IPS has a record of doctoring numbers in the past. Is there any evidence that these figures are actually accurate?

According to Murray in Losing Ground, IPS has been lying since at least the 1970’s. Murray’s other book would show that as the talented kids move out of the district the chances of the remaining ones being “average” approaches zero.

A truly sad indictment.

I’ve read here and elsewhere lately, that current and former teachers are complaining loudly about their inability to get malcontents out of the classroom.

If that’s the case, the expulsion number is remarkably low. I’d like to know how mamny in-school suspension programs exist, and their populations.

I don’t know how much longer the state can look the other way. This story repeats itself annually, for at least 25 years.

It’s time for IPS to drastically remodel itself, or throw in the towel. Now. For the sake of the kids. I’ll even give White some credit for trying.

But he’s bailing out a sinking cruise ship with a Dixie cup.

To get perhaps a better comparison of black student performance between townships, compare poverty level results. It is available. I understand that a local black pastor is doing just that.

Seems to me that there is really no difference between a magnet school (or specialty school) and a charter school, and the enrollment process is very similar.
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Families have the opportunity to attend open houses at schools, there is a magnet fair (in the case of charters, the Mayor sponsored a fair), families apply, and a lottery is used when there are more applicants than spots in the school.
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There are no requirements to get into magnet schools or charter schools, but there are requirements to stay in. One is no different than the other–both magnet schools and charter schools are options for families looking for a different type of school for their child.

Not all black students are poor and not all poor students are black so looking at the poverty level of students is not a better way of comparing the scores of black students from district to district.
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Having said that, looking at the socio-economic background of students will tell you that poor academic performance it isn’t about race, it’s about poverty.
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If you look at the statistics for poor students in rural school districts in Indiana you will see the same pattern of low achievement.

I think it goes back to parental involvement. There are many parents who think it is the state/school’s job to raise their kids and not their own. Those kids flounder. The kids who have parents who make sure they do homework and participate in the process do well, regardless of socio-economic background.

I live in Irvington, which by all accounts is fairly affluent but also has its poorer areas. It is also served by a number of charter schools, private schools and IPS. By-in-large most of my neighbors send their children to IPS or to the charter school in the immediate neighborhood. All of those parents are active in their children’s learning process and stress doing well in school as a value, regardless of the child’s intelligence. I hear very few complaints and many people rave about their children’s experiences either at School 57 or the various magnet schools.

This report makes me wonder if Center Township should just pay a flat $7,500 a student to send all their students to surrounding township schools? Betting that would save Center Township tax payers money and give those 33,000 remaining students a better education. Let them choose where they want to go, no forced busing like the 80’s. Sell off all the IPS buildings and shut down one unit of government that has failed and needs to go away

It’s not necessarily poverty. Many charter school students and students who attend inner city private schools are also of limited means. They just have parents who care.

So many things here, where to start?
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The first one is has White reported on that 15 year old in the fifth grade? LOL! That’s still funny at least to me but I have an inappropriate sense of humor some times too.
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I’m not so sure all of IPS charter schools are all that great too. I have a relative in one as a freshman. I know this person reads only slightly better than my 1st grader (alright…maybe an exaggeration but this person’s reading and math skills are sub par.) Yet this person is “excelling” in the IPS charter school. I get shared progress reports from the person’s parents and see a lot of the child’s “curriculum” has very little to do with reading, writing, and math. WTF? The school doesn’t even test students in a traditional manner but require them to do essentially a speech to faculty members demonstrating what they have learned. How the frak can you demonstrate you’ve learned the quadratic equation and where it should be used and why?
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“There are many parents who think it is the state/school’s job to raise their kids and not their own.” — Katz at 7
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I agree. This is a result of government essentially either telling parents this, or government doing so by their acts.
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Our compulsory attendance laws are a prime example of the State telling you that government knows what’s better for your kids than you do.
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Many parents consider Kindergarten (Garden of Children) or preschool a form of subsidized day care. Of course, the government helps this along by extending Kindergarten / preschool to more and more kids. Government wants their hands on kids at an earlier age.
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What happens when Nurse Ritalin or Dr. Prozac say that your kid needs drugs, for whatever reason. You are ‘permitted’ to object on religious grounds only! – IC 20-33-2-46
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What happens if the parent(s) refuse to place their kids on these drugs?
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Does the State take the kids away? Does the Attendance Officer rule the kid (and parent) truant, and send government employees to take the kid away, and the parent to jail? – IC 20-33-2-23 & IC 20-33-2-26 for starters.
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School attendance is tied to getting a drivers license. – IC 20-33-2-11
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Parents must PROVE to the government that thier kid is incapacitated, or else!! – IC 20-33-2-18
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If your kid is in public school, you must request permission from government for your kid to attend a school for religious instruction. – IC 20-33-2-19
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Attendance Officers can go into places, without a warrant, simply to see IF a violation of attendance laws is/has occured. IOW, these are fishing expeditions to see IF a violation has occured. When will government be coming into your home looking for POTENTIAL violations of some law? So much for our 4th Amendment (federal) and Art 1 Sec 11 of our Indiana Constitution. — IC 20-33-2-40
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What about home schooling? Following is from the FAQ section of the Indiana Dept of Education:
http://www.doe.in.gov/sservices/sao_faq.html
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Home educators (the term is interchangeable with home schoolers) must, upon request of the local or state superintendent, show attendance records. There is no format to the records required by law. See I.C. 20-33-2-20. Home educators must also register with the State Department of Education as a private school. See I.C. 20-33-2-31. They do not have to use any specific type of curriculum. See I.C. 20-33-2-12. One interpretation of educational law as it applies to home educators is that it is legislative intent that there is a form of accountability (attendance) but not of quality control. Consequently, the public schools do not have any jurisdiction to demand that home schools provide anything other than attendance records. Issues of equivalency or neglect are questions of law that should be referred to the proper authorities in your county. The proper authorities include, but are not limited to, Child Protection Services, the Prosecutor’s office, and law enforcement.
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So, as long as you document the attendance of your child in home school, you can teach fingerpainting for 12 years…”…legislative intent that there is a form of accountability (attendance) but not of quality control.”

“We would like to recognize Administrator White for demonstrating resounding success in achieving the primary objectives for public schools in America.” – Ford Foundation, Carnegie Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and our representatives within the US Department of Education

Yes, indeed! The indoctrination is proceeding as planned!

We know several IPS parents who recently attended IPS, high school magnet & other program open houses, and could not get follow up from those schools (?!?). They’re now sending their respective kids to private high schools based on the IPS lack of response or interest in their children. Seventy percent failure rates (graduation), real estate development, higher salaries & perks for administrators is about something other than the kids- it’s about greed.

Indiana Dept of Education Home Schooling website:
http://www.doe.in.gov/sservices/homeschool.html
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Cost per pupil – Catholic and private schools:
http://www.archindy.org/oce/download_documents/items_of_interest/cpp_2008.pdf
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From the CATO Institute: (Very informative!)
http://www.cato.org/pubs/briefs/bp-025.html
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Executive Summary
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American schools are failing because they are organized according to a bureaucratic, monopolistic model. A school voucher of $3,000 per student per year would give more families the option of sending their children to non-government schools. However, many people believe that such a small amount could not possibly cover tuition at a private school; they may be thinking of such costly schools as Dalton, Andover, and Exeter and concluding that all private schools cost in excess of $10,000 a year.
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In fact, Education Department figures show that the average private elementary school tuition in America is less than $2,500. The average tuition for all private schools, elementary and secondary, is $3,116, or less than half of the cost per pupil in the average public school, $6,857. A survey of private schools in Indianapolis, Jersey City, San Francisco, and Atlanta shows that there are many options available to families with $3,000 to spend on a child’s education. Even more options would no doubt appear if all parents were armed with $3,000 vouchers.
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I’ve seen reports of $10K to $14K per year per student for kids in IPS schools. Alas, I cannot find actual figures. Anyone have a link which shows cost per pupil in IPS schools, or the township schools?

Shore–please cite the source for your multi-foundation quote.

The suggestion above re: $7500 for IPS students to use for tuition, might work and this might help even more:

Let the township schools bid on taking over any of the inner-city school buildings, for the same money per student.

Just a thought.

For those arguing that race is somehow separate from poverty, local history is just not on your side. It’s unfair to say “all” blacks are poor, or vice-versa.

But the overwhelming majority of the working poor in this community are, and have long been minority. And too often, if you’re poor, you have less time, if any, to attend school meetings or remain actively engaged in your children’s education. You’re too busy surviving.

Whether I like that or not, or whether I want to attach any more importance to it, is immaterial.

Also, I understand the new state super, Dr. Bennett, plans a large-scale accuntability program for home-schooled children. Which is long overdue.

“It’s not necessarily poverty. Many charter school students and students who attend inner city private schools are also of limited means. They just have parents who care.”
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I don’t disagree, and IPS has its share of hard working, successful students from families with limited means, like the student featured below. All I’m saying is that there is a pattern of low achievement among children who live in poverty, regardless of race. That doesn’t mean students who live in poverty can’t succeed, but it means that schools with high concentrations of children living in poverty need more school based resources-longer school days and/or quality after-school programs, caring adults to act as mentors, school based health and dental care, etc.

Kiwanis Abe Lincoln Scholarships-
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Adelmer Lopez
third place,
$7,500 scholarship
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“When he receives his diploma this summer, Lopez will be the first in his family to graduate from high school. And he did it in three years. He also will be the first in his family to attend college.
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With an alcoholic as a father, Lopez grew up fast and took a job working 30 hours a week to help pay rent and put food on the table for his family, which includes three younger brothers.
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“Because if you can’t do it, I will,” Lopez said of his drive to help care for the family.
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He has a 3.94 GPA at George Washington Community High School and plans to attend the University of Indianapolis or Marian College to study engineering.
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“I dream really high,” he said. “I dream one day to be remembered as building something big.”
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As for his brothers?
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“I’m here to show you how to succeed and follow the right path,” Lopez said. “I don’t want any of them to be slackers or anything like that.””

“…school based health and dental care, etc.” — Truthsquad @ 17
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Happily, I don’t see anything in Article 8 that would authorize school based health and dental care.
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The command at Article 8 Section 1 is clear:
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“…provide, by law, for a general and uniform system of Common Schools, wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all.”
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The common school system envisioned by the Delegates, and ratified by the People, did not include medical and dental care, free or otherwise. Do we really want government schools to administer health and dental care. I mean, they’re doing such a bang-up job on their Constitutional duty of simply educating our kids.
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Who would you have paying for this ‘free’ care? Would it be added to our property tax bill to support the government schools?

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BREAKING NEWS!!!
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I have found an Indiana Supreme Court decision, reported in the Fort Wayne Sentinel, 30 January 1858.
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On page 2, in the matter of “The City of Lafayette vs Jenners”, (appeal from the Tippecanoe Circuit Court) ruled UNCONSTITUTIONAL the 1855 Act that authorized cities and towns to levy a tax for the support of common schools, as the power of voting taxes for that purpose is vested in the legislature alone.
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I intend to transcribe this ruling, and will post it. I have also saved the page as a PDF file.
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As I’ve said many times; if the Constitution did not grant the legislature the authority to tax private homes for the support of the common (public) schools, then it certainly could not delegate that power to counties, cities, townships, etc.

Robert–nice post, but do you honestly think you’re the only/first person to go down this path?

TA, probably not ‘the first’. Clearly, Mr. Jennings preceded me.
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Yet, in my research of court cases, I have yet to find one that deals with THIS issue.
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I’ve found cases concerning book rental, cases concerning how fines are collected and delivered to the common school fund, etc.
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It’s like Neo in The Matrix. We know that something is wrong…trying to pin it down is another matter.
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I need to learn exactly HOW the current property tax collected for the schools is allocated in the various school funds (Capitol projects, debt service, operating, transportation, etc.).
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Forgive me for not trusting government. I just can’t see how they are taxing private homes for the support of public schools, when there is absolutely nothing in Article 8 that would allow this to occur.
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I suspect that somewhere, at some time, some lawyer in a robe CREATED a provision in Article 8 that none of the rest of us can see — the clause that authorizes taxation of your private home for the support of public schools.

The state funds the General Education Fund 100% so the vast majority of school funding (probably 75% or more)comes from the state, not local property taxpayers.

The Debt Service Fund is funded from local property taxes. This fund pays off the bonds used for school construction. School construction must go through a voter referendum process.

The Transportation Fund and Bus Replacement Fund are funded from local property taxes.

The Pre-School Special Education Fund is funded from local property taxes.

The Capital Projects Fund (used primarily for building maintenance and utility costs) is funded by local property taxes.

Abdul if Center Township has had parents pull out 1600 students and place them in township schools, is there any chance that IPS would look at how many of these parents voted for the 278 million dollar referendum on building construction? Not only did they not pay property taxes, but now no longer are paying rent in the areas that they voted for the money to be spent. We are seeing different townships such as Center Grove, who are putting off these constructions due to the economy. Do you think that IPS is taking the economy along with the continuing drop in enrollment into consideration and perhaps re-evaluating the needs of these massive contruction projects in IPS?

Eugene White has done everything in his power to try and improve this school system. It seems as if his hands are continuously tied. Just as our law enforcements have tried to bring safety to our streets, but without the help from neighbors and community leaders their hands are tied as well. We can only hold our school leaders, and city leaders accountable for so much. How do we teach these communities to value life, that their life and their neighbors lives are worth much more. Perhaps that’s where we need to start.

You’re all a little right, but here’s some honesty on the School Funding Formula:

Nobody really understands the SFF< but if your district has a high Assessed Valuation, the state share of your budget gets cut.

So, Truth Squad, the state does NOT fund anything 100%, or even 75% for most districts.
IN carmel and HSE and Washington Township, for example, the ratio is almost exactly reversed, vis-a-vis local to state share.

In smaller, rural districts, your calculation often works.

It’s the dirty little secret regarding the SFF that no one takes into account. So if a wealthier district pays more of its own way, especially to the tune some are paying, shouldn’t they have more leeway to conduct business? Voters can jerk school board members if they don’t like the decisions.

Not that that happens very much. But so few really understand this mess of funding, that most folks think construction and general funds are mixed.

Starting in 2009, the state assumed responsibility for funding 100% of school districts’ general funds, which pays salaries, benefits, supplies, and the assorted unfunded or underfunded state mandates. This fund accounts for over 75% of a district’s total budget.

At the risk of sounding too ‘european’ I think that kids ought to be tested along about the sixth grade to be directed toward their aptitude and interests. Many kids would be better served by vocational training programs than by continuing in subjects that don’t interest them or they cannot grasp. Too many kids go through high school then need a post secondary technical school or apprenticeship to teach them skills they could have already learned in the time they were in high school.

Sheesh, you raise a valid point.

Also, the method by which we promote students ought to require mastery of the skills, not simple longevity.

Some sixth graders may be able to graduate. Some 21-year-olds should perhaps be in 8th grade.

I admit it’s outside-the-box thinking, but we’re trying to make a bunch of square pegs fit nto round holes all over America. It’s expensive and it dooms millions of kids to failure.

“We can only hold our school leaders, and city leaders accountable for so much. How do we teach these communities to value life, that their life and their neighbors lives are worth much more.”

Including the lives of children. How much do you guess their lives are figured to be worth when they’re brought into America through either selfish gratification or premeditated “lifestyle choice”? Does anybody really think we make headway on our public education without holding parents feet to the fire as much as much as we do taxpayers?

True, Taxpayer.

But what if the parents are void of moral charactr, and don’t care?

You’d be stunned how many families that describes. Those families have always existed. However, in recent years, since, say, about 1994 or so, their numbers have swelled dramatically.

In such cases, for our future and theirs, our schools, publlic and private, must step up. If someone doesn’t, kids are forever lost.

Move over IPS for Perry Township. Summer school cut, but not for valuable things like weight lifting and summer football practice…classes being cut for full-time Kindergarten (sorry Guv)…teacher positions being cut (not administrative postitions) only 6 retirements predicted (but no buy-out plan)…we’re number 1, we’re number 1…

I keep saying, why should we give over 50% of our property tax money to an institution with a 55% failure rate. Until students are forced to accept responsiblity for their actions and parents stop trying to hit the legal jackpot ont eh taxpayer’s dime, IPS will continue to be a cess pool. I wouldn’t send any of my children there and I don’t see why we should continue to fund and institution for the “common good” when no good comes from it. Students get the same education running the streets than they do at home or in school now days.

I say let’s do more of them there home schoolin of kids. We need more mouth breathers. Don’t know much about Perry Township schools but see “Spoon Gaggers” point. In some respects Perry is more pathetic than IPS.

Indy should be proud
we have parents that should not be parents with grade school/h.s. kids! We force mom to work full time w/o father. I took on jobs, so, my professional wife, only worked 3 days(stay home with kids…like it use to be, not 5 days, but..(old school)!
Bottom line…we have to many moms, becommining moms and not putting forth their responsibility/effort, and the fathers that started it, and only care when the child is doing well…is equally to blame! YOU CREATE A CHILD– HE AND SHE, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THAT CHILD–ALPHA AND OMEGA! not GOVT FRIENDS—MOM AND DAD—HELP IS FINE…BUT, RESPONSIBILITY MOM DAD!
This is a big reason IPS is a broken machine, and can not be repaired/rebuilt!

ABOVE..
Its called family and community…not us and them! Time to wake up from another dream!

[...] say that IPS has pretty much been flat when it comes to progress and achievement as opposed to the prior year.  Here’s a [...]

[...] say that IPS has pretty much been flat when it comes to progress and achievement as opposed to the prior year.  Here’s a [...]