Reading goals, post-secondary credentials deemed as crucial
Indiana intent on climbing out of 43rd spot in nation for education
Indiana’s pioneering a lot of techniques to raise itself out of the 43rd spot in the nation for education, but the General Assembly’s whims continue to make it an uphill battle.
Indiana Department of Education Secretary General Katie Jenner on Wednesday outlined via Zoom to a group of Northwest Indiana school principals the programs the IDOE is implementing during a “State of Education” address at Indiana University Northwest and how they’re working.
Its Science of Reading program, for example, aims to get 95% of school-age children reading by 2027, and it’s working on immersing more students in STEM education and developing overall skill development in project-, service- and work-based learning, Jenner said.
Getting kids to stay with higher education is also a focus, as the department has been one of the only ones to track where high school seniors go after they graduate, she said. Seventy-six percent of them do want to go to college, she said, but only 53% of them do, and then many don’t make it past their second year.
Overall, 48% of Hoosiers between the ages of 25 and 65 have a post-secondary education, she said.
“They have a dream, but life gets in the way,” Jenner said. “How can we improve to make those 13 years in school (more productive)?”
A $111 million combines investment via the Lily Endowment and IDOE ESSER II funds in literacy is part of the plan, she said. Launched this year, it deploys reading coaches to elementary schools that opt in; IDOE hopes to be in 60% of elementary schools by 2025, Jenner said.
Tutoring grants, with the goal of serving up to 15,000 fourthand fifth-grade students, offer up to $1,000 for services outside of school, but the plan is to try and get more money for bigger grants.
Another grant, the 3E Grant (Explore, Engage & Experience), incentivizes and supports communities in “establishing meaningful K-12 pathways leading to employment, enrollment and enlistment leading to service, including increasing access to work-based learning and post-secondary credentials,” she explained in a slide. Ninety-seven schools applied for a 3E, and IDOE granted $57 million as a result, Jenner said.
She cautioned, however, that there’s going to be “a lot of push and pull over the next 52 days”
as the General Assembly works on the state’s budget, and with new members comes new priorities. Educators just need to keep doing what they always do, however.
“We have to keep moving,” Jenner said. “I know you’re in unique situations where you have to crawl, but your work matters so much.”
Tim Prikkel, principal for Hebron Elementary School in Hebron, asked Jenner why, in a listserv post last week, she asked that schools stop adopting curricula.
Jenner said they debated sending the memo because they didn’t want to cause panic, but they also didn’t want districts to get “caught flatfooted.”
That issue, Prikkel said, ties into book rental fees. Indiana House Republicans have said their budget would eliminate book rental fees for K-12 students, the Indiana Capital Chronicle reported, but there’s no actual line item in that budget to cover it.
“The way we purchase textbooks, we average their cost over six years,” Prikkel said.
“So if we buy new science books, but we pay too much, what if they’re not covering enough?
“For big corporations like Merrillville, they could absorb it, but for a small corporation textbooks fees are huge. Four students can cover a teacher’s assistant.”
IUN’s director of student teaching Tim Vassar, who’s also a Crown Point Schools Board member, said he just hopes the IDOE and legislators will collaborate more.
“I attended the Indiana School Board Association meeting (earlier Tuesday), “Vassar said, “and some of what she’s saying about its priorities is very different than what ISBA is saying.”