Will the newly-elected administration really eliminate the federal DOE? Let’s assume they do. What happens in Indiana as a result? Better yet, what happens to your neighborhood public school? Continue reading How Dissolving the Federal Department of Education Would Impact Indiana
Earlier this month, Indiana governor-elect Mike Braun released his “Freedom and Opportunity For Every Hoosier” 2025 policy agenda. It offers five priority areas that I’ll broadly define as tax relief, government efficiency, education, healthcare, and overall quality of life. This is an education blog, after all, so for now I’m going to unpack just the education section. Continue reading What Do Mike Braun’s Education Priorities Mean for Hoosier Education?
Broad Ripple Middle School (BRMS) is back in the news these past few weeks. We did a deep dive into the problems families and staff presented to the IPS board some months back. Today, under new leadership, many of those problems have been alleviated. But recent reporting also indicates hundreds of students didn’t stick around to experience the improvements. Continue reading Fixes at Broad Ripple Middle School Too Little, Too Late for Hundreds of Students
With Thanksgiving Break around the corner and Indiana’s first dusting of snow surely imminent, it may feel an odd time to bring up summer. But the quiet fact is that Indianapolis has been spearheading a summer school revolution over the past few years. And this revolution is spreading to all corners of the Hoosier state. Continue reading Summer School But Fun, With Proven Academic Results? Inside Indiana’s Summer Learning Labs
The recent election was consequential for all kinds of reasons on the state and national levels. There’s no dearth of reactions to these results and what they mean. But local elections matter too, particularly outcomes related to school boards across Marion County and the surrounding suburbs. Today, we round up results from IPS to Marion County to the surrounding suburbs. Continue reading Local School Board Results Roundup from IPS to Marion County to the Suburbs
“And how are the children?” It’s a common greeting of the Masai tribe in Africa. This was the second thing I thought of Wednesday morning as I scrolled through election results on my phone. The first? The morning following the 2016 election when I walked into my 8th grade homeroom to greet my class of Black and Brown students. Continue reading And How are the Children?
School boards matter. It’s an elected position that for much of contemporary American life avoided politicization. So it’s been fascinating (and also disheartening) to watch school boards locally and nationally take on a political tint. Yet this politicization is far from a given. Just take the Indianapolis area, where it’s interesting to compare the differing trajectories of school board races in Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) and Carmel. Continue reading The Diverging Priorities of Local School Board Races From Carmel to IPS
Indiana is redesigning its state test again. It’ll still be ILEARN. But now, instead of just taking ILEARN in the spring, students will experience three ILEARN checkpoints during the year in the lead-up to the real deal in the spring. The IDOE is calling this shift a “through-year model.” Continue reading From Once in the Spring to Year-Round. ILEARN’s New Look.
Broad Ripple Middle School (BRMS) opened this fall to much fanfare. A largely vacant building finally put back to use as a cornerstone of Indianapolis Public Schools’ (IPS) Rebuilding Stronger initiative. But reality soon collided with hopes and expectations, culminating in an uproar from staff and parents who say IPS administration failed to do what was needed to make sure the school was ready to open. Continue reading A New Weight Room but No Working Phones. The Rocky Start at Broad Ripple Middle School
I was excited to see the recent report from Rise Indy, Teach Indy, and MelanatED Leaders called “Shaping the Future of Teaching: Advancing Satisfaction in Marion County Schools.” I dug through it to come away with 3 reasons Indianapolis teachers feel down about their jobs right now. Continue reading 3 Reasons Indianapolis Teachers Feel Down About Their Jobs
