Chalkbeat

Beech Grove school board election: Who’s running and how to vote

2024-10-01T13:05:19+00:00

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This voter guide was co-published by Chalkbeat Indiana, Mirror Indy, and WFYI as part of a partnership to increase coverage of township school districts in Marion County and cover the 2024 school board elections.

Four of seven school board seats are up for election at Beech Grove City Schools, a district southeast of Indianapolis with about 3,000 students.

The elected school board members will deal with the effects of an ongoing teacher shortage and recent grade reconfigurations.

The board was under fire in 2023 after member Rick Skirvin allegedly reported three Black students to the superintendent for theft inside a Walgreens, despite having no evidence. Skirvin retired in December amid a defamation lawsuit filed by the students’ families.

In July, parents expressed outrage over an attack on a student at Beech Grove High School by two of his peers, as reported by Fox 59.

In a video of the incident, no teacher or school official appeared to intervene. A district spokesperson said the incident was investigated but did not discuss disciplinary action.

Beech Grove City Schools belongs to the Indiana Literacy Cadre to receive instructional support from the state and get more students reading proficiently. In 2024, 20.7% of third graders in Beech Grove’s Central Elementary School did not pass the IREAD.

This election

Five candidates are running for four open at-large seats this November. The race includes three incumbents.

The elected members will begin their terms on Jan. 1, 2025 and serve through Jan. 1, 2029.

The elected school board will also be involved in implementing laws passed by the state legislature earlier this year. That includes a ban on cellphones in class and a revised reading law, which requires third graders who don’t pass the state literacy exam to be held back.

Who votes and how to vote

Voters who live in the district can cast a vote for all four at-large seats.

Voter registration is underway and ends on Oct. 7. Marion County residents can register to vote online.

Early voting begins on Oct. 8 at the Indianapolis City-County Building at 200 E. Market St. Additional early voting sites can be found online.

On Election Day on Nov. 5, Marion County residents can vote at any of the county’s voting centers, which can be found online.

Meet the candidates

Five candidates, including three incumbents, are vying for four seats on the school board.

April McManus, at large seat

April McManus is currently on the school board, and has served there since 2017, including as president. As a board member, she said the top priority is to take care of students to positively impact them and help with challenges they are facing. She said the district is in a “unique financial situation” due to needing referendums for transportation and capital improvements.

A Beech Grove resident for 24 years, her daughter is a Beech Grove Alumna. McManus works in the Indiana Department of Revenue.

Beth Prindle, at large seat

Beth Prindle is an incumbent candidate who has served on the board for more than three decades. She’s a graduate from Beech Grove High School and so are her four children. Prindle said she is running for re-election to continue to help Beech Grove schools be “the best it can be for the future of our community.” She said that the board is working to be “fiscally responsible” and “setting high expectations for our students.” Prindle works as a preschool teacher.

April Rinks, at large seat

April Rinks, is a regular volunteer at Beech Grove schools and has coached cheerleading at Beech Grove Middle School for five years. She told Chalkbeat that her love for her town and its schools motivated her to run for school board. Rinks said she wants to support the superintendent, advocate for teachers, attract top educators to the district, and continue the district’s educational successes. She’s also passionate about opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math for young women and girls.

Rinks has lived in Beech Grove for 16 years. She has three children, two who are district alumni and a current high schooler. Rinks works at the Indiana University School of Medicine as a technologist in the cytogenetic laboratory.

Dennis Wilson II, at large seat

Dennis Wilson II is a self-employed attorney and owner of Elite Casino Productions, a special events company providing casino-themed entertainment, according to his campaign filing. He was also an officer of the Beech Grove Promoters Club, a community service organization.

In an email to Chalkbeat, Wilson said his priorities as a school board member are to improve literacy, promote academic engagement by keeping kids off their phones during school, and encourage lifelong learning.

Tara Wolf, at large seat

Tara Wolf, is an incumbent school board member who has served on the board since 2022. In an email to Chalkbeat, she said her priorities are school safety, communication, and responsible spending. She said the district’s biggest challenge is its budget, due to property tax caps. Wolf also said she wants to support superintendent Laura Hammack in the effort to improve the district’s academic standing in Marion County.

Wolf works at Midwest Communications Group, a campaign consulting firm.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief. Contact her at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

IPS opens streamlined application process for potential Innovation Network schools

2024-08-30T18:57:44+00:00

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Indianapolis Public Schools is now accepting letters of interest from potential partners as part of a streamlined application process for in-boundary schools to join the Innovation Network.

The updated process is the result of a charter school collaboration resolution passed by the school board in June that affirmed the district’s commitment to collaborating with schools of all types, including charters. The district hopes that by making it easier for in-boundary schools to become Innovation partners, the new process will increase educational opportunities and allow traditional IPS and Innovation schools to learn from each other.

The finalized process was presented to the school board by Brian Dickey, the IPS executive director of portfolio strategy, on Thursday during its regular action meeting.

“Hopefully this is an opportunity for district-managed and Innovation Network schools to come together and collaborate for greater school-level and educator-level problem solving,” Dickey said at the board’s summer retreat on Aug. 20.

Innovation Network schools have autonomy over their operations but use school buildings within IPS boundaries and can access some district services. The district can claim Innovation students for their enrollment and academic performance data. Not all Innovation schools are charter schools, although many are.

The window for submitting letters of interest is open through Sept. 30. IPS is asking potential partners for the 2025-26 school year to explain the best practices they have in place for students, and to show evidence for how their school model is successful.

At their retreat, school board commissioners agreed to look for mental health support for students and cultural responsiveness in the classroom when considering potential partners.

IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson noted that the district must take into account the school’s socioeconomic factors, as well as how long it has been open, since the district asks for evidence-based practices in the application.

“I would not suggest a level of rigidity that does not give us the opportunity to consider the context of who’s being served in schools,” Johnson said at the board retreat.

In November, schools with promising letters of interest will be asked to submit a formal application, due in December. From January to June, the school board and IPS administrators will interview applicants, and a proposed agreement will be presented to the board.

Before the updated process, schools had five pathways to join the Innovation Network. Two of those options — Jumpstart, for existing underperforming IPS schools, and Restart, for existing underperforming non-IPS schools — will no longer be available. The new application offers three remaining pathways: a new school can join the network, an existing charter can join, or there can be a conversion.

The new school designation is meant for schools that have not existed before that plan to open within the district as part of the Innovation Network.

Existing charters already operate in the district’s boundaries but wish to collaborate with IPS via an Innovation agreement.

The conversion option refers to a high-performing IPS school that seeks greater autonomy by becoming an Innovation school.

More information about applying, including the letters of interest template, can be found here.

Contact Chalkbeat Indiana at in.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Believe Circle City High School joins IPS Innovation Network

2024-08-30T16:35:32+00:00

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Believe Circle City High School joined the Indianapolis Public Schools Innovation Network this week after the school board voted 7-0 Thursday to approve an agreement with the charter school.

As part of the Innovation Network, Believe Circle City will largely have control over its daily operations but receive certain services from the district. (Not all Innovation Network schools are charters, but many are.) IPS will provide food service, access to athletics facilities as the season allows, and $500 per in-boundary Believe Circle City student. IPS will be able to count Believe Circle City students for overall district enrollment and academic performance.

Brian Dickey, IPS executive director of portfolio strategy, said at Tuesday’s agenda review session that this agreement is a chance to “do something with partnership that each could not do individually.”

Believe Circle City is a college and career preparatory school on the northside of Indianapolis that enrolls about 200 students. The school leaders submitted their letter of interest in joining the Innovation Network in 2019. The high school belongs to the Believe Schools network, which also has a campus in St. Louis, according to its website.

The school is tuition free and “works with historically under-estimated youth in the Indianapolis community,” so that students can become independent and successful adults, the website says.

Believe Circle City performed 5 percentage points higher on the SAT math test than the IPS portfolio average in 2023-24, with 17% of students meeting the math benchmark for proficiency compared to 12% respectively. But its students did only marginally better in evidence-based reading and writing on average, according to data presented by Dickey on Tuesday.

The agreement will be up for renewal after five years. In that time, IPS and Believe Circle City will discuss best practices to support students and collaborate when possible, Dickey said.

Contact Chalkbeat Indiana at in.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library keeps growing in Indiana but Marion County lacks full access

2024-08-23T18:46:14+00:00

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In 85 counties in Indiana, all children under age 5 can register to read free books delivered to their home through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. That’s 31 more counties than a year ago.

But many children in the state’s most populous county, Marion, are still waiting for an Imagination Library.

Last year, the state announced a $6 million allocation to match local partners’ contributions to the Imagination Library. But right now, only two Marion County ZIP codes, 46201 and 46203 on the eastside of Indianapolis, can enroll in the program. According to the library’s estimates, that leaves more than 60,000 children in Marion County who need access.

By the end of the year, the staff at the library wants to close the gap and get more children reading earlier. It’s a goal that is personally important to many staff and partners as well as Parton, a singer and philanthropist and the program’s founder.

“This is for every child, no matter their income or where they live or what their parents do,” said Katie Mullins, community engagement coordinator for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library of Indiana. “This is a program that is for every child because [Parton] knows what it’s like to grow up without.”

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which started in 1995, gifts books to registered children from birth to age 5 across the United States and in four other countries. In 2022, the program mailed approximately 2 million books globally each month, according to its website. The organization partners with local affiliates in different states to provide the service.

To expand the program, the library requires affiliates with secured funding or a fundraising plan to pay for the cost of books. In Indiana, the state pays $1.10 for each book per child per month, or half the book’s cost, and the local partner is responsible for the other half.

That can be a challenge for ZIP codes with larger populations, like those in Marion County, Mullins said. In addition to Marion, Boone, Lake, and Morgan County don’t have all ZIP codes covered by the program. As of this month, Allen and Hamilton County have zero coverage.

In June, Gina Haile, an area director of United Way, helped launch an Imagination Library to cover all of Montgomery County. Paying for the program was the biggest obstacle, she said. She received grants for her library’s projected first two years of expenses, but so many kids signed up in the first few weeks that she predicts the funds will only last eight months.

“I laugh because it’s such a great problem,” Haile said. She’s happy to go find more money because “it’s just obvious our community wanted this.”

Gordie, age 6 months, from Noble County, Indiana, holds a Dolly Parton's Imagination Library book.

Most local affiliates need help with the library launch, Haile said, but after that, it’s easier to sustain funding. She believes partnerships between nonprofits, businesses, and local affiliates are the best way to achieve statewide coverage.

“It’s the initial start that is difficult,” Haile said. “The program and the mission and the vision and the impact will sell itself going forward.”

Mullins said the Indiana Imagination Library set the end of 2024 as the goal for statewide coverage because it will be the end of Gov. Eric Holcomb’s term. Holcomb prioritized expansion of the program as one of his early literacy initiatives.

To check county or ZIP code access or sign up for an alert when a program launches, use the Imagination Library’s lookup tool.

Haley Miller is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Haley at hmiller@chalkbeat.org.

IPS now makes volunteers pay for their own background checks, frustrating some parents

2024-08-22T22:21:43+00:00

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Those who want to regularly volunteer at Indianapolis Public Schools must pay for their own background check starting this school year, a change that’s frustrated many parents.

In recent years, federal pandemic relief funding covered the cost of background checks. And before that, the funding came from individual schools’ budgets, said IPS Chief Human Resources Officer Christina Aden Hamer. But with relief dollars from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief fund running out, the district has opted to shift that expense — which ranges from $15.95 to $19.90 — to volunteers.

“I think that there’s got to be some other way to meet the goal of keeping our students safe that doesn’t place such a burden and that isn’t so inequitable,” said Melissa Ranck, a parent at Rousseau McClellan School 91.

The district also is using a new registration process, and it divides volunteers into tiers based on the level and frequency of contact with students.

The first tier, which does not require a background check, is for community members who visit for a short period of time. The second tier includes volunteers who work frequently with students with teacher or staff supervision, such as assisting in a classroom. The third tier is for those who work alone with students, like chaperoning a field trip. The second and third tiers both require background checks.

On Facebook, parents said the new registration disadvantages families who are from lower income brackets, those who struggle to use technology, and those whose first language isn’t English. When the district made the new registration process, it was only accessible in English.

An IPS official said the district is working on manually translating the form, which will be available in a few days in the top-five spoken languages in the district, including Spanish and Haitian Creole. The district did not initially know the form lacked a translation option, Aden Hamer said.

Other factors beyond the background check fee can make the cost prohibitive for some families, Ranck said. When she volunteered on field trips in previous years, she also had to cover gas and parking.

“For us to be asking people to pay all this money just to volunteer really limits the amount of people who are able to do that,” Ranck said.

The new registration process for volunteers also assumes, she added, that families are technologically “well versed” and have reliable access to the internet. Ranck said using the system felt like applying for a job, with an option to upload a resume.

The district is listening to feedback on how to ensure the process is equitable, Aden Hamer said. If applicants need help technologically or financially, they should reach out to their schools directly, she added.

“The best and first way to get financial assistance is definitely to go through your school leader,” Hamer said.

She said that after trying out the new registration this year, the district will evaluate the number of volunteers and the extent to which schools have decided to allocate funds toward supporting background checks. IPS has not decided about whether to create a district-wide funding option in the future.

Haley Miller is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Haley at hmiller@chalkbeat.org.

Indianapolis’ first library for Black residents reopens through school librarian’s leadership

2024-08-19T14:50:51+00:00

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Maurice Broaddus was a writer by trade and became a middle school librarian by accident.

The award-winning Afrofuturist and sci-fi author once filled in at The Oaks Academy middle school, where he was also a teacher, for the librarian going on maternity leave. The librarian never came back.

“Six, seven years later I’m still covering her maternity leave,” he joked.

But what started as mere chance has become an opportunity to mentor young writers, support artists of color, and restore a historic Indianapolis library that was the first in the city established specifically for Black residents.

“It’s been a lesson in collaboration, a lesson in building relationships, a lesson in dreaming alongside our neighbors,” said Broaddus, who is Black. “Ultimately, what does it look like to restore a space and then it be true to its purpose?”

Broaddus led the project to reopen the Paul Laurence Dunbar Library, established within the now-closed John Hope School No. 26 in 1922, to students at The Oaks Academy middle school, a private Christian school in the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood. The library originally existed to serve Black residents in a de facto segregated part of the city. Its restoration after nearly 30 years of disuse will give Oaks students their own library collection, Broaddus said, while memorializing its place in Indianapolis history.

“We are honoring the past, but we’re doing present work,” he said.

The restored library opened last week on the first day of school at The Oaks. Many shelves are still empty — Broaddus is waiting on a major 1,000-book order — but he’s started curating three special collections on the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, and Afrofuturism.

Maurice Broaddus, right, explains the history of the library to students, parents, and staff during orientation night last week. The restoration team honored the original feel of the space, he said, with its design and decor.

As parents and new students walked through the building for middle school orientation last Tuesday, they lingered around the library. They saw shelves of rich, dark wood, an ornamental copper ceiling, and a working fireplace.

“It looks like a Harry Potter film in here, you know?” one parent said to her child.

“As well it should,” Broaddus said.

The team behind the project worked to pay homage to the original decor and accents of the space, he said. The library stopped operating in 1997, when John Hope School No. 26 of Indianapolis Public Schools shut down.

The Oaks Academy acquired the building in 2015, according to the school website, and currently has around 270 students in grades 6-8.

Before this year, students relied on the Indianapolis Public Library shared interlibrary system and requested books online that were delivered by Broaddus. They can continue to use that system, but now they also have an internal collection to browse.

Books from the reopened Paul Laurence Dunbar Library. Before the restoration, The Oaks had a limited internal collection, and students mostly ordered books through the Indianapolis Public Library.

In addition to aesthetics, Broaddus wants to honor the legacy of the space by ensuring it benefits the community, not just private school students. He said that’s why he established the Mari Evans Residency for Artists and Authors of Color.

The residency, named for the acclaimed Black poet, writer, and Indianapolis resident Mari Evans, will bring in a renowned author for two weeks to meet with students as well as hold a public-facing event, like a lecture.

The public event is important to Broaddus, who cares about earning the neighborhood’s trust. He said some of the themes of the residency grew out of community feedback.

“If I’m over here operating like, ‘Oh, I know what we should do,’ I’m operating no differently than, frankly, any of the white institutions, just with a Black face in front of it,” he said. “I’m literally no more than a colonizer with brown skin at that point.”

During orientation, the students were intrigued with how the restored library space will be used.

Eighth grader Lazarus Manley said he likes the idea of going to the library after a long day.

“It just feels really cozy to be in, and I’m really excited to use it,” Manley said.

Haley Miller is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Haley at hmiller@chalkbeat.org.

Marion County schools will receive $600 million to improve academic, postsecondary success

2024-08-15T20:04:46+00:00

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Marion County K-12 schools will receive up to $600 million from Lilly Endowment Inc. by the end of 2025 to improve students’ academic achievement and help them succeed after graduation.

The endowment will award grants in three phases, with the third being competitive. Public schools in Marion County will be eligible to apply for the majority of the funding, $450 million, while private schools will be eligible for the remaining $150 million. More than 300 schools — public, charter, and private — have the opportunity to apply, according to a release from the endowment Thursday.

The guidelines for the grants are broad, so schools can tailor initiatives to their students. When considering postsecondary success projects, the endowment is especially interested in initiatives that enable students to earn college degrees or industry-recognized credentials and develop skills they need in their future careers, according to Judith Cebula, communications director at Lilly Endowment.

The Lilly Endowment has unveiled the grants as Indiana policymakers prepare to change high school graduation requirements and put more of an emphasis on preparing students for the workforce. Too many students in the county “are not achieving adequate educational success,” said Ted Maple, the endowment’s vice president for education.

The endowment wanted to address the barriers to educational success, Cebula said in an email to Chalkbeat, including the effects of the pandemic and mental health challenges. Since school leaders have a unique understanding of those problems, the endowment is encouraging proposals that would be “most effective in their own contexts,” she said. (Chalkbeat receives funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc.)

The endowment has allocated funding to educational and postsecondary success programs in Indiana before. In 2022, Lilly put $85 million toward phonics-focused literacy instruction and $28.8 million to youth camps on Indiana’s college campuses.

The $600 million grant program is roughly a third larger than the $456 million budget adopted by Indianapolis Public Schools for this year.

Some projects may focus on near-term improvements to student success, the release said, such as instructional programs. But the endowment is also open to projects addressing underlying challenges to learning like food insecurity and chronic absenteeism.

“We are encouraging school leaders to take full advantage of the opportunities under these initiatives to identify and implement promising, local, national or global, evidenced-based approaches to address the relevant educational challenges and opportunities of their students,” Ted Maple, the endowment’s vice president for education, said in the release.

The grants will be divided into three phases: planning, implementation, and competitive grants. Phase 1 will support applicants as they prepare proposals, and Phase 2 will help with the implementation of promising projects. In Phase 3, schools will compete for the largest grants.

Recipients will have five years to use the funding.

Schools can learn more about the grants here.

This story has been updated to clarify which phase of the grants is a competitive process.

Haley Miller is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Haley at hmiller@chalkbeat.org

IREAD scores rise slightly before tougher reading retention law for 3rd graders kicks in

2024-08-14T16:04:03+00:00

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Student proficiency on the state’s elementary reading test rose slightly in 2024, the last year before schools must hold back third graders under Indiana’s revised retention law if they don’t pass the test or meet a few exemptions.

This year, 82.5% of third graders passed the IREAD-3 compared with just under 82% of third graders in 2023. It’s the largest single-year increase since IREAD started in 2013, according to the Indiana Department of Education.

The department said the scores prove that Indiana’s push for literacy instruction backed by the science of reading, a large body of research on how kids learn to read that emphasizes explicit phonics instruction, is getting results. But this year’s scores still do not match the pre-pandemic proficiency rate — in 2019, 87.3% of third graders passed the test.

“The pandemic only helped to highlight the critical need for literacy support,” Lynn Schemel, the department’s chief academic officer, said Wednesday at the State Board of Education Meeting. “Since the pandemic, our scores have continued to increase.”

Under the science of reading mandate, school districts and charter schools have adopted new curriculums. Schools also had the option of joining the Indiana Literacy Cadre to receive professional development aligned with the new state standards. And preparation programs for Indiana teacher candidates have started emphasizing science of reading concepts.

This year, IREAD scores at schools that opted into the literacy cadre rose by 2.5 percentage points on average, compared with an increase of 0.2 percentage points on average at schools that did not join the cadre, according to the department.

“What we’re looking at right here is an outstanding thing,” Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner said. “It’s unbelievably exciting because [the literacy cadre] moved the needle significantly more.”

The mandate for schools to use instruction that relied on the science of reading was signed into law last year by Gov. Eric Holcomb. In 2022, Holcomb set a goal that 95% of third graders would achieve proficiency on the state’s elementary reading exam by 2027.

Next year, if third graders don’t pass and don’t qualify for a “good cause exemption,” such as having a disability or being an English learner, they will not be able to move on to the next grade under the retention law enacted this year.

Before the law, state data showed that thousands of third graders who were not reading proficiently and did not meet exemption criteria were “socially promoted” to fourth grade. Last year, nearly three-quarters of the students who didn’t pass the IREAD-3 came from low-income households.

In 2022, the state let schools administer the test to second graders to identify students in need of additional literacy instruction. The department said early intervention for second graders not reading proficiently in 2023 has been critical in the gains seen this year.

“What an opportunity we have to turn that corner even more and get a higher percentage of students who are at-risk, passing,” Jenner said.

Black students’ IREAD scores show notable increase

Although student improvement on the IREAD has been sluggish at best in the last several years, some groups are registering notable gains compared to the state’s overall performance.

This year, 68.6% of Black students passed the IREAD. That’s an increase of 3.2 percentage points from last year and a 6.6 percentage-point increase since 2021. Students with disabilities and students receiving free or reduced-price meals also improved, with gains of 2.2 percentage points and 1.8 percentage points, respectively.

White and Asian students had proficiency rates of 88.3% and 86.3%, both marginal increases from last year’s exam.

Not every student group’s scores increased from last year, however. Scores for Hispanic students and English learners decreased by 0.3 and 0.4 percentage points, respectively. In 2024, 68.6% of Hispanic students passed the exam, while 63.6% of English learners passed.

“That’s an area that we’ve called out multiple times, but we have to continue to focus on our English language learners and our Hispanic students,” Jenner said. “Just so the board knows, at the Department of Education, we’re going to take a deeper dive into that as well.”

Haley Miller is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Haley at hmiller@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana unschooling parents push for child-led learning, but some worry about lax regulation

2024-08-12T10:37:13+00:00

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Kori Simmons teaches her children at home, but doesn’t follow a curriculum. She doesn’t give many written tests or traditional homework. And she provides lots of educational flexibility for each child.

On Monday, the Shelbyville mom might focus on Native American culture. She’ll play her reed flute for the kids and help them make dream catchers.

Tuesday could bring chemistry and physics. The kids will mix cornstarch and water to create oobleck, a substance that behaves both like a liquid and a solid, to learn about non-Newtonian fluids. Wednesday might be flower-planting. Or papier-mâché. Or geysers made from a two-liter bottle of soda and a roll of Mentos.

Simmons, a former substitute teacher, plans to fully educate her younger daughters, ages 5 and 8, in this method. It’s called unschooling, a niche of home schooling that promotes child-led learning without the rules and structure of a traditional school environment.

“It’s really a play it by ear kind of thing, which sounds so crazy because we’ve all grown up in the public school system where everything is supposed to be planned out,” Simmons said. “We have to know who needs to do what, when, and life just isn’t that way.”

As state lawmakers look for ways to expand school choice and more families use options like vouchers for non-public schools, the unschooling movement offers an unconventional model made possible by the near-total freedom Indiana parents have over their children’s education. A Senate bill last session about school choice would have expanded home-schooling parents’ access to state funding for classes and educational services. But after some expressed concerns the proposal would also attach regulations to home schooling, lawmakers backed off.

Unschooling, which operates on a spectrum but legally isn’t distinct from homeschooling, goes untracked and largely unregulated. In fact, Indiana is one of 11 states that has both lax home schooling regulations and no requirement to report home schooling enrollment, according to the Homeschool Legal Defense Association.

State law requires home educators to provide instruction equivalent to that of public schools but doesn’t mandate specific courses or skills to be taught, and it leaves what’s equivalent open to interpretation. Plus, since the state doesn’t track home schooling or unschooling, Indiana has no way of enforcing the requirement for equivalent instruction.

That means Hoosier parents have almost universal freedom to design their unschooling, with some integrating curriculums with exploratory learning, and others allowing their children to completely direct their education.

Definitions of unschooling aren’t precisely nailed down. But generally, unschooling emphasizes less curriculum, learning through exploration and hands-on activities, and few if any academic requirements compared to traditional home schooling, according to practitioners and experts on home education who spoke with Chalkbeat.

It’s difficult to know how widespread the practice is because it’s not tracked by the state or federal government. An Indianapolis Facebook group for unschooling families has over 700 members, but the total number of parents in Indiana’s unschooling community is unclear.

Practitioners of unschooling say that a less-regimented form of education helps kids discover their passion for learning and follow their interests at an early age, which builds confidence and independence. However, critics say unschooling can result in an incomplete education, and the lack of oversight limits the ability to intervene in potentially abusive situations.

“What we know is that there are certainly families for whom and young people for whom home schooling and unschooling work very well,” said Robert Kunzman, professor of education at Indiana University and managing director of the International Center for Home Education Research. But there are also instances, he added, “where it is a cover for neglect or abuse, and it runs the gamut everywhere in between.”

Unschooling prioritizes child-led learning

Nationally, the number of families who home-school has skyrocketed since the pandemic, with an increase of 51% from 2017-18 to 2022-23 in states with comparable enrollment, according to a Washington Post analysis that collected data from 32 states. Indiana was one of 19 states without data available.

The analysis revealed that home schooling is now the nation’s fastest growing form of education.

Parents often choose to home-school because they are dissatisfied with the public education system or want to provide moral instruction, according to polling from before and after the pandemic began.

Similar data is not available for unschooling. However, Kunzman believes that many of the reasons for home-schooling would overlap with the reasons for unschooling — namely, the disillusionment with public schools and anti-establishment attitudes.

Unschooling takes those beliefs a step further and removes many traces of the public school classroom model, instead focusing on kids learning through experience and exploration. It’s a philosophy that gained traction in the 1970s and 1980s with the advocacy of public education critic John Holt.

Unschooling can vary from household to household, Kunzman added. While one family might purchase a curriculum for one subject and use child-led learning for other subjects, another family might rely entirely on the unschooled approach.

“Historically, unschooling emerged from a real dissatisfaction with institutions in general and highly structured, highly directed forms of education,” Kunzman said. “I think it appeals to parents and children who have a real resistance to externally dictated requirements.”

Simmons started home schooling and then unschooling during COVID. She was unhappy with how much remote learning resembled “busywork,” she said, and felt she could teach her children more effectively.

She began by relying mostly on curriculum, but switched to an unschooled approach when she noticed that book work was not engaging her kids.

“It was getting so monotonous for them,” Simmons said. “We were throwing in some hands-on things, and I realized they were learning so much more from discussion and from hands-on things.”

Kylene Varner, home educator and legislative liaison for Indiana Association of Home Educators, said her family mixes more structured home schooling with child-led learning. (She prefers the term child-led or delight-directed learning rather than unschooling.) She said she emphasizes history, world language, and literature, but encourages her children to go deeper when a topic appeals to them.

Her philosophy is that learning comes more easily when her children are passionate about the subject. When her daughter wanted to know more about jewelry making, Varner was excited to help her follow that curiosity, she said.

“Let’s go,” Varner said. “Let’s explore that. Why would I not take advantage of her having an interest in that?”

Kori Simmons' children build graham cracker gingerbread houses during a Christmas party with their unschooling co-op.

Simmons said in her unschooled method, she values not just an interest-led education, but a practical one. She created her own graduation requirements with benchmarks for English language arts and math, but also an emphasis on skills like hitching a trailer, cooking meals from scratch, public speaking, and growing vegetables.

If her children want to pursue higher level courses such as calculus, they’re welcome to. But if they’re not interested or don’t plan to attend college, she said, they don’t need that coursework.

“It is not an assumption that my children will go to college,” Simmons said. “It is an assumption that my children will be successful. Now, if success for them means that they work at McDonald’s, and they become a manager, then I’m okay with that as long as they are able to pay their own way, take care of their own family, have what they want, do what they want, and those sorts of things.”

Few home schooling, unschooling regulations exist in Indiana

When it comes to rules for approaches like home schooling and unschooling, Indiana is one of the most relaxed states in the country, said Christopher Lubienski, professor of education policy at Indiana University.

Under state law, parents can remove their elementary or middle school students from public school without reporting their intent to home-school to the district or the Indiana Department of Education. There are also no subject matter requirements for home education, unlike Ohio and Kentucky, which both mandate English language arts, history, mathematics, science, and government or civics.

“It’s largely unregulated,” Lubienski said. “It’s mostly defined by court rulings. The legislature simply hasn’t weighed in on these issues for the most part.”

The state legislature has heard only one bill in the last 10 years that would have increased the regulation of home schooling. Last year’s Senate Bill 255 would combine and expand existing state funding programs and allow Hoosier parents to apply for annual grants for a range of educational expenses, a boost for school choice in the state.

Home schooling families were eligible for funding in the first draft of the bill. But home education advocates expressed concern over the accompanying state oversight.

The bill’s author, Republican Sen. Ryan Mishler from Mishawaka, subsequently said the next draft of the bill, which legislators will consider in 2025, would exclude home-schoolers.

The exclusion of home-schoolers from state oversight fuels concerns about neglect and abuse, Lubienski said. The Coalition for Responsible Home Education, a nonprofit that advocates for state protections for home-schooled children, counted 191 fatalities since 2000 in its database of home schooling abuse and neglect cases.

In terms of concerns about educational neglect, Lubienski said, critics of home schooling and unschooling are skeptical that parents without special training are qualified to teach children.

“If you have parents who aren’t necessarily trained in how to educate a child that are doing this, is that child going to get the same preparation that a child in a regular school would?” he said.

The unschooling community rejects families who use the method to cover up abuse or neglect, Varner said, and those cases don’t represent the larger community. She added that any adult who witnesses child neglect or abuse is a state-mandated reporter.

Before recommending unschooling to a family, she would want to ensure the parents are prepared to provide a sufficient education, Varner said. She said gaps exist in any education model, but unschooling parents must internally hold each other accountable.

“That’s more of like a mentor-mentee relationship,” Varner said. “That’s not something that can be satisfied through legislation.”

Indiana’s lax home schooling regulations in Indiana don’t just impact parents and kids. Schools in Indiana can take advantage of the minimal oversight to pad their graduation rates by reporting high school dropouts as withdrawals to home schooling.

Unschoolers’ educational outcomes not clear

There is little empirical evidence to broadly support or discredit unschooling. Social scientists can’t control for variables like family background when it comes to the practice. And supporters as well as critics of unschooling often misrepresent what data is available to advance their preferred narrative, Kunzman and Lubienski said.

Organizations like the Home School Legal Defense Association have been highly influential in reducing regulations for home schooling across the country. Lubienski said these organizations claim home-schooled children score higher on exams, but the samples in the cited studies are not representative, and it’s difficult to conduct a controlled experiment on the issue.

“Kids who come from families with more educational resources, where parents are more invested in education, tend to do better in school whether they’re home-schooled or not,” he said.

In Indiana, if unschooling prevents children from receiving a quality education, that neglect would be largely hidden from view, Kunzman said. But, he believes the unschooling tenet of using the child’s interests as a starting point for deeper learning is not inherently a problem.

“When done well, I think that could be a really enriching form of education,” Kunzman said. “I think the risks are that it can also be not done well, and it can be a context where young people might not gain some vital skills and knowledge that they need.”

Haley Miller is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Haley at hmiller@chalkbeat.org.

Indianapolis police haven’t tracked curfew violations since announcing a crackdown in April

2024-08-06T10:20:00+00:00

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This article was co-reported by Chalkbeat Indiana and Axios Indianapolis as part of a reporting partnership about youth gun violence in Indianapolis.

In the four months that the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department started more strictly enforcing the city’s curfew for minors, officers have picked up just three kids for violating it — or at least that’s all the department’s communications team could track down.

The department isn’t tracking data about its use of the curfew law.

IMPD held a press conference in April to announce it would start enforcing the city’s curfew law in response to a late-night weekend shooting that injured seven kids between the ages of 12 and 16.

“We were trying to get parents and guardians to step it up so we didn’t have to enforce it,” said IMPD spokesperson Alexa Boylan, “and that’s what we’re seeing.”

Boylan said she’s only aware of three minors — ages 10, 16, and 17 — who have been picked up by police and were later released to their parents.

But the department wasn’t tracking curfew violations before it said it was stepping up enforcement in April and hasn’t been tracking them since, she said.

A record number of Indianapolis young people were killed by gunfire last year, despite overall homicides trending down. City violence reverberates through school communities, as students can experience trauma and stress, and studies show they perform worse academically.

Enforcing the curfew was supposed to be another tool in the city’s ongoing effort to curb the skyrocketing youth gun violence problem, but it’s hard to evaluate how well that effort is working if the department isn’t keeping track of the number of minors being impacted by the stricter enforcement strategy.

For example, instances when police warn minors about the curfew and they disperse without being picked up, such as during the July Fourth weekend when IMPD broke up a “large gathering of juveniles” downtown, are not being tracked or recorded.

This approach isn’t uncommon in public policy, said Thomas Stuckey, a professor of criminal justice at IU Indianapolis. Policymakers trying to address problems in real time often rely on anecdotal evidence rather than scientific data collection and analysis, he said.

But when evaluating the effect of a policy change, he said, “the answer is very often we don’t know.”

Under the curfew law, children younger than 15 cannot be in public without an adult between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. every day. The curfew is the same for teens between 15 and 17 during weekdays, but extended until 1 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. There are several exceptions, including minors traveling for work, a school activity, religious event, or emergency.

IMPD officers use the public address systems on their patrol cars to make announcements about the curfew 30 and 15 minutes before, followed by another at curfew time. Kids found breaking curfew can be picked up by officers who will then attempt to alert parents or guardians.

Parents have “a reasonable amount of time” to pick up their child before they’re taken to the juvenile detention center. Violating the curfew is a noncriminal offense.

Enforcing the curfew may not be an effective strategy to curb youth violence anyway, said Dena Carson, associate professor and director of criminal justice and public safety management programs at Indiana University Indianapolis.

Curfews are a method of intervention rather than prevention, she said, and they disproportionately affect youth of color in the city.

“We might be causing more harm in the long run in terms of the negative consequences of police contact,” Carson said.

Read the Axios Indianapolis story here.

Arika Herron is a reporter for Axios Indianapolis. You can reach her at Arika.Herron@axios.com.

Haley Miller is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Haley at hmiller@chalkbeat.org.

First day of school brings excitement and nerves for families at new IPS middle schools

2024-08-01T17:46:51+00:00

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The students starting at Thomas Carr Howe Middle School and Broad Ripple Middle School Thursday morning weren’t the only ones with first-day butterflies.

The day marked a huge transition for everyone at both schools, as T.C. Howe and Broad Ripple began serving grades 6-8 for the first time.

“They asked that the parents have patience,” said Francisca Abarca, whose daughter started sixth grade at Broad Ripple on the first day of classes for Indianapolis Public Schools. “Maybe for a couple weeks it’s going to be rough.”

The middle schools opened this year as part of the district’s Rebuilding Stronger plan to advance equity and expand educational opportunity, as well as access to extracurriculars. IPS leaders say that reconfiguring K-8 schools into separate elementary and middle schools ensures every middle school student can study a foreign language and Algebra I, play sports, participate in art or music, and receive college and career counseling.

“We know when our students are engaged in things like extracurricular activities, athletics, the arts, [and] clubs, that we see higher attendance, lower incidence of discipline, higher academic outcomes,” Superintendent Aleesia Johnson told Chalkbeat.

Still, many parents say they feel anxiety and frustration as the school year kicks off. Several parents told Chalkbeat they have concerns about the logistics of this phase of Rebuilding Stronger, from changes to transportation to students’ emotional responses to the transition. But they also shared excitement about the new classes and extracurricular offerings.

Cheyenne McAleese said her son was devastated when he learned he could no longer attend the Sidener Academy for High Ability Students, where he had built relationships with peers and teachers. Under Rebuilding Stronger, Sidener changed from serving grades 2-8 to grades 1-5.

“It felt like my child was being completely uprooted,” McAleese said.

The switch also affected her family’s eligibility for transportation — at their new school, T.C. Howe, they’re considered in the walking zone and therefore don’t qualify for school bus service. But work schedules don’t permit McAleese or her husband to walk with their son. And McAleese feels it’s unsafe for her 11-year-old son to walk alone on their street due to criminal activity she said she sees there.

“I don’t want my kid walking that route to and from school,” she said.

At the same time, McAleese said she was happy about the expanded extracurriculars: Her son will enjoy the new clubs and sports available to him, and she won’t have to worry about finding after-school care on those days he’s participating in them.

Other parents were also excited. Hillary Brown, who is forming a Parent Teacher Association at T.C. Howe, said her family supports Rebuilding Stronger and appreciates that more students will have access to opportunities they wouldn’t have had a year ago.

Brown said her son can’t wait to join the clubs and sports offered at his new school. Compared to where they thought he’d be attending, George W. Julian School 57, the list feels “endless.”

“Coming from a school where we really didn’t have very many extracurriculars to having choices that he never even thought about is very exciting for him,” Brown said.

Johnson said T.C. Howe and Broad Ripple coming online represents one of the bigger shifts occurring in the district this year.

“Those are essentially launching brand new schools,” Johnson said. “Everything from our routines of how we go from one classroom to the other, to any scheduling logistics that have to be smoothed out as we get kids in the building and actually see how movement happens.”

Indianapolis Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Aleesia Johnson poses for a portrait on the first day of school. Johnson said the new middle schools will give more students access to academic and extracurricular options and therefore improve academic outcomes.

Abarca and her husband, Braulio Munoz, walked their sixth grade daughter to Broad Ripple this morning with their younger kids in tow. They said she was anxiously anticipating this day, but she relaxed when she saw familiar faces from her old school.

The family took selfies and hugged in front of the new sign for the Broad Ripple Middle School Rockets. “Ignite minds, inspire futures,” it reads.

They stayed with her all the way up to the main entrance. She gave them one last wave and a smile before heading inside.

Haley Miller is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Haley at hmiller@chalkbeat.org.

New IPS school year brings reconfigured grades, new academic offerings, and a revised dress code

2024-07-23T11:00:00+00:00

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Big changes await Indianapolis Public Schools parents, students, and teachers on the first day of classes Aug. 1.

There will be changes linked to the district’s ongoing overhaul of grades and curriculum known as Rebuilding Stronger. There will be new leadership at George Washington Carver School 87 after an uproar over the alleged abuse of a student, as well as a new IPS student safety task force stemming from that controversy. And there’s even a new dress code.

Read more about those and more of what’s new for IPS below.

Rebuilding Stronger broadens access to languages, Algebra I, music

IPS is currently in the final phase of implementation of the Rebuilding Stronger plan. The new strategic vision adopted by the district in 2022 has closed underutilized schools, reconfigured grades, and expanded educational opportunities. The district believes those changes will increase equity across the district and address declining enrollment.

This phase executes the separation of combined middle schools and elementary schools, trains teachers and school leaders, and moves new furniture and musical instruments into applicable schools, according to a report given to the school board in June. The coming school year will be the first time students experience the grade reconfigurations since the Rebuilding Stronger plan was introduced in 2022.

With the changes, all middle school students will have access to a world language and Algebra I, and they’ll be able to participate in band or orchestra.

Parents have expressed reservations about the plan since it was proposed. Some have considered pulling their children from the district’s traditional schools in response to the grade reconfigurations.

The grade divisions mean that previously closed schools will reopen as middle schools with grades 6-8. The new schools include Broad Ripple Middle School and Howe Middle School, with Purdue Polytechnic North High School also being located at Broad Ripple.

Families must opt into transportation

As IPS moves to four broad enrollment zones so families have more schools to choose from, it’s changing the transportation policy from automatic to opt-in. IPS hopes the new policy will make the transition into enrollment zones — part of the Rebuilding Stronger plan — more efficient.

Families must opt into transportation during the school registration process each year.

Eligible students who attend a school outside of their enrollment zone may take the bus for 2024-25 only, and only if they are already receiving transportation. District officials said they have decided to grant such exceptions this year so students experience less instability.

Students get a less restrictive dress code

Students in all grade levels will be able to follow a looser dress code, with fewer restrictions on the style and color of shirts and pants.

The previous code required elementary and secondary students to wear solid-color collared or turtleneck shirts and limited the types of pants, including no jeans.

The dress code changes come with the school board’s focus on addressing inequities in the district and eliminating barriers to classroom learning.

In addition, out-of-school suspensions will no longer be a punishment for dress code violations. Instead, the school will work with the student and parent or guardian to address clothes that don’t comply with the code.

Some clothing restrictions remain in the new code. Students must still wear sleeved tops that cover the midriff, bottoms that reach fingertip length and do not have tears, and closed-toe shoes.

The code allows head coverings worn in observance of a student’s religion, but prohibits bonnets, durags, hats inside the building, and wave caps. It also prohibits certain types of offensive dress, such as clothing with pornagraphic images, hate speech, or gang or hate group associations.

Task forces to assess student safety, school culture

There will be two new task forces, one focused on student safety and one on schools’ emotional health and culture, that IPS announced in the wake of a lawsuit alleging that a former teacher encouraged the physical assault of a School 87 student last year.

The suit says a viral video featured in April media reports shows that Julious Johnican encouraged a “fight club” style of discipline in his classroom. Johnican resigned from his position in November 2023.

The district created the task forces in response to concerns about how school leaders handled the abuse allegations. Parents said the school failed to notify them of the abuse and repeatedly dismissed complaints about student safety prior to the incident.

The task forces will “find out the temperature in every building,” board member Hope Hampton said in April, “so we don’t find it out another way.”

School board backs restorative justice in student discipline

In May, the school board passed a resolution encouraging educators to adopt a restorative justice approach instead of traditional discipline when possible.

Restorative justice acts as an alternative to zero-tolerance policies by prioritizing peer-to-peer understanding and proactive conflict management.

The peer mediation program at Harshman Middle School is an example of how restorative justice works at the school level.

“These practices focus on repairing harm, fostering understanding, and rebuilding relationships,” the board’s resolution said.

Plant-based proteins, global cuisine added to menus

Students will find new items on the lunch menu, according to a Monday press release from IPS, including meat alternatives and globally inspired dishes.

The elementary and middle school menus will add teriyaki chicken with fried rice and shredded beef and salsa roja tamales. The high school menu will include General Tso’s and honey Sriracha chicken fried rice bowls, chicken and cheese Crispitos, and build-your-own ramen bowls, per the press release.

Vegan and vegetarian students have additional protein options, such as Impossible Chicken Nuggets and a plant-based beef alternative for nachos.

Students in all grades will have greater access to nutritional foods.

Elementary schools will participate in the USDA Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, Director of Foodservice Dena Bond said, so students can eat a fresh produce snack every day. Middle school students can use the vegetable and toppings bar. And high school students can eat Indiana-grown fruits, vegetables, grains, and dairy products through the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program, the release said.

Haley Miller is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Haley at hmiller@chalkbeat.org.

New science of reading curriculum for IPS elementary schools will stress background knowledge

2024-07-22T11:00:00+00:00

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Elementary students in Indianapolis Public Schools will learn English language arts with a new curriculum this coming school year that emphasizes background knowledge and foundational skills.

The district is switching to the Amplify Core Knowledge curriculum in time for the state deadline for all schools to adopt reading curriculums based on the science of reading by the 2024-25 school year. The science of reading is a large body of research on how kids learn to read that advocates for direct phonics instruction as well as phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

IPS leaders see the change as positive not just because it aligns with state law, but also because it connects to the district’s goals to promote racial equity and increase access to a rigorous education.

IPS selected Amplify Core Knowledge from a list of curriculum options approved by the state.

“We’re excited to lead that work, because for us this is an equity issue,” IPS Director of Literacy and Humanities Jannine Campbell said. “We want to make sure that our students in IPS have access to the most rigorous curricular resources as possible, so that they have the best opportunities to become proficient readers.”

One reason the district chose Amplify Core Knowledge was because of the multicultural representation in the curriculum and books accessible to students, leaders said. Some of the titles include “Imani’s Moon” by JaNay Brown-Wood, “A Doll for Navidades” by Esmeralda Santiago, and “Long Walk to Freedom” by Nelson Mandela.

“Our kids can make connections, and they can see this as mirrors of themselves in these books,” Aus said.

The new curriculum also increases the focus on building background knowledge, which is essential for comprehension, said Haley Aus, the district’s English language arts coordinator for grades K-2.

Beyond the new curriculum, IPS will approach literacy development with the Scarborough’s Reading Rope model, she added. This model suggests that different strands of language comprehension and word recognition come together to achieve skilled reading.

By third grade, those strands should start working together. That’s when students transition from learning to read to reading to learn, said Michael McFadden, the district’s English language arts coordinator for grades 3-5.

“We’ve got the foundational skills, but then we have comprehension,” Aus said. “We know that the science of reading says it needs to be explicit, it needs to be systematic, and it needs to be diagnostic in order for it to align with what research tells us on the ways that the brain learns to read.”

IPS Executive Director of Teaching and Learning Michelle Jackson said the district has been preparing for the change by holding open office hours with educators and previewing the material for educators.

Haley Miller is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Haley at hmiller@chalkbeat.org.

2024 ILEARN scores: Indiana students show slight improvement in reading, slight drop in math

2024-07-17T17:31:18+00:00

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The 2024 ILEARN scores released Wednesday showed slight changes from last year’s scores.

Statewide test scores for all Indiana students in grades 3 to 8 show less than a half of a percentage point change in students proficient or better in English language arts, math, and the subjects combined.

Scores went up slightly for the subjects combined and for English, but down slightly for math.

In 2024, 30.8% of students in third through eighth across the state were proficient or better in both the English and math sections of the state assessment. That’s 0.2 percentage points more than 30.6% in 2023.

By subject, 41% of students were proficient or better in English language arts, and 40.7% were proficient or better in math. That’s a small increase — less than half a percentage point — in English from 40.7% in 2023 and a small decrease in math from 40.9% last year.

Despite the slight change from 2023, scores are up since 2021, which the state considers to be the baseline year for the test due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2024 scores are up 0.5 and 3.8 percentage points in English and math respectively compared to 2021. For the combined proficiency, this year’s rate is up 2.2 percentage points from 28.6% in 2021.

2023 ILEARN scores show Indiana students improving in math, but stagnating in reading

However, results remain below pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, the first year of the ILEARN assessment, around 37% of students scored proficient or better in both English and math and roughly 48% of students scored proficient in at least one of the sections.

“We have work to do,” Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner said, referring to improving the ILEARN assessment so teachers and families can help struggling students earlier. “We know that. We’re going to continue to roll up our sleeves as educators.”

She noted that in the 2024-25 school year, the Indiana Department of Education is piloting a checkpoint-based ILEARN — an alternative to a single high-stakes exam at the end of the year — to make the data more actionable. More than 70% of schools opted into the pilot program to have ILEARN be three checkpoints throughout the year and a shortened summative assessment at the end of the year, per the Indiana Department of Education.

This approach aims to have more data about student learning available throughout the school year for students, families, and teachers to use instead of waiting for the data at the end of the year, per IDOE. The change will be fully rolled out in the 2025-26 school year.

This year’s results also come amid an ongoing shift in how Indiana teaches reading.

Per a 2023 law, schools must adopt a literacy curriculum aligned to the science of reading by the 2024-25 school year. Many have already adopted these standards, as well as hired literacy coaches whose job is to train existing staff in reading science principles. But more changes are to come, including a requirement that teachers who hold an elementary license earn a new literacy endorsement.

At Indianapolis Public Schools, proficiency rates dropped from 2023 with English proficiency down 1.5 percentage points and math down 1.8 percentage points. Overall, 13.5% of students were proficient in both subjects, a drop from 14.8% in 2023.

Meanwhile, Brownsburg schools in neighboring Hendricks County had the highest percentage of students who tested proficient again this year at 62.6%.

See how students at your school did on the ILEARN test using the table below:

Black students show greatest ELA gains; other student groups’ test scores change very slightly

By demographics, certain groups saw slight score increases, often within or just over a percentage point.

At the State Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, board member Scott Bess commended the modest improvements but said the board can’t be satisfied with one- and two-point increases.

“Kudos to everyone who’s working hard to get those increases,” Bess said. “But it’s not enough. We’ve got to really have a sense of urgency.”

Black students’ proficiency in English language arts and math combined went up from 10.9% in 2023 to 11.7%. Those students also gained in English language arts by 1.2 percentage points, the largest increase by student race.

Both Hispanic students’ and Asian students’ scores changed marginally, the former decreasing by 0.1 and the latter increasing by 0.2 percentage points. English language learners’ proficiency increased by 0.3 percentage points.

2023 IPS ILEARN scores improve some, but remain below independent charters

The overall proficiency of students who qualify for free or reduced lunch improved from 17.6% to 18.1%.

Looking at grade level, seventh graders had the highest year-to-year increase in English language arts with 2.3 percentage points. Fourth graders also had a bump at 1.5 percentage points. Since 2021, English proficiency has increased for grades four to seven.

Although most grades showed less proficiency from 2023 to 2024 in math, math proficiency has increased across all grades since 2021. Seventh graders saw an increase by 1 percentage point from 2023 to 2024.

SAT scores continue to decline

The Indiana Department of Education also released SAT results Wednesday. The number of high school juniors at the benchmark for reading/writing and math was about 24%, a decrease of 4.4 percentage points compared to last year, continuing a two-year downward trend.

IDOE Chief Academic Officer Lynn Schemel said scores also decreased nationally, which she attributed to the challenges of hybrid learning faced by this cohort during the pandemic and the SAT’s switch to an adaptive assessment, meaning questions become more or less difficult depending on how the student is performing.

She added that chronic absenteeism also leads students to dramatically underperform on the exam, based on data from the last two years.

“In the year prior, as a grade 11 student, those students who were chronically absent underperformed their peers by 24.7 and 23.6 percentage points, demonstrating a need to focus on student apathy as we consider our high school redesign efforts,” Schemel said.

Aleksandra Appleton and MJ Slaby contributed to this article.

Haley Miller is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Haley at hmiller@chalkbeat.org.

IPS will give free safe-sleep items to pregnant and parenting students starting next school year

2024-07-11T20:42:40+00:00

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When Alma Figueroa visited the homes of Indianapolis Public Schools students who were pregnant or parenting earlier this year, she noticed hazards that put babies at risk of suffocation or strangulation — from bed-sharing to stuffed animals in the crib.

But Figueroa has a response ready for the upcoming school year.

As the case manager for the IPS Stronger Tomorrows program for pregnant and parenting students, she plans to give them the items to guard against babies sleeping at angles in car seats or swings, sharing beds with adults or pets, and sleeping with loose objects. Figueroa wants the additional resources she’ll hand out, like sleep sacks and portable cribs, not only to lower the infant mortality rate in Marion County, but also help the parents feel secure enough to stay in school and on track to graduate.

“If their babies are not OK or if something is not going well at home, then we know that’s really going to affect their success at school,” Figueroa said. “Making sure that their babies are well is essential for them to be successful in the classroom.”

The resources Figueroa will distribute are supported through a $10,000 donation from the Shepherd Community Center.

In the 2023-24 school year, IPS had around 60 students who were pregnant or parenting, according to Figueroa; in the past school year, 14 IPS students who were pregnant or parenting graduated.

She said many of the students didn’t know about safe-sleep practices, or they didn’t have the money or space to provide a secure sleeping environment.

Figueroa also hopes the increased access to safe-sleep items will help reduce Marion County’s high infant mortality rate. In 2022, the county had an estimated 8.1 deaths for every 1,000 live births, compared to the statewide rate of 7.2 and the national rate of 5.6 in the same year.

“Do you have a place for the baby to sleep is a big thing,” Figueroa said. “A lot of our students were not prepared.”

A report released last year by the Indiana Department of Health found that 528 babies died suddenly and unexpectedly from 2015 to 2019, and 99% of the deaths had at least one unsafe sleep risk factor present.

In Figueroa’s experience, providing resources like safe-sleep items for pregnant students before they give birth is key to help them feel prepared when the baby comes and stay on track to graduate.

Figueroa noted that the district created the Stronger Tomorrows program to ensure pregnant and parenting students know their rights under Title IX — a civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination by schools that receive federal funding — and remove barriers to their education.

The program helps students receive accommodations from their school, like excused absences, and connects them to organizations in the community where they can access support for young parents.

The Shepherd Community Center received grant funding specifically to promote safe-sleep initiatives on the eastside of Indianapolis, said Jay Height, the group’s executive director.

“We believe IPS is doing a great job, and it’s important for our neighborhood to have strong schools,” Height said. “This is one of many ways that we support them and our students.”

Haley Miller is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Haley at hmiller@chalkbeat.org.

IPS announces new principal at School 87 after fallout from abuse allegations against teacher

2024-07-08T20:49:06+00:00

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Indianapolis Public Schools has hired a new principal at George Washington Carver School 87 following an outcry over the school’s culture and administrators’ handling of allegations that a former teacher encouraged abuse of a student with a disability.

Elizabeth Krutz, former principal of La Porte Middle School and coordinator of special programs at the La Porte Community School Corporation, will start after her hiring is confirmed by the IPS board at the end of July, per an IPS news release.

“Elizabeth brings an amazing skill set that includes celebrated relationship-building expertise and a proven ability to close achievement gaps through strategic planning and data-driven practices,” IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said in the Monday press release. “We look forward to the positive impact she will have on our students and the community.”

School 87 came under fire earlier this year, when a widely circulated video showed one student beating another. A lawsuit filed on April 16 by the mother of a 7-year-old student says the video includes audio of the child’s teacher at the time, Julious Johnican, encouraging the physical attack. (Johnican resigned from his position last year and no longer works for IPS.)

After extensive media coverage of the video, parents raised concerns about the school’s overall climate and lack of transparency. The mother’s lawsuit said Johnican used a “fight club” style of discipline, and alleges school administrators dismissed claims of physical assault related to the incident. The lawsuit is ongoing and is in federal court.

In the wake of the video and the criticism from parents, IPS announced in April that it would create a Mental Health and School Culture Task Force, as well as a task force dedicated to student safety.

The hiring announcement did not reference the incident or parents’ complaints. After an investigation into the video, IPS announced in May that it would hire a new School 87 principal and assistant principal, who would replace Principal Mary Kapcoe and Assistant Principal Finae Rent.

IPS emphasized Krutz’s support for Montessori practices, which prioritize student independence and self-directed learning.

In its statement, IPS said she is enrolled in a course for Montessori fundamentals for school leaders, and that Krutz will be mentored by Christine Rembert, principal of IPS Montessori James Russell Lowell School 51.

Krutz received her bachelor’s degree from Indiana University and also received a license in Educational Leadership and Administration from Indiana State University, according to her LinkedIn profile. She said her four children attend Montessori schools, and that she is a “firm believer in the Montessori philosophy.”

“I am committed to ensuring that George Washington Carver offers the best Montessori program for all students,” Krutz said in the release.

Haley Miller is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Haley at hmiller@chalkbeat.org.

IPS approves charter school collaboration resolution amid uncertainty over community desires

2024-06-28T16:16:06+00:00

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The Indianapolis Public Schools board adopted a resolution Thursday reaffirming its commitment to working with schools of all kinds, including charters, to improve student performance and support racial equity.

The resolution passed 7-0 after a half hour of debate and public comment. The board debated the resolution at a meeting last month, and the extent to which there is — and should be — tension between different school models is a longstanding issue in the city.

Still, commissioners expressed mixed feelings about whether the community at large genuinely desires charter models, or if pro-charter groups have skewed the conversation.

“I can have a conversation with a parent and ask them direct questions about what they want,” IPS Commissioner Nicole Carey said. “And they’ll say one thing, and then they’ll come here, and they’ll say something completely opposite.”

Charter supporters and skeptics have demanded solutions for academic inequities across the district. For example, the ILEARN proficiency rate in 2023 for white students in traditional IPS schools was around 31 percentage points higher than for their Black peers, and 28 percentage points higher than for Hispanic students. Meanwhile, Black and Hispanic students in independent charters outperformed their peers in both traditional IPS schools and Innovation charters on the ILEARN last year.

Under Resolution 8020, the board acknowledged the need for “greater coherence, clarity, and collaboration” between traditional public, Innovation Network, and independent charter schools. Innovation schools officially belong to the IPS portfolio but largely have autonomy over their day-to-day operations. Twenty-four of the 30 Innovation schools during the 2023-24 school year were charters.

Three community members, all affiliated with the charter advocacy group Stand for Children, expressed support during Thursday’s public comment period for charter models and their desire for the resolution to contain stronger pro-charter language. They used previous calls to action for the district to replicate “data-proven models” to close the “opportunity gap.”

“I really want to make sure that this board understands the importance of serving kids that look like mine and partner with school models that work for students of color,” Stand for Children advocate and IPS parent Irma Perdomo said through an interpreter.

One traditional public school advocate spoke against the resolution. Christina Smith of the Indianapolis Education Justice Coalition pushed for IPS to focus on its Rebuilding Stronger plan — which is reconfiguring schools and revamping academic offerings — rather than seek out more charter collaboration.

“IPS needs to be focusing on schools that are already under the IPS umbrella,” Smith said. “The administration, educators, staff, students, and families, and honestly all of Indianapolis need a chance for the massive district overhaul that is Rebuilding Stronger to come to fruition.”

In the resolution, the board directed IPS administration to deliver action items starting with the upcoming school year, including:

A public update by this August on Innovation Network partnerships and the application process for schools to join the network.
A monthly report on efforts to ensure every student has the support they need to reach literacy.
A quarterly update on the “climate and culture” of schools across the district.

Some commissioners and members of the public shared concerns about the resolution’s tight timeframe, including the August deadline to develop an application process to join the Innovation Network. (The resolution doesn’t include an exact date for that deadline.)

Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said the district will be responsive to feedback on the public updates and reports.

“When I think about what is perhaps produced in August, I think it does need to be informed by what we’ve heard from community and needs to continue to hear,” Johnson said. “I’m under no pretense that that will be a final product.”

Haley Miller is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Haley at hmiller@chalkbeat.org.

High schoolers learn leadership skills and live college life at Butler’s immersive camp

2024-06-18T18:03:51+00:00

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On a recent Wednesday well into summer vacation, Indiana high school students sat in a college classroom and brainstormed how they set the tone in their communities.

“I would say, be the best leader you can,” a student said, “so everyone can follow your good example.”

That day, the students considered not just how to lead others to success, but how to succeed themselves. They were attending Butler University’s BU: BeReal camp, a college immersion experience designed to introduce high schoolers to college life and give them the tools to thrive there.

One of BU: BeReal’s defining features is how it provides scholarships for students who are from low-income backgrounds or will be first-generation college students. For a week on Butler’s campus, they live in a dorm, learn about different areas of study, and get accustomed to the idea of daily life as a college student. It’s one effort among many to boost not just college-going, but college completion, something many Indiana students struggle with.

But the grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc. that funds tuition assistance for 58% of the campers will end next year, leaving administrators looking for ways to sustain a central part of the camp’s mission. (Chalkbeat receives funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc.)

Students in Butler University's BU: BeReal camp try out different seasoning ratios during a session on cooking and health science. A focus of the session was healthy eating habits.

“Some may have never set foot on a college campus before,” Associate Director of Camps Administration Jessica Meister said. “Their parents or grandparents haven’t gone through the college process, so it’s really important that we provide learning opportunities and experiences.”

By the end of this summer, 136 high schoolers will have gone through Butler’s program.

Camps like this one, such as the Summer Success Camp at the University of Indianapolis, arose out of the Lilly Endowment Inc.’s initiative to increase Indiana’s higher education enrollment rate — which hovered around 53% in 2020, 2021, and 2022 — and the number of adults with a postsecondary credential.

During BU: BeReal, which has separate weeks for underclassmen and upperclassmen, students explore different subjects to understand what pathways they can take in college. The sessions range from philosophy to business to dance improv. They also hear survival tips from current students.

“A lot of students my age, like they know they want to go to college,” said camper Wura Olorunfemi, a rising senior at Anderson High School. “But they also don’t know how to do it.”

BU: BeReal campers cook chipotle turkey tacos. The camp is designed to give students a sample of different disciplines.

The staff are exploring funding options for 2026, so they can continue providing robust financial assistance, Meister said. They have talked with administration as well as considered outside grants.

“I want to keep the focus and the ethos of the camp the same, so serving our 21st Century, first-generation college students who have been traditionally underserved by higher ed, but also being fully integrated with students from all over the state of Indiana,” Meister said.

Many of the academic sessions serve two purposes: They give students a sample of the discipline, as well as a concept or tangible skill to take away.

In an afternoon session focused on cooking and health science, students learned how to make chipotle turkey tacos. At each table, kids sauteed the ground turkey and experimented with seasoning.

They took turns taste-testing. Overcooked and not enough salt, one group agreed. They threw in the salt, plus garlic and a little water.

“I’ve learned to adapt to new people,” said Nicolette Dukehart, a rising junior at North Central High School. “Normally I’m with the same group of people, but now I’ve made more friends.”

Olorunfemi said the variety of sessions challenged her to try out new disciplines. In the social media session, for example, she got to think creatively.

“I want to be a doctor or a neurosurgeon, so that side of the world is kind of closed off to me,” Olorunfemi said. “I don’t usually let myself open myself up to that.”

BU: BeReal students attend leadership training on June 14. The camp aims to build high school students’ leadership skills while introducing them to the college experience.

Faculty members working at BU: BeReal said they saw how rewarding the experience was for students.

Alexander Carter, an assistant professor of strategic communication, was once a first-generation college student, like many of the campers. He said an experience like BU: BeReal helps kids realize there is a place for them in higher education.

“I had no idea what college was going to be like,” Carter said. “I heard these horror stories from teachers, like ‘they’re never going to let you do this in college and never let you do this in college.’ And I go to college, and it’s very different.”

In the future, Meister said, the staff hope to increase the number of weeks of the camp and serve hundreds of students each summer.

Haley Miller is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Haley at hmiller@chalkbeat.org.