CICP News & Updates

Anyone who cares about the future of Central Indiana should care passionately about the fate of the Indianapolis Public Schools, Indiana’s largest school system, where half of all students fail I-STEP reading and math tests and graduation rates rank alongside Detroit as the Midwest’s worst. 

A recent piece by Matt Tully of the Indianapolis Star (‘A state takeover of Manual?’) details a meeting between IPS Superintendent Eugene White, Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett, and representatives of the local teachers union that illustrates much of what’s wrong with IPS and other failing urban school systems – a stubborn resistance to change and fidelity to process over performance.  It’s a philosophy that leads to issues like the retention of underperforming teachers while failing to reward gifted educators.  Students are the ultimate victims.

I’m reminded of the work of Clayton Christensen, the Harvard professor and creator of the theory of ‘disruptive innovation.’  Christensen asserts that large organizations are often blindsided by innovation because they’re too focused on incremental change and not the dramatic breakthroughs that redefine the market.

Of course, when you apply Christensen’s theories to the corporate world, firms that shun innovation are simply overtaken by their more agile competitors.  But public schools where students don’t learn are largely a monopoly trapping families without the financial wherewithal to afford their private counterparts or the good fortune to qualify for charter public schools. 

Can IPS and other urban districts prove Christensen wrong and embrace radical change, or will the path be chosen for them by the state?  I submitted this editorial to the Star, published today, with more thoughts:

For failing public schools, takeover seems good solution

Mark Miles

Posted: April 6, 2010

Thanks to The Star and Matthew Tully, we're all aware of the struggles of our Indianapolis Public Schools. At least we thought we were; in fact, the situation is much worse. Tully's report March 28 ("A state takeover of Manual?") provided the most important and dramatic insight to date into the quagmire that victimizes kids who have no choice but to attend IPS schools.

Tully's work in education, and this piece in particular, deserves Pulitzer recognition and should cause outrage and dramatic change in Indianapolis and other urban school systems across the state that are failing our kids.

Tully chronicles a recent meeting between IPS Superintendent Eugene White, Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett and representatives of the teachers union on the looming prospect of a state takeover of several failing schools within IPS.

When asked to estimate the percentage of teachers performing at "questionable" levels, White candidly estimated the number at 60 percent in every IPS high school (with the notable exception of Broad Ripple).

According to Tully, IPS administrators say that contractual requirements and tedious rules have blunted their efforts to rid the district of poor teachers, putting teacher seniority ahead of student learning and pushing any serious progress on this issue three to five years into the future.

These shocking observations were followed by the union defending the process used to evaluate teacher performance. These are the children of Indianapolis, and it could not be clearer that well-intended, plodding, incremental changes cannot address this catastrophe.

The situation demands radical change and fundamental restructuring. Perhaps the threat of a state takeover of failing schools is the catalyst that can finally reverse the organizational inertia that plagues IPS and districts like it across Indiana. But notwithstanding my respect and empathy for White and the dedicated educators who work in IPS every day, I doubt it.

A look at the failed state of urban education in the United States, exemplified here by the plight of IPS, suggests that it's time for a fundamentally redefined model for educating our kids.

We've come to a fork in the road. If IPS high schools and other urban districts across Indiana continue to fail their students, dramatic changes can by law be implemented by the Indiana Department of Education; for example, replacing the leadership and at least half the staff of each school, closing the schools altogether and reopening them as charters, or terminating the principals and implementing a comprehensive teacher effectiveness plan.

To avoid having one of these paths chosen for it, IPS must implement radical and rapid change on its own. As Tully's reporting makes perfectly clear, the status quo -- a culture that puts process ahead of performance -- cannot be an option.