Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz said Wednesday she would have her lawyers review a pair of measures from the State Board of Education that would reduce some of her powers as board chair.
Former Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett has agreed to pay $5,000 as part of a settlement in which he admits to using state resources for campaign work but is cleared of formal ethics violations in a grade-change scandal.
Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz accused Gov. Mike Pence's education staff and appointees to the State Board of Education of trying to "undermine" her efforts to secure a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Inspector General David Thomas filed charges against Tony Bennett last November alleging he used state employees and resources in his failed 2012 re-election campaign.
At stake is control over a portion of the more than $200 million in federal "Title I" education funding that Indiana receives each year.
Major changes in the state's education policies will have Indiana students taking new, different standardized tests in each of the next two academic years, officials said Monday.
The grants – funded by the federal government – are awarded to schools that demonstrate a need for the money and plan to use the funds to raise achievement levels.
The waiver allows Indiana to set different state standards for education without having to fully comply with the rules set by the controversial federal law.
The funds will be split between purchasing new equipment for schools and hiring resource officers.
Stand for Children Indiana said the teacher evaluations conducted last year were inconsistent and that some districts failed to conduct annual evaluations of all certified educators.
Former Harshman Middle School Principal Bob Guffin is set to become the board's new executive director.
The State Board of Education has given its initial approval to a proposal that would allow college graduates with a B average in any subject to earn a K-12 teaching license in Indiana.
Indiana Department of Education officials said Tuesday that they expected to hear about concerns with the state's No Child Left Behind waiver last fall, but federal monitors delayed releasing the report until last month without explanation.
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan asked Indiana officials to provide his staff regular updates on how the state plans to address concerns with its No Child Left Behind waiver ahead of a June 30 deadline.
Indiana's efforts to set its own educational course could be in danger if the state fails to correct issues with the implementation of its No Child Left Behind waiver, the U.S. Department of Education said.
Fort Wayne Community Schools announced it has dropped the online version of the ISTEP following issues with a practice run last week, and Wayne Township schools in Indianapolis is also trading computer testing for traditional paper tests.
One of the first states to adopt Common Core standards became the first state to formally abandon the national benchmarks.
The approval from the Education Roundtable — co-chaired by Pence and Superintendent for Public Instruction Glenda Ritz and flushed with lawmakers, business leaders and education officials — means the standards passed one of the last hurdles before adoption.
A State Board of Education member formally requested Friday that an education panel abandon a proposed overhaul of Indiana's education standards.
Debate on the new standards comes as the state races to create before July new, state-written benchmarks for what students should learn in each grade.
