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Changing of the Guard

The Indiana State Board of Education meets later this morning and will decide the fate of six failing Indianapolis Public Schools.  As I told you last week, Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett has recommended the Arlington, Emma Donnan, Manual and Howe schools all be taken over by the state and that Broad Ripple and Washington schools be assigned lead partners to assist them in improving their academic performance.

From my conversations with members of the State Board over the past few months, I don’t see any reason why they won’t approve Dr. Bennett’s recommendations.  There may be some questions about intervention, I am told.   One thing I will be looking for in particular is any sort of amendment or resolution instructing the State Department of Education to go to the Indiana General Assembly and ask for tougher accountability laws.

A number of Board members have expressed frustration that under current law the state has to wait six years to intervene and that a failing school can get off academic probation with just a three-percent approval in end of course assessment scores.

I did speak to one board member about IPS Superintendent Dr. Eugene White’s intent to file a lawsuit against the state to stop the intervention, after that board member stopped laughing they went on to question Dr. White’s leadership at IPS and asked if he was getting ready to run for another public office.

The hearing begins this morning at 9 a.m. and could run until 3 p.m.   You can follow me on Twitter for the latest updates.

Posted: 08|29|11 at 5:00 am by Abdul Hakim-Shabazz
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  • Think Again

    Well, in common terms, the entire state Board has become a lapdog to the governor, so these reform measures should sail through.

    And that’s exactly how it should be.  Elections have consequences.

    My question for themis: when are you going to start holding superintendents as accountable as you want to hold teachers?  I know it’s a broad topic, but it’s fair game.

    Here’s a suggestion, to start that ball rolling: how about Supts. receiving an A-F report card for each year of their tenure? And it follows them wherever they go as a public grade.  And let’s start with the current state superintendent.

    Seems reasonable to me.

  • pascal

    This, from the supporter of the dopey DA’s who gave us the 6 year POS of which we are only now finding criticism of and an opportunity to alter it thanks to elections having consequences?  In case you missed the motion, the ball is already rolling along quite nicely and in the right direction thanks to Bosma Leadership.  Of course, the timid R’s did not go far enough but there is always the next Legislative session to fine tune matters.
         It is foolish to even try to think that governments will cure the defects of government schools.  Their decline in qualiy parallels the decline in educational and moral capital they may have once accumulated but that since has retired or died.  If you want good results from tax dollars then getting a dollar’s worth of value for every dollar expended has to be accomplished in the private sector and, it will be. 

  • Abdul

    I am for holding school systems accountable.  Teachers, superintendents, all of the above.

  • pascal

    We waste a lot of time over the matter.  As I drive about Indiana I see lots of churches.  A good number of them have attached schools.  And, their performance on standardized testing exceeds, by a lot, what government schools are able to produce. In fact, if you took church educated kids out of IPS reporting the IPS stench would rise to the heavens.  http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2011/08/28/new-blue-nightmare-clarence-thomas-and-the-amendment-of-doom/  Of Blacks with advanced degrees some 90% came through Catholic school educations (degrees in “education” are NOT advanced degrees).  Yet we have dopey liberals trying to keep the dead horses of government schools on their feet.
         It isn’t rocket science especially if any run of the mill church can outperform the Legislature’s creations.

  • Dave

    “Legislative creation” is an oxymoronically funny idea… that will never be the name or subject of an art exhibit.

  • L755

    Pascal, when considering the performance of church schools you should keep in mind that all of the students in a church school have parents who care about their children and are involved in helping their children with homework, etc. In public schools many students (majority?) have parents who do not care or do not wish to be involved with their child’s education. These students are much more of a challenge to educate.

    Private schools do not have better teachers or a better method of teaching. They simply have a much easier group of students to work with.