By LAURA HAMMACK, guest columnist
I grew up in a tiny suburb outside of Cleveland, Ohio. There, I attended Rocky River City Schools from K-12, a small public school district.
I am so proud to have been educated in public schools and am equally as proud to have served as a teacher, principal and superintendent in only public school districts.
I believe that public education is the foundation of our democracy and a healthy democracy is one where public schools are strong.
Our nation will soon celebrate Public Schools Week from Feb. 24-28. Now, more than ever, advocacy for public education in Indiana is critical. Did you know that 90 percent of America’s youth attend public schools?
The Indiana Coalition for Public Education (ICPE) is a bipartisan organization that “advocates for high quality, equitable, well-funded public schools for all children that are subject to democratic oversight by their communities.” Their advocacy at the Statehouse is strong and we are grateful for all the work they are doing to advance policy that supports public schools across Indiana.
Currently, we are at “halftime” for this year’s convening of the Indiana General Assembly. At the time of my writing this column, there are 172 education-related bills still alive at the Statehouse. For a “short” legislative year that was rumored to have limited education-related action, the docket of bills has been typically busy.
To celebrate Public Schools Week, I thought it important to inform our community about the incredible work that the ICPE is doing on our behalf. Their legislative priorities for 2020 are important, well-reasoned, and require our attention. At halftime of this session, it is obvious that their work is making a difference.
To illustrate, one of the ICPE legislative priorities of 2020 is: “ICPE supports not only holding our public schools ‘harmless’ in every respect from the latest state test results (ILEARN), but disconnecting the link between test scores and their use in the evaluation of teachers and schools. We support the use of multiple measures when evaluating our schools.”
HB 1001 and HB 1002 both passed with the intent of realizing that priority. HB 1001 passed out of the House with a two-year “hold harmless” measure for teachers and schools if they experienced drops in ILEARN scores. Additionally, HB 1002 passed, ending a state policy that ties teacher evaluations to student achievement on standardized assessments like the ILEARN.
These two bills moved over to the Senate, where SB 2 was recently passed and is waiting for the governor’s signature. It realizes the ICPE’s policy statement of holding teachers and schools harmless for school years 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 in two ways. First, ILEARN scores cannot be used to inform in a performance evaluation for a certified teacher. Second, the ILEARN scores cannot negatively impact the state accountability letter grade for schools and districts.
An important nuance is mentioned within the ICPE legislative priority I highlight above. The last statement indicates supporting multiple measures to evaluate schools, instead of just the ILEARN assessment. We also support that strategy. While it is helpful to have a reprieve from accountability measures for two years, we need to keep working to realize an accountability system that is fair and uses measures that comprehensively assess student growth and achievement.
I am grateful for organizations like the ICPE that are working to advance public education in Indiana. I am grateful to our legislators for not only hearing their voice and the voice of our teachers, but for also being responsive in action like that in SB 2. However, isolated legislation “fixing” a more comprehensive problem for a short term is not enough. We have a lot more work to do.
Did you know that all Indiana schools receiving public funds don’t have the same reporting requirements as traditional public schools? Did you know that all Indiana schools receiving public funds don’t have to meet the same accountability requirements as traditional public schools? Did you know that all Indiana schools receiving public funds aren’t held to the same public access requirements as traditional schools?
It is imperative that we work together to fight for transparency and equity for all schools in Indiana. I’m grateful to the ICPE for working to realize that end.
If you are interested in learning more about the Indiana Coalition for Public Education, their website is indianacoalitionforpubliced.org.
