanon Community School Corp)	96.5		C	B
Central Elementary School (Lebanon Community School Corp)	75		D	B
Harney Elementary School (Lebanon Community School Corp)	98.2		C	B
Hattie B Stokes Elementary School (Lebanon Community School Corp)	99.6		D	C
Brown County Intermediate School (Brown County School Corporation)	99.9		C	A
Brown County High School (Brown County School Corporation)		70.1	B	B
Van Buren Elementary School (Brown County School Corporation)	91.5		C	C
Helmsburg Elementary School (Brown County School Corporation)	112.2		B	B
Sprunica Elementary School (Brown County School Corporation)	109.7		B	B
Brown County Junior High (Brown County School Corporation)	81		D	B
Carroll Senior High School (Carroll Consolidated School Corp)		132.9	A	A
Carroll Junior High School (Carroll Consolidated School Corp)	112		B	B
Carroll Elementary School (Carroll Consolidated School Corp)	98.6		C	B
Delphi Community Middle School (Delphi Community School Corp)	95.5		C	C
Delphi Community High School (Delphi Community School Corp)		125.8	A	A
Delphi Community Elementary School (Delphi Community School Corp)	90		D	B
Pioneer Jr-Sr High School (Pioneer Regional School Corp)	117.5	124	B	B
Pioneer Elementary School (Pioneer Regional School Corp)	111		C	C
Lewis Cass High School (Southeastern School Corp)		115.5	A	A
Lewis Cass Junior High School (Southeastern School Corp)	103.5		A	A
Lewis Cass Elementary School (Southeastern School Corp)	90.6		D	C
Logansport Community High School (Logansport Community Sch Corp)		114.7	A	A
Logansport Junior High School (Logansport Community Sch Corp)	101.6		D	C
Franklin Elementary School (Logansport Community Sch Corp)	64.6		F	D
Fairview Elementary School (Logansport Community Sch Corp)	82.4		D	C
Landis Elementary School (Logansport Community Sch Corp)	79.9		D	C
Columbia Elementary School (Logansport Community Sch Corp)	83		F	C
Columbia 6th Grade Academy (Logansport Community Sch Corp)	84.1		F	D
Henryville Jr & Sr High School (West Clark Community Schools)	105.5	130.4	B	B
Henryville Elementary School (West Clark Community Schools)	92.9		D	B
Silver Creek High School (West Clark Community Schools)		112.5	A	A
Silver Creek Middle School (West Clark Community Schools)	109.9		C	A
Silver Creek Elementary School (West Clark Community Schools)	88.7		D	B
William W Borden High School (West Clark Community Schools)	124	125.8	A	A
William W Borden Elementary School (West Clark Community Schools)	97.5		B	A
Silver Creek Primary School (West Clark Community Schools)	88.7		D	B
Clarksville Senior High School (Clarksville Community School Corp)		84.7	B	B
Clarksville Elementary School (Clarksville Community School Corp)	115.3		B	A
Clarksville Middle School (Clarksville Community School Corp)	126.2		A	A
W E Wilson Elementary (Greater Clark County Schools)	97.4		C	C
Thomas Jefferson Elementary School (Greater Clark County Schools)	99.2		C	B
Northaven Elementary School (Greater Clark County Schools)	121.4		B	B
Utica Elementary School (Greater Clark County Schools)	114.3		A	A
New Washington Elementary School (Greater Clark County Schools)	93.7		C	B
New Washington Middle/High School (Greater Clark County Schools)	95.4	100.4	B	A
Charlestown Senior High School (Greater Clark County Schools)		86.7	B	A
Jonathan Jennings Elementary Sch (Greater Clark County Schools)	99.3		C	B
Pleasant Ridge Elementary School (Greater Clark County Schools)	99.3		C	B
Jeffersonville High School (Greater Clark County Schools)		88.7	B	B
Parkview Middle School (Greater Clark County Schools)	94.3		D	B
Charlestown Middle School (Greater Clark County Schools)	87.9		D	B
Bridgepoint Elementary School (Greater Clark County Schools)	79.1		F	C
Maple Elementary School (Greater Clark County Schools)	101.7		C	C
Riverside Elementary School (Greater Clark County Schools)	103.3		B	B
Spring Hill Elementary School (Greater Clark County Schools)	90.6		D	C
Parkwood Elementary School (Greater Clark County Schools)	77.9		F	C
River Valley Middle School (Greater Clark County Schools)	103.6		C	C
Clay City Elementary School (Clay Community Schools)	70.1		F	B
Clay City Jr-Sr High School (Clay Community Schools)	64.8	107.3	C	B
Jackson Township Elementary School (Clay Community Schools)	93.4		B	A
Staunton Elementary School (Clay Community Schools)	96.7		B	A
Van Buren Elementary School (Clay Community Schools)	97.9		C	A
North Clay Middle School (Clay Community Schools)	87.8		D	C
Northview High School (Clay Community Schools)		79.7	B	B
East Side Elementary School (Clay Community Schools)	96.7		C	B
Forest Park Elementary School (Clay Community Schools)	100.5		D	D
Meridian Street Elementary School (Clay Community Schools)	113.6		B	A
Clinton Central Junior-Senior HS (Clinton Central School Corporation)			UNDER APPEAL	Appeal Pending
Clinton Central Elementary School (Clinton Central School Corporation)	93.2		C	A
Clinton Prairie Jr-Sr High School (Clinton Prairie School Corporation)	69.2	84.8	C	C
Clinton Prairie Elementary School (Clinton Prairie School Corporation)	87.7		D	B
Frankfort High School (Community Schools of Frankfort)			UNDER APPEAL	Appeal Pending
Frankfort Middle School (Community Schools of Frankfort)	98.2		D	D
Blue Ridge Primary Elementary Sch (Community Schools of Frankfort)	83.4		D	D
Green Meadows Intermediate Elem (Community Schools of Frankfort)	83.4		D	D
Suncrest Elementary School (Community Schools of Frankfort)	111.4		C	B
Rossville Middle/Senior High Sch (Rossville Con School District)	96.7	108	B	B
Rossville Elementary School (Rossville Con School District)	99.2		C	C
South Crawford Elementary School (Crawford County Community Sch Corp)	124.3		B	B
West Crawford Elementary School (Crawford County Community Sch Corp)	68.6		D	B
Crawford County High School (Crawford County Community Sch Corp)		95.8	A	A
Crawford County Middle School (Crawford County Community Sch Corp)	108.2		C	B
East Crawford Elementary School (Crawford County Community Sch Corp)	101.9		C	C
Barr Reeve Middle/High School (Barr-Reeve Community Schools Inc)	99.8	115.2	A	A
Barr Reeve Primary Grade School (Barr-Reeve Community Schools Inc)	110.1		A	A
Barr Reeve Elementary School (Barr-Reeve Community Schools Inc)	110.1		A	A
North Daviess Elementary School (North Daviess Com Schools)	95.4		C	B
North Daviess Jr-Sr High School (North Daviess Com Schools)	86	102.7	B	B
Lena Dunn Elementary School (Washington Community Schools)	77.2		F	F
Veale Elementary School (Washington Community Schools)	102.6		B	A
Washington Junior High School (Washington Community Schools)	92.4		D	C
Washington High School (Washington Community Schools)		84.6	B	B
North Elementary School (Washington Community Schools)	83		D	B
Helen Griffith Elementary School (Washington Community Schools)	84		D	C
North Dearborn Elementary School (Sunman-Dearborn Com Sch Corp)	88.8		C	A
Sunman-Dearborn Middle School (Sunman-Dearborn Com Sch Corp)	99.2		C	B
Bright Elementary School (Sunman-Dearborn Com Sch Corp)	86.5		C	B
Sunman Elementary School (Sunman-Dearborn Com Sch Corp)	95.8		C	C
East Central High School (Sunman-Dearborn Com Sch Corp)		109.5	A	A
Dillsboro Elementary School (South Dearborn Community Sch Corp)	121.2		B	B
Manchester Elementary School (South Dearborn Community Sch Corp)	89.3		C	B
Moores Hill Elementary School (South Dearborn Community Sch Corp)	110.9		B	B
South Dearborn Middle School (South Dearborn Community Sch Corp)	74		F	C
South Dearborn High School (South Dearborn Community Sch Corp)		77.7	B	B
Aurora Elementary School (South Dearborn Community Sch Corp)	109.7		C	C
Lawrenceburg High School (Lawrenceburg Community School Corp)		95.1	A	A
Greendale Middle School (Lawrenceburg Community School Corp)	92		D	B
Lawrenceburg Primary School (Lawrenceburg Community School Corp)	89.4		C	C
Central Elementary School (Lawrenceburg Community School Corp)	89.4		C	C
South Decatur Jr-Sr High School (Decatur County Community Schools)	76.1	99.1	B	B
South Decatur Elementary School (Decatur County Community Schools)	91.6		D	B
North Decatur Elementary School (Decatur County Community Schools)	89.2		C	B
North Decatur Jr-Sr High School (Decatur County Community Schools)	104	107.6	B	A
Greensburg Community High School (Greensburg Community Schools)		80	B	B
Greensburg Community Jr High (Greensburg Community Schools)	84.9		D	C
Greensburg Elementary (Greensburg Community Schools)	92		C	A
Eastside Junior-Senior High School (DeKalb Co Eastern Com Sch Dist)	110.9	103	B	B
Butler Elementary School (DeKalb Co Eastern Com Sch Dist)	90.6		D	C
Riverdale Elementary School (DeKalb Co Eastern Com Sch Dist)	114.3		B	A
Garrett High School (Garrett-Keyser-Butler Com Sch Corp)		79.6	B	B
J E Ober Elementary School (Garrett-Keyser-Butler Com Sch Corp)	87.4		D	C
Garrett Middle School (Garrett-Keyser-Butler Com Sch Corp)	97.3		C	B
Waterloo Elementary School (DeKalb Co Ctl United Sch Dist)	96.3		C	C
DeKalb High School (DeKalb Co Ctl United Sch Dist)		81.1	B	B
DeKalb Middle School (DeKalb Co Ctl United Sch Dist)	104.3		B	B
James R Watson Elementary School (DeKalb Co Ctl United Sch Dist)	99.9		C	A
McKenney-Harrison Elementary Sch (DeKalb Co Ctl United Sch Dist)	108.5		C	C
Country Meadow Elementary School (DeKalb Co Ctl United Sch Dist)	75.7		D	C
Royerton Elementary School (Delaware Community School Corp)	92.3		B	A
Delta Middle School (Delaware Community School Corp)	91.9		C	B
Delta High School (Delaware Community School Corp)		111	A	A
Eaton Elementary School (Delaware Community School Corp)	108.7		B	B
Albany Elementary School (Delaware Community School Corp)	114.1		B	A
Wes-Del Middle/Senior High School (Wes-Del Community Schools)	89.9	97.1	C	C
Wes-Del Elementary School (Wes-Del Community Schools)	78.6		D	D
Wapahani High School (Liberty-Perry Community Sch Corp)		92.2	B	B
Selma Middle School (Liberty-Perry Community Sch Corp)	112.1		B	A
Selma Elementary School (Liberty-Perry Community Sch Corp)	94.7		C	C
Cowan Elementary School (Cowan Community School Corp)	104		C	B
Cowan High School (Cowan Community School Corp)	71.8	131.2	B	B
Yorktown Middle School (Yorktown Community Schools)	102.4		C	C
Yorktown High School (Yorktown Community Schools)		107.5	A	A
Yorktown Elementary School (Yorktown Community Schools)	94		C	B
Pleasant View Elementary School (Yorktown Community Schools)	94		C	B
Daleville Jr-Sr High School (Daleville Community Schools)	87.6	90	B	B
Daleville Elementary School (Daleville Community Schools)	100.7		C	C
Celestine Elementary School (Northeast Dubois Co Sch Corp)	79		D	B
Northeast Dubois High School (Northeast Dubois Co Sch Corp)		77.4	B	B
Dubois Middle School (Northeast Dubois Co Sch Corp)	104.5		B	A
Dubois Elementary School (Northeast Dubois Co Sch Corp)	63.2		F	B
Pine Ridge Elementary School (Southeast Dubois Co Sch Corp)	120.1		A	A
Ferdinand Elementary School (Southeast Dubois Co Sch Corp)	136.5		A	A
Forest Park Jr-Sr High School (Southeast Dubois Co Sch Corp)	103.2	101.7	B	A
Cedar Crest Intermediate School (Southeast Dubois Co Sch Corp)	87.4		C	B
Holland Elementary School (Southwest Dubois Co Sch Corp)	99.5		B	A
Southridge Middle School (Southwest Dubois Co Sch Corp)	127.3		A	A
Southridge High School (Southwest Dubois Co Sch Corp)		83.3	B	B
Huntingburg Elementary School (Southwest Dubois Co Sch Corp)	98.1		C	B
Ireland Elementary School (Greater Jasper Consolidated Schs)	100.1		B	B
Jasper Middle School (Greater Jasper Consolidated Schs)	105.5		B	B
Jasper High School (Greater Jasper Consolidated Schs)		117.3	A	A
Fifth Street Elementary School (Greater Jasper Consolidated Schs)	100.9		C	B
Tenth Street School (Greater Jasper Consolidated Schs)	100.9		C	B
Fairfield Jr-Sr High School (Fairfield Community Schools)	92.1	90.4	B	B
Millersburg Elementary- Middle Sch (Fairfield Community Schools)	88.7		C	B
New Paris Elementary School (Fairfield Community Schools)	103.3		B	B
Benton Elementary School (Fairfield Community Schools)	107.8		B	B
Jimtown High School (Baugo Community Schools)			UNDER APPEAL	Appeal Pending
Jimtown Junior High School (Baugo Community Schools)	91.3		D	B
Jimtown Elementary School (Baugo Community Schools)	105.6		B	B
Jimtown Intermediate School (Baugo Community Schools)	105.6		B	B
Concord Junior High School (Concord Community Schools)	106.4		C	C
Concord Community High School (Concord Community Schools)		83.2	B	B
Concord Intermediate School (Concord Community Schools)	103.8		C	B
Concord East Side Elementary Sch (Concord Community Schools)	96.2		C	B
Concord Ox-Bow Elementary School (Concord Community Schools)	113.2		B	B
Concord South Side Elementary Sch (Concord Community Schools)	89.5		D	C
Concord West Side Elem School (Concord Community Schools)	88.3		D	B
Jefferson Elementary School (Middlebury Community Schools)	89.3		C	B
Northridge Middle School (Middlebury Community Schools)	99.8		C	A
York Elementary School (Middlebury Community Schools)	89.3		C	C
Heritage Intermediate School (Middlebury Community Schools)	89.3		D	C
Middlebury Elementary School (Middlebury Community Schools)	89.3		C	B
Northridge High School (Middlebury Community Schools)		88.3	B	A
Orchard View School (Middlebury Community Schools)	89.3		C	B
North Wood Middle School (Wa-Nee Community Schools)	95.8		C	B
Wakarusa Elementary School (Wa-Nee Community Schools)	120		A	A
North Wood High School (Wa-Nee Community Schools)		105.4	A	A
Nappanee Elementary School (Wa-Nee Community Schools)	106.3		B	A
Woodview Elementary School (Wa-Nee Community Schools)	115.6		B	B
Cleveland Elementary School (Elkhart Community Schools)	96.9		C	B
Osolo Elementary School (Elkhart Community Schools)	107.4		C	B
Eastwood Elementary School (Elkhart Community Schools)	107.6		C	C
Mary Feeser Elementary School (Elkhart Community Schools)	92.4		D	C
Bristol Elementary School (Elkhart Community Schools)	88.9		D	C
Elkhart Central High School (Elkhart Community Schools)		87.7	B	B
Elkhart Memorial High School (Elkhart Community Schools)		75.7	B	B
North Side Middle School (Elkhart Community Schools)	77.3		F	D
West Side Middle School (Elkhart Community Schools)	97.5		D	C
Pierre Moran Middle School (Elkhart Community Schools)	92.7		D	D
Beardsley Elementary School (Elkhart Community Schools)	78.9		F	F
Mary Beck Elementary School (Elkhart Community Schools)	121.9		D	D
Mary Daly Elementary School (Elkhart Community Schools)	86.7		F	D
Hawthorne Elementary School (Elkhart Community Schools)	78.1		F	F
Pinewood Elementary School (Elkhart Community Schools)	90.7		D	C
Monger Elementary School (Elkhart Community Schools)	119.1		B	B
Riverview Elementary School (Elkhart Community Schools)	113.6		C	B
Roosevelt STEAM Academy (Elkhart Community Schools)	84.2		F	F
Woodland Elementary School (Elkhart Community Schools)	99.2		D	B
Goshen Middle School (Goshen Community Schools)	100.5		C	C
Model Elementary School (Goshen Community Schools)	110.2		C	C
Waterford Elementary School (Goshen Community Schools)	104.9		C	C
Goshen High School (Goshen Community Schools)		113	B	B
Chamberlain Elementary School (Goshen Community Schools)	124.2		C	C
Chandler Elementary School (Goshen Community Schools)	110.4		C	C
Parkside Elementary School (Goshen Community Schools)	127		A	A
Prairie View Elementary School (Goshen Community Schools)	115.1		B	B
West Goshen Elementary School (Goshen Community Schools)	113.6		B	A
Everton Elementary School (Fayette County School Corporation)	123.2		B	A
Connersville Sr High School (Fayette County School Corporation)		68.8	B	B
Connersville Middle School (Fayette County School Corporation)	95.7		C	B
Eastview Elementary School (Fayette County School Corporation)	89.2		C	A
Frazee Elementary School (Fayette County School Corporation)	84.4		D	B
Grandview Elementary School (Fayette County School Corporation)	89		D	B
Maplewood Elementary School (Fayette County School Corporation)	75.3		F	D
Fayette Central Elementary (Fayette County School Corporation)	110.5		B	A
New Albany Senior High School (New Albany-Floyd Co Con Sch)		70.9	C	B
Georgetown Elementary School (New Albany-Floyd Co Con Sch)	83.2		C	A
Floyd Central High School (New Albany-Floyd Co Con Sch)		87.1	B	A
Highland Hills Middle School (New Albany-Floyd Co Con Sch)	92.1		C	A
Hazelwood Middle School (New Albany-Floyd Co Con Sch)	84.6		D	C
Nathaniel Scribner Middle School (New Albany-Floyd Co Con Sch)	82.5		D	B
Slate Run Elementary School (New Albany-Floyd Co Con Sch)	110.8		C	B
Fairmont Elementary School (New Albany-Floyd Co Con Sch)	117.1		B	B
Greenville Elementary School (New Albany-Floyd Co Con Sch)	87.3		C	A
Grant Line Elementary School (New Albany-Floyd Co Con Sch)	77.2		D	B
Green Valley Elementary School (New Albany-Floyd Co Con Sch)	70.1		F	B
Floyds Knobs Elementary School (New Albany-Floyd Co Con Sch)	96.3		B	A
Mount Tabor Elementary School (New Albany-Floyd Co Con Sch)	74.1		D	B
S Ellen Jones Elementary School (New Albany-Floyd Co Con Sch)	101.7		C	B
Attica High School (Attica Consolidated School Corp)	87.6	113.5	B	B
Attica Elementary School (Attica Consolidated School Corp)	95		C	B
Covington Community High School (Covington Community School Corp)		118.3	A	A
Covington Elementary School (Covington Community School Corp)	119.6		B	A
Covington Middle School (Covington Community School Corp)	91.2		C	B
Southeast Fountain Elementary (Southeast Fountain School Corp)	97.8		C	A
Fountain Central High School (Southeast Fountain School Corp)	75.2	71	C	C
Laurel School (Franklin County Community Sch Corp)	110.8		C	B
Franklin County High (Franklin County Community Sch Corp)		91.3	B	B
Franklin County Middle School (Franklin County Community Sch Corp)	91.7		D	C
Brookville Elementary School (Franklin County Community Sch Corp)	92.1		D	B
Mount Carmel School (Franklin County Community Sch Corp)	96.3		C	B
Rochester Community High School (Rochester Community School Corp)		68.7	B	B
Rochester Community Middle School (Rochester Community School Corp)	83.3		F	D
Columbia Elementary School (Rochester Community School Corp)	95.7		D	D
George M Riddle Elementary School (Rochester Community School Corp)	95.7		D	D
Caston Elementary School (Caston School Corporation)	114.9		B	B
Caston Jr-Sr High School (Caston School Corporation)	72.2	85.5	C	C
Barton Township Elementary (East Gibson School Corporation)	120.1		A	A
Waldo J Wood Memorial JHS (East Gibson School Corporation)	75.2		F	C
Francisco Elementary School (East Gibson School Corporation)	109		B	B
Waldo J Wood Memorial High (East Gibson School Corporation)		68.6	B	B
Oakland City Elementary School (East Gibson School Corporation)	94.1		D	D
Princeton Comm Intermediate School (North Gibson School Corp)	93.7		D	B
Princeton Community Middle (North Gibson School Corp)	87.5		D	D
Princeton Community High School (North Gibson School Corp)		88.4	B	B
Princeton Comm Primary School (North Gibson School Corp)	93.7		D	B
Haubstadt Community School (South Gibson School Corporation)	103.8		B	A
Gibson Southern High School (South Gibson School Corporation)		112.1	A	A
Fort Branch Community School (South Gibson School Corporation)	100.2		B	A
Owensville Community School (South Gibson School Corporation)	109.3		C	B
Eastbrook South Elementary (Eastbrook Community Sch Corp)	85.1		D	C
Eastbrook North Elementary (Eastbrook Community Sch Corp)	90.2		D	C
Eastbrook High School (Eastbrook Community Sch Corp)		92.6	B	A
Eastbrook Junior High School (Eastbrook Community Sch Corp)	97.4		D	B
Madison-Grant Jr./Sr. High School (Madison-Grant United School Corp)	99.3	105.3	B	B
Park Elementary School (Madison-Grant United School Corp)	83		D	C
Summitville School (Madison-Grant United School Corp)	109.8		C	C
Mississinewa High School (Mississinewa Community School Corp)		84.9	B	A
R J Baskett Middle School (Mississinewa Community School Corp)	86.8		D	C
Westview Elementary School (Mississinewa Community School Corp)	87.1		D	C
Northview Elementary School (Mississinewa Community School Corp)	87.1		D	C
Justice Thurgood Marshall Intrmd (Marion Community Schools)	74.6		F	D
Marion High School (Marion Community Schools)		109.3	B	B
John L McCulloch Junior High Sch (Marion Community Schools)	72.1		F	F
Allen Elementary School (Marion Community Schools)	111.5		D	B
John W Kendall Elem School (Marion Community Schools)	101.1		D	C
Riverview Elementary School (Marion Community Schools)	119.4		B	A
Frances Slocum Elem School (Marion Community Schools)	91.5		F	B
Bloomfield Elementary School (Bloomfield School District)	96.2		C	B
Bloomfield Jr-Sr High School (Bloomfield School District)	86.5	89.8	C	B
Eastern Greene Elementary School (Eastern Greene Schools)	91.9		C	B
Eastern Greene High School (Eastern Greene Schools)		94.7	B	A
Eastern Greene Middle School (Eastern Greene Schools)	101.6		C	A
Linton-Stockton High School (Linton-Stockton School Corporation)		64.7	B	B
Linton-Stockton Middle School (Linton-Stockton School Corporation)	77		F	C
Linton-Stockton Elementary (Linton-Stockton School Corporation)	93.1		C	A
Shakamak Jr-Sr High School (M S D Shakamak Schools)	90.3	136.2	B	A
Shakamak Elementary School (M S D Shakamak Schools)	83		D	B
White River Valley High School (White River Valley School District)		95.6	B	A
White River Valley Middle School (White River Valley School District)	97.7		C	C
White River Valley Elementary Sch (White River Valley School District)	107.9		B	B
Brooks School Elementary (Hamilton Southeastern Schools)	94.9		B	A
New Britton Elementary School (Hamilton Southeastern Schools)	104.3		B	A
Fishers Elementary School (Hamilton Southeastern Schools)	101.9		C	A
Cumberland Road Elem School (Hamilton Southeastern Schools)	93.3		C	A
Hoosier Road Elementary School (Hamilton Southeastern Schools)	84.8		C	A
Fall Creek Elementary School (Hamilton Southeastern Schools)	102		B	B
Geist Elementary School (Hamilton Southeastern Schools)	109.3		A	A
Lantern Road Elementary School (Hamilton Southeastern Schools)	95.2		B	A
Fishers Junior High School (Hamilton Southeastern Schools)	101.9		B	A
Sand Creek Intermediate School (Hamilton Southeastern Schools)	94.2		C	A
Harrison Parkway Elementary School (Hamilton Southeastern Schools)	98.2		B	A
Sand Creek Elementary (Hamilton Southeastern Schools)	91.6		C	B
Thorpe Creek Elementary (Hamilton Southeastern Schools)	91		B	A
Fall Creek Intermediate School (Hamilton Southeastern Schools)	88.7		C	A
Fall Creek Junior High (Hamilton Southeastern Schools)	105.1		B	A
Fishers High School (Hamilton Southeastern Schools)		117.2	A	A
Hamilton SE Int and Jr High Sch (Hamilton Southeastern Schools)	100.5		B	A
Riverside Junior High (Hamilton Southeastern Schools)	83.1		C	A
Durbin Elementary School (Hamilton Southeastern Schools)	102.4		B	A
Hamilton Southeastern HS (Hamilton Southeastern Schools)		114.5	A	A
Riverside Intermediate School (Hamilton Southeastern Schools)	101.5		B	A
Hamilton Heights High School (Hamilton Heights School Corp)		100.9	A	A
Hamilton Heights Elementary School (Hamilton Heights School Corp)	81.2		D	B
Hamilton Heights Middle School (Hamilton Heights School Corp)	94.7		C	B
Hamilton Heights Primary School (Hamilton Heights School Corp)	81.2		D	B
Westfield Middle School (Westfield-Washington Schools)	113.8		B	B
Shamrock Springs Elementary School (Westfield-Washington Schools)	89.1		B	A
Westfield High School (Westfield-Washington Schools)		124.1	A	A
Carey Ridge Elementary School (Westfield-Washington Schools)	101.2		B	A
Washington Woods Elementary School (Westfield-Washington Schools)	121.2		A	A
Oak Trace Elementary School (Westfield-Washington Schools)	81.9		B	B
Monon Trail Elementary School (Westfield-Washington Schools)	94.1		B	B
Westfield Intermediate School (Westfield-Washington Schools)	99.3		B	B
Maple Glen Elementary (Westfield-Washington Schools)	115.9		A	A
Sheridan High School (Sheridan Community Schools)		121.1	A	A
Sheridan Elementary School (Sheridan Community Schools)	90.4		C	C
Sheridan Middle School (Sheridan Community Schools)	96.5		C	B
Carmel High School (Carmel Clay Schools)		121.2	A	A
Clay Middle School (Carmel Clay Schools)	101.4		B	A
Woodbrook Elementary School (Carmel Clay Schools)	108.8		A	A
Cherry Tree Elementary School (Carmel Clay Schools)	123.9		A	A
Carmel Elementary School (Carmel Clay Schools)	101.9		B	B
College Wood Elementary School (Carmel Clay Schools)	111.3		A	A
Carmel Middle School (Carmel Clay Schools)	93.3		B	B
Smoky Row Elementary School (Carmel Clay Schools)	116.8		A	A
Orchard Park Elementary School (Carmel Clay Schools)	110		B	A
Prairie Trace Elementary School (Carmel Clay Schools)	104.7		A	A
Mohawk Trails Elementary School (Carmel Clay Schools)	100.5		B	A
Forest Dale Elementary School (Carmel Clay Schools)	109.1		A	A
Creekside Middle School (Carmel Clay Schools)	106.5		A	A
Towne Meadow Elementary School (Carmel Clay Schools)	103.1		A	A
West Clay Elementary School (Carmel Clay Schools)	99.9		A	A
Noblesville High School (Noblesville Schools)		108.5	A	A
Noblesville East Middle School (Noblesville Schools)	101.6		B	A
Hinkle Creek Elementary School (Noblesville Schools)	110.6		B	B
North Elementary School (Noblesville Schools)	95.4		C	A
Stony Creek Elementary School (Noblesville Schools)	102.6		B	A
Noble Crossing Elementary School (Noblesville Schools)	99.8		B	A
Hazel Dell Elementary School (Noblesville Schools)	94.3		C	A
Promise Road Elementary (Noblesville Schools)	107.3		B	A
Noblesville West Middle School (Noblesville Schools)	97.6		B	A
White River Elementary School (Noblesville Schools)	83.2		D	B
New Palestine Intermediate School (Southern Hancock Co Com Sch Corp)	112.8		A	A
Brandywine Elementary School (Southern Hancock Co Com Sch Corp)	105.5		B	A
New Palestine Elementary School (Southern Hancock Co Com Sch Corp)	80.5		D	A
New Palestine High School (Southern Hancock Co Com Sch Corp)		92.5	A	A
New Palestine Jr High School (Southern Hancock Co Com Sch Corp)	116		A	A
Sugar Creek Elementary Sch (Southern Hancock Co Com Sch Corp)	98.6		C	B
Maxwell Intermediate School (Greenfield-Central Com Schools)	99.8		B	A
Greenfield Central Junior High Sch (Greenfield-Central Com Schools)	91.6		C	C
Eden Elementary School (Greenfield-Central Com Schools)	99.8		A	A
JB Stephens Elementary School (Greenfield-Central Com Schools)	99.8		C	A
Greenfield Intermediate School (Greenfield-Central Com Schools)	95.5		C	B
Greenfield-Central High School (Greenfield-Central Com Schools)		96.2	A	A
Harris Elementary School (Greenfield-Central Com Schools)	95.5		B	B
Weston Elementary School (Greenfield-Central Com Schools)	95.5		B	A
Fortville Elementary School (Mt Vernon Community School Corp)	101.9		B	B
Mt Vernon Middle School (Mt Vernon Community School Corp)	87.9		D	B
Mt Comfort Elementary School (Mt Vernon Community School Corp)	88.4		C	B
Mt Vernon High School (Mt Vernon Community School Corp)		105.4	A	A
McCordsville Elementary School (Mt Vernon Community School Corp)	95.6		C	A
Eastern Hancock Middle School (Eastern Hancock Co Com Sch Corp)	100.6		C	A
Eastern Hancock High School (Eastern Hancock Co Com Sch Corp)		100.1	A	A
Eastern Hancock Elementary School (Eastern Hancock Co Com Sch Corp)	107.2		B	A
Lanesville Elementary School (Lanesville Community School Corp)	112.1		B	B
Lanesville Jr-Sr HS (Lanesville Community School Corp)	100.5	107	B	B
Morgan Elementary School (North Harrison Com School Corp)	119.2		A	A
North Harrison Middle School (North Harrison Com School Corp)	89.1		C	C
North Harrison High School (North Harrison Com School Corp)		83.3	B	B
North Harrison Elementary School (North Harrison Com School Corp)	81.2		C	C
Corydon Central High School (South Harrison Com Schools)		104.9	A	A
Corydon Central Jr High School (South Harrison Com Schools)	112.7		B	B
Corydon Elementary School (South Harrison Com Schools)	94.7		C	B
New Middletown Elementary School (South Harrison Com Schools)	85.8		C	B
Heth-Washington Elementary School (South Harrison Com Schools)	70.2		F	A
Corydon Intermediate School (South Harrison Com Schools)	94.7		C	B
South Central Elementary (South Harrison Com Schools)	84.9		D	A
South Central Jr & Sr High School (South Harrison Com Schools)	89.9	99.9	B	B
Tri-West Middle School (North West Hendricks Schools)	101.6		B	B
Pittsboro Primary School (North West Hendricks Schools)	93.9		B	A
North Salem Elementary School (North West Hendricks Schools)	122.1		A	A
Pittsboro Elementary School (North West Hendricks Schools)	93.9		B	A
Tri-West Senior High School (North West Hendricks Schools)		102.6	A	A
Brown Elementary School (Brownsburg Community School Corp)	98.4		B	A
Brownsburg High School (Brownsburg Community School Corp)		86	A	A
Eagle Elementary School (Brownsburg Community School Corp)	108.1		A	A
Brownsburg West Middle School (Brownsburg Community School Corp)	101.9		B	A
Reagan Elementary School (Brownsburg Community School Corp)	116		A	A
Delaware Trail Elementary School (Brownsburg Community School Corp)	106.8		A	A
Brownsburg East Middle School (Brownsburg Community School Corp)	99.2		B	A
White Lick Elementary School (Brownsburg Community School Corp)	116.7		A	A
Cardinal Elementary School (Brownsburg Community School Corp)	113.8		A	A
Lincoln Elementary School (Brownsburg Community School Corp)	124.6		A	A
River Birch Elementary School (Avon Community School Corp)	90.5		C	B
Avon Intermediate School East (Avon Community School Corp)	97.8		B	B
Avon Intermediate School West (Avon Community School Corp)	97		C	C
Avon Middle School North (Avon Community School Corp)	101.5		C	C
Maple Elementary School (Avon Community School Corp)	83		C	A
White Oak Elementary School (Avon Community School Corp)	114.6		B	B
Sycamore Elementary School (Avon Community School Corp)	102.9		B	A
Avon Middle School South (Avon Community School Corp)	109		B	B
Avon High School (Avon Community School Corp)		112.6	A	A
Cedar Elementary School (Avon Community School Corp)	96.2		C	A
Pine Tree Elementary School (Avon Community School Corp)	119.2		A	A
Hickory Elementary School (Avon Community School Corp)	96		B	B
North Elementary School (Danville Community School Corp)	108.7		B	A
Danville Community High School (Danville Community School Corp)		86.2	B	A
Danville Middle School (Danville Community School Corp)	100.7		B	A
South Elementary School (Danville Community School Corp)	108.7		B	A
Clarks Creek Elementary (Plainfield Community School Corp)	102.2		B	A
Plainfield High School (Plainfield Community School Corp)		95.6	A	A
Plainfield Community Middle School (Plainfield Community School Corp)	103.2		B	A
Central Elementary School (Plainfield Community School Corp)	114.9		A	A
Van Buren Elementary School (Plainfield Community School Corp)	113.4		A	A
Brentwood Elementary School (Plainfield Community School Corp)	97.4		B	A
Mill Creek East Elementary (Mill Creek Community Sch Corp)	113.7		B	B
Mill Creek West Elementary (Mill Creek Community Sch Corp)	125.4		A	A
Cascade Middle School (Mill Creek Community Sch Corp)	107.5		B	A
Cascade Senior High School (Mill Creek Community Sch Corp)		111.1	A	A
Blue River Valley Jr-Sr High Sch (Blue River Valley Schools)	61.7	94.1	D	C
Blue River Valley Elementary Sch (Blue River Valley Schools)	106.2		C	C
Tri Junior-Senior High School (South Henry School Corp)	89.2	121.4	C	B
Tri-Elementary School (South Henry School Corp)	104		C	C
Shenandoah Elementary School (Shenandoah School Corporation)	103.6		B	A
Shenandoah High School (Shenandoah School Corporation)		80.1	B	B
Shenandoah Middle School (Shenandoah School Corporation)	85.3		D	B
New Castle High School (New Castle Community School Corp)		93.1	B	B
New Castle Middle School (New Castle Community School Corp)	77.3		F	D
Eastwood Elementary School (New Castle Community School Corp)	86.6		D	B
Parker Elementary School (New Castle Community School Corp)	84.2		D	D
James Whitcomb Riley Elem School (New Castle Community School Corp)	96.2		C	C
Sunnyside Elementary School (New Castle Community School Corp)	96.2		B	B
Westwood Elementary School (New Castle Community School Corp)	94.3		C	C
Wilbur Wright Elementary School (New Castle Community School Corp)	76.4		D	C
Knightstown High School (C A Beard Memorial School Corp)		109.3	A	A
Knightstown Intermediate School (C A Beard Memorial School Corp)	78.2		F	C
Knightstown Elementary School (C A Beard Memorial School Corp)	78.2		D	B
Taylor High School (Taylor Community School Corp)		100.9	A	A
Taylor Elementary School (Taylor Community School Corp)	94		D	D
Taylor Middle School (Taylor Community School Corp)	92		F	C
Northwestern Senior High School (Northwestern School Corp)		97.4	A	A
Northwestern Elementary School (Northwestern School Corp)	78.3		D	C
Howard Elementary School (Northwestern School Corp)	96.6		C	B
Northwestern Middle School (Northwestern School Corp)	106.7		C	B
Eastern Elementary School (Eastern Howard School Corporation)	82.8		D	B
Eastern Middle School (Eastern Howard School Corporation)	96.1		C	A
Eastern High School (Eastern Howard School Corporation)		132.5	A	A
Western High School (Western School Corp)		93.1	A	A
Western Middle School (Western School Corp)	104.2		B	A
Western Intermediate School (Western School Corp)	92.4		C	B
Western Primary School (Western School Corp)	92.4		C	B
Sycamore Elementary School (Kokomo School Corporation)	110.4		C	C
Bon Air Elementary School (Kokomo School Corporation)	99.7		D	B
Boulevard Elementary School (Kokomo School Corporation)	86.5		D	C
Bon Air Middle School (Kokomo School Corporation)	96.8		F	F
Central Middle School (Kokomo School Corporation)	91.9		D	D
Elwood Haynes Elementary School (Kokomo School Corporation)	83.7		F	D
Maple Crest Middle School (Kokomo School Corporation)	85.3		F	F
Lafayette Park Elementary School (Kokomo School Corporation)	102.6		C	C
Pettit Park School (Kokomo School Corporation)	74.9		F	D
Wallace Elementary School (Kokomo School Corporation)	117		A	A
Kokomo High School (Kokomo School Corporation)		86.9	B	B
Andrews Elementary School (Huntington Co Com Sch Corp)	89.3		D	B
Riverview School (Huntington Co Com Sch Corp)	100		C	B
Roanoke Elementary School (Huntington Co Com Sch Corp)	91.9		D	B
Salamonie School (Huntington Co Com Sch Corp)	83.9		C	C
Crestview Middle School (Huntington Co Com Sch Corp)	86.9		D	B
Huntington North High School (Huntington Co Com Sch Corp)		77.9	B	B
Flint Springs Elementary (Huntington Co Com Sch Corp)	74.8		F	C
Lincoln Elementary School (Huntington Co Com Sch Corp)	90.1		D	C
Horace Mann Elementary (Huntington Co Com Sch Corp)	97.6		A	A
Medora Jr & Sr High School (Medora Community School Corp)	98.8		D	D
Medora Elementary School (Medora Community School Corp)	59.5		F	F
Cortland Elementary School (Seymour Community Schools)	127.8		A	A
Seymour Senior High School (Seymour Community Schools)		98.4	B	B
Margaret R Brown Elementary School (Seymour Community Schools)	103.3		D	C
Seymour Middle School (Seymour Community Schools)	90.3		D	C
Emerson Elementary School (Seymour Community Schools)	93.3		C	B
Seymour-Jackson Elementary School (Seymour Community Schools)	87.9		D	B
Seymour-Redding Elementary School (Seymour Community Schools)	100.3		C	B
Brownstown Central Middle School (Brownstown Cnt Com Sch Corp)	95.8		D	C
Brownstown Central High School (Brownstown Cnt Com Sch Corp)		98.9	A	A
Brownstown Elementary School (Brownstown Cnt Com Sch Corp)	83.4		D	C
Crothersville Jr-Sr High School (Crothersville Community Schools)	58.9	53.4	D	C
Crothersville Elementary School (Crothersville Community Schools)	67.5		F	F
Kankakee Valley High School (Kankakee Valley School Corp)		98.5	B	A
Kankakee Valley Middle School (Kankakee Valley School Corp)	87.1		D	B
DeMotte Elementary School (Kankakee Valley School Corp)	90.4		C	B
Wheatfield Elementary School (Kankakee Valley School Corp)	90.4		C	B
Kankakee Valley Intermediate Sch (Kankakee Valley School Corp)	90.4		C	B
Rensselaer Central High School (Rensselaer Central School Corp)		86.6	B	B
Van Rensselaer Elementary School (Rensselaer Central School Corp)	103.3		C	B
Rensselaer Central Primary School (Rensselaer Central School Corp)	103.3		C	B
Rensselaer Middle School (Rensselaer Central School Corp)	83.6		D	C
Jay County High School (Jay School Corporation)		45.2	C	B
Bloomfield Elementary School (Jay School Corporation)	89.6		C	B
Redkey Elementary School (Jay School Corporation)	85		D	B
East Jay County Middle School (Jay School Corporation)	99.4		C	B
General Shanks Elem School (Jay School Corporation)	98.7		C	C
West Jay County Middle School (Jay School Corporation)	90.1		D	C
East Elementary School (Jay School Corporation)	99.1		C	B
Westlawn Elementary School (Jay School Corporation)	76.1		D	B
Deputy Elementary School (Madison Consolidated Schools)	121		A	A
Madison Consolidated High School (Madison Consolidated Schools)		93.8	B	B
Madison Consolidated Jr High Sch (Madison Consolidated Schools)	98.8		C	C
Rykers' Ridge Elementary School (Madison Consolidated Schools)	84.2		C	C
Lydia Middleton Elementary School (Madison Consolidated Schools)	104.6		B	B
Emery O Muncie Elementary School (Madison Consolidated Schools)	78.8		F	C
Southwestern High School (Southwestern-Jefferson Co Con)		107	B	B
Southwestern Elementary School (Southwestern-Jefferson Co Con)	90.2		D	C
Southwestern Middle School (Southwestern-Jefferson Co Con)	95.1		D	C
Jennings County High School (Jennings County School Corporation)		70	B	B
Sand Creek Elementary School (Jennings County School Corporation)	127.8		B	B
Scipio Elementary School (Jennings County School Corporation)	91.4		D	B
Graham Creek Elementary School (Jennings County School Corporation)	91.8		C	A
Hayden Elementary School (Jennings County School Corporation)	79.9		D	B
Brush Creek Elementary School (Jennings County School Corporation)	89.6		D	A
Jennings County Middle School (Jennings County School Corporation)	87.2		D	C
North Vernon Elementary School (Jennings County School Corporation)	92.5		C	B
Clark Elementary School (Clark-Pleasant Community Sch Corp)	97.5		C	B
Whiteland Community High School (Clark-Pleasant Community Sch Corp)		78.4	B	B
Grassy Creek Elementary School (Clark-Pleasant Community Sch Corp)	86.3		C	B
Whiteland Elementary School (Clark-Pleasant Community Sch Corp)	103.4		B	A
Clark Pleasant Middle School (Clark-Pleasant Community Sch Corp)	105.9		B	A
Break-O-Day Elementary School (Clark-Pleasant Community Sch Corp)	96.1		C	C
Pleasant Crossing Elementary (Clark-Pleasant Community Sch Corp)	72.5		D	C
Sugar Grove Elementary School (Center Grove Community School Corp)	93		C	A
Center Grove Elementary School (Center Grove Community School Corp)	116.6		A	A
Center Grove High School (Center Grove Community School Corp)		96.5	A	A
Maple Grove Elementary School (Center Grove Community School Corp)	93.5		B	A
North Grove Elementary School (Center Grove Community School Corp)	94.8		B	B
Center Grove Middle School Central (Center Grove Community School Corp)	92		C	A
Center Grove Middle School North (Center Grove Community School Corp)	91.6		C	B
Pleasant Grove Elementary School (Center Grove Community School Corp)	90.1		C	A
Edinburgh Community High School (Edinburgh Community School Corp)		88.8	B	A
Edinburgh Comm Middle School (Edinburgh Community School Corp)	70.5		F	C
East Side Elementary School (Edinburgh Community School Corp)	92.5		C	B
Needham Elementary School (Franklin Community School Corp)	85		D	C
Union Elementary School (Franklin Community School Corp)	109.4		A	A
Franklin Community High School (Franklin Community School Corp)		99.1	B	B
Franklin Community Middle School (Franklin Community School Corp)	92.8		C	C
Custer Baker Intermediate School (Franklin Community School Corp)	95.4		C	C
Northwood Elementary School (Franklin Community School Corp)	116.3		B	B
Webb Elementary School (Franklin Community School Corp)	97		D	C
Creekside Elementary School (Franklin Community School Corp)	114		B	B
Greenwood Community High Sch (Greenwood Community Sch Corp)		104.4	B	A
Greenwood Middle School (Greenwood Community Sch Corp)	101		C	A
Greenwood Northeast Elementary Sch (Greenwood Community Sch Corp)	106.8		B	B
Westwood Elementary School (Greenwood Community Sch Corp)	74.3		C	A
V O Isom Central Elem School (Greenwood Community Sch Corp)	113.5		B	A
Southwest Elementary School (Greenwood Community Sch Corp)	108.1		B	A
Indian Creek Elementary School (Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson United)	96.5		C	A
Indian Creek Intermediate School (Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson United)	96.5		C	A
Indian Creek Middle School (Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson United)	100.4		C	A
Indian Creek Sr High School (Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson United)		77	B	B
North Knox Primary School (North Knox School Corp)	99.3		C	B
North Knox Jr-Sr High School (North Knox School Corp)	75.2	91.8	C	C
North Knox Intermediate (North Knox School Corp)	99.3		C	B
South Knox Elementary School (South Knox School Corp)	96.6		C	C
South Knox Middle-High School (South Knox School Corp)	103.2	83	B	A
Benjamin Franklin Elementary Sch (Vincennes Community School Corp)	107.6		B	B
Lincoln High School (Vincennes Community School Corp)		75.8	B	B
George Rogers Clark School (Vincennes Community School Corp)	86.3		D	D
James Whitcomb Riley Elem Sch (Vincennes Community School Corp)	74.7		F	C
Tecumseh-Harrison Elementary Sch (Vincennes Community School Corp)	105.4		D	D
Francis Vigo Elementary School (Vincennes Community School Corp)	90.9		D	D
North Webster Elementary School (Wawasee Community School Corp)	87.1		D	C
Wawasee Middle School (Wawasee Community School Corp)	91.8		D	C
Milford School (Wawasee Community School Corp)	96		D	D
Syracuse Elementary School (Wawasee Community School Corp)	96.6		C	C
Wawasee High School (Wawasee Community School Corp)			UNDER APPEAL	Appeal Pending
Claypool Elementary School (Warsaw Community Schools)	89.2		C	B
Lakeview Middle School (Warsaw Community Schools)	89.6		D	C
Eisenhower Elementary School (Warsaw Community Schools)	96.9		C	B
Harrison Elementary School (Warsaw Community Schools)	95.8		C	C
Leesburg Elementary School (Warsaw Community Schools)	95.9		D	C
Warsaw Community High School (Warsaw Community Schools)		93.9	B	B
Edgewood Middle School (Warsaw Community Schools)	99.9		C	B
Jefferson Elementary School (Warsaw Community Schools)	93.6		C	C
Lincoln Elementary School (Warsaw Community Schools)	106.2		B	A
Madison Elementary School (Warsaw Community Schools)	82.8		D	D
Washington Elementary School (Warsaw Community Schools)	91.9		C	B
Akron Elementary School (Tippecanoe Valley School Corp)	96.4		C	C
Tippecanoe Valley High School (Tippecanoe Valley School Corp)		106.2	A	A
Mentone Elementary School (Tippecanoe Valley School Corp)	107.5		B	B
Tippecanoe Valley Middle School (Tippecanoe Valley School Corp)	94.1		C	B
Pierceton Elementary School (Whitko Community School Corp)	84.3		F	D
South Whitley Elementary School (Whitko Community School Corp)	84.7		D	B
Whitko Jr/Sr High School (Whitko Community School Corp)	86.9	93.8	C	A
Prairie Heights Elementary School (Prairie Heights Community Sch Corp)	97.3		C	C
Prairie Heights Middle School (Prairie Heights Community Sch Corp)	97.8		D	B
Prairie Heights Sr High School (Prairie Heights Community Sch Corp)		117.2	A	A
Westview Jr-Sr High School (Westview School Corporation)	120.6	131.9	A	A
Topeka Elementary School (Westview School Corporation)	111.9		B	A
Westview Elementary School (Westview School Corporation)	102.1		B	B
Meadowview Elementary School (Westview School Corporation)	109.9		A	A
Shipshewana-Scott Elementary Sch (Westview School Corporation)	90.6		C	B
Lakeland High School (Lakeland School Corporation)		79.5	B	B
Parkside Elementary School (Lakeland School Corporation)	108.8		C	B
Wolcott Mills Elementary School (Lakeland School Corporation)	96		D	D
Lakeland Middle School (Lakeland School Corporation)	91.4		D	D
Lima-Brighton Elementary (Lakeland School Corporation)	84.8		D	C
Jane Ball Elementary School (Hanover Community School Corp)	92.8		C	A
Lincoln Elementary School (Hanover Community School Corp)	83.1		C	A
Hanover Central Middle School (Hanover Community School Corp)	103.5		B	A
Hanover Central High School (Hanover Community School Corp)		97.9	B	B
River Forest High School (River Forest Community Sch Corp)		93.2	C	B
Henry S Evans Elementary School (River Forest Community Sch Corp)	100.6		C	C
River Forest Middle School (River Forest Community Sch Corp)	94.1		F	D
John I Meister Elementary School (River Forest Community Sch Corp)	109.9		B	B
Merrillville High School (Merrillville Community School Corp)		86.9	B	B
Pierce Middle School (Merrillville Community School Corp)	88.5		D	C
Merrillville Intermediate School (Merrillville Community School Corp)	105.9		C	B
Henry P Fieler Elementary School (Merrillville Community School Corp)	77.8		F	C
Homer Iddings Elementary School (Merrillville Community School Corp)	92.5		D	B
Edgar L Miller Elementary School (Merrillville Community School Corp)	104.1		C	B
John Wood Elementary School (Merrillville Community School Corp)	128.5		A	A
Jonas E Salk Elementary School (Merrillville Community School Corp)	103.1		C	B
Michael Grimmer Middle School (Lake Central School Corporation)	90.8		C	B
Lake Central High School (Lake Central School Corporation)		124.1	A	A
Kolling Elementary School (Lake Central School Corporation)	114.4		A	A
Hal E Clark Middle School (Lake Central School Corporation)	108		B	B
George Bibich Elementary School (Lake Central School Corporation)	119.9		A	A
James H Watson Elementary School (Lake Central School Corporation)	129.1		A	A
Kahler Middle School (Lake Central School Corporation)	99.6		C	B
Protsman Elementary School (Lake Central School Corporation)	86.6		C	B
Homan Elementary School (Lake Central School Corporation)	114		B	A
Peifer Elementary School (Lake Central School Corporation)	92.8		B	A
Oak Hill Elementary School (Tri-Creek School Corporation)	140.6		A	A
Lake Prairie Elementary School (Tri-Creek School Corporation)	110.6		B	A
Three Creeks Elem School (Tri-Creek School Corporation)	111.8		B	B
Lowell Middle School (Tri-Creek School Corporation)	103.2		C	B
Lowell Senior High School (Tri-Creek School Corporation)		93.7	B	A
Calumet New Tech High School (Lake Ridge New Tech Schools)		66	C	B
Longfellow New Tech Elementary Sch (Lake Ridge New Tech Schools)	79.3		F	C
Hosford Park New Tech Elementary (Lake Ridge New Tech Schools)	82.2		F	C
Lake Ridge New Tech Middle School (Lake Ridge New Tech Schools)	88		F	C
Robert Taft Middle School (Crown Point Community School Corp)	87.6		C	A
Douglas MacArthur Elem School (Crown Point Community School Corp)	133.1		A	A
Dwight D Eisenhower Elem School (Crown Point Community School Corp)	87		B	A
Winfield Elementary School (Crown Point Community School Corp)	106.6		A	A
Crown Point High School (Crown Point Community School Corp)		106.7	A	A
Lake Street Elementary School (Crown Point Community School Corp)	117.9		A	A
Solon Robinson Elementary School (Crown Point Community School Corp)	92.8		B	A
Jerry Ross Elementary School (Crown Point Community School Corp)	106.6		A	A
Timothy Ball Elementary School (Crown Point Community School Corp)	111.4		A	A
Colonel John Wheeler Middle School (Crown Point Community School Corp)	86.2		C	B
East Chicago Central High School (School City of East Chicago)			UNDER APPEAL	Appeal Pending
Benjamin Harrison Elementary Sch (School City of East Chicago)	85.7		F	F
Abraham Lincoln Elementary School (School City of East Chicago)	82.1		F	D
William McKinley Elementary School (School City of East Chicago)	94		F	F
George Washington Elementary Sch (School City of East Chicago)	85.7		F	D
Joseph Block Middle School (School City of East Chicago)	81.1		F	C
Thomas A Edison Jr-Sr HS (Lake Station Community Schools)	70.6	93.2	D	C
Alexander Hamilton Elementary Sch (Lake Station Community Schools)	110.4		C	B
Virgil I Bailey Elementary School (Lake Station Community Schools)	83.9		D	B
Banneker Elementary at Marquette (Gary Community School Corp)	72.9		F	F
Beveridge Elementary School (Gary Community School Corp)	86.4		F	F
Frankie W McCullough Acad for Girl (Gary Community School Corp)	71.5		F	F
Bailly Preparatory Academy (Gary Community School Corp)	98.1		D	D
Glen Park Acad for Excel in Lrn (Gary Community School Corp)	83.9		F	F
West Side Leadership Academy (Gary Community School Corp)			UNDER APPEAL	Appeal Pending
Daniel Hale Williams Elem Sch (Gary Community School Corp)	97.3		F	F
Gary Middle School (Gary Community School Corp)	62.4		D	No Grade
Beiriger Elementary School (Griffith Public Schools)	64.5		F	B
Griffith Senior High School (Griffith Public Schools)		98	B	A
Griffith Middle School (Griffith Public Schools)	82.2		D	B
Eldon Ready Elementary School (Griffith Public Schools)	100.4		C	A
Elsie Wadsworth Elementary School (Griffith Public Schools)	81.6		D	A
George Rogers Clark Md/HS (School City of Hammond)	85.8	112.4	C	C
Donald E Gavit Middle/High School (School City of Hammond)	102.7	91.9	C	C
Hammond High School (School City of Hammond)		74.8	C	B
Morton Senior High School (School City of Hammond)		71.8	C	C
Joseph Hess Elementary School (School City of Hammond)	95.3		D	C
Henry W Eggers Middle School (School City of Hammond)	84.2		F	F
Charles N Scott Middle School (School City of Hammond)	93		D	D
Columbia Elementary School (School City of Hammond)	89.4		F	D
Thomas A Edison Elementary School (School City of Hammond)	92.4		D	C
Benjamin Franklin Elementary Sch (School City of Hammond)	67.8		F	D
Warren G Harding Elementary School (School City of Hammond)	110.6		C	C
Washington Irving Elementary Sch (School City of Hammond)	72.3		F	D
Thomas Jefferson Elementary School (School City of Hammond)	85.4		D	B
Kenwood Elementary School (School City of Hammond)	102.2		D	B
Lafayette Elementary School (School City of Hammond)	97.1		D	B
Abraham Lincoln Elementary School (School City of Hammond)	99.7		D	C
Maywood Elementary School (School City of Hammond)	84.4		F	C
Morton Elementary School (School City of Hammond)	91.9		D	C
Lew Wallace Elementary School (School City of Hammond)	76		F	D
Frank O'Bannon Elementary School (School City of Hammond)	80		F	D
Highland High School (School Town of Highland)		90.6	B	B
Highland Middle School (School Town of Highland)	110.1		C	C
Judith Morton Johnston Elementary (School Town of Highland)	114.9		B	A
Mildred Merkley Elementary School (School Town of Highland)	88.7		D	B
Southridge Elementary School (School Town of Highland)	71		D	C
Allen J Warren Elementary School (School Town of Highland)	70.3		F	C
Hobart High School (School City of Hobart)		96.5	B	A
Hobart Middle School (School City of Hobart)	85.3		D	B
Early Learning Center-George Earle (School City of Hobart)	90.8		C	B
Liberty Elementary School (School City of Hobart)	79.2		D	B
Ridge View Elementary School (School City of Hobart)	97.4		C	C
Joan Martin Elementary School (School City of Hobart)	95		C	B
Munster High School (School Town of Munster)		132.3	A	A
Wilbur Wright Middle School (School Town of Munster)	103.3		B	A
James B Eads Elementary School (School Town of Munster)	104.1		B	B
Ernest R Elliott Elementary School (School Town of Munster)	100.1		B	B
Frank H Hammond Elementary School (School Town of Munster)	110.7		A	A
Whiting High School (School City of Whiting)		97.7	B	B
Whiting Middle School (School City of Whiting)	103.2		C	C
Nathan Hale Elementary School (School City of Whiting)	97.1		D	C
Prairie View Elementary School (New Prairie United School Corp)	91.6		C	A
New Prairie High School (New Prairie United School Corp)		101.8	A	A
Rolling Prairie Elementary School (New Prairie United School Corp)	100.9		C	B
New Prairie Middle School (New Prairie United School Corp)	97.4		C	B
Olive Township Elementary School (New Prairie United School Corp)	107		B	A
Westville Elementary School (M S D of New Durham Township)	89		D	B
Westville High School (M S D of New Durham Township)	105.7	93.7	B	B
LaCrosse School (Tri-Township Cons School Corp)		103.6	B	A
Wanatah School (Tri-Township Cons School Corp)	99.1		C	C
Coolspring Elementary School (Michigan City Area Schools)	108.2		C	C
Springfield Elementary School (Michigan City Area Schools)	106.8		C	C
Martin T Krueger Middle School (Michigan City Area Schools)	79.5		F	D
Barker Middle School (Michigan City Area Schools)	96.2		D	D
Michigan City High School (Michigan City Area Schools)		85.1	C	B
Edgewood Elementary School (Michigan City Area Schools)	75.1		F	C
Lake Hills Elementary School (Michigan City Area Schools)	109.9		C	C
Joy Elementary School (Michigan City Area Schools)	96.4		C	C
Knapp Elementary School (Michigan City Area Schools)	116		B	A
Marsh Elementary School (Michigan City Area Schools)	92.3		D	B
Pine Elementary School (Michigan City Area Schools)	89		D	D
South Central Elementary School (South Central Com School Corp)	82		D	B
South Central Jr-Sr High School (South Central Com School Corp)	98	141.4	A	A
Indian Trail Elementary School (LaPorte Community School Corp)	96.3		C	B
Kesling Middle School (LaPorte Community School Corp)	94		C	C
Kingsford Heights Elementary Sch (LaPorte Community School Corp)	91.6		C	B
Kingsbury Elementary School (LaPorte Community School Corp)	96		C	B
LaPorte High School (LaPorte Community School Corp)		75.5	B	B
Paul F Boston Middle School (LaPorte Community School Corp)	87.7		C	C
Hailmann Elementary School (LaPorte Community School Corp)	76.7		D	B
F Willard Crichfield Elementary (LaPorte Community School Corp)	86.6		C	A
Lincoln Elementary School (LaPorte Community School Corp)	87.6		D	C
Riley Elementary School (LaPorte Community School Corp)	110.1		B	A
Handley Elementary School (LaPorte Community School Corp)	80.4		D	D
Fayetteville Elementary School (North Lawrence Com Schools)	99.6		C	B
Needmore Elementary School (North Lawrence Com Schools)	91.4		C	C
Springville Elementary School (North Lawrence Com Schools)	63.6		F	D
Heltonville Elementary School (North Lawrence Com Schools)	94.3		D	B
Oolitic Middle School (North Lawrence Com Schools)	78.5		F	D
Dollens Elementary School (North Lawrence Com Schools)	96.3		C	C
Shawswick Elementary School (North Lawrence Com Schools)	92		C	B
Shawswick Middle School (North Lawrence Com Schools)	99.5		C	C
Bedford Middle School (North Lawrence Com Schools)	85		F	D
Lincoln Elementary School (North Lawrence Com Schools)	94.9		D	A
Bedford-North Lawrence High School (North Lawrence Com Schools)		87.6	B	B
Parkview Primary School (North Lawrence Com Schools)	84.9		D	C
Stalker Elementary School (North Lawrence Com Schools)	91.3		D	D
Parkview Intermediate School (North Lawrence Com Schools)	84.9		D	C
Burris Elementary School (Mitchell Community Schools)	99.1		C	C
Hatfield Elementary School (Mitchell Community Schools)	99.1		C	C
Mitchell Jr High School (Mitchell Community Schools)	101.8		C	C
Mitchell High School (Mitchell Community Schools)		87.1	B	B
Frankton Jr-Sr High School (Frankton-Lapel Community Schools)	109	71.4	B	B
Frankton Elementary School (Frankton-Lapel Community Schools)	90.6		D	C
Lapel Sr High School (Frankton-Lapel Community Schools)		95.7	B	A
Lapel Middle School (Frankton-Lapel Community Schools)	99.9		C	B
Lapel Elementary School (Frankton-Lapel Community Schools)	91.9		C	B
East Elementary School (South Madison Com Sch Corp)	97.6		B	B
Pendleton Heights High School (South Madison Com Sch Corp)		89.2	B	A
Pendleton Heights Middle School (South Madison Com Sch Corp)	107.8		B	A
Pendleton Elementary School (South Madison Com Sch Corp)	107.7		B	B
Maple Ridge Elementary School (South Madison Com Sch Corp)	109.1		B	B
Alexandria-Monroe High School (Alexandria Community School Corp)	69.5	112.8	C	B
Alexandria-Monroe Intermediate (Alexandria Community School Corp)	98.5		C	B
Alexandria-Monroe Elementary (Alexandria Community School Corp)	98.5		C	B
COMPASS Alternative School (Anderson Community School Corp)	38.8		F	No Grade
Anderson High School (Anderson Community School Corp)		81.5	B	B
Edgewood Elementary School (Anderson Community School Corp)	82		F	F
Tenth Street Elementary School (Anderson Community School Corp)	87.1		F	C
Valley Grove Elementary School (Anderson Community School Corp)	90.2		D	C
Highland Middle School (Anderson Community School Corp)	91.3		F	D
Eastside Elementary School (Anderson Community School Corp)	79.1		F	D
Anderson Elementary School (Anderson Community School Corp)	90.1		D	D
Erskine Elementary School (Anderson Community School Corp)	80.2		F	F
Elwood Jr-Sr High School (Elwood Community School Corp)	60.5	79.4	D	C
Elwood Intermediate School (Elwood Community School Corp)	82.3		F	C
Elwood Elementary School (Elwood Community School Corp)	82.3		F	C
Decatur Central High School (M S D Decatur Township)		79.1	B	B
Gold Academy (M S D Decatur Township)	74.6		F	C
Blue Academy (M S D Decatur Township)	77.7		F	C
Decatur Middle School (M S D Decatur Township)	65.5		F	F
Stephen Decatur Elementary School (M S D Decatur Township)	88.5		F	F
Valley Mills Elementary School (M S D Decatur Township)	74.1		F	C
Decatur Twp School for Excellence (M S D Decatur Township)		79.2	D	D
West Newton Elementary School (M S D Decatur Township)	82.4		D	B
Liberty Early Elementary School (M S D Decatur Township)	78.8		F	C
Franklin Central High School (Franklin Township Com Sch Corp)		83.4	B	A
South Creek Elementary (Franklin Township Com Sch Corp)	107.9		B	A
Franklin Township Middle Schl East (Franklin Township Com Sch Corp)	77.1		D	B
Franklin Township Middle Sch West (Franklin Township Com Sch Corp)	86.2		D	B
Thompson Crossing Elementary Sch (Franklin Township Com Sch Corp)	103.4		B	A
Mary Adams Elementary School (Franklin Township Com Sch Corp)	101		B	A
Acton Elementary School (Franklin Township Com Sch Corp)	98.8		A	A
Arlington Elementary School (Franklin Township Com Sch Corp)	94		C	B
Lillie Idella Kitley Elementary (Franklin Township Com Sch Corp)	95.3		C	C
Bunker Hill Elementary School (Franklin Township Com Sch Corp)	105.9		B	A
Lawrence Central High School (M S D Lawrence Township)		87.9	B	B
Lawrence North High School (M S D Lawrence Township)		94.4	B	B
Belzer Middle School (M S D Lawrence Township)	99.8		D	C
Brook Park Elementary School (M S D Lawrence Township)	77.1		F	F
Mary Evelyn Castle Elementary Sch (M S D Lawrence Township)	106.4		C	B
Early Learning Center (M S D Lawrence Township)	104.9		C	C
Crestview Elementary School (M S D Lawrence Township)	112.6		C	C
Amy Beverland Elementary (M S D Lawrence Township)	102.7		B	A
Harrison Hill Elementary School (M S D Lawrence Township)	93		F	D
Fall Creek Valley Middle School (M S D Lawrence Township)	76		F	C
Indian Creek Elementary School (M S D Lawrence Township)	113.7		C	C
Forest Glen Elementary School (M S D Lawrence Township)	121.7		A	A
Winding Ridge Elementary School (M S D Lawrence Township)	89.2		F	C
Oaklandon Elementary School (M S D Lawrence Township)	91.9		D	D
Skiles Test Elementary School (M S D Lawrence Township)	101.4		D	C
Sunnyside Elementary School (M S D Lawrence Township)	110.2		C	C
Perry Meridian High School (Perry Township Schools)		89.8	B	B
Southport High School (Perry Township Schools)		66.7	C	B
Southport 6th Grade Academy (Perry Township Schools)	111.9		B	A
Perry Meridian 6th Grade Academy (Perry Township Schools)	95.3		C	B
Southport Middle School (Perry Township Schools)	101		C	B
Perry Meridian Middle School (Perry Township Schools)	113		B	B
William Henry Burkhart Elementary (Perry Township Schools)	112.2		B	A
Mary Bryan Elementary School (Perry Township Schools)	115.1		B	B
Clinton Young Elementary School (Perry Township Schools)	110.9		C	C
Glenns Valley Elementary School (Perry Township Schools)	108.2		B	A
Abraham Lincoln Elementary School (Perry Township Schools)	118.1		B	B
Douglas MacArthur Elementary Sch (Perry Township Schools)	114.5		B	A
Homecroft Elementary School (Perry Township Schools)	126.4		A	A
Southport Elementary School (Perry Township Schools)	126.6		A	A
Winchester Village Elementary (Perry Township Schools)	98		C	B
Jeremiah Gray Elementary School (Perry Township Schools)	86.5		D	B
Rosa Parks Elementary School (Perry Township Schools)	120.5		A	A
Fishback Creek Public Academy (M S D Pike Township)	101.4		C	B
Deer Run Elementary (M S D Pike Township)	108.4		D	B
Pike High School (M S D Pike Township)		116.6	A	A
College Park Elementary School (M S D Pike Township)	112.3		C	B
Lincoln Middle School (M S D Pike Township)	80.7		F	D
Guion Creek Middle School (M S D Pike Township)	80.7		F	D
Central Elementary School (M S D Pike Township)	77.6		F	D
Eagle Creek Elementary School (M S D Pike Township)	80.3		D	B
Eastbrook Elementary School (M S D Pike Township)	93.7		D	C
Guion Creek Elementary School (M S D Pike Township)	98.7		C	B
Snacks Crossing Elementary School (M S D Pike Township)	94.1		D	C
New Augusta Public Academy - South (M S D Pike Township)	100.4		D	C
New Augusta Public Academy - North (M S D Pike Township)	93.1		D	C
Warren Central High School (M S D Warren Township)		84.8	C	B
Creston Middle School (M S D Warren Township)	90.7		F	D
Stonybrook Middle School (M S D Warren Township)	94.4		D	D
Raymond Park Middle School (M S D Warren Township)	103.4		D	C
Eastridge Elementary School (M S D Warren Township)	102.5		D	C
Hawthorne Elementary School (M S D Warren Township)	132.3		B	B
Grassy Creek Elementary School (M S D Warren Township)	113.6		B	A
Lakeside Elementary School (M S D Warren Township)	84.1		F	D
Lowell Elementary School (M S D Warren Township)	105.4		C	C
Pleasant Run Elementary School (M S D Warren Township)	87.7		D	C
Sunny Heights Elementary School (M S D Warren Township)	91		F	F
Brookview Elementary School (M S D Warren Township)	104.1		C	B
Liberty Park Elementary School (M S D Warren Township)	123.5		C	A
Creston Intermediate Academy (M S D Warren Township)	93.8		D	D
Stonybrook Intermediate Academy (M S D Warren Township)	84.5		F	D
Raymond Park Intermediate (M S D Warren Township)	98.5		D	D
Allisonville Elementary School (M S D Washington Township)	94.3		C	B
Crooked Creek Elementary School (M S D Washington Township)	89.6		C	B
Greenbriar Elementary School (M S D Washington Township)	87.5		F	C
John Strange Elementary School (M S D Washington Township)	114.3		B	A
Nora Elementary School (M S D Washington Township)	108.2		C	B
Spring Mill Elementary School (M S D Washington Township)	97.7		C	C
Fox Hill Elementary School (M S D Washington Township)	103.1		C	C
Eastwood Middle School (M S D Washington Township)	107.9		B	B
Northview Middle School (M S D Washington Township)	108.5		C	C
Westlane Middle School (M S D Washington Township)	100		D	D
North Central High School (M S D Washington Township)		92.9	B	B
Ben Davis High School (M S D Wayne Township)		71.7	B	B
Ben Davis Ninth Grade Center (M S D Wayne Township)			No Grade	No Grade
Chapel Hill 7th & 8th Grade Center (M S D Wayne Township)	89.5		F	C
Lynhurst 7th & 8th Grade Center (M S D Wayne Township)	94		D	C
Maplewood Elementary School (M S D Wayne Township)	79.8		F	D
Chapel Glen Elementary School (M S D Wayne Township)	80.4		F	D
Garden City Elementary School (M S D Wayne Township)	91.5		D	C
McClelland Elementary School (M S D Wayne Township)	110.9		C	B
Rhoades Elementary School (M S D Wayne Township)	87.2		F	D
Robey Elementary School (M S D Wayne Township)	88.1		D	B
North Wayne Elementary School (M S D Wayne Township)	74.3		F	D
Stout Field Elementary School (M S D Wayne Township)	92.2		D	B
Westlake Elementary School (M S D Wayne Township)	88		D	C
Chapelwood Elementary School (M S D Wayne Township)	99.6		C	B
Achieve Virtual Education Academy (M S D Wayne Township)			F	D
Bridgeport Elementary School (M S D Wayne Township)	111.3		C	B
Ben Davis University High School (M S D Wayne Township)		80.5	B	B
Beech Grove Sr High School (Beech Grove City Schools)		65.2	C	B
Beech Grove Middle School (Beech Grove City Schools)	96.5		D	D
Central Elementary School (Beech Grove City Schools)	94		D	D
South Grove Intermediate School (Beech Grove City Schools)	94		D	C
Hornet Park Elementary School (Beech Grove City Schools)	94		D	D
Impact Academy (Indianapolis Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Thrival Academy (Indianapolis Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Arsenal Technical High School (Indianapolis Public Schools)		71.7	C	No Grade
Arlington Community Middle School (Indianapolis Public Schools)	61.4		D	No Grade
HW Longfellow Med/STEM Magnet Midl (Indianapolis Public Schools)	73.3		C	A
Crispus Attucks High School (Indianapolis Public Schools)		79.1	C	No Grade
Shortridge High School (Indianapolis Public Schools)		91.9	A	A
Cold Spring School (Indianapolis Public Schools)	91.4		A	A
Thomas D Gregg School 15 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	102		A	A
Northwest Community Middle School (Indianapolis Public Schools)	68.8		F	F
James A Garfield School 31 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	75.1		F	D
Eleanor Skillen School 34 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	65.6		F	F
Center for Inquiry School 70 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	90.5		A	A
William McKinley School 39 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	116.1		C	C
James Whitcomb Riley School 43 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	69.6		F	F
Riverside School 44 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	78		F	A
Daniel Webster School 46 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	76.2		F	D
Louis B Russell Jr School 48 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	75.3		F	F
William Penn School 49 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	75		F	D
James Russell Lowell School 51 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	67.9		F	F
Brookside School 54 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	61.5		F	F
IPS/ Butler Eliza Blaker School 55 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	64.2		F	B
Francis W Parker School 56 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	71.6		F	D
George W Julian School 57 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	73.9		F	D
Ralph Waldo Emerson School 58 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	59.7		F	D
IPS/ Butler Lab @ William Bell 60 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	81		D	C
Raymond F Brandes School 65 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	88.2		F	D
Stephen Foster School 67 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	62.6		F	F
Joyce Kilmer School 69 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	86.6		B	B
Edison School of the Arts 47 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	104.8		A	A
Theodore Potter School 74 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	68.8		F	C
Merle Sidener Gifted Academy (Indianapolis Public Schools)	89.3		B	A
Carl Wilde School 79 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	82.8		F	D
Christian Park School 82 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	68.4		F	F
Floro Torrence School 83 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	79.1		F	D
George Washington Carver School 87 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	99.3		C	B
Anna Brochhausen School 88 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	91.7		F	F
Ernie Pyle School 90 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	97.2		D	B
Rousseau McClellan School 91 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	86.3		D	D
George H Fisher School 93 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	115.7		C	A
Meredith Nicholson School 96 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	104.3		D	D
Emma Donnan Elementary School (Indianapolis Public Schools)	104.6		D	A
H L Harshman Middle School (Indianapolis Public Schools)	97.2		F	F
Phalen at Francis Scott Key 103 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	78.8		F	A
Charles Warren Fairbanks Sch 105 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	77.9		F	F
Robert Lee Frost School 106 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	84		F	F
Lew Wallace School 107 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	88.7		F	D
Jonathan Jennings School 109 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	69.3		F	D
Paul I Miller School 114 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	90.9		F	D
George S Buck School 94 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	75.3		F	F
Arlington Woods School 99 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	59.5		F	F
Center For Inquiry School 2 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	104.3		C	C
George Washington High School (Indianapolis Public Schools)		68	D	No Grade
Center for Inquiry School 84 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	111		A	A
Clarence Farrington School 61 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	77		F	F
Center for Inquiry School 27 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	81.8		F	C
Frederick Douglass School 19 (Indianapolis Public Schools)	69.2		D	D
Speedway Junior High School (School Town of Speedway)	123.5		A	A
Speedway Senior High School (School Town of Speedway)		127.2	A	A
James A Allison Elementary Sch 3 (School Town of Speedway)	88		C	B
Carl G Fisher Elementary School 1 (School Town of Speedway)	94.7		C	A
Arthur C Newby Elementary School 2 (School Town of Speedway)	120		A	A
Frank H Wheeler Elementary Sch 4 (School Town of Speedway)	97		C	A
Culver Community Middle/High Sch (Culver Community Schools Corp)	87	118.2	C	B
Culver Elementary School (Culver Community Schools Corp)	79.9		D	C
Argos Community Elementary (Argos Community Schools)	112.2		B	B
Argos Comm Jr-Sr High School (Argos Community Schools)	104	100.4	B	B
Bremen Senior High School (Bremen Public Schools)		90.8	B	A
Bremen Elementary/Middle School (Bremen Public Schools)	84.8		D	B
Menominee Elementary School (Plymouth Community School Corp)	80.8		F	C
Plymouth High School (Plymouth Community School Corp)		96.3	B	B
Lincoln Junior High School (Plymouth Community School Corp)	92.2		D	C
Riverside Intermediate (Plymouth Community School Corp)	106.5		B	B
Jefferson Elementary School (Plymouth Community School Corp)	91.7		D	D
Washington Discovery Academy (Plymouth Community School Corp)	142.4		A	A
Webster Elementary School (Plymouth Community School Corp)	72.7		F	D
Triton Elementary School (Triton School Corporation)	104.3		C	B
Triton Jr-Sr High School (Triton School Corporation)	114.1	125.3	A	A
Shoals Community High School (Shoals Community School Corp)		108.6	B	B
Shoals Community Elementary School (Shoals Community School Corp)	71.2		F	B
Shoals Middle School (Shoals Community School Corp)	59.2		F	B
Loogootee Elementary School (Loogootee Community Sch Corp)	66.8		D	A
Loogootee Middle School (Loogootee Community Sch Corp)	79		D	B
Loogootee High School (Loogootee Community Sch Corp)		92	B	B
Pipe Creek Elementary School (Maconaquah School Corp)	80.8		D	D
Maconaquah High School (Maconaquah School Corp)		113.1	A	A
Maconaquah Middle School (Maconaquah School Corp)	99.8		D	C
Maconaquah Elementary School (Maconaquah School Corp)	80.8		D	D
North Miami Middle/High School (North Miami Community Schools)	79.3	70.2	C	B
North Miami Elementary School (North Miami Community Schools)	86		D	B
Oak Hill Junior High School (Oak Hill United School Corp)	110.5		C	B
Swayzee Elementary School (Oak Hill United School Corp)	113.4		B	B
Oak Hill High School (Oak Hill United School Corp)		98.5	B	A
Converse Elementary School (Oak Hill United School Corp)	80.3		D	B
Sweetser Elementary School (Oak Hill United School Corp)	80.3		D	B
Peru High School (Peru Community Schools)		74.7	B	B
Peru Junior High School (Peru Community Schools)	80.7		F	B
Blair Pointe Upper Elementary (Peru Community Schools)	91.1		D	B
Elmwood Primary Learning Center (Peru Community Schools)	91.1		D	B
Edgewood High School (Richland-Bean Blossom C S C)		86.3	B	B
Edgewood Junior High School (Richland-Bean Blossom C S C)	103.5		B	A
Edgewood Primary School (Richland-Bean Blossom C S C)	96.6		C	B
Edgewood Intermediate School (Richland-Bean Blossom C S C)	96.6		C	B
Unionville Elementary School (Monroe County Community Sch Corp)	91.2		B	A
Lakeview Elementary School (Monroe County Community Sch Corp)	99.1		C	B
Grandview Elementary School (Monroe County Community Sch Corp)	82.4		F	C
Highland Park Elementary School (Monroe County Community Sch Corp)	95.6		C	C
Summit Elementary School (Monroe County Community Sch Corp)	78.8		D	B
Bloomington High School South (Monroe County Community Sch Corp)		104.6	A	A
Bloomington High School North (Monroe County Community Sch Corp)		92.3	A	A
Tri-North Middle School (Monroe County Community Sch Corp)	107.1		B	B
Lora L Batchelor Middle School (Monroe County Community Sch Corp)	96		C	B
Binford Elementary School (Monroe County Community Sch Corp)	87.2		C	A
Arlington Heights Elementary Sch (Monroe County Community Sch Corp)	94.1		C	A
Childs Elementary School (Monroe County Community Sch Corp)	104.9		A	A
Clear Creek Elementary School (Monroe County Community Sch Corp)	71.3		F	C
Fairview Elementary School (Monroe County Community Sch Corp)	95.7		D	C
The Acad of Sci & Entrepreneurship (Monroe County Community Sch Corp)		112.8	A	A
Marlin Elementary School (Monroe County Community Sch Corp)	105.1		B	A
Rogers Elementary School (Monroe County Community Sch Corp)	87.2		C	A
Bloomington Graduation School (Monroe County Community Sch Corp)			C	C
Jackson Creek Middle School (Monroe County Community Sch Corp)	100.6		B	B
Templeton Elementary School (Monroe County Community Sch Corp)	89.3		D	C
University Elementary School (Monroe County Community Sch Corp)	86.3		C	A
Pleasant Hill Elementary School (North Montgomery Com Sch Corp)	92.4		C	B
Lester B Sommer Elementary School (North Montgomery Com Sch Corp)	123.8		B	A
Northridge Middle School (North Montgomery Com Sch Corp)	97.3		C	B
Sugar Creek Elementary School (North Montgomery Com Sch Corp)	121.5		B	B
North Montgomery High School (North Montgomery Com Sch Corp)		75.6	B	A
Ladoga Elementary School (South Montgomery Com Sch Corp)	98.3		B	A
Southmont Sr High School (South Montgomery Com Sch Corp)		77.1	B	A
Walnut Elementary School (South Montgomery Com Sch Corp)	108.7		B	A
Southmont Jr High School (South Montgomery Com Sch Corp)	73.7		D	B
New Market Elementary School (South Montgomery Com Sch Corp)	96.6		C	A
Crawfordsville Sr High School (Crawfordsville Community Schools)		80	B	B
Crawfordsville Middle School (Crawfordsville Community Schools)	88.9		D	C
Mollie B Hoover Elementary School (Crawfordsville Community Schools)	81.2		F	C
Laura Hose Elementary School (Crawfordsville Community Schools)	81.2		D	C
Meredith Nicholson Elementary Sch (Crawfordsville Community Schools)	81.2		D	C
Monrovia Middle School (Monroe-Gregg School District)	89.2		D	C
Monrovia High School (Monroe-Gregg School District)		101.1	A	A
Monrovia Elementary School (Monroe-Gregg School District)	104.8		C	B
Eminence Jr-Sr High School (Eminence Community School Corp)	64.9	93.1	D	C
Eminence Elementary School (Eminence Community School Corp)	54.9		F	C
Green Township Elementary School (M S D Martinsville Schools)	80.4		D	C
Martinsville High School (M S D Martinsville Schools)		83.2	B	A
John R. Wooden Middle School (M S D Martinsville Schools)	92		A	A
Bell Intermediate Academy (M S D Martinsville Schools)	82.1		B	A
Brooklyn STEM Academy (M S D Martinsville Schools)	90.1		C	B
Centerton Elementary School (M S D Martinsville Schools)	119.3		A	A
South Elementary School (M S D Martinsville Schools)	84		D	B
Charles L Smith Arts Academy (M S D Martinsville Schools)	93.8		C	B
Paragon Elementary School (M S D Martinsville Schools)	111.5		B	B
Poston Road Elementary School (M S D Martinsville Schools)	131.7		A	A
Mooresville High School (Mooresville Con School Corp)		82.3	B	B
Paul Hadley Middle School (Mooresville Con School Corp)	81.1		D	B
Neil Armstrong Elementary School (Mooresville Con School Corp)	107.6		C	B
Newby Memorial Elementary School (Mooresville Con School Corp)	104.4		C	A
North Madison Elementary School (Mooresville Con School Corp)	110.6		B	B
Northwood Elementary School (Mooresville Con School Corp)	95.8		C	B
Waverly Elementary School (Mooresville Con School Corp)	94.4		C	A
Morocco Elementary School (North Newton School Corp)	89.5		C	C
Lake Village Elementary School (North Newton School Corp)	97		C	B
Lincoln Elementary School (North Newton School Corp)	84.9		D	C
North Newton Jr-Sr High School (North Newton School Corp)	82	106.2	C	C
South Newton Senior High School (South Newton School Corp)		97.8	A	A
South Newton Elementary School (South Newton School Corp)	110.9		B	B
South Newton Middle School (South Newton School Corp)	115.3		B	B
Central Noble Primary School (Central Noble Com School Corp)	85		D	C
Central Noble Junior Senior HS (Central Noble Com School Corp)	83.3	86.9	C	B
Central Noble Elementary School (Central Noble Com School Corp)	87.9		D	D
Avilla Elementary School (East Noble School Corporation)	81.3		D	C
East Noble High School (East Noble School Corporation)		109	A	A
East Noble Middle School (East Noble School Corporation)	89.6		D	C
Rome City Elementary School (East Noble School Corporation)	91.6		D	C
North Side Elementary School (East Noble School Corporation)	54.4		F	C
South Side Elementary School (East Noble School Corporation)	76.4		F	C
Wayne Center Elem School (East Noble School Corporation)	81.8		D	C
West Noble High School (West Noble School Corporation)		70.7	C	B
West Noble Primary School (West Noble School Corporation)	84		D	B
West Noble Middle School (West Noble School Corporation)	90.2		D	B
West Noble Elementary School (West Noble School Corporation)	84		D	B
Ohio County Elementary School (Rising Sun-Ohio Co Com)	95.4		C	B
Ohio County Middle School (Rising Sun-Ohio Co Com)	99		C	A
Rising Sun High School (Rising Sun-Ohio Co Com)		112.3	A	A
Orleans Jr-Sr High School (Orleans Community Schools)	88.3	132.8	B	B
Orleans Elementary School (Orleans Community Schools)	98.2		C	B
Paoli Jr & Sr High School (Paoli Community School Corp)	113.9	89.3	B	B
Throop Elementary School (Paoli Community School Corp)	93.6		C	C
Springs Valley Comm High School (Springs Valley Com School Corp)	92.6	95.2	C	C
Springs Valley Elementary School (Springs Valley Com School Corp)	104.8		B	B
Owen Valley Middle School (Spencer-Owen Community Schools)	99.8		C	C
Patricksburg Elementary School (Spencer-Owen Community Schools)	96.1		D	D
Gosport Elementary School (Spencer-Owen Community Schools)	109.5		B	A
Owen Valley Community High School (Spencer-Owen Community Schools)		65.2	B	B
Spencer Elementary School (Spencer-Owen Community Schools)	109.8		C	C
McCormick's Creek Elementary Sch (Spencer-Owen Community Schools)	104.1		C	B
Rosedale Elementary School (Southwest Parke Com Sch Corp)	97.2		C	C
Riverton Parke Jr-Sr High School (Southwest Parke Com Sch Corp)	76.7	109.9	C	B
Montezuma Elementary School (Southwest Parke Com Sch Corp)	84.9		D	C
Perry Central Elementary School (Perry Central Com Schools Corp)	86.1		C	B
Perry Central Jr-Sr High School (Perry Central Com Schools Corp)	69.4	99.7	C	A
Cannelton Elementary & High School (Cannelton City Schools)	52.6	69.7	F	D
Tell City Jr-Sr High School (Tell City-Troy Twp School Corp)	119	96.6	A	A
William Tell Elementary School (Tell City-Troy Twp School Corp)	91.9		C	C
Rockville Elementary School (North Central Parke Comm Schl Corp)	82.3		D	C
Turkey Run Elementary School (North Central Parke Comm Schl Corp)	97.8		C	C
Parke Heritage Middle School (North Central Parke Comm Schl Corp)	77.4		C	No Grade
Parke Heritage High School (North Central Parke Comm Schl Corp)		106.8	A	A
Pike Central High School (Pike County School Corp)		87.3	B	B
Pike Central Middle School (Pike County School Corp)	85.7		D	C
Winslow Elementary School (Pike County School Corp)	87.8		D	C
Petersburg Elementary School (Pike County School Corp)	85.2		D	C
Hebron High School (M S D Boone Township)		94.6	A	A
Hebron Middle School (M S D Boone Township)	111.9		C	B
Hebron Elementary School (M S D Boone Township)	64.7		F	C
Jackson Elementary School (Duneland School Corporation)	99.5		B	A
Brummitt Elementary School (Duneland School Corporation)	79		C	B
Liberty Intermediate School (Duneland School Corporation)	87.1		C	A
Liberty Elementary School (Duneland School Corporation)	98.9		B	A
Chesterton Senior High School (Duneland School Corporation)		85.7	B	A
Westchester Intermediate School (Duneland School Corporation)	95.4		C	C
Bailly Elementary School (Duneland School Corporation)	95.1		C	B
Chesterton Middle School (Duneland School Corporation)	78.2		D	C
Newton Yost Elementary School (Duneland School Corporation)	88.3		C	B
Morgan Township Middle/High School (East Porter County School Corp)	96.8	114.8	B	A
Morgan Township Elementary School (East Porter County School Corp)	108.7		A	A
Kouts Middle/High School (East Porter County School Corp)	94.4	90.5	B	B
Kouts Elementary School (East Porter County School Corp)	112		B	B
Washington Twp Middle/High School (East Porter County School Corp)	99.6	127.1	A	A
Washington Twp Elementary School (East Porter County School Corp)	80.5		C	B
Boone Grove Elementary School (Porter Township School Corp)	85		D	C
Boone Grove High School (Porter Township School Corp)		120.7	A	A
Boone Grove Middle School (Porter Township School Corp)	89		D	B
Porter Lakes Elementary School (Porter Township School Corp)	85		D	C
Wheeler High School (Union Township School Corp)		106.2	A	A
Union Township Middle School (Union Township School Corp)	101.7		B	A
Union Center Elementary School (Union Township School Corp)	78.3		C	A
John Simatovich Elementary School (Union Township School Corp)	92.3		B	B
Portage High School (Portage Township Schools)		93.2	B	B
Wallace Aylesworth Elementary (Portage Township Schools)	86.9		D	B
William Fegely Middle School (Portage Township Schools)	91.8		D	B
Crisman Elementary School (Portage Township Schools)	80.5		D	B
Central Elementary School (Portage Township Schools)	78		D	C
Ethel R Jones Elementary School (Portage Township Schools)	87.9		D	B
Willowcreek Middle School (Portage Township Schools)	86.3		D	B
Rowena Kyle Elementary School (Portage Township Schools)	70.5		F	B
Paul Saylor Elementary School (Portage Township Schools)	78.7		F	B
George L Myers Elementary School (Portage Township Schools)	86.9		D	B
South Haven Elementary School (Portage Township Schools)	89.1		D	B
Valparaiso High School (Valparaiso Community Schools)		115.3	A	A
Benjamin Franklin Middle School (Valparaiso Community Schools)	102.3		B	A
Thomas Jefferson Middle School (Valparaiso Community Schools)	102.1		B	A
Thomas Jefferson Elementary School (Valparaiso Community Schools)	100.7		A	A
Central Elementary School (Valparaiso Community Schools)	89.1		C	A
Flint Lake Elementary School (Valparaiso Community Schools)	82.7		C	A
Cooks Corners Elementary School (Valparaiso Community Schools)	125		A	A
Heavilin Elementary School (Valparaiso Community Schools)	104.4		A	A
Memorial Elementary School (Valparaiso Community Schools)	93.2		B	B
Northview Elementary School (Valparaiso Community Schools)	92.2		B	A
Parkview Elementary School (Valparaiso Community Schools)	92.2		C	A
Mount Vernon High School (M S D Mount Vernon)		102.6	A	A
Mount Vernon Jr High School (M S D Mount Vernon)	89.5		C	B
West Elementary School (M S D Mount Vernon)	93.2		C	A
Farmersville Elementary School (M S D Mount Vernon)	102.6		A	A
Marrs Elementary School (M S D Mount Vernon)	99.9		B	A
North Posey Junior High School (M S D North Posey Co Schools)	107.7		B	B
North Posey High School (M S D North Posey Co Schools)		81.5	B	A
North Elementary School (M S D North Posey Co Schools)	97.8		C	C
South Terrace Elementary (M S D North Posey Co Schools)	101.6		B	A
Eastern Pulaski Elementary School (Eastern Pulaski Community Sch Corp)	63.4		F	C
Winamac Community Middle School (Eastern Pulaski Community Sch Corp)	100.8		C	B
Winamac Community High School (Eastern Pulaski Community Sch Corp)		109.7	A	A
West Central Senior High School (West Central School Corp)		114.9	B	B
West Central Elementary School (West Central School Corp)	92.7		D	D
West Central Middle School (West Central School Corp)	82.8		D	C
Central Elementary School (South Putnam Community Schools)	81.1		D	B
South Putnam Middle School (South Putnam Community Schools)	104.1		C	C
Fillmore Elementary School (South Putnam Community Schools)	112.3		B	A
South Putnam High School (South Putnam Community Schools)		90.3	B	B
Bainbridge Elementary School (North Putnam Community Schools)	100.7		C	C
Roachdale Elementary School (North Putnam Community Schools)	100.6		B	B
North Putnam Middle School (North Putnam Community Schools)	120.9		B	B
North Putnam Sr High School (North Putnam Community Schools)		103	A	A
Cloverdale High School (Cloverdale Community Schools)		118.5	A	A
Cloverdale Elementary School (Cloverdale Community Schools)	83.8		D	B
Cloverdale Middle School (Cloverdale Community Schools)	105.2		C	B
Greencastle Senior High School (Greencastle Community School Corp)		89.6	B	B
Greencastle Middle School (Greencastle Community School Corp)	105.1		C	C
Tzouanakis Intermediate School (Greencastle Community School Corp)	70		F	C
Martha J Ridpath Elementary School (Greencastle Community School Corp)	70		F	C
Deer Meadow Primary School (Greencastle Community School Corp)	70		F	C
Union Elementary School (Union School Corporation)	81.6		F	F
Union Junior & High School (Union School Corporation)	89.6	88.2	D	D
Indiana Digital Elementary (Union School Corporation)	69.3		D	No Grade
Indiana Digital JR and High School (Union School Corporation)	66	73.8	C	No Grade
Indiana Digital Alternative School (Union School Corporation)			No Grade	No Grade
Randolph Southern Elementary Sch (Randolph Southern School Corp)	106.8		B	A
Randolph Southern Jr-Sr High Sch (Randolph Southern School Corp)	83.8	103.6	C	B
Monroe Central Jr-Sr High School (Monroe Central School Corp)	108.2	86.1	B	B
Monroe Central Elementary School (Monroe Central School Corp)	111.1		B	A
Winchester Community High School (Randolph Central School Corp)		77.5	B	B
Lee L Driver Middle School (Randolph Central School Corp)	83.6		D	C
O R Baker Elementary School (Randolph Central School Corp)	98.1		D	B
Willard Elementary School (Randolph Central School Corp)	98.1		D	B
Deerfield Elementary School (Randolph Central School Corp)	132.6		A	A
Union City Community Jr/Sr High (Randolph Eastern School Corp)	90.2	92.2	C	C
North Side Elementary School (Randolph Eastern School Corp)	124.3		A	A
South Ripley Junior High School (South Ripley Com Sch Corp)	97.2		C	A
South Ripley Elementary School (South Ripley Com Sch Corp)	99.3		C	A
South Ripley High School (South Ripley Com Sch Corp)		57.1	B	B
Batesville High School (Batesville Community School Corp)		116.1	A	A
Batesville Primary School (Batesville Community School Corp)	83.7		D	B
Batesville Middle School (Batesville Community School Corp)	101.9		B	A
Batesville Intermediate School (Batesville Community School Corp)	83.7		D	B
Jac-Cen-Del MS/HS (Jac-Cen-Del Community Sch Corp)	95.2	89.8	B	A
Jac-Cen-Del Elementary School (Jac-Cen-Del Community Sch Corp)	68.6		F	B
Milan High School (Milan Community Schools)		99.7	B	A
Milan Middle School (Milan Community Schools)	94.1		D	B
Milan Elementary School (Milan Community Schools)	84.3		D	B
Milan Intermediate School (Milan Community Schools)	64.2		D	B
Milroy Elementary School (Rush County Schools)	107.7		B	B
Arlington Elementary School (Rush County Schools)	112.1		B	A
Rushville Elementary School East (Rush County Schools)	117.3		A	A
Rushville Elementary School West (Rush County Schools)	86.6		D	C
Rushville Consolidated High School (Rush County Schools)		114.9	A	A
Benjamin Rush Middle School (Rush County Schools)	94.9		C	C
Harold C Urey Middle School (John Glenn School Corporation)	86.3		D	B
John Glenn High School (John Glenn School Corporation)		133.9	A	A
North Liberty School (John Glenn School Corporation)	108.6		B	A
Walkerton Elementary School (John Glenn School Corporation)	109.2		B	A
Walt Disney Elementary School (Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp)	110.9		B	B
Prairie Vista Elementary School (Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp)	115.6		A	A
Mary Frank Harris Elementary Sch (Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp)	96.1		B	B
Schmucker Middle School (Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp)	97.1		C	B
Virgil I Grissom Middle School (Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp)	90		D	C
Madison Elementary School (Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp)	86.6		C	B
Penn High School (Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp)		104	A	A
Elm Road Elementary School (Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp)	116		A	A
Elsie Rogers Elementary School (Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp)	83		D	A
Discovery Middle School (Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp)	101.5		B	A
Moran Elementary School (Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp)	121.3		A	A
Bittersweet Elementary School (Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp)	112.5		A	A
Horizon Elementary School (Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp)	114.1		A	A
Meadow's Edge Elementary School (Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp)	89.1		C	C
Northpoint Elementary School (Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp)	108.1		A	A
Fred J Hums Elementary School (School City of Mishawaka)	88.6		D	C
Mishawaka High School (School City of Mishawaka)		82.6	B	B
John J Young Middle School (School City of Mishawaka)	93		D	C
Battell Elementary School (School City of Mishawaka)	97.5		D	C
Beiger Elementary School (School City of Mishawaka)	95.3		D	D
Liberty Elementary School (School City of Mishawaka)	104.2		D	C
Emmons Elementary School (School City of Mishawaka)	68.8		F	D
Lasalle Elementary School (School City of Mishawaka)	98.6		D	D
Twin Branch Elementary School (School City of Mishawaka)	86.3		D	C
Hay Elementary School (South Bend Community School Corp)	75		F	D
Warren Elementary School (South Bend Community School Corp)	87		F	D
Clay High School (South Bend Community School Corp)		79.5	C	C
Clay International Academy (South Bend Community School Corp)	91.4		F	D
Darden Elementary School (South Bend Community School Corp)	73.9		F	D
Swanson Traditional School (South Bend Community School Corp)	109.2		B	B
Adams High School (South Bend Community School Corp)		105.2	B	A
Jackson Middle School (South Bend Community School Corp)	67		F	D
LaSalle Academy (South Bend Community School Corp)	91.4		C	B
Riley High School (South Bend Community School Corp)		91.8	B	B
Washington High School (South Bend Community School Corp)		88.5	C	C
Coquillard Elementary School (South Bend Community School Corp)	93.1		F	F
Rise Up Academy at Eggleston (South Bend Community School Corp)			F	C
Edison Middle School (South Bend Community School Corp)	86.7		F	F
Harrison Elementary School (South Bend Community School Corp)	62.3		F	D
Hamilton Traditional School (South Bend Community School Corp)	90.4		D	D
Jefferson Traditional School (South Bend Community School Corp)	112.5		C	C
Kennedy Academy (South Bend Community School Corp)	98.8		C	B
Dickinson Fine Arts Academy (South Bend Community School Corp)	82.2		F	D
Lincoln Elementary School (South Bend Community School Corp)	82.6		F	D
McKinley Elementary School (South Bend Community School Corp)	79		F	D
Madison S.T.E.A.M. Academy (South Bend Community School Corp)	59		F	C
Marquette Montessori Academy (South Bend Community School Corp)	82.5		F	F
Monroe Elementary School (South Bend Community School Corp)	86.7		F	D
Wilson Elementary School (South Bend Community School Corp)	78.9		F	F
Muessel Elementary School (South Bend Community School Corp)	78.6		F	F
Navarre Middle School (South Bend Community School Corp)	75.5		F	F
Nuner Fine Arts Academy (South Bend Community School Corp)	67.2		F	C
Tarkington Elementary School (South Bend Community School Corp)	104.3		D	A
LaVille Jr-Sr High School (Union-North United School Corp)			UNDER APPEAL	Appeal Pending
LaVille Elementary School (Union-North United School Corp)	108.1		B	B
Austin High School (Scott County School District 1)		100.6	B	B
Austin Elementary School (Scott County School District 1)	86.4		D	C
Austin Middle School (Scott County School District 1)	83		F	C
Johnson Elementary School (Scott County School District 2)	99		C	A
Lexington Elementary School (Scott County School District 2)	61.4		F	B
Scottsburg Senior High School (Scott County School District 2)		96.7	B	B
Scottsburg Middle School (Scott County School District 2)	80.8		D	C
Scottsburg Elem School (Scott County School District 2)	91.5		D	B
Vienna-Finley Elementary School (Scott County School District 2)	86.2		C	B
Morristown Jr-Sr High School (Shelby Eastern Schools)	100.3	94.4	B	B
Morristown Elementary School (Shelby Eastern Schools)	91.9		C	B
Waldron Jr-Sr High School (Shelby Eastern Schools)	92.9	103	C	C
Waldron Elementary School (Shelby Eastern Schools)	91.4		C	C
Triton Central High School (Northwestern Con School Corp)		101.4	A	A
Triton Central Elementary School (Northwestern Con School Corp)	108.8		B	B
Triton Central Middle School (Northwestern Con School Corp)	96.1		C	B
Southwestern High School (Southwestern Con Sch Shelby Co)	85.1	102.7	B	B
Southwestern Elementary School (Southwestern Con Sch Shelby Co)	79.6		C	C
Shelbyville Sr High School (Shelbyville Central Schools)		88.2	B	B
Shelbyville Middle School (Shelbyville Central Schools)	83		D	B
Coulston Elementary School (Shelbyville Central Schools)	91.7		D	B
Thomas A Hendricks Elementary Sch (Shelbyville Central Schools)	90.9		C	C
William F Loper Elementary School (Shelbyville Central Schools)	104.3		B	A
Chrisney Elementary School (North Spencer County Sch Corp)	84.8		B	A
David Turnham Education Center (North Spencer County Sch Corp)	102.6		B	A
Nancy Hanks Elementary School (North Spencer County Sch Corp)	103.8		B	A
Heritage Hills High School (North Spencer County Sch Corp)		107.4	A	A
Heritage Hills Middle School (North Spencer County Sch Corp)	98.8		B	A
Lincoln Trail Elementary School (North Spencer County Sch Corp)	100.6		A	A
Luce Elementary School (South Spencer County Sch Corp)	98.9		C	B
South Spencer High School (South Spencer County Sch Corp)		95.5	B	B
South Spencer Middle School (South Spencer County Sch Corp)	109.4		B	A
Rockport-Ohio Elementary School (South Spencer County Sch Corp)	82.6		D	B
Oregon-Davis Elementary School (Oregon-Davis School Corp)	80.3		D	A
Oregon-Davis Jr-Sr High School (Oregon-Davis School Corp)	63.4	92.8	D	C
N Judson-San Pierre Jr Sr High Sch (North Judson-San Pierre Sch Corp)	75.3	110.5	C	B
North Judson-San Pierre Elem Sch (North Judson-San Pierre Sch Corp)	94.1		D	C
Knox Community High School (Knox Community School Corp)		110.7	A	A
Knox Community Middle School (Knox Community School Corp)	83.5		D	D
Knox Community Elementary School (Knox Community School Corp)	89.3		D	B
Fremont High School (Fremont Community Schools)		135.3	A	A
Fremont Elementary School (Fremont Community Schools)	97		C	B
Fremont Middle School (Fremont Community Schools)	106.3		B	A
Hamilton Community High School (Hamilton Community Schools)	69.4	124.7	C	B
Hamilton Community Elementary Sch (Hamilton Community Schools)	72.7		F	C
Angola High School (M S D Steuben County)		84.7	B	B
Angola Middle School (M S D Steuben County)	104.3		C	C
Carlin Park Elementary School (M S D Steuben County)	95		D	C
Ryan Park Elementary School (M S D Steuben County)	108.2		C	C
Hendry Park Elementary School (M S D Steuben County)	81.4		D	C
Pleasant Lake Elementary School (M S D Steuben County)	71.2		F	C
Northeast Middle School (Northeast School Corp)	68.5		F	D
North Central High School (Northeast School Corp)		99.2	B	A
Northeast North Elementary School (Northeast School Corp)	86.8		C	B
Northeast East Elementary School (Northeast School Corp)	100.4		C	A
Carlisle Elementary School (Southwest School Corp)	94.2		C	A
Carlisle Middle School (Southwest School Corp)	59.7		F	A
Sullivan High School (Southwest School Corp)		97.5	A	A
Sullivan Middle School (Southwest School Corp)	89.3		C	C
Sullivan Elementary School (Southwest School Corp)	99.1		C	B
Jefferson-Craig Elementary School (Switzerland County School Corp)	98.2		C	C
Switzerland Co Middle School (Switzerland County School Corp)	84.4		F	D
Switzerland Co Senior High School (Switzerland County School Corp)		81.1	C	B
Switzerland Co Elementary School (Switzerland County School Corp)	96.7		D	D
Oakland High School (Lafayette School Corporation)			F	F
Jefferson High School (Lafayette School Corporation)		97.1	B	B
Lafayette Sunnyside Intermediate (Lafayette School Corporation)	66.6		F	D
Lafayette Tecumseh Jr High School (Lafayette School Corporation)	87.8		D	D
Edgelea Elementary School (Lafayette School Corporation)	101.2		C	A
Glen Acres Elementary School (Lafayette School Corporation)	115.4		B	A
Miami Elementary School (Lafayette School Corporation)	63.9		F	C
Thomas Miller Elementary School (Lafayette School Corporation)	93.7		D	C
Murdock Elementary School (Lafayette School Corporation)	106.2		B	A
Oakland Elementary School (Lafayette School Corporation)	129.1		A	A
Vinton Elementary School (Lafayette School Corporation)	89.3		C	C
Amelia Earhart Elementary School (Lafayette School Corporation)	97.5		C	C
McCutcheon High School (Tippecanoe School Corp)		82.5	B	B
Mayflower Mill Elementary School (Tippecanoe School Corp)	111.8		B	B
Wyandotte Elementary (Tippecanoe School Corp)	120.1		A	A
Hershey Elementary School (Tippecanoe School Corp)	115.1		A	A
Mintonye Elementary School (Tippecanoe School Corp)	86.7		C	C
Dayton Elementary School (Tippecanoe School Corp)	111.9		B	B
Burnett Creek Elementary School (Tippecanoe School Corp)	109.4		A	A
Wea Ridge Elementary School (Tippecanoe School Corp)	90.3		D	C
Battle Ground Elementary School (Tippecanoe School Corp)	105.6		B	B
Battle Ground Middle School (Tippecanoe School Corp)	87.6		D	D
Wainwright Middle School (Tippecanoe School Corp)	94.2		D	D
William Henry Harrison High School (Tippecanoe School Corp)		105.6	A	A
East Tipp Middle School (Tippecanoe School Corp)	90.9		C	B
James Cole Elementary School (Tippecanoe School Corp)	126.2		A	A
Klondike Middle School (Tippecanoe School Corp)	101.5		C	B
Klondike Elementary School (Tippecanoe School Corp)	102.3		B	B
Southwestern Middle School (Tippecanoe School Corp)	91.8		D	C
Wea Ridge Middle School (Tippecanoe School Corp)	99.2		C	B
Woodland Elementary School (Tippecanoe School Corp)	88.7		D	C
West Lafayette Jr/Sr High School (West Lafayette Com School Corp)	92.7	122.1	A	A
West Lafayette Intermediate School (West Lafayette Com School Corp)	93		B	A
Cumberland Elementary School (West Lafayette Com School Corp)	93		B	A
Tri Central Elementary (Tri-Central Community Schools)	91.5		D	C
Tri Central Middle-High School (Tri-Central Community Schools)	84.5	105.9	C	C
Tipton Elementary School (Tipton Community School Corp)	90.6		C	B
Tipton Middle School (Tipton Community School Corp)	88.7		D	C
Tipton High School (Tipton Community School Corp)		74.1	B	B
Union County High School (Union Co/Clg Corner Joint Sch Dist)		82.3	B	B
Union County Middle School (Union Co/Clg Corner Joint Sch Dist)	87.6		D	B
Liberty Elementary School (Union Co/Clg Corner Joint Sch Dist)	79.1		D	A
College Corner Union Elem School (Union Co/Clg Corner Joint Sch Dist)	106.2		C	A
Cynthia Heights Elementary School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	104.3		B	A
Scott Elementary School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	111.6		A	A
North Junior High School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	90.4		C	B
Oak Hill Elementary (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	92.5		B	A
Benjamin Bosse High School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)		99.6	B	B
Central High School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)		109.8	A	A
McCutchanville Elementary School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	121.1		A	A
Francis Joseph Reitz High School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)		87.1	B	B
Lincoln School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	83.6		F	D
North High School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)		113.3	A	A
Caze Elementary School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	96.8		F	F
Cedar Hall Community School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	100.1		D	D
Academy for Innovative Studies (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	49.1	59	F	F
Harwood Career Prep High School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)			No Grade	No Grade
Delaware Elementary School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	91.1		F	D
Dexter Elementary School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	96.7		D	D
Fairlawn Elementary School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	115.9		C	C
Glenwood Leadership Academy (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	92.2		F	F
Harper Elementary School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	75.3		F	D
William Henry Harrison High School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)		103.9	B	B
Hebron Elementary School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	106.9		C	B
Helfrich Park STEM Academy (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	98.6		C	B
Stockwell Elementary School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	119.5		B	B
Thompkins Middle School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	97.8		C	B
Highland Elementary School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	94.5		C	C
New Tech Institute (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)		81.6	B	B
Lodge Community School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	90.3		F	F
McGary Middle School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	91.5		F	D
Perry Heights Middle School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	106		B	B
Plaza Park International Prep Acad (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	91		D	B
Evans School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	76.9		F	F
Stringtown Elementary School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	100.5		C	C
Tekoppel Elementary School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	103.2		C	B
Vogel Elementary School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	97		C	C
Washington Middle School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	84.2		F	D
Daniel Wertz Elementary School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	106.3		C	B
West Terrace Elementary School (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp)	92.4		C	A
North Vermillion High School (North Vermillion Com Sch Corp)	71	91.5	C	C
North Vermillion Elementary School (North Vermillion Com Sch Corp)	89.6		D	B
Central Elementary School (South Vermillion Com Sch Corp)	84.1		D	B
Ernie Pyle Elementary School (South Vermillion Com Sch Corp)	89.7		D	C
South Vermillion High School (South Vermillion Com Sch Corp)		82.4	B	B
South Vermillion Middle School (South Vermillion Com Sch Corp)	92		D	C
Van Duyn Elementary School (South Vermillion Com Sch Corp)	47.7		F	D
Terre Haute North Vigo High School (Vigo County School Corp)		83.3	B	B
Honey Creek Middle School (Vigo County School Corp)	89.9		C	B
West Vigo High School (Vigo County School Corp)		112	A	A
Terre Haute South Vigo High School (Vigo County School Corp)		82.6	B	A
West Vigo Middle School (Vigo County School Corp)	75.2		F	D
Otter Creek Middle School (Vigo County School Corp)	67.7		F	C
Sarah Scott Middle School (Vigo County School Corp)	72.2		F	C
Woodrow Wilson Middle School (Vigo County School Corp)	78.8		D	B
Sugar Creek Consolidated Elem Sch (Vigo County School Corp)	113.5		B	B
Davis Park Elementary School (Vigo County School Corp)	90.7		D	C
Deming Elementary School (Vigo County School Corp)	85		F	D
Adelaide De Vaney Elementary Sch (Vigo County School Corp)	96.3		C	A
Dixie Bee Elementary School (Vigo County School Corp)	90.3		C	A
Farrington Grove Elementary School (Vigo County School Corp)	95.7		D	A
Fayette Elementary School (Vigo County School Corp)	72.7		D	A
Rio Grande Elementary School (Vigo County School Corp)	89.3		C	A
Benjamin Franklin Elem School (Vigo County School Corp)	72.5		F	B
Blanche E Fuqua Elementary School (Vigo County School Corp)	80.4		F	B
Hoosier Prairie Elementary School (Vigo County School Corp)	87.1		C	B
Lost Creek Elementary School (Vigo County School Corp)	80.5		C	B
Meadows Elementary School (Vigo County School Corp)	109.5		C	C
Ouabache Elementary School (Vigo County School Corp)	84.9		D	B
Riley Elementary School (Vigo County School Corp)	117		A	A
Sugar Grove Elementary School (Vigo County School Corp)	84.2		D	B
Terre Town Elementary School (Vigo County School Corp)	91.9		D	B
West Vigo Elementary School (Vigo County School Corp)	73.7		F	B
Booker T Washington Alt Sch (Vigo County School Corp)			C	No Grade
McLean Education Center (Alt) (Vigo County School Corp)			F	No Grade
Manchester Jr-Sr High School (Manchester Community Schools)	92.2	105.4	B	B
Manchester Elementary School (Manchester Community Schools)	101.8		C	B
Manchester Intermediate School (Manchester Community Schools)	101.8		C	B
Northfield Jr-Sr High School (M S D Wabash County Schools)	79.9	77.3	C	B
Southwood Jr-Sr High School (M S D Wabash County Schools)	114.2	114	B	B
Southwood Elementary School (M S D Wabash County Schools)	88.8		D	C
Sharp Creek Elementary School (M S D Wabash County Schools)	102.1		C	A
White's Jr-Sr High School (M S D Wabash County Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Metro North Elementary School (M S D Wabash County Schools)	102.1		C	A
Wabash High School (Wabash City Schools)		93.7	B	B
Wabash Middle School (Wabash City Schools)	82.5		D	C
O J Neighbours Elementary School (Wabash City Schools)	83.9		D	C
Williamsport Elementary School (M S D Warren County)	89.4		D	C
Pine Village Elementary School (M S D Warren County)	121.1		B	B
Seeger Memorial Jr-Sr High School (M S D Warren County)	80.1	113.7	B	A
Warren Central Elementary School (M S D Warren County)	98.3		C	B
Castle South Middle School (Warrick County School Corp)	106.9		B	A
Yankeetown Elementary School (Warrick County School Corp)	73.9		D	A
John H Castle Elementary School (Warrick County School Corp)	110.9		A	A
Elberfeld Elementary School (Warrick County School Corp)	125.8		A	A
Tecumseh Middle School (Warrick County School Corp)	106.3		A	A
Tecumseh High School (Warrick County School Corp)		114.5	A	A
Lynnville Elementary School (Warrick County School Corp)	101.8		B	B
Castle North Middle School (Warrick County School Corp)	97.6		B	A
Loge Elementary School (Warrick County School Corp)	92		C	A
Tennyson Elementary School (Warrick County School Corp)	101.7		B	B
Boonville High School (Warrick County School Corp)		79.2	B	B
Boonville Middle School (Warrick County School Corp)	89.3		C	A
Oakdale Elementary School (Warrick County School Corp)	109.6		B	A
Castle High School (Warrick County School Corp)		89.2	A	A
Chandler Elementary School (Warrick County School Corp)	99.2		B	B
Newburgh Elementary School (Warrick County School Corp)	111.1		B	A
Sharon Elementary School (Warrick County School Corp)	95.4		B	A
Salem High School (Salem Community Schools)		107	B	B
Salem Middle School (Salem Community Schools)	82.8		F	D
Bradie Shrum Elementary (Salem Community Schools)	90.3		D	C
East Washington Elementary School (East Washington School Corp)	101.9		B	B
Eastern High School (East Washington School Corp)		59.8	B	B
East Washington Middle School (East Washington School Corp)	77.1		F	C
West Washington Jr-Sr High School (West Washington School Corp)	63.6	110.7	C	B
West Washington Elementary School (West Washington School Corp)	109.1		A	A
Hagerstown Jr-Sr High School (Nettle Creek School Corporation)	86.2	87.6	C	B
Hagerstown Elementary School (Nettle Creek School Corporation)	104.5		C	A
Lincoln Sr High School (Western Wayne Schools)		98.6	C	A
Lincoln Middle School (Western Wayne Schools)	99.3		D	D
Western Wayne Elementary School (Western Wayne Schools)	89.3		D	C
Centerville Sr High School (Centerville-Abington Com Schs)		94.8	A	A
Centerville-Abington Jr High Sch (Centerville-Abington Com Schs)	86.2		D	B
Centerville-Abington Elem School (Centerville-Abington Com Schs)	105.2		C	B
Rose Hamilton Elementary School (Centerville-Abington Com Schs)	105.2		C	B
Northeastern High School (Northeastern Wayne Schools)		80	B	B
Northeastern Elementary School (Northeastern Wayne Schools)	96.2		D	A
Northeastern Middle School (Northeastern Wayne Schools)	105.4		C	A
Richmond High School (Richmond Community Schools)		74.3	B	B
Test Intermediate School (Richmond Community Schools)	63.4		F	D
Dennis Intermediate School (Richmond Community Schools)	65.7		F	D
Charles Elementary School (Richmond Community Schools)	94.2		C	B
Crestdale Elementary School (Richmond Community Schools)	62.9		F	B
Fairview Elementary School (Richmond Community Schools)	75.4		F	F
Starr Elementary School (Richmond Community Schools)	117.1		C	B
Vaile Elementary School (Richmond Community Schools)	59.8		F	D
Westview Elementary School (Richmond Community Schools)	86.6		D	C
Southern Wells Elementary School (Southern Wells Com Schools)	98.6		C	C
Southern Wells Jr-Sr High School (Southern Wells Com Schools)	114.3	117.5	B	B
Ossian Elementary (Northern Wells Com Schools)	106.4		C	B
Lancaster Central School (Northern Wells Com Schools)	99.2		C	A
Norwell High School (Northern Wells Com Schools)		98.8	A	A
Norwell Middle School (Northern Wells Com Schools)	84.7		D	B
Bluffton High School (M S D Bluffton-Harrison)		121.7	A	A
Bluffton-Harrison Middle School (M S D Bluffton-Harrison)	96.4		C	C
Bluffton-Harrison Elementary Sch (M S D Bluffton-Harrison)	95.6		C	C
North White Elementary School (North White School Corp)	96.5		C	B
North White Middle School (North White School Corp)	84.2		F	C
North White High School (North White School Corp)		96	B	B
Frontier Elementary (Frontier School Corporation)	111.5		B	A
Frontier Jr-Sr High School (Frontier School Corporation)	90.4	99.6	B	B
Tri-County Primary School (Tri-County School Corporation)	115.5		B	A
Tri-County Jr/Sr High School (Tri-County School Corporation)	91.8	71.5	C	B
Tri-County Intermediate School (Tri-County School Corporation)	115.5		B	A
Eastlawn Elementary School (Twin Lakes School Corp)	94.6		C	B
Twin Lakes Senior High School (Twin Lakes School Corp)		108.3	B	B
Roosevelt Middle School (Twin Lakes School Corp)	110.5		B	B
Oaklawn Elementary School (Twin Lakes School Corp)	109		B	B
Meadowlawn Elementary School (Twin Lakes School Corp)	110.3		C	C
Churubusco Jr-Sr High School (Smith-Green Community Schools)	117	107.2	B	A
Churubusco Elementary School (Smith-Green Community Schools)	95.9		C	C
Little Turtle Elementary School (Whitley Co Cons Schools)	90.4		D	B
Coesse School (Whitley Co Cons Schools)	91		D	C
Indian Springs Middle School (Whitley Co Cons Schools)	88.1		D	B
Northern Heights Elementary School (Whitley Co Cons Schools)	94.8		C	C
Columbia City High School (Whitley Co Cons Schools)		68.1	B	B
Mary Raber Elementary School (Whitley Co Cons Schools)	64		F	C
Thomas Carr Howe Comm High School (CSUSA Howe)	99.1	114.5	C	C
Emmerich Manual High School (CSUSA Manual)		94.2	C	C
Theodore Roosevelt Car & Tech Acad (Edison Learning Roosevelt)	70.7	109.9	A	A
Emma Donnan Middle School (CSUSA Donnan)	99.2		D	C
Ignite Achievement Academy (Ignite Achievement Academy )	51.5		F	C
Purdue Polytechnic High School Ind (Purdue Polytechnic High School Ind)		74.3	C	No Grade
Otwell Miller Academy (Otwell Miller Academy)			No Grade	No Grade
Indiana Connections Career Academy (Indiana Connections Career Academy)		64.3	D	No Grade
Avondale Meadows Middle School (Avondale Meadows Middle School)	99		A	A
J & R Phalen Leadership Academy (J & R Phalen Leadership Academy )	94		A	A
Paramount Community Heights (Paramount Community Heights )			No Grade	No Grade
Allegiant Preparatory Academy (Allegiant Preparatory Academy)			No Grade	No Grade
Gary Middle College West (Gary Middle College West)			No Grade	No Grade
Vanguard Collegiate of Indy (Vanguard Collegiate of Indy)			No Grade	No Grade
pilotED Schools Bethel Park (pilotED Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Matchbook Learning (Matchbook Learning )	69.9		D	No Grade
Urban ACT Academy (Urban ACT Academy)	56.2		F	No Grade
Kindezi Academy (Kindezi Academy)			No Grade	No Grade
Insight School of Indiana (Insight School of Indiana)	68.2	74.6	C	C
Riverside High School (Riverside High School)		122.5	A	A
Circle City Prep Charter School (Circle City Prep Charter School)			No Grade	No Grade
Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy (Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy)		68.8	D	No Grade
Timothy L. Johnson Academy Middle (Timothy L. Johnson Academy Middle )	105.8		A	A
St Bartholomew School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	108.2		A	A
St John Paul II Catholic School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	98		B	A
Saint Anthony of Padua (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	119.8		B	B
Sacred Heart School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	73.8		D	B
Our Lady Of Providence High School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)		103.5	A	A
Saint Nicholas School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	120.4		A	A
Saint Mary School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	91		D	C
Saint Lawrence School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	106.1		B	B
Saint Mary's School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	104.9		B	A
Saint Gabriel Catholic School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	111.5		B	A
Holy Family School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	111.7		A	A
Our Lady Of Perpetual School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	77.2		C	A
St Mary of-the-Knobs Catholic Sch (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	113.9		A	A
Saint Michael School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	100.2		B	A
Saint Michael School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	107.4		B	A
Saint Joseph School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	99.3		C	B
Saint Malachy School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	104.5		B	A
Saint Susanna School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	107.8		B	B
Saint Ambrose School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	116.3		B	B
Shawe Memorial High School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	105.1	128.7	B	A
Pope John XXIII Elementary School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	123.5		B	B
Saint Mary School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	102.6		B	B
St Rose of Lima School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	90.2		D	B
Our Lady of the Greenwood School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	104.3		B	A
SS Francis and Clare Catholic Sch (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	103.7		B	A
Saint Vincent DePaul School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	97		B	A
Nativity Catholic School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	81.7		C	B
Saint Lawrence School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	95.8		D	C
Saint Barnabas School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	120.5		A	A
Saint Jude Elementary School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	110.7		A	A
Saint Mark School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	102.6		C	A
Saint Roch School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	88.7		C	B
Roncalli High School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)		123.5	A	A
Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)		125.6	A	A
Holy Spirit School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	111.4		C	B
Saint Luke School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	92.6		B	A
Saint Matthew School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	102.2		B	A
Saint Monica School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	103.3		C	B
Saint Pius X School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	113.5		A	A
Holy Name Catholic School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	86.7		D	C
Christ The King School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	105.2		A	A
Holy Angels Catholic School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	97.9		F	C
Holy Cross Central School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	118.3		C	C
Immaculate Heart of Mary School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	108.4		A	A
Our Lady Of Lourdes School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	109.2		B	B
St Anthony Catholic School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	108.8		D	A
Providence Cristo Rey High School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)		82.1	B	B
Central Catholic School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	105.9		C	B
Saint Joan Of Arc School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	82.1		D	C
St Michael The Archangel School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	95.8		D	C
Saint Philip Neri School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	109.8		D	D
Saint Simon The Apostle School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	107.4		A	A
St Therese Little Flower School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	113.7		C	B
Saint Thomas Aquinas School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	92.9		B	A
Cathedral High School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)		112.3	A	A
Bishop Chatard High School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)		105.8	A	A
Scecina Memorial High School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)		87.1	B	A
Cardinal Ritter High School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	93.2	146.3	A	A
Saint Christopher School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	96.2		C	A
Saint Charles Boromeo School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	110.3		A	A
Saint Louis School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	86.5		C	B
Oldenburg Academy (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)		84.3	B	B
Saint Mary Elementary School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	98.1		C	C
Saint Joseph School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	113.1		B	B
Saint Patrick School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	92.9		C	A
Seton Catholic Elementary (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	116.5		A	A
Seton Catholic High School (Archdiocese of Indianapolis)	90.5	116.6	B	B
Aquinas School at St Andrew's (Diocese of Gary)	90.7		D	B
Andrean High School (Diocese of Gary)		109	A	A
Saint Michael School (Diocese of Gary)	100.4		B	A
Saint John Evangelist School (Diocese of Gary)	109.2		A	A
Saint Mary Catholic Comm School (Diocese of Gary)	86.4		C	A
St Stanislaus School (Diocese of Gary)	101.5		D	B
Saint Mary School (Diocese of Gary)	96		C	B
Saint Casimir School (Diocese of Gary)	102.5		D	C
Saint John Bosco School (Diocese of Gary)	101.6		D	B
Saint John The Baptist School (Diocese of Gary)	104.4		C	B
Bishop Noll Institute (Diocese of Gary)		94.5	B	A
Our Lady Of Grace School (Diocese of Gary)	83.7		D	B
Saint Thomas More School (Diocese of Gary)	117.5		A	A
Notre Dame Catholic School (Diocese of Gary)	112.3		A	A
Queen Of All Saints School (Diocese of Gary)	99.7		C	C
Saint Stanislaus Kostka School (Diocese of Gary)	58.1		F	B
Marquette Catholic High School (Diocese of Gary)		100.8	A	A
Saint Patrick School (Diocese of Gary)	108.2		A	A
Nativity of Our Savior School (Diocese of Gary)	129.4		A	A
Saint Paul Catholic School (Diocese of Gary)	93.5		B	A
Sacred Heart School (Diocese of Lafayette Catholic Sch)	118.1		B	A
Saint Lawrence School (Diocese of Lafayette Catholic Sch)	103.3		B	A
Saint Mary School (Diocese of Lafayette Catholic Sch)	103.7		B	A
Saint Paul Parish School (Diocese of Lafayette Catholic Sch)	86.3		C	C
Our Lady Of Mt Carmel School (Diocese of Lafayette Catholic Sch)	105.2		A	A
Saint Maria Goretti School (Diocese of Lafayette Catholic Sch)	84.3		B	A
Saint Louis de Montfort School (Diocese of Lafayette Catholic Sch)	102.5		A	A
Our Lady of Grace School (Diocese of Lafayette Catholic Sch)	110.2		A	A
Guerin Catholic High School (Diocese of Lafayette Catholic Sch)		114.6	A	A
Sts Joan of Arc & Patrick School (Diocese of Lafayette Catholic Sch)	91.5		C	A
Saint Augustine School (Diocese of Lafayette Catholic Sch)	118.1		A	A
Saint Mary School (Diocese of Lafayette Catholic Sch)	94		C	C
Holy Cross School (Diocese of Lafayette Catholic Sch)	108.6		A	A
Central Catholic Jr-Sr High School (Diocese of Lafayette Catholic Sch)	110.9	137	A	A
Saint Boniface School (Diocese of Lafayette Catholic Sch)	86.6		C	A
Saint Lawrence Elementary School (Diocese of Lafayette Catholic Sch)	105.2		B	A
Saint Mary Cathedral School (Diocese of Lafayette Catholic Sch)	86.6		B	A
Washington Catholic Mid/High Sch (Diocese of Evansville)	101.3		C	C
Washington Catholic Elementary Sch (Diocese of Evansville)	132.9		A	A
Holy Trinity Catholic School (Diocese of Evansville)	105.7		A	A
St Joseph School (Diocese of Evansville)	106.5		B	A
Holy Cross School (Diocese of Evansville)	76.6		C	B
Saint James School (Diocese of Evansville)	112.5		A	A
Saints Peter & Paul School (Diocese of Evansville)	103.6		B	A
Rivet Middle & High School (Diocese of Evansville)	89.2	109.4	B	A
Flaget Elementary School (Diocese of Evansville)	71.4		D	B
St Matthew School (Diocese of Evansville)	99.5		B	B
St Philip School (Diocese of Evansville)	97.4		A	A
Saint Wendel School (Diocese of Evansville)	88		B	A
St Bernard Catholic School (Diocese of Evansville)	108.7		B	B
Mater Dei High School (Diocese of Evansville)		121.2	A	A
Reitz Memorial High School (Diocese of Evansville)		104.2	A	A
Annuc Cthlc Sch @ Christ the King (Diocese of Evansville)	103.9		B	A
Corpus Christi School (Diocese of Evansville)	97.1		B	A
Good Shepherd School (Diocese of Evansville)	93.8		B	A
Holy Redeemer School (Diocese of Evansville)	127.8		A	A
Holy Rosary School (Diocese of Evansville)	110.4		A	A
Annunciation Cthlc at Holy Spirit (Diocese of Evansville)	84.5		D	C
Westside Catholic School (Diocese of Evansville)	101.4		C	A
St Benedict Cathedral School (Diocese of Evansville)	97.6		B	A
Saint Joseph School (Diocese of Evansville)	120.7		A	A
Resurrection School (Diocese of Evansville)	91.7		B	A
Saint John The Baptist School (Diocese of Evansville)	120		A	A
Saint Joseph School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	110.8		B	B
Saint Elizabeth Seton Catholic Sch (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	109.6		B	A
Our Lady School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	108.8		A	A
Bishop Dwenger High School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)		123.4	A	A
Bishop Luers High School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)		123.6	A	A
Most Precious Blood School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	107.7		C	B
Queen Of Angels School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	81.6		D	B
Saint Charles Borromeo School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	98.4		B	B
Saint John The Baptist School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	101.8		B	A
Saint Joseph Catholic School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	115.9		C	A
Saint Jude Elementary School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	86.3		C	B
Saint Therese School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	87.4		D	C
Saint Vincent DePaul School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	99.5		B	A
Saint Aloysius Catholic School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	97.3		C	B
Saint Rose of Lima School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	90		C	C
St Joseph Hessen Cassel Cath Sch (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	104.9		B	A
Saint John The Baptist Catholic (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	110.2		B	A
Saint Louis Besancon Catholic Sch (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	107.5		B	B
Saint Joseph School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	122.7		A	A
St Thomas The Apostle School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	92.6		B	B
St Vincent de Paul School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	103.6		D	D
St John Evangelist School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	86.8		D	C
Huntington Catholic School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	105.8		C	C
Sacred Heart School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	94.1		C	B
Saint Michael School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	106.4		B	A
Saint Mary Elementary School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	108.9		B	A
St Pius X Catholic School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	109.4		A	A
Marian High School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)		112.5	A	A
Mishawaka Catholic School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	111		B	B
Queen of Peace School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	94.6		B	B
Saint Joseph High School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)		101.3	A	A
Christ The King School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	105.2		B	A
Corpus Christi School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	87.4		C	A
Holy Cross School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	121.2		B	B
Holy Family School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	114.3		B	B
Our Lady Of Hungary School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	96.8		C	B
Saint Adalbert School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	83.9		D	A
Saint Anthony De Padua School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	89.9		C	A
Saint John The Baptist School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	98.2		F	C
Saint Joseph School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	97.6		B	A
Saint Jude Catholic School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	97.6		B	A
Saint Matthew Cathedral School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	102.5		D	D
Saint Bernard Elementary School (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend)	107.7		B	B
St Peter Immanuel Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	108		B	B
Wyneken Memorial Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	99.7		C	B
Concordia Lutheran High School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)		111.4	A	A
Suburban Bethlehem Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	87.5		D	C
Concordia Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	86.6		D	C
Emmanuel St Michael Lutheran Sch (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	98.3		B	A
Emmaus Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	91.5		C	B
Holy Cross Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	113.6		B	A
Lutheran South Unity School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	100.5		D	B
Saint Paul Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	85.2		D	B
Ascension Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	103.5		C	C
Saint Peter's Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	107.3		B	A
St John-Emmanuel Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	103		B	A
Central Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	85.6		D	B
Woodburn Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	110.7		A	A
White Creek Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	86.9		B	A
Saint Peter Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	116.2		A	A
Saint John Ev Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	92.8		A	A
Trinity Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	102		A	A
Zion Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)			No Grade	No Grade
Saint John Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	87.6		D	D
Redeemer Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	110.2		B	A
Immanuel Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	84.8		C	A
Saint John Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	120.5		B	A
Trinity Lutheran High School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)		125.5	A	A
Lutheran Central School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	96.6		A	A
Trinity Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	95.9		C	C
Ascension Lutheran Christian Schl (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)			No Grade	No Grade
Trinity Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	96.2		C	C
St Paul's Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	106.1		C	B
Saint John Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	95.3		C	B
Holy Cross Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	94		C	A
Lutheran High School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)		111.8	A	A
Calvary Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	93.1		C	A
Trinity Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	89.7		C	C
Saint John Ev Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	97.4		C	A
Our Shepherd Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	85.7		C	C
Emmaus Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)			F	No Grade
St John Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	87.5		C	B
Immanuel Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	103.2		A	A
Resurrection Lutheran Academy (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	127.5		A	A
Saint Peter Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	109.3		C	B
Saint James Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	96		C	B
Evansville Lutheran School (Lutheran Schools of Indiana)	123.1		B	B
The Oaks Academy - Brookside (The Oaks Academy)	80.9		C	B
The Oaks Academy - Fall Creek (The Oaks Academy)	79.7		C	B
The Oaks Academy - Middle School (The Oaks Academy)	100.8		B	A
Charter School of the Dunes (Charter School of the Dunes)	80.5		F	D
Signature School Inc (Signature School Inc)		109.5	A	A
Community Montessori (Community Montessori Inc)	95.6	117.8	C	B
Options Charter School - Carmel (Options Charter School - Carmel)			UNDER APPEAL	Appeal Pending
Irvington Community School (Irvington Community School)	100.1	81.7	C	C
Timothy L Johnson Academy (Timothy L Johnson Academy)	72.8		F	D
Enlace Academy (Enlace Academy)	88.3		F	A
Christel House Academy South (Christel House Academy South)	92.5	106.4	C	C
Christel House Academy West (Christel House Academy West)	73		F	D
KIPP Indy College Prep Middle (KIPP Indy College Prep Middle)	113.4		D	A
KIPP Indy Unite Elementary (KIPP Indy Unite Elementary)	100.7		F	No Grade
Tindley Genesis Academy (Tindley Genesis Academy)	124.2		B	A
Tindley Summit Academy (Tindley Summit Academy)	94.7		F	C
Charles A Tindley Accelerated Sch (Charles A Tindley Accelerated Sch)		92.6	B	A
Thea Bowman Leadership Academy (Thea Bowman Leadership Academy)	76.9	76.5	D	D
Rural Community Academy (Rural Community Schools Inc)	62.7		F	C
SE Neighborhood Sch of Excellence (SE Neighborhood Sch of Excellence)	87.5		F	D
Joshua Academy (Joshua Academy)	93.6		D	B
Indiana Agriculture and Technology (Indiana Agriculture and Technology)			No Grade	No Grade
Gary Lighthouse Charter School (Gary Lighthouse Charter School)	110.8	73.9	D	C
21st Century Charter Sch of Gary (21st Century Charter Sch of Gary)	84.9	96.6	D	C
East Chicago Urban Enterprise Acad (East Chicago Urban Enterprise Acad)	94.3		D	D
Indpls Lighthouse Charter School (Indpls Lighthouse Charter School)	92.4	125.6	D	B
East Chicago Lighthouse (East Chicago Lighthouse Charter)	111.1		D	D
Andrew J Brown Academy (Andrew J Brown Academy)	104.2		D	C
Burris Laboratory School (Burris Laboratory School)	104.7	124.5	A	A
Indiana Academy for Sci Math Hmn (IN Acad for Sci Math & Humanities)			A	A
Options Charter School Noblesville (Options Charter School Noblesville)			UNDER APPEAL	Appeal Pending
Avondale Meadows Academy (Avondale Meadows Academy)	98.3		D	D
Herron High School (Herron Charter)		118.8	A	A
Hope Academy (Hope Academy)			No Grade	No Grade
Geist Montessori Academy (Geist Montessori Academy)	97.4		C	B
Indianapolis Metropolitan High Sch (Indianapolis Metropolitan High Sch)		69.9	B	B
Paramount Brookside (Paramount School Of Excellence Inc)	106.9		B	A
Aspire Charter Academy (Aspire Charter Academy)	102.3		D	D
Renaissance Academy Charter School (Renaissance Academy Charter School)	107		B	B
Hammond Academy of Science & Tech (Hammond Academy of Science & Tech)	94.7	110.3	C	B
Canaan Community Academy (Canaan Community Academy)	82.4		F	D
Neighbors' New Vistas High School (Neighbors' New Vistas High School)			F	F
Inspire Academy - A Sch of Inquiry (Inspire Academy - A Sch of Inquiry)	61.7		F	D
Thurgood Marshall Leadership Acad (Thurgood Marshall Leadership Acad)	52.2		F	F
Smith Academy for Excellence (Smith Academy for Excellence)	98.1		F	D
Indianapolis Lighthouse East (Indianapolis Lighthouse East)	76	64.4	F	B
Indianapolis Academy of Excellence (Indianapolis Academy of Excellence)	85.1		F	F
IN Math & Science Academy (IN Math & Science Academy)	116.1		C	C
Anderson Preparatory Academy (Anderson Preparatory Academy)	69	83	D	B
Dr Robert H Faulkner Academy (Dr Robert H Faulkner Academy)	101.9		B	B
Hoosier Academy - Indianapolis (Hoosier Academy - Indianapolis)	113.6		D	C
The Bloomington Project School (The Bloomington Project School)	115.6		A	A
Discovery Charter School (Discovery Charter School)	84.5		C	B
Rock Creek Community Academy (Rock Creek Community Academy)	102.4	103	B	B
Career Academy High School (Career Academy High School)		132	A	A
Gary Middle College (Gary Middle College)			D	No Grade
Indiana Virtual School (Indiana Virtual School)	76.1	70.5	F	F
IN Math & Science Academy - North (IN Math & Science Academy - North)	114.2	120.5	C	C
Indiana Connections Academy (Indiana Connections Academy)	84	87.6	D	D
Marion Academy (Marion Academy)			F	No Grade
Damar Charter Academy (Damar Charter Academy)	67.9		No Grade	No Grade
Phalen Leadership Academy - IN Inc (Phalen Leadership Academy - IN Inc)	115		B	A
Vision Academy (Vision Academy)	78.9		F	D
Tindley Collegiate Academy (Tindley Collegiate Academy)	99.4		D	A
Tindley Renaissance Academy (Tindley Renaissance Academy)	98.8		C	C
Dugger Union Community School Corp (Dugger Union Community School Corp)	82	62.9	D	C
Mays Community Academy (Mays Community Academy)	88.2		D	A
Success Academy Primary School (Success Academy Primary School)	90.2		F	B
Career Academy Middle School (Career Academy Middle School)	112.2		C	A
ACE Preparatory Academy (ACE Preparatory Academy)			No Grade	No Grade
Global Preparatory Academy (Global Preparatory Academy)	74.5		C	No Grade
Steel City Academy (Steel City Academy)	91.4	128.3	A	A
Seven Oaks Classical School (Seven Oaks Classical School)	90.9		A	A
Dana Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Riverview Adventist Christian Acad (Independent Non-Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Illiana Christian High School (Independent Non-Public Schools)		117.9	A	A
Apogee School For The Gifted (Independent Non-Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Blackhawk Christian Mdl/High Sch (Independent Non-Public Schools)	79.2	120.6	A	A
Blackhawk Christian Elementary Sch (Independent Non-Public Schools)	106.6		A	A
Cornerstone College Prep Sch (Independent Non-Public Schools)	114.3		C	C
Central Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	91.2		D	B
Aboite Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	108.6		C	C
Crossroad Child & Family Services (Independent Non-Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Horizon Christian Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	50.6	101.5	F	F
Gateway Woods School (Independent Non-Public Schools)			F	F
North Star Montessori School (Independent Non-Public Schools)			D	No Grade
Columbus Christian School Inc (Independent Non-Public Schools)	81.7		C	C
James E Davis School (Independent Non-Public Schools)			F	F
Good Shepherd Christian Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	105.6		A	A
Lakewood Park Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	94.1	114.7	B	A
Heritage Hall Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	72		F	B
Clinton Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	112.1		B	B
Elkhart Christian Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	119.8	149.1	A	A
Bethany Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	108.6	122.3	A	A
Christian Academy of Indiana (Independent Non-Public Schools)	111.6	110.7	B	B
Covington Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	86.1		D	C
Kinwell Academy Inc (Independent Non-Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
The King's Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	76.1	147.8	B	B
Lakeview Christian School Inc (Independent Non-Public Schools)	103.1		D	D
Eman Schools (Independent Non-Public Schools)	106.2	128.5	A	A
Fishers Christian Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	101.7		A	A
Paddock View Residential Center (Independent Non-Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Indiana Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)		120.9	A	A
Transitions Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)			F	No Grade
Legacy Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	113.8		A	A
Bethesda Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	100.1	96	B	B
Kingsway Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	90.9		C	C
Legacy Learning Center (Independent Non-Public Schools)	96.6		A	A
Universal School of Plainfield (Independent Non-Public Schools)			F	No Grade
Sandy Creek Christian Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	109.2		C	A
Covenant Christian High School (Independent Non-Public Schools)		100.5	A	A
DeMotte Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	95		C	A
Jay County Christian Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	81.3		F	B
Christian Academy of Madison (Independent Non-Public Schools)	79.1		D	C
Pierceton Woods Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Southwest IN Regional Youth Vlg (Independent Non-Public Schools)			F	F
Lakeland Christian Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	75.7	142.9	B	B
Warsaw Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	106.4		B	A
Howe School (Independent Non-Public Schools)			D	D
Faith Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	84.4		F	F
Avicenna Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	97.1		C	A
Crown Point Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	102.1		B	B
Ambassador Christian Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	108.5		C	B
Calumet Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	97.7		D	D
Indiana Horizon Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Mizpah Seventh-Day Adventist Acad (Independent Non-Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Morning Star Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)			F	No Grade
Highland Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	113.8		B	A
Saint Paul Lutheran School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	76.3		F	C
Indiana Christian Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	74		D	D
Cross Street Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	118.2		B	B
Delaware Christian Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)			F	F
Liberty Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	75.9	122.2	B	B
Liberty Christian Elementary (Independent Non-Public Schools)	95.4		D	C
Anderson Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	91.1		D	C
Damar Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Curtis Wilson Primary School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	104.6		B	A
Heritage Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	103.6	123.3	A	A
Cornerstone Baptist Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	88.7		F	D
Horizon Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	87.8	143.1	C	C
Suburban Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	84.9		F	D
Southport Presbyterian Chrst Sch (Independent Non-Public Schools)	106.8		B	B
Traders Point Christian Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	92.8	107	C	B
Burge Terrace Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	91.5		C	B
Indianapolis Junior Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	97.2		F	No Grade
Hasten Hebrew Acad of Indianapolis (Independent Non-Public Schools)	103		B	A
Colonial Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	101.9	137	A	A
Islamic Academy of Indianapolis (Independent Non-Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Crosspointe Christian Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	98.1	134.9	C	C
Covenant Christian High School (Independent Non-Public Schools)		113.9	A	A
Trinity Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	95.7		F	D
Shepherd Community Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	110.4		C	A
Central Christian Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	57.8		F	D
Calvary Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	106.4		B	A
The Independence Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	79.6		F	F
MTI School of Knowledge (Independent Non-Public Schools)	96.1		D	C
International Sch of IN HS (9-12) (Independent Non-Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Indianapolis Southside Christian (Independent Non-Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Capitol City SDA Church School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	112.1		B	B
TP Schools (Independent Non-Public Schools)	102.5		C	A
School for Community Learning (Independent Non-Public Schools)	91.3		D	C
Adventist Christian Elementary (Independent Non-Public Schools)			C	C
Covenant Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Lighthouse Christian Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	118.1	144.7	A	A
Clear Creek Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	91.5		B	B
Tabernacle Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	87.1	116.7	C	C
Mooresville Christian Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	108.9		B	B
Greenwood Christian Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	112.7	130.9	A	A
Shults-Lewis Child & Family Srvs (Independent Non-Public Schools)			F	D
Midwest Academy MCYF (Independent Non-Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Emmanuel Baptist Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Victory Christian Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	108	102.4	B	B
Portage Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	108.1	127.2	C	C
North Liberty Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	80.6		C	C
Covenant Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	106.8		B	A
South Bend Hebrew Day School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	105.7		B	B
Bais Yaakov High School of Indiana (Independent Non-Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Trinity School At Greenlawn (Independent Non-Public Schools)	104	108.1	C	C
New Vision Christian Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	109.8		C	C
Yeshiva of South Bend (Independent Non-Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
South Bend Jr Academy School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	70.7		F	D
Community Baptist Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	110.4		C	B
Granger Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	107.3	119.3	B	B
Michiana Christian Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)	61.6		F	D
Grace Christian Academy Inc (Independent Non-Public Schools)	86.1		F	D
Lafayette Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	102.3		B	B
T. C. Harris School (Independent Non-Public Schools)			F	F
Faith Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	94.2	125.9	A	A
Evansville Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	109.2		A	A
Evansville Christian Sch Newburgh (Independent Non-Public Schools)	111.7		A	A
Evansville Day School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	96.9	125.8	A	A
Small World Learning Center (Independent Non-Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Holy Cross School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	66.7		F	F
Terre Haute Adventist School (Independent Non-Public Schools)			F	F
Community Christian School (Independent Non-Public Schools)	116		B	B
Kingdom Academy of Bluffton Inc (Independent Non-Public Schools)	109.5		C	C
T.R.O.Y. Center (Independent Non-Public Schools)			F	No Grade
Al Haqq Foundation Academy (Independent Non-Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Israel School of Excellence (Independent Non-Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Alyssum Montessori School (Independent Non-Public Schools)			No Grade	No Grade
Higher Institute of Arts & Tech (Heritage Institute of Arts & Tech)	111.1		A	A

Find your school’s projected 2019 A-F grade and growth scores

Statewide, the average growth points were 94.9 for grades 3-8 and 98.8 points for high school, according to the Department of Education.

Indianapolis educators fear homeless students will ‘fall off the radar’

2020-05-11T23:21:00+00:00

From her kitchen table, Jennifer Meeks chats with three boys for a game of “word families,” where they take turns rhyming words with “at.”

“Tell me any letter and let’s see if it makes a word,” she coaxes a boy who’s been mostly quiet, sitting at a counter with his chin on his arm. “C,” he says, before spelling “cat.”

Meeks knows these boys well from her work tutoring homeless students as an education support coordinator for School on Wheels. But today, instead of meeting at their Indianapolis school, she is connecting by Zoom.

As coronavirus upends life for students around the country, Indiana educators are striving to ensure homeless families stay connected to resources for survival and support remote instruction. Families without stable housing are facing many of the same challenges as other parents: They need help finding food, paying bills, and getting their children the technology to participate in online schooling. But educators say that the crisis could have especially severe repercussions for homeless students, who are often behind academically and depend on schools for stability.

Without the connection of in-person school, students with unstable housing may fall through the cracks and miss out on essential support like help getting food, rental assistance, or tutoring.

Indianapolis had more evictions than any large U.S. city other than New York in 2016, according to data from The Eviction Lab at Princeton University. Despite the high eviction rate, homelessness has been on the decline in Indianapolis, but advocates expect there could be a national increase as the coronavirus pandemic wreaks havoc on the financial stability of low-wage workers.

Students who are homeless “are already behind to begin with. They already have struggles in life to begin with,” said Meeks, who typically works with these three boys at Urban Act Academy at School 14, a campus with some shelters in its neighborhood boundary where she spends three days per week. “Next year, we’re all going to have our work cut out for us.”

The eastside school educates about 325 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Before school buildings closed, about 60 of its students were identified as homeless, according to Nigena Livingston, who overhauled the Indianapolis Public Schools campus as an innovation school in 2018.

With the help of School on Wheels, since its campus closed, School 14 has been able to touch base with all of the families who are designated as homeless, Livingston said. Students who are homeless are entitled to additional support from liaisons under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act and certain services such as transportation to school. But schools only know if students qualify when parents or children tell staff about their living situation. Educators say that sometimes families move in with family or friends without telling schools.

People may be reluctant to say they are homeless because of the stigma or because they don’t know about the resources available to homeless students, Livingston said. At School 14, staff used to hold literacy or game nights so families would get information “in a way that they feel supported and not shamed,” she said. Now, “it’s been really, really hard to let families know what resources and support we have for them.”

Because school is now remote, families no longer need to ask for their children to get transportation from a new address, which can also make it harder to identify students who may qualify for support, said Tracy Beer, the McKinney-Vento liaison for Lawrence Township, an Indianapolis district of 16,000 students where about 380 qualify as homeless.

“A lot of families are thinking, ‘Oh, well, the schools are shut down. So no one can help me because no one’s there,’ ” Beer said. But while school buildings are closed, district staff are still working to support families, and she’s regularly reaching out to parents she was working with before the closures.

Gov. Eric Holcomb placed a moratorium on evictions while Indiana is in a state of emergency. But rent is still due, and families who have lost income and are unable to pay could face eviction when the moratorium lifts. If that happens, Beer said, “I honestly think we’re going to be bombarded.”

Because real-time data on homelessness is not available, it is hard to accurately assess whether the state is already seeing an increase, said Chelsea Haring-Cozzi, executive director of Coalition for Homeless Intervention and Prevention in Indianapolis. But providers are starting to hear from families who are homeless because of COVID-19.

“We’re really starting to prepare for households that hadn’t experienced homelessness before — who may be behind on rent now, behind on utilities because of loss of job or income,” Haring-Cozzi said.

If Indianapolis sees an increase in homelessness, schools will be charged with serving a growing number of high-need students who are potentially moving among schools.

Educators say they worry the most about the students who have never been identified as needing help or have disconnected from resources during the crisis.

“My biggest fear is for kids who fall off the radar right now,” said Kelly Coker, vice president of Programs for School on Wheels. “What about those families that the school hasn’t been able to contact and we haven’t been able to contact. What is happening there?”

Fall enrollment slows at Indianapolis charter and choice schools amid coronavirus

2020-05-06T23:03:20+00:00

Vanguard Collegiate was beginning to sign up new students for the upcoming academic year when school buildings across Indianapolis closed to contain the coronavirus pandemic. But in the seven weeks since, new enrollment at the west side campus has come to a standstill.

“There’s so much uncertainty, people aren’t willing to make a change right now,” said Robert Marshall, executive director of the fledgling charter school, which opened two years ago and enrolls about 75 middle school students.

Vanguard is not the only school facing slow enrollment for the fall. Throughout Indianapolis, where the school system allows parents to choose where their children attend, enrollment for the next academic year is in upheaval as families and schools grapple with the urgent crises caused by the coronavirus.

There were nearly 15% fewer applications for spots through the city’s enrollment portal, Enroll Indy, compared to last year. Parents’ interest in Indianapolis Public Schools pre-kindergarten dipped significantly, with the number of applications falling by over 35%. In total, there were about 8,000 applications to enroll in new schools for the fall through Enroll Indy, which includes most city charter schools and Indianapolis Public Schools choice schools.

At a time when some families are struggling to pay rent or buy food due to the economic fallout from the virus, and officials are still uncertain whether schools will be able to operate normally in the fall, plans for next year are on the back burner. As a result, families eager for stability may avoid transferring even if they are dissatisfied. That means schools that were already struggling to survive could be further weakened by low enrollment.

Although Vanguard needs to recruit more students in order to be financially sustainable, the school staff has been focused on beginning remote instruction and making sure families have devices and the internet, Marshall said.

Vanguard is one of a small number of charter schools that doesn’t participate in Enroll Indy. This week, staff members are ramping up outreach to new families, but with social distancing still the norm, they cannot rely on the usual strategies that help them win over parents: outreach at large community events, door-to-door canvassing, and school tours. Instead, they must reach families virtually, through social media and online open houses.

“The COVID-19 crisis absolutely eliminates the ground game, which is our ability to be able to be in neighborhoods, interact with families face-to-face, and make a genuine connection,” Marshall said. “Enrollment is one of the things that keeps me up at night as a school leader.”

Elementary and middle school students in Indianapolis Public Schools boundaries automatically have spots at neighborhood schools, but they must apply for seats at magnet and charter schools. High schoolers are encouraged to choose a school based on their interests.

Enroll Indy does aggressive outreach to families with children in transitional grades who need new schools, such as pre-kindergarten, sixth- and eighth-grade students, said its executive director, Bill Murphy. Early analysis of the application data suggests that the system reached nearly all those students, but far fewer students made optional transfers even though families can apply online.

Murphy is now focused on how the nonprofit can help families who choose schools later in the year, most of whom are low-income. Typically, they apply in person where they can get help from Enroll Indy staff, but that might not be possible this summer.

“These are our families who tend to need the most support when figuring out where they want to send their child to school. And because it’s late in the process, they have the fewest options,” he said. “We are going to have to rethink how we work with families in an environment where so much of the in-person, interpersonal work that we are used to is limited.”

Allegiant Preparatory Academy, a west side school that opened in 2018, has 65 students in kindergarten through third grade, and it is aiming to double in size next year. So far, about 26 new students have enrolled for next year. But Head of School Rick Anderson emphasized that it’s early in their enrollment cycle. Staff members don’t typically begin canvassing until May, and many of the school’s students enroll in July or even August, he said.

Most of the students who have enrolled so far were referred by current families and child care centers Allegiant has relationships with, Anderson said. “I think we would probably be in a comparable place, regardless if the school is open or not,” he added.

The challenges of recruiting students can be especially steep for new schools, which must build up enrollment from scratch. But the impact of closures has been muted for Ma’at Lands, the founder of Rooted School, who started recruiting over a year ago.

So far the east side high school has enrolled over 50 students. The school, which will be located at Eastern Star Church, aims for a total of 75 freshmen its first year.

Since campuses closed, Lands and her staff have continued to follow up with over 100 family contacts about enrolling for the fall. But when they reach them, they don’t begin with a pitch for the school — first they ask families how they are doing.

“My assistant principal a couple of weeks ago was dropping off toilet paper to a family because that’s what they needed,” Lands said. “There’s a balance of making sure that they have what they need, but then also creating this sense of urgency because we want them to be placed at a school where they want their child to be.”

IPS is in a stable financial position for now, but it could be hard hit by a recession

2020-05-01T02:21:35+00:00

Indianapolis Public Schools says it is in a strong financial position in the short term, despite the upheaval caused by the coronavirus pandemic. But the district could eventually be hard hit by the deepening recession.

The state’s largest district is more financially stable than many school systems across the country for several reasons: The state has not cut this year’s education funding, voters recently approved a referendum to boost local dollars, the district has access to bond funding, and the Indianapolis economy is strong, said Weston Young, the district’s chief financial officer.

“IPS is positioned well, in my opinion, for the short term to navigate the recent historic and severe COVID-19 economic impacts,” Young said during a media briefing ahead of an IPS board meeting Thursday. The district will also receive about $21 million in federal coronavirus aid, which can be used to cover a wide range of costs.

Over the long term, however, the financial implications for the district are far less certain. Unemployment in Indiana has surged, while sales and income tax revenue have fallen in recent weeks.

Although it’s unclear how bad the recession will be or precisely how it will impact the school system, the district may need to begin making decisions to save money to build a cushion for the future, said Jason O’Neill, a consultant with Policy Analytics who is advising the district.

“The impact of a recession on school finance is not immediate, at least the majority of the impact is not immediate,” O’Neill told the IPS board, “but preparations should be made in the short term.”

Noting that state revenue is “going to diminish significantly,” IPS Board President Michael O’Connor said at Thursday’s meeting that the district must “be prepared to make some very conservative, very difficult decisions about preparing for those cuts.”

Indiana school budgets are particularly vulnerable in recessions because districts get much of their funding from the state, which relies on income and sales tax — a less stable source of revenue than property tax.

If tax revenue continues to decline, the state may cut budgets for schools next year or the years after, Young told the board. “A state can’t pass dollars to schools that it doesn’t have.”

Some Indiana districts have raised concerns that they could also lose state funding, which is awarded on a per-student basis, if parents decide to keep their children home in the fall due to health concerns.

As the pandemic unleashes turmoil across the country, many school systems are facing severe financial challenges. The Los Angeles Unified School District estimates that it has shouldered $200 million in emergency coronavirus costs. As New York City grapples with severe drops in revenue, schools could see $827 million in budget cuts. And in Denver, district officials said the pandemic would cost its schools about $10.5 million this year — a figure that includes the unplanned cost of purchasing about 9,000 laptops for students.

In the early weeks of the crisis, IPS has not taken a severe financial hit. In fact, it spent less than anticipated because school closures reduced costs in some areas, such as transportation, extracurricular activities, and facilities, Young said.

The district, however, is in the midst of making a huge investment in technology. Amid fears that schools could be closed in the fall or the need for some form of social distancing could continue, IPS is spending about $12 million so that every student has a device. That will pay for 14,000 Chromebooks, 7,000 iPads, and 9,000 mobile hotspot devices for students without broadband at home. The purchases will be funded with several sources, including reserves and philanthropic giving.

State charter board will require Indianapolis schools to use Enroll Indy

2020-04-30T00:14:02+00:00

The Indiana Charter School Board voted Wednesday to require Indianapolis campuses it oversees to participate in the city’s common enrollment system, Enroll Indy. As a result, families are now one step closer to being able to apply to all public, choice schools in Indianapolis Public Schools boundaries through one website and office.

Until now, a handful of charter schools have been reluctant to cede control of their enrollment to Enroll Indy, a lottery-based single application process for families to register for IPS magnet schools and charter schools. Most of the public schools in IPS boundaries now use the three-year-old system, but two notable holdouts are the state-authorized networks Christel House Academy and Phalen Leadership Academies.

When schools seek charters from the state board, they will now be required to participate in Enroll Indy, after the board approved the new policy without dissent during its virtual meeting Wednesday. Existing schools that do not use the system will only be required to participate once their charters are renewed.

The state board had previously left the decision up to schools. But Indiana Charter School Board Executive Director James Betley said that data shows that Enroll Indy gives the city’s most disadvantaged families access to school choices through a transparent lottery system.

Using the enrollment portal will help the state charter board oversee campuses more effectively. In recent years, many of the Indianapolis schools overseen by the board have struggled with enrollment, and some have opened with just 30 students, Betley said.

“One of the issues is, we have no idea what their enrollment is,” he added. “Not only is it self-reported, but there is no way to verify it.”

Many of the city’s charter schools are already required to participate. The mayor’s Office of Education Innovation, which oversees most Indianapolis charter schools, already mandates participation for new and renewed charters. It is also typically required by IPS as part of innovation partnerships, which allow charter schools access to some district services or buildings while maintaining independence. (Both Christel House and Phalen participate in Enroll Indy at campuses that are innovation schools.)

When families apply for seats through Enroll Indy, which also does outreach to help them find schools, they rank the schools they would like their children to attend. Each student is typically given a seat at the highest ranked school where a spot was available based on the lottery. The system runs winter and spring lotteries for the upcoming school year. During the summer and current year, students enroll in schools with open slots on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Proponents of common enrollment systems say that it allows schools to more accurately plan for the coming year because parents cannot hold spots at multiple schools. But one reason why some schools are reluctant to participate in Enroll Indy is that the system does not have waitlists — instead, schools are expected to plan for attrition by admitting additional students.

Sarah Weimer of Christel House Academy said that she is concerned that without a waitlist, the network won’t be able to prioritize students appropriately during the late enrollment period.

“We think that it’s important ... that we are able to call students and families who do meet those preferences — the low-income preference, the sibling preference — to be able to backfill any open seats that we have,” Weimer said. Without a waitlist, she argued, some students will “essentially jump ahead of any student who wasn’t placed with us as their first or second choice.”

But Bill Murphy, executive director of Enroll Indy, said that when it comes to making a system-wide decision about whether to have waitlists, “we look at who is most likely to be impacted.”

“The fact of the matter is,” Murphy said, “the very families who are coming from low-income backgrounds, who are historically under-served are the ones who engage in summer transition.”

How Indianapolis teachers are moving lessons from the classroom to TV

2020-04-28T21:23:27+00:00

Indianapolis teacher Jennifer Cook’s math lessons still feature goofy jokes written for a second-grade audience.

“Ten is such an important number. We have 10 fingers, 10 toes,” she told her students, wiggling her hands. Then with a little tilt of her head and half-smile, she added, “10 Oreos,” before pausing to get real with her students, “I wish, right.”

But instead of delivering her lines in person for the 24 second-graders in her class at School 82, Cook stood in front of a camera in the nearly empty board room at Indianapolis Public Schools’ central office. Her lessons in computation, number sense, and reading were broadcast on television to local students.

Jennifer Cook’s math lessons were among those aired on TV for local students.

“I prepare more for this than what I would in the classroom, where it’s very natural and very comfortable,” Cook told Chalkbeat after she filmed her first set of lessons. But she still imagines her own students — not the many more children watching from home — as she teaches. “I picture their smiles, and I picture their little giggles. I know where they would laugh.”

The state’s largest district began airing lessons this week for two hours each weekday morning on MyINDY-TV, a sister station of WISH, in partnership with Circle City Broadcasting. The stations are owned by DuJuan McCoy, who attended IPS. The strategy is a way of reaching thousands of Indianapolis children who lack reliable or high-speed internet access at home — a glaring gap that has become more significant since classrooms across the city are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic and some coursework has moved online.

IPS estimates that more than 10,000 students lack reliable broadband. Citywide, school officials estimate about 39,000 students don’t have internet access at home.

The TV lessons focus on different elementary and middle school subjects each morning. Elementary and middle school students in IPS were given paper assignments, along with supplemental online work and videos. High schoolers were given laptops to take online classes.

So far, 26 teachers have filmed lessons after volunteering to participate. Filming occurs during their regular work hours, so they are not getting paid extra.

In some ways, the televised lessons look the same as they would if they were in the classroom. Teachers write on whiteboards and giant paper pads. They tell students to answer questions along with them or repeat words back to them, and they leave small pauses for responses.

“I try to talk to the camera like I’m talking to the students right in front of me,” said Stephanie Woods, a special education reading interventionist whose TV lessons focus on phonics and social and emotional learning. For video lessons, teachers have to be enthusiastic and clear because they cannot gauge students’ reactions and make modifications, Woods said. “You want to engage them, but you can’t see that engagement.”

Social and emotional learning lessons are challenging to modify for video, Woods said, because in a typical classroom, she would gather students in circles for discussions. But focusing on emotional needs is crucial during this crisis. “We’re struggling as adults with everything that’s going on,” she said, adding that she “can only imagine” how children and teenagers are coping.

Cook, the second-grade teacher from School 82, also volunteered to teach for television because she wants to soothe her students’ fears amid the coronavirus crisis. Since classrooms closed, Cook has not been able to get in touch with some of her students, and she wants to find a way to reach them.

“I’m hoping that they see me and they know everything’s gonna be OK,” she said. “I’m still here.”

Donations aim to bridge gaps for 39,000 Indianapolis students without internet

2020-04-27T22:09:25+00:00

Indianapolis schools and districts are getting a small influx of money to help them pay for the cost of technology for students as instruction goes remote during the pandemic.

A $1.5 million distribution from a newly established Marion County e-learning fund supported by several local foundations will be divided among schools around the city to help address device and internet access needs for students, according to an announcement from the mayor’s office of education innovation.

The money will be distributed based on the number of students from low-income families that schools serve. The largest chunk — about $256,000 — will be split among charter schools, which enroll about 17,600 students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals. Indianapolis Public Schools, the state’s largest district, will also receive over $246,000.

Marion County schools serve over 100,000 students who come from low-income families. The distribution amounts to less than $15 per child.

The money will help schools pay for badly needed technology for students. Nearly 39,000 Indianapolis students don’t have access to high-speed internet — about one out of four school children — according to surveys of school leaders compiled by the city. In IPS, administrators estimate that about 40% of students do not have reliable broadband.

Internet providers are offering special deals during the crisis to allow some families to get free internet. But as Chalkbeat reported, many families do not qualify for those deals because they have unpaid bills, and others are asked to pay installation fees.

Additionally, many students do not have laptops or tablets that are appropriate for doing schoolwork at home.

“We know schools are working around the clock to ensure students have opportunities to learn during this difficult time, and we’re proud we can do something to help them in that effort,” Mayor Joe Hogsett said in a press release.

While the initial wave of spending will go toward short-term needs, the remaining money will be used for longer-term e-learning investments and resources for schools, according to the release.

Here’s how much the e-learning fund will distribute to each district:

Beech Grove City Schools $27,683
MSD Decatur Township $68,356
Franklin Township Community Schools $60,580
Indianapolis Public Schools $246,310
MSD Lawrence Township $151,246
Perry Township Schools $175,973
MSD Pike Township $117,709
School Town of Speedway $16,931
MSD Warren Township $108,622
MSD Washington Township $98,801
MSD Wayne Township $171,503
Charter schools $256,286

What happens if coronavirus closures extend into the fall? Indiana schools are already preparing.

2020-04-14T21:05:08+00:00

When Fort Wayne Schools staffers met with the county health commissioner on March 4, they were told campuses could be forced to close for as long as 28 days to help contain the spread of coronavirus.

“The whole room was aghast at what that would mean for the community,” said Krista Stockman, spokeswoman for the district. But a month later, after statewide school closures were extended for the rest of the academic year and as the pandemic continues to spread in Indiana, she said educators have started grappling with the fact that closures may last much longer.

“We could have a second wave in the fall,” Stockman said. “This could just keep going on, and we may not start in the fall.”

A growing number of Indiana educators are beginning to prepare for remote instruction to go into the next academic year. Schools that were caught off guard and initially focused on triaging the immediate needs posed by building closures are now recognizing that they could be shut down indefinitely. As a result, districts are making massive investments in technology with the aim of ensuring all students have computers or tablets by the fall. And community leaders are raising funds to train teachers in a bid to improve the quality of the instruction that happens online.

The likelihood of distance learning stretching into the fall remains unclear. Anthony Fauci, a physician and the leading infectious disease expert on the White House coronavirus task force, was optimistic that classrooms will be able to reopen by then. But education leaders across the country — including top officials in Maryland and Washington state — are cautiously getting ready for closures to extend into the fall or begin again if the U.S. is hit with a second wave of COVID-19 infections.

“The question is, how do we put in place some sort of planning so that next year when this happens we’re not scrambling?” said Michael Barbour, associate professor of instructional design for the College of Education and Health Science at Touro University in California.

For schools to improve the quality of remote instruction, they must not only ensure students have access to devices and the internet but also train teachers to use remote tools effectively and prepare students to learn independently online, Barbour said.

The most concrete step many Indiana schools are taking is purchasing additional technology to give to students next year. Fort Wayne moved up plans to go “one-to-one” so each student can have their own device, and the district will use federal stimulus money to purchase about 700 additional devices. And Indianapolis Public Schools is also preparing for an extended period of remote instruction by purchasing enough devices for each student to have one. The district is hoping philanthropic dollars will offset the cost.

It’s a significant transition for IPS, which had to distribute thousands of Chromebooks and mobile hotspots in order for high schoolers to complete spring courses online. Elementary and middle school students are using paper packets this semester.

The district is making an investment in devices because “we are assuming that there will be a world in which we’ll need to be in a remote or home-learning environment again,” said Superintendent Aleesia Johnson.

A newly launched Marion County e-learning fund aims to help schools connect students from low-income families with essential resources, including internet access and devices. The fund, however, is designed to do more than plug short-term holes. The money will go toward creating long-term plans to improve virtual learning and meet the mental health needs of students in Indianapolis. It will also create a lab for educators across the state to share what they’ve learned about remote instruction.

“It’s likely going to take a while to return to normal,” said Brandon Brown, who is on the fund advisory and CEO of The Mind Trust, an Indianapolis education nonprofit. Making sure students have technology is not enough to make remote instruction work, but it is an essential prerequisite.

“I tend to think that the device is actually most important to facilitate human interaction between educators and students,” Brown added.

The Tindley charter network, which runs three Indianapolis campuses, is using technology to support hours of virtual connections between students and teachers. The schools are attempting to mirror traditional days, with students regularly signing on for video classes, said CEO Brian Metcalf. The network, which had not used remote instruction before, bought hundreds of devices for students to make the approach work.

They are still working out gaps, like how to mentor and evaluate teachers, Metcalf said. But the goal from the start was to come up with a plan Tindley schools could use if buildings remained closed indefinitely, Metcalf said.

“We are sending the message that this is school,” Metcalf said, “just school done in a different way.”

Unpaid bills put free internet offers out of reach for some Indianapolis families

2020-04-13T23:42:51+00:00

One month after Indianapolis schools closed their doors, Elvira Rangel Beltran’s four children are working on paper packets while many of their classmates video conference with teachers.

Local schools have pointed families toward widely publicized offers for free internet access during the coronavirus crisis, but Rangel said she has been blocked from a free 60-day deal because of an old unpaid bill.

The provider, Spectrum, won’t connect the internet until she pays her balance in full, Rangel said. She can’t afford the payment of several hundred dollars because she’s out of work while hair and nail salons are shut down under the state’s stay-at-home order. That means her children are “cut off from school,” Rangel said through a Spanish translator, “and missing out on their education.”

While providers such as Spectrum, AT&T, and Comcast have touted free internet offers to bridge technological divides, some families across the country still can’t afford service, which can come with strings attached. Low-income families and families experiencing financial hardships are turned away because of outstanding bills or deterred by pricey installation fees.

Not having internet access presents a critical barrier to education during this time of remote instruction, said Justin Ohlemiller, executive director of Stand for Children Indiana. The parent advocacy organization has been helping families find resources and urging internet service providers to change their policies.

“We’re hoping some of the internet providers do the right thing and help support families,” Ohlemiller said, adding that internet access “is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have. In our minds, it’s as essential as heat or clean water.”

A Spectrum spokesman didn’t respond to emails from Chalkbeat asking about its policy for Indianapolis families with unpaid bills. The fine print on Spectrum’s offer notes that families must have “no outstanding obligation” to qualify for two months of free internet access. It also says the offer could still come with other charges, including an installation fee.

In New York, Spectrum recently waived its policy requiring past-due bills be paid after Chalkbeat revealed how it barred some students from pursuing their education.

Among other Indianapolis providers, Comcast temporarily changed its policy to allow customers with outstanding debts to qualify for two free months of service during the public health crisis.

“A lot of families may be in a crisis-mode right now, which is a challenge made more difficult if a family was already struggling before stay at home orders were issued,” Mike Wilson, public relations director for Comcast in Indiana, wrote in an email.

AT&T spokesman Phil Hayes did not answer whether the company’s offer for two months of free internet for low-income families extends to those with unpaid bills, saying the question from Chalkbeat was “hypothetical.”

Ensuring internet access for families is a top priority for the city of Indianapolis’ newly launched e-learning fund, but there’s no coordinated plan yet for how to address the issue, said Patrick McAlister, the director of the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation.

The city is considering a range of strategies, including providing internet hotspots at apartment complexes with large numbers of students and pushing internet providers to expand service, McAlister said. But before efforts move forward, officials are waiting for responses to a survey of charter schools and districts to understand their urgent needs due to COVID-19. “Once we have a more holistic picture, it’s something that we can respond to,” he said.

So many families lack internet access in Indianapolis Public Schools that the school district purchased about 1,500 mobile hotspots for families. But Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said the city needs a more comprehensive, long-term solution.

IPS has also sent laptops to high school students, including Rangel’s older children. Her younger children have tablets, but those devices are far less useful without the internet.

Rangel hoped that Spectrum could add internet service right away while putting her on a payment plan. But so far, she’s been unable to get online.

Rangel drove her children to a friend’s house a few times so they could log on to video meetings from there. But she knows such visits pose health risks, with the coronavirus spreading quickly in Indiana.

She feels “powerless,” she said through the translator. “It’s not even about asking for a free pass, it’s just asking for something to be worked out.”

An unpaid debt is also preventing Swentalla Nelson and her daughter in third grade from getting access to the internet. When Nelson called Spectrum last month, she was told that she would need to pay nearly $500 in old cable bills first. “I’m not trying to get out of paying the bill. I just need the internet for this time that everything is shut down,” she said.

Without the internet, her daughter, who attends Edison School of the Arts in IPS, hasn’t been able to use online learning software.

“I feel like that’s a resource that has been taken away from her,” Nelson said. “I don’t have all the material here to teach her what she needs to know in order to go on to the next grade.”

Even parents without outstanding bills have sometimes struggled to get internet service. Shawanda Tyson has been trying for weeks to sign up for broadband so her 11-year-old son can do schoolwork and video chat with teachers. When Tyson initially called Spectrum, she said she was told that in order to get the internet up and running, she would need to prepay $150 to cover installation and service. She couldn’t afford the payment, so she didn’t get broadband.

Over the past week, Tyson has been driving to her sister’s day care to use the internet, but she and her son aren’t working inside. Instead, from about 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day, the pair have stayed in the car, doing assignments and meeting with teachers by video. A fifth-grader at Ignite Achievement Academy at School 42 in IPS, Tyson’s son has autism and ADHD, so he also has sessions with his occupational and speech therapists.

After two more calls to Spectrum, Tyson was finally able to get internet access on Monday.

Tyson is still frustrated, however, that even though she said she had school-age children at home, the first two salespeople didn’t tell her about the free service.

“It’s great that they’re offering the service, but it’s not good that they will try to sell things to people that are already under a lot of pressure,” Tyson said. “Don’t ask me to buy other stuff when I’m trying to figure out how I’m gonna put some food in these kids’ mouths.”

IPS seeks donations to address the ‘fundamentally inequitable’ coronavirus impact

2020-04-10T17:20:10+00:00

Indianapolis Public Schools is launching a fundraising campaign to support its coronavirus response plan by purchasing technology for students, training teachers, and preparing for growing mental health needs.

The IPS Foundation, the district’s philanthropic partner, aims to raise money to help the district provide devices and ensure internet access for all students by the next academic year. The fund will also help with “rapid response” to serve the immediate needs of families affected by COVID-19.

And it will be used next academic year to support students who could face significant trauma from the coronavirus and gaps in learning.

“A number of our students will experience the brunt of this crisis because of the zip code that they happen to live in,” said Superintendent Aleesia Johnson, describing limited access to fresh food, the internet, and health care in many IPS neighborhoods. “It is fundamentally inequitable.”

Johnson pointed to data showing that many of the Marion County neighborhoods most at risk of getting severely sick from COVID-19 fall within IPS boundaries, according to an analysis based on age and socioeconomic factors from SAVI, a community information project of IUPUI. National data also shows that the coronavirus is infecting and killing black Americans at disproportionately high rates.

More than 65% of students in IPS qualify for free or reduced-price meals, and “this national health crisis is only going to emphasize those inequities,” said Stephannie Bailey, CEO of the IPS Foundation. “Our students and their families are going to face unprecedented social and emotional strains and needs.”

The announcement of the new fundraising push comes days after Indianapolis leaders announced a $2.6 million e-learning fund designed to help schools across the county, including IPS, adapt to remote instruction during campus closures. The IPS Foundation campaign is designed to fill the remaining gaps. Officials did not name a specific amount of money that they are hoping to raise.

Initial gifts to the IPS fund included $125,000 donations from Salesforce, a software company with a location in Indianapolis, and Chiefs for Change, a national organization Johnson is a member of that supports district leaders who favor policies including school choice, culturally diverse curriculum, and tough accountability standards.

A new $2.6 million fund will help low-income Indianapolis students get access to e-learning

2020-04-08T15:00:48+00:00

The city of Indianapolis has created a $2.6 million e-learning fund to help schools improve distance education for students as all campuses remain closed because of the coronavirus.

The fund, which will be administered by Mayor Joe Hogsett’s Office of Education Innovation, will help low-income students in the city’s 11 districts and in charter schools get access to devices and the internet.

“While e-learning has meant that the education of our children can continue, we do know that not every household is equipped to participate in e-learning,” Hogsett said during the announcement Wednesday. “We must abide by our state’s constitutional mandate and provide access to education for all Marion County students.”

When Indianapolis Public Schools begins remote instruction Thursday, students in elementary and middle school will use paper packets. Only high school students will have online instruction. To make up for gaps in access, the district has mailed laptops to high schoolers who do not have them, and it has purchased about 1,500 mobile hotspots for families without access to the internet.

“Our team has spent hours upon hours, days upon days of thinking about this question around internet access for the communities that we serve,” said IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson, who is on the advisory committee for the fund.

The fund, supported by local philanthropic organizations, will also help schools create long-term plans for e-learning, including how to address students’ social and emotional needs. And it will create a lab offering online learning best practices and training for educators at public and private schools across the state.

“We have an obligation to help all Marion County students continue learning,” said Claire Fiddian-Green of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation, one of the groups behind the fund. “The majority of students, families, and educators were not prepared to shift almost overnight to extended periods of learning from home. This is new territory for almost all of us.”

City officials have not decided yet how much money will be distributed to Indianapolis schools, saying they first need to survey superintendents and assess their needs. An advisory board that includes three local superintendents will distribute the money.

Indianapolis ‘restart’ schools try to build trust and hire teachers — from a distance

2020-04-07T23:10:01+00:00

When the Indianapolis Public Schools administration recommended in February that Alicia Hervey take the helm of a troubled westside campus next school year, she began reaching out, introducing herself to families, meeting them at McDonald’s, and canvassing the neighborhood.

That engagement helped Hervey gain the trust of some parents who were anxious about the overhaul of School 67, which educates about 600 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, as an innovation school with new staff under Hervey’s management. By the time the IPS board voted to officially approve a contract with Hervey on March 19, however, Indianapolis schools were closed and the state was just a few days away from issuing a stay-at-home order in an effort to contain the rapid spread of the coronavirus.

As most Indiana schools attempt to shift to remote instruction, while ensuring their students have access to essentials such as food, Hervey is among a small group of educators facing a different task. They must lay the groundwork for overhauling three existing IPS campuses at a time when buildings are closed and socializing is severely curtailed.

“The biggest challenge is the face-to-face interactions that you want to have with families,” said Hervey, who is now relying on phone calls, video conferences, mailings, and social media to relay her plans for the PATH School, the new charter operator that will take over School 67.

Next academic year, Adelante Schools will take over Emma Donnan Elementary and Middle School, and Phalen Leadership Academies, an established Indianapolis charter network, will take over School 48. All three operators were approved at a March board meeting, igniting criticism from some people who said the decision should not have been made during the crisis.

The campuses will still be considered part of IPS, which will get credit for their enrollment numbers and test scores. But the staff will be employed by the charter operators, and the teachers won’t be represented by the district union.

The coronavirus and the school closures it triggered could be roadblocks to overhauling struggling Indianapolis campuses because building trust with the community and families can be crucial to the success of turnaround efforts.

The barriers to building trust are particularly steep at Emma Donnan, which has been at the center of a bitterly fought battle for control for several months. The school, which enrolls about 400 students, is currently managed by Charter Schools USA, a network that was hired after the state took over the struggling campus in 2012.

Leaders of the charter network hoped to gain permanent management of Emma Donnan and two Indianapolis high schools, but the State Board of Education voted in January to return them to IPS oversight. The district, in turn, chose Adelante to take over Emma Donnan.

Because of that friction, Adelante has not yet hosted on-site meetings with parents. The co-founders, Eddie Rangel and Matthew Rooney, have instead been making connections through community groups, such as neighborhood associations.

“We actually had a fairly extensive plan for family engagement,” said Rooney. It included canvassing and building relationships with housing complexes where students live. Now, they are shifting their focus to phone and social media. “We want to make sure to make live phone contact with every single family prior to the start of the school year.”

One way they are hoping to smooth the transition for families is by keeping current staff, who already have strong relationships with parents and students, said Rangel. After the upheaval caused by COVID-19, fostering stability for students seems especially important.

“We know that it’s a pipe dream that 100% of teachers want to come back or are a good fit for Adelante Schools,” Rangel said. “But what we’re committed to is getting as many people as possible so that kids have a safe haven to come back to, and there’s some sort of normalcy when they get back.”

Hiring staff during a pandemic is also a challenge facing school leaders overhauling campuses. Before social distancing became the norm, Hervey held a day-long hiring event with staff, parents, board members, and other Indianapolis educators. Teachers rotated through interviews, and they were able to meet with about 10 educators in a single day, she said.

Now, the PATH has been forced to shift hiring to video conferences, and the process is much slower, she said. Adelante has also shifted hiring to online interviews, where applicants must teach model classes over video.

As communities respond to COVID-19, schools that serve low-income students and children of color “will feel this moment much more than schools that are serving higher-income kids,” said Brandon Brown, CEO of The Mind Trust, a nonprofit that supports innovation schools.

In the coming years, students will have higher social and emotional needs, there will likely be less funding to help meet those needs, and gaps in passing rates on state tests will widen, Brown predicted. “It will take years in my opinion to rebound,” he said.

The founders of restart schools, however, have an advantage in preparing for the challenges ahead. Because they are not struggling to educate and meet the needs of current students, they can focus on how they will adapt their approach for next academic year and educate students who have gone several months without traditional school.

They can also plan for the possibility that schools may still be closed in August — or may close again next school year if the pandemic has another wave.

“It is in students’ best interest for people to be planning for school not to look the same,” Rangel said. “If this should happen again — for anything, for any reason — what is the playbook?”

With demand for meals surging, shuttered Indiana schools ramp up efforts to feed students

2020-04-03T23:10:31+00:00

Home to the largest state park in Indiana and the picturesque town of Nashville, rural Brown County depends on tourism to sustain small businesses and pay tipped service workers.

But amid the new coronavirus pandemic, “all of a sudden, this whole economy that was really booming … everything has just come to a halt,” said Laura Hammack, the local school superintendent.

Nearly half of the 1,900 students who attend Brown County Schools qualify for subsidized meals, and with campuses shuttered, the demand for food assistance is swelling.

More than 500,000 Indiana students receive subsidized meals at school, and with the American economy in free fall, many families who used to be financially stable are now looking for food assistance. Even though classrooms across the state are closed through the end of the school year, hundreds of Indiana school systems and community organizations are working to ensure that families have access to food.

MAP: Where Indianapolis children can get free meals during coronavirus shutdowns

Brown County Schools, for example, is distributing more than 500 meal packages every other day, more than five times as many as the district typically gives out during the summer, Hammack said. For about 25 families unable to pick up food from area schools, district staff brings it right to their homes.

“It is a logistical feat every day,” Hammack said.

🔗Leaning on community partners

As need skyrockets, some districts are partnering with community organizations to get food to families. In recent weeks, Indianapolis Public Schools has launched and grown a robust food distribution effort — handing out nearly 50,000 meals since Marion County schools closed March 13. The state’s largest district is providing food at 16 sites around the city, including schools and apartment complexes. The distributions are open to all children 18 or under, regardless of whether they are enrolled in district schools.

IPS is also partnering with Gleaners Food Bank to offer 17-pound boxes of food to families at 24 sites, and it has given boxes to more than 28,000 families so far.

“Obviously this is a need that we want to continue to meet in our community and for our families,” IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson told the school board at a meeting Tuesday.

Many families are relying directly on community organizations for food. At its warehouse pantry and its mobile distributions around the city, Gleaners is seeing a surge in demand, including from many people who have never before needed food assistance, said Sarah Estell, senior director of communications and digital strategy for the nonprofit.

So many people are in need of food that Gleaners doesn’t have time to stop and ask about how many children there are in the household or other demographic information that the food bank would normally collect, Estell said. “Right now, the lines are so long, we have to push people through.”

Meanwhile, Indy Parks, one of the largest summer meal providers in the city, is ramping up its program for children following school closures — and shifting from group meals to grab-and-go packs.

“A lot of the people seem really scared,” said Joenne Pope, senior manager of community programs for Indy Parks. “They don’t know when this is going to end. It’s not like a snowstorm, or a hurricane, or a tornado — you know it’s going to get better. We just don’t know.”

🔗Hampered by safety concerns

School districts and food pantries are trying various strategies to avoid transmission of the new coronavirus, such as putting food directly in the trunks of cars to avoid close personal contact. But safety concerns have led some districts to reduce food distribution.

Wayne Township schools in Indianapolis, which enrolls about 17,000 students, initially provided meals through a combination of campus distributions and bus stop deliveries to serve “families that don’t have transportation, that don’t have safe walking routes,” said Superintendent Jeff Butts.

After spring break, though, bus stop drop-offs will stop due to safety concerns, though school site distributions will continue.

“Unfortunately, we are not able to comply with the social distancing guidelines while distributing meals in this way,” Butts wrote to families.

Concerns over safety led Lakeland Schools, near the Michigan border, to suspend food distribution altogether. The 1,700-student district initially offered meals at eight sites, but demand proved low, wrote Superintendent Eva Merkel in an email to Chalkbeat.

When Gov. Eric Holcomb issued an order requiring residents to stay at home, the district decided to suspend the program in an effort to protect staff and reduce the potential for spreading the virus, Merkel wrote. (Food distribution is considered essential and meals programs are exempt from the order.)

One reason Merkel was comfortable suspending distributions was that students who were most in need had received packages with four weeks of nonperishable items from a community partner.

The district is planning some sort of food distribution after its upcoming spring break, Merkel wrote, but “a lot will depend on what we are asked to do next to keep everyone safe.”

IPS unveils remote learning plans, including online lessons in high school and paper packets for younger students

2020-04-03T22:24:49+00:00

Indianapolis Public Schools will begin remote learning on Thursday, April 9, after missing nearly two weeks of instruction.

When school resumes — following canceled days and a two-week spring break — the state’s largest district will rely on paper school work being mailed to elementary and middle school students. Teachers will also make videos and hold office hours, according to a video from Superintendent Aleesia Johnson posted Friday.

High school students, who must earn credits to graduate, will take courses online. District staff have been calling families to see whether high schoolers have access to devices and the internet at home. Starting next week, the district will send devices to students who need them, Johnson said.

IPS gathered more than 6,000 laptops from schools to distribute to high school students and middle school students in high school-level classes, according to a press release.

“This is a crisis unlike any we’ve ever had to navigate,” Johnson said in the video. “Please know we are taking all the measures we can to support our staff, our students, and our families.”

As classrooms across Indiana closed due to the coronavirus, some districts were able to swiftly shift to online instruction. In places where they routinely used e-learning for snow days, for example, there was already a model in place — although educators say long-term remote education is a new challenge.

A Chalkbeat analysis found that 30% of Indiana schools used an e-learning day last year, and wealthier schools were almost twice as likely to have taken advantage of online learning than those with high poverty rates.

But districts serving lower-income families and rural communities face significant technological barriers to online instruction because students may not have devices or access to the internet.

IPS has been running a technology access survey for families, but it has not yet released results. When schools closed three weeks ago, IPS officials estimated that about half of students were prepared for online learning at home.

That’s a sharp contrast with some suburban Indianapolis districts where students as young as kindergarten all have devices issued or required by the school system. And some township districts with large populations of students from low-income families have been able to provide devices to many children.

Schools across Indiana will be closed for the remainder of the academic year, State Superintendent Jennifer McCormick announced Thursday.

MAP: Where Indianapolis children can get free meals during coronavirus shutdowns

2020-04-03T22:00:00+00:00

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With campuses across Indiana now closed for the remainder of the school year, districts and community organizations are working to get food to thousands of students who rely on school meals.

Marion County families can find food through the Community Compass app or by texting the word “hi” to 317-434-3758.

The map below shows Indianapolis food distribution sites.

If your school district pickup site or community agency isn’t on the map, please send the information to us at in.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Instructions (Desktop)

Open the map and click the Search button.
Search for your address to find nearby meal distribution sites. Schedules for breakfast and lunch pickups vary by site.
Select the meal distribution site and click the Direction button.
Find the directions to the meal distribution sites on Google Maps.

Instructions (Mobile)

I don't have Google Drive and Google Maps installed on my device

Open the map and scroll to your neighborhood.
Find and select the meal distribution site to view the schedule for breakfast and lunch.
Tap the direction buttons to go to Google Maps.

I have both Google Drive and Google Maps installed on my device

Open the map and tap the Search bar.
Search for your address to find nearby meal distribution sites.
Tap the name of the meal distribution site to view the schedule for breakfast and lunch. Tap the direction buttons to go to Google Maps.

Here’s where Indianapolis children can get meals during the three-week school shutdown for coronavirus

Schedules for breakfast and lunch pickups vary. If your school or community agency isn’t on the map, please send the information to us at meals@chalkbeat.org. Open the address sheet document here.

Instructions (Desktop)

Open the map and click the Search button.
Search for your address to find nearby meal distribution sites. Schedules for breakfast and lunch pickups vary by site.
Select the meal distribution site and click the Direction button.
Find the directions to the meal distribution sites on Google Maps.

Instructions (Mobile)

I don't have Google Drive and Google Maps installed on my device

Open the map and scroll to your neighborhood.
Find and select the meal distribution site to view the schedule for breakfast and lunch.
Tap the direction buttons to go to Google Maps.

I have both Google Drive and Google Maps installed on my device

Open the map and tap the Search bar.
Search for your address to find nearby meal distribution sites.
Tap the name of the meal distribution site to view the schedule for breakfast and lunch. Tap the direction buttons to go to Google Maps.