HEMPSTEAD: Indianapolis approaching important tipping point
Confluence of trends, developments offer special opportunity.
Education reform
Articles
Bill calls for review of Indiana school standards
A proposal for statewide hearings on whether Indiana should keep or modify the Common Core State Standards national education benchmarks was approved Wednesday by a legislative committee.
Ballard won’t levy charter fee, despite fiscal squeeze
Mayor Greg Ballard is nationally recognized as a rigorous charter authorizer, picky about which schools open and willing to shut down the under-performers. But there is a cost to the city’s education work and Ballard may have to consider how much of it can be supported by the city’s maxed-out general fund alone.
House GOP considers Indy preschool as model
House Republican leaders toured an Indianapolis preschool Wednesday, one day before the House Education Committee takes up a proposal to give preschool vouchers to low-income families in a small number of cases.
Mayor to take control of four struggling Indy schools
The Indiana State Board of Education is handing authority over four troubled Indianapolis schools to the city's mayor.
Indy mayor asks Indiana for control of 4 schools
The mayor of Indianapolis is asking the Indiana State Board of Education to give him control of four former city schools taken over by the state because of poor performance.
Ben Davis school boasts impressive graduation rates
Seniors are earning their diploma while receiving a associate’s degree.
LEADING QUESTIONS: Mind Trust CEO takes stock of IPS reform proposal
What exactly does The Mind Trust do? What happened to its report on remaking IPS? Do you need teaching experience to reform education? David Harris has answers.
Indiana lawmakers consider looser voucher rules
The proposal sponsored by Republican state Sen. Carlin Yoder of Middlebury would eliminate the requirement that siblings of current voucher students first attend a public school for a year before becoming eligible for the program.
Indiana lawmakers seek decentralized school choices
Two Republican state senators announced Wednesday they will push measures to decentralize school leadership in Indiana and pull the state out of a national education initiative.
2012 NEWSMAKER: School librarian Ritz won with grass-roots campaign
Democrat Glenda Ritz pulled off a David-versus-Goliath victory to unseat Republican Tony Bennett as Indiana’s superintendent of public instruction.
Marion County judge rules against state in schools takeover
The ruling means more than $6 million in student funding transferred from IPS to the schools' private operators should not have been taken away.
Indy school district gets $29M federal grant
The Education Department says the Warren Township school district is expected to receive about $29 million from the federal Race to the Top competition.
Seven more charter schools on tap for Indianapolis
Mayor Greg Ballard’s office has approved seven more charters—more than half as many as he approved in his previous five years in office.
Bennett applies to be Florida schools chief
After losing re-election in Indiana, state schools chief Tony Bennett has applied to be Florida’s commissioner of education, according to a statement released by his office Monday morning.
New Indiana schools chief: GOP approval unnecessary
Indiana's new superintendent of public instruction, Democrat Glenda Ritz, said she can make some policy changes for the state's schools without needing the approval of the Republican-controlled General Assembly and governor's office.
Charter, voucher backers wary of schools chief Ritz
During Republican Tony Bennett’s tenure as superintendent of public instruction, Indiana became the poster child for school choice. But with Bennett’s surprising election loss to Democrat Glenda Ritz this month, the future of charter schools and private-school vouchers is murkier.
Court fight over vouchers centers on religious support
Attorneys responded to pointed questions and knotty hypothetical scenarios thrown at them by the five justices on the Indiana Supreme Court during a legal battle Wednesday morning over Indiana’s school-voucher program.
Ritz turns to D.C. in quest for clout
Politically boxed in at home, newly elected state schools chief Glenda Ritz is looking to Washington for some wiggle room to make changes to Indiana’s education rules.
MORRIS: Tony Bennett took one for the team
I’m worried the defeat of Tony Bennett as superintendent of public instruction puts this state’s education reforms not at risk, but on a slower pace.