Happy summer to everyone! 

We are issuing a call to action. Between now and Thursday, July 20 at 11:59 pm, please reach out to the Indiana Department of Education per their first draft of the Indiana plan for adhering to the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

ESSA was signed into law in December 2015 as the update to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. ESSA replaces the previous update to the law, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

If you have the time, please read the sections and take the survey for each section.

The sections and surveys are here. 

If you don't have that much time, please call or email the director of policy, Patrick McAlister: (317) 232-7794/ [email protected] or just the State Board of Education in general and demand that the newly created graduation pathways task force include a broad array of public school teachers (special education teachers especially) and have among its goals to address explicitly ways to support graduation rates for students with IEPs. 

Indiana State Board of Education
143 W. Market St., Suite 500
Indianapolis, IN 46204
[email protected] 
(317) 232-2000

The Fate of the Indiana General Diploma

Did you know that Indiana offers five different high school diplomas (if you count all three versions of the Core 40) in addition to the GED and the certificate of completion?

According to Chalkbeat: "Special education advocates fought for years to make Indiana’s general diploma a viable option for students who need it. Now, the credential is being sidelined again—this time by the federal government.

The general diploma is a pared-down option typically earned by students who struggle academically or those with special needs. The state has discouraged schools from relying on the general diploma, but advocates say it offers opportunities to students who otherwise might not be able to earn the more rigorous default option, the Core 40 diploma."

However, as soon as fall 2018, the general diploma may not count in the graduation rate the state is required to report to the federal government because it is below the diploma the majority of students receive (Core 40). It could possibly cause rates to drop and school A-F grades to suffer because students earning the general diploma won't be counted as graduates by the federal government.  

In 2016, 8,600 young adults in Indiana graduated with a general diploma out of 70,490 total. That's 12 percent of Indiana graduates that received a general diploma. If this change had taken effect for the 2016 school year, the state's graduation rate as federally reported would have been 78 percent, rather than the 89 percent that was reported. (Sources: 1, 2)

Indiana already tried to eliminate the general diploma, pushing kids in that category either up to Core 40 or down to certificate of completion. 

It was just last year that legislation passed to compel every school to offer the general diploma—previously it was optional since the Core 40 was made the standard-bearer for diplomas. Some high schools had stopped even offering general diplomas. 

At last week's Indiana state board of education meeting, members voted to create a task force to establish new pathways to graduation in consultation with the Department of Workforce Development and the Commission for Higher Education. Unfortunately, few educators are designated to participate. (But Indiana education legislation architects Kruse and Behning are on the board.)

The problem is that Indiana is likely to revisit eliminating the general diploma altogether (as it did in 2015), which would be a problem for many students with IEPs and other students that benefit from that option. 

ICPE members and other fellow education advocates should make the case for a graduation pathways task force that includes a broad array of public school teachers and has among its goals to address explicitly ways to support graduation rates for students with IEPs.

If you are looking for additional changes to be brought by ESSA, read this article which highlights more measures that may be added to schools in Indiana by the SBOE. 

Additional Reading

http://www.greensburgdailynews.com/news/local_news/comment-period-open-for-every-student-succeeds-act/article_20bc3dfd-9ce9-5810-ab91-b8ea079305a1.html

http://indianapublicmedia.org/stateimpact/2017/07/12/mccormick-responds-fed-grad-rate-requirements/
​
http://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/in/2017/07/07/the-feds-have-a-new-definition-for-graduation-rate-and-indianas-general-diploma-doesnt-count/

http://www.southbendtribune.com/news/education/new-rule-could-change-what-it-means-to-graduate-in/article_48a47d94-00ea-534f-8b87-95e6b2b86245.html

http://www.indy.education/blog/2017/7/14/equal-opportunities-for-all-students-how-essa-is-expanding-access-for-mtss-in-schools

http://wbaa.org/post/indiana-change-how-it-calculates-graduation-rates#stream/0

http://www.indystar.com/story/news/education/2017/07/07/graduation-rate-changes-could-hurt-indiana-school-grades/458118001/

http://www.journalgazette.net/news/local/indiana/20170716/grad-rates-grades-to-fall

–Keri  Miksza
​

Dear Friends,

School funding from the new state budget which kicked in on July 1st is inadequate for our public school students.

The Indiana General Assembly’s final budget gave a meager increase for K-12 funding by historical standards: 1.6% in the first year (2017-18) and 1.7% in the second year (2018-2019).

In the past twenty years, only five years had lower increases.  These five included the four years of the Great Recession (FY 2010 through FY 2013) along with FY 2015.  This conclusion can readily be confirmed by reviewing the Total Funding column of the attachment showing Indiana’s history of K-12 funding increases for the past 20 years. 

The small increases in the new budget will not allow public schools to keep up with inflation, which the most recent federal data reported to be 1.9% for the twelve months ending May 2017, down from 2.2% the previous month.  

With an average increase this small, many districts with static enrollment will not be able to maintain their current level of programs or provide a much needed boost to teacher pay to combat the teacher shortage.  This will produce program cuts in the curriculum areas not related to English and math testing, such as music, art, physical education, foreign language, social studies and vocational programs.  It will raise class sizes.

Public school administrators in Indiana are skilled and experienced at cutting budgets in ways that don’t make headlines. Nevertheless, the programs available for our public school students are being cut while $146 million was diverted last school year (2016-17) to pay for private school tuition, of which $78 million paid the tuition for the 54% of voucher students who had never attended public schools at all.

Meanwhile, Indiana projects a $2 billion dollar surplus. 

A review of the attached table will give you the full picture of school funding increases for the past 20 years.

Here’s How Public School Programs are Being Dismantled in a Climate of Inadequate Funding

Ask any local school leader and you can hear numerous examples of how inadequate funding hurts the education of public school students in Indiana.  Here are two:

1)       The Indianapolis Public Schools fared poorly in the budget battles of the 2017 session.  The House budget passed in February projected a cut of $8 million from the previous year and an actual cut in per pupil funding of $90 or 1.2%.  The Senate budget passed in late March gave IPS more hope, projecting a gain of $4 million from the previous year and a small gain in per pupil funding of $29 or 0.4%.  The final budget negotiated in April dashed hopes for budget relief, giving IPS a projected cut of $100,000 from the previous year and an actual cut in per pupil funding of $7 per student or 0.1%.  

       Contrast this with state totals which increased per pupil funding by $74 per student or 1.1%.

If the Senate budget funding had prevailed, IPS would be getting $1.1 million more in 2017-18, after enrollment projections are equalized.  This last minute loss of $1.1 million in the budget negotiations now looks big when considering the current community agony of closing three of seven IPS high schools for the stated goal of saving $4 million per year in general fund money.  In retrospect, the Senate budget, if the House had agreed to it, would have given major help to the students and families of IPS.

The Senate budget funded public education at a higher level than the House budget. Public education advocates should thank the Senate for giving public education funding a higher priority than did the House.  Senator Luke Kenley, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, played a powerful role in taking this stance.  He has now announced his retirement on September 30th after 25 years in the Senate.  His influence in prioritizing funding for public education will be missed.

2)      Brown County Schools lost 27 students to private school vouchers in 2016-17, a diversion of $186,000 which put the budget in a precarious position.  When the French teacher took a job in another district for 2017-18, the French language program which had been offered in Brown County for decades was ended to save the cost of one teacher.  Hopes of an infusion from the new state budget to keep up current programs were dashed.  The new state budget for Brown County projected a 3% cut from last year based on the projection that enrollment would drop by 72 students to 1801 in 2017-18. Dollars per student in the new budget climbed by $64, less than 1% (0.9%) and not enough to maintain programs.  Once again, the inadequate state budget means fewer options for public school students.

When such cuts are made, local administrators get the blame when in most cases state legislators who write the state budget are actually the ones responsible for forcing such cuts to be made in some program by local leaders.

Previous budgets in earlier years, as the attachment shows, have given public school students a better opportunity for stable programs.  Cuts in programs, larger class sizes and meager or non-existent teacher salary increases will be common stories for the public schools of Indiana during the two year budget which started July 1st. 

Thank you for your active support of public education in Indiana!
 
Best wishes,
Vic Smith      [email protected]
 
“Vic’s Statehouse Notes” and ICPE received one of three Excellence in Media Awards presented by Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, an organization of over 85,000 women educators in seventeen countries.  The award was presented on July 30, 2014 during the Delta Kappa Gamma International Convention held in Indianapolis.  Thank you Delta Kappa Gamma!
 
ICPE has worked since 2011 to promote public education in the Statehouse and oppose the privatization of schools.  We need your membership to help support ICPE lobbying efforts.  As of July 1st, the start of our new membership year, it is time for all ICPE members to renew their membership.

Our lobbyist Joel Hand represented ICPE extremely well during the 2017 budget session.  We need your memberships and your support to continue his work. We welcome additional members and additional donations.  We need your help and the help of your colleagues who support public education!  Please pass the word!

Some readers have asked about my background in Indiana public schools.  Thanks for asking!  Here is a brief bio:

I am a lifelong Hoosier and began teaching in 1969.  I served as a social studies teacher, curriculum developer, state research and evaluation consultant, state social studies consultant, district social studies supervisor, assistant principal, principal, educational association staff member, and adjunct university professor.   I worked for Garrett-Keyser-Butler Schools, the Indiana University Social Studies Development Center, the Indiana Department of Education, the Indianapolis Public Schools, IUPUI, and the Indiana Urban Schools Association, from which I retired as Associate Director in 2009.  I hold three degrees: B.A. in Ed., Ball State University, 1969; M.S. in Ed., Indiana University, 1972; and Ed.D., Indiana University, 1977, along with a Teacher’s Life License and a Superintendent’s License, 1998.  In 2013 I was honored to receive a Distinguished Alumni Award from the IU School of Education, and in 2014 I was honored to be named to the Teacher Education Hall of Fame by the Association for Teacher Education – Indiana.