Just a week after the Indianapolis Public Schools board heard a proposal to create a school for students who are new to the country, the plan won approval Thursday night. The board also OK’d plans to convert two district schools to “innovation” status.
The school would offer instruction designed to help students master English and would serve as a hub for immigrant families, connecting them with community organizations offering everything from health care to adult education programs.
Five years after taking over management of three failing Indianapolis schools, Charter Schools USA has rolled out an unusual proposal for revamping Howe High School. But the plan could face resistance.
In dramatic shift away from a traditional centralized district, more than 10 percent of IPS students soon will attend schools outside of district control.
Here’s a summary of the outcome of major legislation in the 2016 General Assembly.
After a long debate, board members said they didn’t have enough information to make a decision.
The bill’s final vote came only after serious concerns raised by House Democrats, who passionately asserted on the House floor that they were being left out of future discussions over the test.
The state legislature on Wednesday brought back to life all or part of two education bills that had pretty much been given up for dead.
Despite school choice options and other efforts to recruit families, the state’s second-largest district expects to lose 968 students next year.
Five new members have joined the seven-member Indiana charter school board over the past year. The board is set to craft a new long-term strategic plan it hopes to put in place starting in 2017.
A handful of parents and educators spoke out against a proposed raise for Indianapolis Public Schools Superintendent Lewis Ferebee at school board hearing Tuesday night, calling on the district to spend the money on other needs.
Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz made it clear Tuesday that she won’t support legislative efforts to expand taxpayer-funded vouchers for private schools.
This year’s exam, created for the first time by the British testing company Pearson, will be largely administered on computers instead of on paper. That has educators—stung by a string of recent testing problems—on edge.
A bill that would create a path for teachers to try to negotiate extra pay and manage their own pension funds passed the Indiana House on Wednesday despite passionate opposition from Democrats and others.
House Bill 1330, authored by Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, would require the Indiana Department of Education to make available to schools the formula it uses to calculate federal poverty aid. Four other education bills advanced Monday.
Teachers in high-demand jobs—like science, math or foreign language—would be free to try to negotiate better pay even beyond what their school’s union scales allow under a bill the Indiana House will consider next week.
Jennifer McCormick introduced herself and her run for state superintendent Thursday by criticizing Glenda Ritz’s management of the Indiana Department of Education and calling for a debate that gets beyond politics.
When the state released grades for the 2014-15 school year on Tuesday, it seemed clear that many schools benefited from a “hold harmless” bill that Gov. Mike Pence signed into law Thursday.
Statewide, 88.9 percent of students graduated from high school, compared to 89.8 a year earlier. But graduation rates have only fluctuated by about one percentage point up or down since 2011.
A bill speeding through the Legislature that would give schools relief from last year’s drop in ISTEP scores won’t offer much protection for the state’s most struggling schools.
