Thomas B. Fordham Institute - Advancing Educational Excellence

The Fordham Report 2006: How Well Are States Educating Our Neediest Children?

November 1, 2006

The Fordham Report 2006: How Well Are States Educating Our Neediest Children? appraises each state according to thirty indicators across three major categories: student achievement for low-income, African-American, and Hispanic students; achievement trends for these same groups over the last 10-15 years; and the state's track record in implementing bold education reforms. It finds that just eight states can claim even moderate success over the past 15 years at boosting the percentage of their poor or minority students who are at or above proficient in reading, math or science. In addition, most states making significant achievement gains--including California, Delaware, Florida, New York, Massachusetts, and Texas--are national leaders in education reform, indicating that solid standards, tough accountability, and greater school choice can yield better classroom results.

View the press release for this report

Contents

Indiana

 

 


 

Crossroads of Reform

Hoosier school reformers in Indiana have done some things right, including creating some of the best academic standards in the nation and working with the American Diploma Project  (ADP) to align those standards to the demands of colleges and employers. But last spring they must have spent a few days hiding under the covers after a celebrity-Oprah, no less!-issued a wakeup call on national television.    

As part of an April series about American schools in crisis, the doyenne of daytime TV talk shows zoomed in on poor Shelbyville, Indiana. The quiet little white-bread town (pop. 18,000) in the heart of the Hoosier State was singled out to show millions of viewers that the educational crisis affects even middle class America. If that wasn't bad enough, Oprah brought along Time magazine, which piled on that same week with a cover story ("Dropout Nation") that opened with, "It's lunchtime at Shelbyville High School...."  The magazine pointed out that only a third of Shelbyville's high school students would graduate in four years, "dropping out in a slow, steady bleed that has left the town wondering how it could have let down so many of its kids."

"Oprah called us out on national TV," says Marcie Brown, Governor Mitch Daniels's policy director for education.  "It wasn't much fun, but we're responding."

Some progress had been made already. In response to sagging national test scores and complaints from business leaders, the state committed to writing the best academic standards in the nation in the 1990s, and succeeded. It was also one of the first states to participate in ADP. Indiana's African-American students have made some progress in math. Otherwise, the state's disadvantaged students are faltering. Indiana's African-American and Hispanic graduation rates are among the worst in the nation. Statewide, the education department claims a graduation rate of 90 percent, a figure that one Indiana education official called "absurd," estimating that the real number is some 20 points below that. 

National humiliation and disputed numbers aside, the state continues marching forward, even if with baby steps. Like more than half the states, Indiana now has a high school exit exam. Effective 2011, students will have to pass the test in order to receive a high school diploma-a diploma meant to finally signal that students have mastered an important body of knowledge and skills. 

State lawmakers have also recently passed a high school retention package that raises the mandatory school attendance age to 18, and created an early college program to encourage high school students to get a jump on college credit-bearing courses. Those who would still drop out of school will face driver license restrictions as well as work permit limits.

The state is also making good progress completing its "curriculum alignment" in concert with ADP. This involves squaring high school curricula with the demands of post-high school employers and institutions of higher learning. According to Achieve, Inc., which administers ADP, Indiana is now one of five states to have received the "validation [of the] business and higher education communities that the high school standards reflect their skill demands." 

And finally, the state does a decent job in placing alternatively certified teachers in the classroom. The Transition to Teaching program is offered across the state to people with the requisite content knowledge, but not the pedagogical experience, to become classroom teachers.

Other reform initiatives, however, have vanished somewhere along Indianapolis's legislative backstreets. Bills to create voucher programs and tuition tax credits for early childhood education are not in play during the Fall 2006 session, even though legislation in both areas nearly passed last year. Governor Daniels isn't pushing either. 

"It's not part of his agenda right now," says Brown, who explains that both Daniels and state school superintendent Suellen Reed are worried that pursuing vouchers would create lawsuits and divide Republicans, who control state government.  But others are confident that the voucher issue isn't dead. "A lot of people don't realize how close we came to having one last year," says Jonathan Plucker, director of the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University, pointing to the presence of several foundations and other advocates for private school choice.  "I can't imagine that they're not going to try it again."

Charter schools are also struggling to take hold in the Hoosier State, but their future may be brighter. The cap that had been imposed on the number of charters permitted in the state has been lifted, and Bart Peterson, the mayor of Indianapolis, has been expanding the number of charters under his watch. Peterson is one of the few mayors in the country with the authority to charter schools and this year received the Innovations in Government Award from Harvard University for his efforts on this front.

Virtual charter schools also tried getting off the ground last year when Ball State University attempted to authorize the state's first. The effort was quickly shot down by the teacher unions, which complained that virtual charters violate the state's mandatory attendance policy and would cost taxpayers millions.

If leaders want to take Indiana to the next step, they need to stop capitulating to the interests of the status quo. A state known for its niceness might have to learn how to fight hard. Maybe Oprah's inspiration will help.

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