Takeover or Turnaround (Part 1)
I hadn’t planned to start posting again until tomorrow, but I didn’t want to wait and thought this was a topic definitely worth discussing. So here is part one.
This week I’m focusing my blog posts to education and the likelihood the Indiana Department of Education will intervene and take over several failing Indianapolis Public Schools. Today’s post will focus on the background of how turnaround/takeover actually works.
The Indiana Department of Education will begin holding hearings at several Indianapolis Public Schools that have been on academic probation for the past five years. Under Public Law 221, any school that has been deemed as failing for the past five years is subject to state intervention. That intervention can include one of the following options…
- Provide technical assistance to the school.
- Assume total control of school.
- Assign a special team to operate all or part of the school.
- Allow the school to continue to function if it’s making steady progress.
Schools are measured based on student achievement, performance and yearly progress. A school can avoid takeover if its test scores improve by three percent.
The state taking over a school is not a new concept. Since 1999, state law has allowed the DOE to intervene if a school is has been failing for more than five years. This law was passed two years before No Child Left Behind went into effect.
Hearings are set for the following schools…
- May 31 — Broad Ripple HS, 6:30 p.m.
- June 1 — Arlington Community HS, 6:30 p.m.
- June 8 — Emerich Manual HS, 6:30 p.m.
- June 9 — Northwest HS, 6:30 p.m.
- June 13 — TC Howe Comm. HS, 6:30 p.m.
- June 20 — Emma Donnan MS, 6:30 p.m.
- June 29 — George Washington HS, 6:30 p.m.
The state has already held a hearing in South Bend. It’s important to note that these hearings are not to debate whether the state will intervene, but absent an increase in test scores, how that intervention will take place. The DOE can also choose to keep teachers and staff at the turnaround school or dismiss them entirely. Turnaround usually lasts for about two years.
Official test results for schools won’t be out until July, however, test scores for individual students should be out later in the week. School officials can take those individual scores and put together a pretty accurate composite of what the overall picture will look like and that should let them know which schools are ripe for takeover and which ones can avoid intervention.
