Chalkbeat

New statewide testing is coming for some Indiana babies and toddlers

2024-04-10T20:11:27+00:00

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More Indiana babies and toddlers may soon participate in state testing as education officials seek to assess whether children are ready for kindergarten.

The Indiana Department of Education announced Wednesday that it would expand access to two early learning assessments in an effort to measure students’ skills before kindergarten and provide interventions when necessary.

Beginning this year, all schools and public and private early learning providers will be invited to administer the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment and the Indiana Student Performance of Readiness and Observation of Understanding Tool, or ISPROUT.

The purpose of the tests is not just to evaluate young children’s skills, but to provide support for those who might need intervention “when the windows of opportunity are wide open,” said Secretary of Education Katie Jenner.

The Kindergarten Readiness Assessment is given once in the first six weeks of kindergarten, and will form the basis of the Kindergarten Readiness metric on the Indiana GPS Dashboard, a tool that compiles various statistics about school and student performance. That metric has been marked as “coming soon” since the dashboard launched last year.

The ISPROUT, meanwhile, can be given to preschoolers ages 3-5 or babies and toddlers from birth to age 2. It’s already administered as part of federally required reporting for children ages 3-5 who have disabilities.

Servizzi said that while some may balk at the idea of testing for babies and toddlers, the ISPROUT assessment is based heavily on educator observations. And for older preschoolers, the test measures skills through ongoing observations of a child’s typical daily routine, according to a State Board of Education presentation Wednesday.

The assessments will be provided at no cost to the providers, and initially only on an opt-in basis, said Kelli Servizzi, director of kindergarten readiness at the state department of education.

Schools and providers can opt in to administer both tests to kindergarteners and preschool students in May 2024. For younger children, the assessment will be available in October 2024.

Kindergarten Readiness Assessment data will be available on the dashboard in early 2025, Servizzi said.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

It’s time to choose a public kindergarten for our daughter. Here’s how we decided where to apply.

2023-11-10T14:36:57+00:00

“So how do we even go about this?”

Our kids were playing together in our neighbor’s backyard about a year ago. Sitting on their patio, our friends had turned the conversation to asking us where to send their daughter to kindergarten the next fall.

Matt Impink

My wife and I looked at each other not knowing where to begin. We are both former teachers and have been working in local public education circles in Indianapolis for over a decade. Despite having three young kids, we were avoiding the conversation about choosing a school for our daughters. Maybe it was because we had another year before our oldest daughter would be kindergarten age. Maybe we were afraid of making a tough decision knowing that there were so many factors to weigh.

We told our friends that they could apply to Indianapolis Public Schools and local charter schools through the city’s common enrollment system, Enroll Indy. We shared a few schools we planned to tour because we wanted to see them for ourselves and not rely on biased assumptions. Our friends started asking a lot of good questions, ones we should have been asking for ourselves. What schools could we consider? How would we manage transportation? What things do we value as a family?

I have strong opinions about K-12 education. My wife does too. I have long been interested in the enormous political, racial, and economic forces impacting our schools, but that night on my neighbors’ patio, I was forced to consider how to navigate it all as a parent. No longer was this decision hypothetical, now that we had actual kids, with unique personalities, strengths, and challenges. No one knows your kids better than you do, and where you choose to send them to school is one of the most personal decisions you’ll ever make.

We’d make the right decision, wouldn’t we?

I grew up in Pike Township, Indiana, and attended the closest elementary school to where my family lived. Schools were a huge factor when my parents were deciding where to buy a house.

When my wife and I decided to make a life together, we moved to the Fletcher Place neighborhood inside the boundaries of Indianapolis Public Schools, or IPS. We love where we live and have both been extremely active community members, sitting on local boards and associations. However, there are no public schools in Fletcher Place, even though historically there were three IPS schools within a five-minute walk from our front door. Like many families in IPS, there isn’t an obvious school where our kids would go.

This past summer, we got serious about figuring out where we would send our oldest daughter in the fall of 2024. We started writing the names of schools we’d like to consider on the refrigerator based on the distance from our home, where friends and family were sending their kids, academic programming, the new IPS zones, and other factors. We looked at Enroll Indy’s School Finder and identified seven schools that we wanted to consider.

Once the current school year started, I began calling to schedule tours. I had to coordinate work schedules and squeeze in as many tours as possible on a day we both had off. Some schools had set tour dates, others an online sign-up, but most just had you call the front office. We ended up touring five schools.

Most school tours are pretty similar. A principal or enrollment coordinator will welcome families and talk briefly about the history of the school. Then they take you to a kindergarten classroom to observe briefly. They always show off the media center (i.e. library). The tours honestly were really helpful. After a couple, we started to look for a few things:

Were the students happy and engaged? Was there productive chatter? We really liked the school where we saw “buddy reading time” between older and younger students in the hallway. My daughters are really social and need many chances to engage.
Look for student work on the wall. Some schools will have more than others. I think a school should use data to respond effectively to students’ needs, but I don’t like assignments that look robotic. I liked seeing student work that emphasized critical thinking and creativity, rather than memorizing the right answer.
What’s the dress code? I personally hate strict dress codes, so I wanted to know how it was being enforced.
Did schools put in effort to make you feel welcome? We wondered how we might fit into the school culture. We loved that Potter School 74 invited us to salsa night (both the dancing and the sauce), Center for Inquiry School 2 held the tour right after their weekly student-led community meeting, which we got to witness, and Garfield School 31 invited us to see them at the Bates-Hendricks Street Fest.

If our community is serious about families being able to choose schools, the system must make it work for all families — including those who can’t easily tour campuses during the workday, those who speak limited English, and those without needed transportation — to tour schools and join school communities. Taking time to call each school is asking a lot of families (and schools too). If our community is committed to unwinding the historic and present-day inequities in our city schools, we need to break down as many barriers as possible.

One small but meaningful step would be for Enroll Indy to establish a centralized tour-scheduling system on School Finder with tour opportunities that align with each Enroll Indy application round (Currently Round 1: Nov. 1-Jan. 24; Round 2: Jan. 25-April 19). All applications submitted within Round 1 will be considered together, so your best shot to enroll in your desired school is to apply by the end of Round 1. It’s important to schedule tours before Round 1 ends.

It was a lot of work, but we’re excited to identify Center for Inquiry School 2, Potter School 74, and Global Prep School 44 as our top three choices for our daughter. We’re comforted that there is a 95% chance we’ll be accepted into at least one of those three. We wish all Indy families the best as they begin the process of choosing a school.

Matt Impink lives with his wife and their three daughters in Fletcher Place near Downtown Indianapolis.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this piece incorrectly referred to Enroll Indy as the district’s enrollment portal. Enroll Indy is the city’s unified enrollment system and serves both district and charter schools.

IPS seeks community help to expand before- and after-school care to all pre-K-5 students who need it

2023-11-09T20:08:30+00:00

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Indianapolis Public Schools is asking for help from the community to increase availability of before- and after-school care for students districtwide.

The Engage Every Student Indianapolis campaign — launched on Thursday with At Your School, the YMCA of Greater Indianapolis, and other community partners — seeks to provide before- and after-school programs for all students who need it, from pre-K to fifth grade, by the 2024-25 school year.

Some community centers that currently offer programming and partner with the district have waitlists, officials say, while staffing also remains a challenge. The district call to action seeks pledges from community organizations to work with the district to eliminate the waitlists.

Community partners already on board with the initiative hope to work with the district to properly staff programs that are located both at schools and elsewhere. IPS also hopes to tap district employees to serve as paid staff for the programs.

“While our specific work may vary, our goal of providing quality care is universal,” said Natasha Bellak, vice president of the YMCA of Greater Indianapolis. “When we work together, we move everyone close to meeting that goal.”

The district already partners with about a dozen community centers and other organizations to offer before- or after-school care, in some cases at the school and in others off-site. Fees for such care can vary based on the provider; low-income families can seek assistance through the federal Child Care and Development Fund administered by the state’s Family and Social Services Administration.

The district plans to expand the number of these collaborative programs from 15 after-school offerings to at least 25 by next school year, and to add more before-school programs, which are currently at about 10.

Staff at Daniel Webster School 46 plan to launch a before- and after-school program on Monday, in partnership with At Your School, to address the need in the southwest corner of the district.

“IPS welcomes and encourages other youth program providers to connect with the district, so that we can better support our pre-K-fifth-grade students during these critical development years,” said Mary Seifert, director of student engagement and extended learning for IPS.

People from interested organizations can get involved by filling out the pledge form.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Free books for Hoosiers 5 and under are coming soon, thanks to Dolly Parton

2023-08-24T20:18:20+00:00

Reading birth to five — what a way to improve Indiana’s stagnating literacy rates.

The state kicked off Thursday an expansion of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which aims to provide free books on a monthly basis to young children in all 92 Indiana counties.

Founded in 1995 by singer and philanthropist Dolly Parton, the Imagination Library mails age-appropriate books to all children 5 and under regardless of their family’s income.

It’s currently available in around half of all Indiana counties, and local Imagination Library programs have been covering the costs of providing books. But starting Sept. 1, those programs will pay for just half the costs, while a state match covers the rest. The Indiana State Library will coordinate the program and provide the funding to partner organizations who want to expand the program to new areas of the state.

The expansion is funded by a $6 million appropriation over Indiana’s biennial budget cycle — $2 million in the first year and $4 million in the second year.

Making the program available to more children was a priority of Gov. Eric Holcomb during the last legislative session. It’s part of a suite of initiatives aimed at improving literacy rates among young children as state reading scores have stagnated.

“I learned from a very young age that reading is the key to further education and opportunity ahead, long-term,” Holcomb said in a statement. “The very ability to read can transport children and adults alike to places they have never been and open doors they never knew existed.”

The Imagination Library has provided over 200 million free books in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and Ireland, according to a press release from the organization. It announced a $1.6 million partnership with Illinois in June.

“It takes a lot of great people working together to make this possible, and I want to thank Governor Holcomb, the Indiana General Assembly, State Librarian Jake Speer and all our Local Community Partners across the state who helped make this dream a reality,” Dolly Parton said in a statement.

Hoosier families can enroll their children in an existing local program or sign up to be notified of when it expands at imaginationlibrary.com.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

New COVID vaccine for children under 5 gives Indy day care centers hope

2022-06-22T22:07:51+00:00

Many Indianapolis child care and day care providers are eager to spend a little less time worrying about COVID and more time helping children grow and develop, following federal approval last week of COVID vaccines for children between 6 months and 5 years old.

After more than two years of navigating the pandemic much like their K-12 counterparts, directors of these facilities are hoping parents will take advantage of the new vaccines to protect their children and those around them.

Those who run these facilities could still face tricky decisions about whether they should encourage or request that those who attend be vaccinated.

The Indiana Department of Health said the new vaccines are now available in the state. Young children previously eligible for the vaccine have proven much less likely to be vaccinated than any other age group. In Indiana, only 21% of children ages 5 to 11 are fully vaccinated, roughly half the percentage of children ages 12 to 17 in the state who are fully vaccinated.

Lisa Bowling, the co-director of Daystar Daycare in Indianapolis, said her center has experienced multiple COVID outbreaks this year. The center serves multiple classrooms of children ranging in age from 6 weeks to 12 years. While no children became seriously ill, many classrooms had children test positive in January and May.

“Some of our staff have gotten pretty sick,” Bowling said. “It really makes a difference now that we have the vaccine.”

Bowling said parents and staff have been diligent in maintaining COVID protocols when possible, but containing the spread of the virus can be difficult when many children cannot wear masks properly at a young age.

Bowling expects many of the children at her day care to be vaccinated shortly, as parents have been eager in the past — as is typical each time a new age group is eligible for vaccination. She said some children have even been vaccinated on their fifth birthday, as soon as they were eligible. Now, she said, she’s relieved they won’t have to wait as long.

“We were hoping that it would have been done sooner,” Bowling said about the new vaccines. “We’re very thankful that it’s now been approved.”

The state health department said parents should contact their health care provider or seek more information online, or by calling 211 for more information before going to a health care provider for a vaccine.

“As with every stage of vaccine rollout, we will see increased availability in the coming days as more doses arrive in the state,” said Dr. Lindsay Weaver, the department’s chief medical officer, in a Tuesday press release.

The excitement among those who oversee day care and child care centers extends to their own families. Rosie’s Tiny Tots Daycare Ministry Director Alicia Grant said she is excited to have her 3-year-old daughter vaccinated. While she will not require any parents to vaccinate their children who go to Rosie’s Tiny Tots, she hopes to see other parents follow her example.

“My daughter is three and she still doesn’t know how to blow her nose,” Grant said. “So being vaccinated would help her fight off whatever the virus may be at the time.”

Helen Rummel is a reporting intern for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Helen at hrummel@chalkbeat.org.

Indianapolis’ newest child care center opens inside Manual High School

2022-06-02T23:16:51+00:00

This summer, the littlest learners will start at Manual High School.

What were once administrative offices have been turned into classrooms for infants and toddlers, outfitted with cribs, changing tables, and tiny chairs. A small auditorium has been divided and converted into preschool classrooms filled with new toys.

A new Day Early Learning child care center is opening in a wing of the high school, hoping to serve 80 children ages 0-5 on Indianapolis’ south side.

The program is part of a vision to turn what was once one of the lowest performing schools in Indiana into an educational hub for all ages, from babies to adults pursuing workforce certificates.

“Having it be this structure, where we can serve infants through great-grandparents on the same campus, really serves and benefits the entire community,” said Christel House Indianapolis Executive Director Sarah Weimer.

Christel House, one of the state’s oldest charter networks, has run Manual since 2020, after a decade-long state takeover saga. Manual was among five schools seized by the state in 2012 and handed over to outside companies in what was ultimately an unsuccessful experiment in school improvement.

Three of the schools closed; Manual and another school returned to Indianapolis Public Schools and are each under new management.

Manual is no longer just a high school anymore. After a $5.5 million renovation, Christel House relocated its entire South campus into the building this year, bringing in its existing K-12 school alongside the final classes of Manual High School students. It also moved in its free adult high school for students over 18 seeking to finish their high school diplomas.

It’s now called Christel House at Manual. Once so underused that the third floor was closed off, Christel House expects 1,800 students to fill the school by day with 250 more students coming in for night classes.

When the charter network took over running Manual, people in public meetings voiced broad support for offering child care, Weimer said.

“That got the most cheers out of every person in the community,” she said. “That’s what we heard over and over again, was that they needed more seats.”

Christel House decided to turn to an established child care provider: Early Learning Indiana, an early childhood education nonprofit that runs the Day Early Learning centers.

The organization was interested in expanding to serve the city’s south side, where it can be hard to find providers that meet the state’s highest quality benchmarks. Within the south side area bordered by I-70, I-65, and I-465, there are only 10 high-quality providers, according to the state’s child care map. Many of them are clustered around the University of Indianapolis, and there are few others just beyond the interstates.

“What we’d like to be able to do is say we can serve you wherever you are,” said Maureen Weber, president and CEO of Early Learning Indiana.

To create the child care spaces at Manual, Early Learning raised about $2 million for construction, with significant support from the United Way of Central Indiana.

Enrollment costs range from about $350 per week for infants to $250 per week for preschoolers. The center accepts On My Way Pre-K vouchers and federal child care aid, in addition to offering tuition assistance to families making up to about 300% of the federal poverty level, Weber said. That’s equivalent to a household income of $83,250 for a family of four, for example.

Pre-K students will have guaranteed seats in kindergarten at Christel House, avoiding the citywide enrollment lottery.

About half the seats at Day Early Learning at Manual have been filled. While the program is open to anyone, all of the families so far have some kind of tie to Christel House.

Burgandie Tyson, a graduate who attended Christel House from kindergarten through 12th grade, hopes her two children have the same kind of experience she did. Christel House still feels like family to her, she said, with caring teachers and close friends from small classes.

When she heard about the child care center opening, Tyson asked for more information from Christel House’s college and career counselor who stays in touch with alumni.

“I always knew that I wanted my kids to go to Christel House,” Tyson said, “and then when they opened up the Day Early Learning center, it was just perfect just to have them start even earlier, and have them start that routine.”

The classrooms are still waiting for finishing touches, like installing soap dispensers and paper towel holders. The white walls are bare as teachers wait for children to make art to put up. The first students are starting this week, with other start dates staggered throughout the summer. That’s in part due to the need to hire more staff members, Weber said.

The partnership with Day Early Learning also includes providing drop-in child care for students. Child care poses the biggest obstacle for students at the adult high school, who officials said often wouldn’t re-enroll or would drop out again because they couldn’t find reliable child care during their night classes.

Earlier this week, a few children spent time at the drop-in classrooms while their parents worked on finishing welding certifications. A baby napped in a crib. A 3-year-old played with wooden toy trucks. A girl practiced writing her name with a pencil. A boy spoke on a toy phone to a preschooler holding a cup to his ear, connected through an imaginary line. He ordered a pretend lunch: pizza and sushi.

The four children in the room have played together throughout the morning. The two preschoolers are some of the first to be enrolled at the child care center.

Weimer noted the benefits of having children of all ages sharing the same building. She said sometimes these older students can act as “reading buddies and playground helpers.”

“You don’t often get that in school,” she said. “It also puts a little bit of pressure on the older kids to make sure they step up when they’re in public spaces. They gotta watch their language, they gotta watch their interactions with their peers, because that’s my best friend’s little sister watching me.”

Helen Rummel is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Helen at hrummel@chalkbeat.org.

Stephanie Wang covers education in Indiana, including pre-K, K-12 schools, and higher education. Contact Stephanie at swang@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana pre-K students see academic benefits through fourth grade, study shows

2022-02-02T22:26:32+00:00

Advocates are cheering the first studies on Indiana’s prekindergarten voucher program, highlighting the potential lasting academic benefits while also noting areas for improvement.

A long-term study of On My Way Pre-K found its students were better prepared for kindergarten and scored slightly higher on ILEARN than children from similar low-income backgrounds. But the research also raised questions about the state’s child care rating system, a cornerstone of On My Way Pre-K meant to ensure quality.

A second report from a new kindergarten readiness assessment showed children in On My Way Pre-K programs met national targets for 29% of literacy skills and 40% of math skills, suggesting that they have not fully caught up to students from higher income families. The assessment also identified disparities between students of different races.

“We believe that it shows us that yes, we’re on the right path, but there are opportunities to build on that,” said Anne Valentine, vice president of government relations for the United Way of Central Indiana. “The fact that On My Way students outperformed on school readiness and literacy — that alone is an excellent start for those families.”

Valentine, who leads Indiana’s Early Education Works coalition of about 40 businesses and organizations, said she hopes the results help persuade lawmakers that “the investment with the state is worth it.”

One state official emphasized that the longitudinal study did not find that the effects of pre-K fade over time, a concern that’s been raised in other places, including Tennessee.

“I am very thrilled to see students who saw benefits well beyond their first year of school,” said Nicole Norvell, director of the Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning.

Indiana lawmakers, who have taken a cautious approach to pre-K, required the longitudinal study when they initially approved the funding. On My Way Pre-K launched in 2015, subsidizing the cost for low-income families to send their 4-year-olds to the early education provider of their choice. Licensed centers, schools, churches, and home providers could participate if they reached either of the two highest quality levels in the state’s voluntary child care rating system.

As it expanded statewide, the pre-K program has faced challenges in raising awareness among families and increasing the number of eligible providers and available seats.

This school year, On My Way Pre-K reached its highest enrollment with about 4,800 students. The state sets aside $22 million each year for pre-K, with $1 million earmarked for an online program.

The longitudinal study followed the first class of On My Way Pre-K students over five years and compared their outcomes to other economically disadvantaged children who attended lower quality or unrated programs. Researchers are also tracking a second cohort currently in fourth grade.

The report recommends training to improve instructional quality and better connect pre-K to kindergarten. It also suggests further examining the state’s child care rating system, known as Paths to Quality.

Despite the expectation that On My Way Pre-K would have higher quality classrooms, researchers didn’t find a significant difference with the comparison group in lower rated or unrated programs. Using a method to evaluate teacher-child interactions, both pre-K and kindergarten classrooms scored low in instructional support and in the mid-quality range for classroom organization and emotional support.

Researchers also found that the quality of programs varied widely within the same Paths to Quality level.

Norvell, the state’s early childhood director, said the state needs to work on improving instruction through professional development and “strengthen the system we have for quality.” But she also noted that the quality evaluation didn’t necessarily consider factors such as how long a program had been established or how experienced its teachers were.

Early Learning Indiana, an advocacy group, is currently studying quality in classrooms across the state as part of a project with the National Institute for Early Education Research.

“We need to better understand the true drivers of quality and make sure we have a system that’s looking at the right things,” said Early Learning Indiana President and CEO Maureen Weber.

Advocates agreed strengthening Paths to Quality is a clear next step for early education, as well as increasing access to high-quality seats, particularly in rural areas.

“This is our chance to get it absolutely right for children before they go to kindergarten, so there’s more work to do,” Weber said.

In ‘child care desert,’ Indiana district adds space for young children

2021-11-05T21:31:20+00:00

When Sarah Nordin arrived to drop off her 3-year-old son for his first day of preschool in 2018, she was handed an unexpected notice: The child care center was planning to close its doors in two weeks due to a staffing issue.

It had already been Nordin’s second choice after the family’s first beloved in-home day care had closed only a few months prior. Now she would need to find a third option in her tiny northeastern Indiana town.

“I thought I was going to have to quit my job,” Nordin said. “I was calling family members, sobbing, ‘I don’t know what to do.’”

The stress of finding child care is familiar for working families across the country, but it can be especially acute in rural areas like Kosciusko County, where sparse populations make early learning programs costly to operate and few and far between.

Known as the Orthopedic Capital of the World for its medical manufacturing industry, Kosciusko County was around 2,000 seats short of its child care needs in 2018 after several programs closed, according to research by its chamber of commerce.

Parts of the community even earned the “child care desert” designation from Early Learning Indiana, a statewide advocate for early childhood education, meaning children outnumbered available seats 3 to 1 and the area had robust economy.

It led the Kosciusko County Chamber of Commerce to develop a child care program incubator known as LaunchPad to begin rebuilding capacity, said LaunchPad Executive Director Sherry Searles.

“We see this as an issue of economic development,” said Searles.

Community works together to add seats

The “child care desert” label eventually allowed the chamber to qualify for a $75,000 grant in 2020 from Early Learning Indiana, putting in motion an effort to add more seats through Wawasee schools in Syracuse, the smaller northern part of the county that suffered a particular child care scarcity.

Jennifer Phillips, the district’s director of special cervices, led the effort, inspired by her own experience.

As a new teacher in need of child care for her toddler daughter, Phillips had to drive 60 minutes round trip to drop her daughter off at a day care in the next town before starting her day teaching in Wawasee schools. At the time of her search, there were just eight licensed child care seats in town.

Families throughout the area shared similar stories to Phillips’: They would leave their children with neighbors, or ask relatives to watch them until the school bus came, or work fewer hours in order to be home a little earlier. During the pandemic, one parent would have to stop working outside the home, she said.

“It’s not always quality care,” Phillips said.

The district opened its first programs in 2020, one for the public and another reserved for the children of Wawasee schools staff — though not Phillips’ daughter, who by then had started kindergarten.

“I knew the importance of child care for children of our employees and for the community as a whole,” Phillips said.

Wawasee Community Schools now offers preschool for 3- to 5-year-olds at all three elementary buildings, an early-hours room for the children of employees of a large local manufacturer, and an infant and toddler care program that few other districts have ventured into, for a total of 96 additional seats.

Because the programs operate within a public school, they can accept aid such as the governmental Child Care and Development Fund and vouchers, Phillips said. Each program is led by a teacher and a paraprofessional, and all but one has a waitlist this year, Phillips added.

The district’s 16-seat infant and toddler care programs are in the process of obtaining licensure, she said, but for now have to close for one day after every ninth day of operation. Still, those, too, have waitlists.

A local employer steps up

In August, a major local employer also jumped into the day care scene.

Polywood, a Syracuse-based furniture manufacturer, agreed to sponsor 20 child care seats at Wawasee schools for employees’ children, Phillips said.

Ryan Zimmerman, Polywood’s director of human resources, said the company had been weighing options after employees routinely struggled to find child care nearby.

“We’re a rapidly growing company, and many times we’ve come across individuals we wanted to hire or had hired but who then had child care issues,” Zimmerman said. “They had a family member or neighbor watching their kids, and then something happens and that person isn’t available, or gets a job. And then they have a dilemma.”

The company had previously considered offering a program of its own, but faced the challenges of space, overhead, and utilities, as well as providing quality early learning.

“We’re a manufacturing company. We’re not in the day care business,” Zimmerman said.

“With a school, they’re the experts in child care, in how to manage children.”

Wawasee’s Polywood classroom offers care beginning at 4:30 a.m. ahead of the manufacturing plant’s start time — nontraditional hours that are even harder to find among child care providers. The company pays $40 per seat per day, which subsidizes the cost to employees.

The company believes it’ll see a higher retention rate as a result of the program, he said. For the 10 employees who currently use the child care center, Zimmerman also noted that absenteeism has been nonexistent.

“When they have a stable, reliable, consistent option, they’ll be stable, reliable, consistent employees,” Zimmerman said.

Kosciusko still needs more seats

If there’s a silver lining to the pandemic, it might be that more employers have realized the dire need for child care among their workers, said Early Learning Indiana CEO Maureen Weber, after school closures and COVID exposures impacted family schedules.

“I speak to rooms full of employers trying to figure out how to provide a meaningful support to their own employees as well as the larger community,” Weber said. “It became crystal clear that this is very important.”

And while Indiana school districts are increasingly offering preschool programs, it’s still rare that a district steps into infant and toddler care as Wawasee has, Weber said.

The model works well for infant care because it relies on the trust that public schools have within a community, as well as their existing resources, Weber said. The cost of operating the programs is one of the largest barriers to expanding access to them, and goes double for rural areas with less concentrated populations.

“They can, at the same time, be too costly for families to afford care and not charge enough to fund the full cost of care,” Weber said. “That creates quite a conundrum.”

Early Learning Indiana gave Kosciusko County an overall score of 51.6 out of 100 in an August report on early learning access in the state of Indiana, a score influenced by the county’s low child care capacity and lack of choice.

The report, which uses some data from before Wawasee schools’ child care programs opened and expanded, specifically lists the areas served by the district as ones of lowest access.

‘It’s hard leaving your baby with someone’

Sarah Nordin, who faced a child care dilemma after her two providers closed, found care for her children with family until the day care at Syracuse Elementary opened.

“Knowing I have good child care makes me do a much better job,” said Nordin, who works for the district as a special education paraprofessional.

Before Wawasee’s programs opened, kindergarten teacher Shanelle Werstler also relied on family for child care, including her mother-in-law who retired when the family couldn’t find another day care provider. Some quoted an insurmountable cost, Werstler said, or a waitlist of nearly two years.

Werstler said she jumped at the chance to bring her children to Syracuse Elementary’s day care for one of the most affordable rates around — $25 a day. Her daughter loves going to the “big school,” Werstler said, where she’s learned to write the first letters of her name.

The need to develop academic and social skills also drove parent Nicole Rodriguez to seek out preschool for her son, who struggled in social situations. The program allows her to focus on her full-time remote work, with the option to reach her son’s teacher by text if needed.

“It’s reassuring that if anything happens, I’ll get a call right away,” Rodriguez said. “And it’s a relief to have all that time to be able to work, without having to go get him.”

Wawasee High School teacher Hannah Pawlicki also couldn’t find another nearby child care option — some provided only part-time care, which worked well for other families she knew, but wouldn’t work for her and her husband, also a teacher.

With an on-campus option, Pawlicki said she’s enjoyed watching her children make progress.

“It’s hard leaving your baby with someone,” Pawlicki said. “Having both kids in the building, on the same schedule — we feel really fortunate that we had this opportunity in our community.”

Report rates child care for Indiana counties

2021-08-19T00:05:50+00:00

Hoosier families on average face limited access to child care — with most residents having a tough time finding quality care that meets their family’s needs, a study by child care advocates reports.

On a scale of zero to 100, the state as a whole scores 60.6 in child care access — what the study rates as just barely “moderate” — while 86% of its counties have “inadequate access,” the report by the non-profit Early Learning Indiana says. The report includes an interactive map to look up county-by-county child care details.

Unlike previous studies, the group’s analysis, released Tuesday, considers several factors besides available seats when rating child care across the state — including quality, affordability, and choice.

The report notes that Indiana has an estimated 478,800 children under age 6. About two-thirds of those children require care because they live in households where all the adults are working. Data shows about 117,000 of those children are enrolled in licensed programs, but the care arrangement for the remaining children are unknown.

That insufficiency matters because studies have shown that early care and learning play critical roles in a child’s development and future.

“The brain develops more rapidly during the first five years of life than at any other time,” Maureen Weber, president of Early Learning Indiana, said. “It matters a lot what kind of environment children are in for 8, 10, maybe 12 hours a day when this period of very rapid development is occurring.”

The study examines what care is available to families within a 10-mile radius, which is about how far people are willing to drive to access high-quality care.

The report notes that access varies across the state. Generally families in urban areas can more readily find high-quality care, compared with families in rural areas.

“We have long known that care in rural communities presents unique challenges given the distances and overall levels of population,” Weber said.

On the 0-100 scale of how well existing child care meets needs, Marion County scores 71.5 — one of the state’s higher scores. The county has had long-standing support for child care from organizations like the United Way of Central Indiana, Weber said. But more than half of the state’s census tracts have inadequate access to programs serving children up to age 5 who need care.

Supported by Lilly Endowment Inc., Early Learning Indiana is offering grants of up to $100,000 to provide high-quality child care. Weber said the group will award at least 10 non-renewable grants, to cover an average of 18 months, to build capacity. The program aims to expand care for 1,000 children. The deadline for proposals is Oct. 8.

Nearly $70 million has been distributed with support from the state for day care centers to safely stay open. The state is continuing to invest in pre-kindergarten but without increasing state funding.

Studies have shown that children who participate in high-quality early-learning programs have improved long-term academic results and better health outcomes.

Good early-learning programs also can help children who suffer the stress of coping with adversity, Weber said.

“They bring with them a number of challenges that can stay with them well into their K-12 experience,” Weber said. “On the other hand, if they have early childhood experiences that are positive, with adults that are providing for their needs and helping to foster that brain development that is happening anyway, that pays dividends for years into K-12.”

Weber said that children need caring adults who want to foster curiosity and build resilience.

This story has been updated to clarify the number of children under age 6 who need care.

Kindergarten summer program gives kids an edge at one Indianapolis charter school

2021-07-01T16:41:20+00:00

Instead of spending their last summer before school playing, two dozen 4- and 5-year-olds in Indianapolis started class six weeks early this year to get a head start before kindergarten.

The students spent Tuesday morning learning about the letter D. They drew pictures of dogs, dragons, and Denny’s while teachers weaved through rows of tiny desks to help them properly hold their pencils and turn the pages of their workbooks.

“In the fall, they’re here all day, and sometimes that is a huge transition for kids,” Assistant Principal Ali Ennis said. “This is a nice kind of first step for them to do school for a half day.”

Tindley Genesis Academy, a charter school in Indianapolis, offers a summer program called Kindergarten Kickstart to prepare kindergarteners for the structure of school. “I want the kids to feel empowered,” said Assistant Principal Ali Ennis.

The students attend Kindergarten Kickstart, a five-week program meant to ease their transition to kindergarten. The program is open to students enrolled at Tindley Genesis Academy, an Indianapolis charter school that serves mostly Black and Latino students, many of whom are from low-income communities. Students stay from 9 a.m. to noon, easing into a school setting with short bursts of time in the classroom.

The program focuses on teaching kids day-to-day procedures, such as raising your hand before speaking, participating in call-and-response activities, and learning Tindley’s five rules. It also offers an opportunity for teachers to assess how much the students already know about letters and numbers through short tests that will help them craft lesson plans for the fall.

“I want the kids to feel empowered — when they come in the first day with the rest of their classmates, they should walk in a step ahead of everyone else,” Ennis said. “Kindergarten can be very overwhelming, and I want them to feel comfortable and happy about coming to school.”

A student learns about letters at a summer program for incoming kindergarteners at a charter school in Indianapolis. The school extended the program from two weeks in previous years to five weeks this year, partly because of learning loss exacerbated by the pandemic.

Ennis said this year and last year, she noticed kindergarteners were less prepared to follow school procedures. They weren’t used to raising their hands before speaking, waiting their turn to use the bathroom, or staying in line when walking down the halls.

She said these skills are normally picked up at preschool or from socializing with other kids. But fewer students went to preschool during the pandemic, and those who did so online also lost opportunities to work on in-person behaviors.

“It was pretty evident that they hadn’t been practicing those skills, or hadn’t been given the opportunity to practice those skills,” Ennis said. “It made for kind of a rough start for those kindergarten babies.”

In addition to teaching the kids how to behave at school, teachers assign them jobs around the classroom, like passing out papers or sharpening pencils. Ennis said the students enjoy the responsibility that comes with these jobs, two of the most coveted positions being line leader and bathroom monitor — both of which allow them to be a little bossy.

The students also learn practical skills like how to tie their shoes and open a milk carton. This makes them more self-sufficient and lessens teachers’ workloads come fall.

Ennis said Tindley used to offer a two-week version of the jump start program, but expanded it to five weeks this summer, partly due to the effects of the pandemic.

“It’s something that Tindley students needed, especially after all the learning loss that occurred due to COVID, and the missed opportunities to socialize with other children and learn how to share,” she said.

Students learn about letters at Tindley Genesis Academy’s Kindergarten Kickstart program June 29. The program enrolled more than 20 kids this summer.

While the kindergarteners had more trouble adapting to the structure of school due to the pandemic, their teacher, Tonya Gamble-Daoust, said she saw academic improvements compared with previous years. She thinks this could be because more parents were home with their kids, creating opportunities to read and learn together.

In past years, she estimated around 80% of her kindergarten students started school without basic knowledge of letters, numbers, or how to hold writing utensils or scissors.

“This year, I feel like I have more of a 60-40, where 60% of them really already know their letters, they can tell me even some of their sight words,” Gamble-Daoust said. “Somebody’s been working with them.”

Janila Thruston, a kindergarten student with elephant earrings and a shirt declaring “Girls Rule,” said her favorite part of the program is hanging out with her friends at recess. She also loves how the teachers take care of her, and, of course, all the snacks.

Kindergarten students at Tindley Genesis Academy’s summer program walk to lunch June 29. Tindley leaders said teaching kindergarteners skills like how to walk in line and stay quiet in the hallway is important to help them transition to full-day school.

The program has already helped work out the kinks for some students. One kindergartener who had never been apart from his family for more than a few hours cried and wanted to leave on the first day. But after a couple days of staying the full time, he became a model student.

“That’s just proof of the need of the program,” said Abbi Achterberg, Tindley’s director of development.

Achterberg said since two teachers are working with one class, there’s more opportunity for one-on-one instruction, and she’s seen fast improvements among the students in their first week.

“They need a little bit of prompting — they’re still five — but I was pretty impressed to see how well they were doing given how early in the program it is,” Achterberg said.

How Indiana plans to boost pre-K enrollment without increasing state funding

2021-05-18T21:23:15+00:00

Indiana will not increase state funding for its youngest learners in the next two years, but thanks to federal stimulus funds, has already ramped up vouchers for prekindergarten and child care.

The state’s budget for pre-K will remain steady in the next two years — $21 million annually — funds that residents with the lowest incomes may use for state-approved programs for 4-year-olds.

Advocates of prekindergarten are taking that as good news.

“We were completely pleased to see the state continue the investment at the same level,” said Anne Valentine, vice president of government relations for the United Way of Central Indiana. The non-profit organized an advocacy push for early childhood education in 2016.

Advocates felt it would be difficult to make the case this year for expanding Indiana’s pre-K voucher program, known as On My Way Pre-K, after enrollment plummeted during the pandemic by 40%. Only 2,000 students statewide are participating in that program now.

Indiana has forecasted an unexpected $2 billion revenue windfall over the next two years, but Democratic proposals to spend more on preschools failed to win support from Republicans who control the statehouse.

Still, Indiana expects to expand early education access through about $1.1 billion in federal funds for preschool and for programs focusing on children from birth to 12 years, said Maureen Weber, president and CEO of the Early Learning Indiana, which offers help to child care providers statewide.

The state will provide up to 50,000 pre-K and child care vouchers to low-income Hoosier families working in essential jobs for each child age 12 and younger. Families may use funds for costs incurred through October for their children’s early care and education, summer learning, or out-of-school care.

“It’s really important to do everything we can to put children back on track as soon as we can,” Weber said.

One study has shown stronger school readiness and academic skills among children who have attended preschool through On My Way Pre-K.

But the program has struggled to attract students.

Some families avoided preschool because of the pandemic, Weber said. On My Way Pre-K has also been slow to grow in the six years since its start, particularly in rural areas with fewer state-approved programs.

Whatever the reason, Republicans in the legislature balked at dedicating more money to pre-K — even though they recently approved an expansion of private school vouchers that could increase costs by 50% and increased K-12 funding by an unprecedented $1.9 billion over two years.

A Democratic amendment to add $100 million in the two-year budget for pre-K failed to win Republican support.

Rep. Robert Behning, R-Indianapolis, House Education Committee chairman, said he worked closely with pre-K advocates but that the uncertainty about enrollment and available federal funds “made it difficult to advocate for significant increases when not all of the funds that were available were utilized.”

Behning said, though, that the state will make more pre-K vouchers available by leveraging federal funds. The move aims to expand voucher access to more families earning from 127% to 185% of the poverty level — about $33,500 to $49,000 for a family of four. However, Behning did not say how many more vouchers would be funded.

At a minimum, Valentine said, she hopes the state will fund 4,100 children through On My Way Pre-K next school year, but thinks the number probably will be greater. The state can roll over unused funds to the next year, she said.

“We’re hoping that as people go back to work and begin enrolling their kids in child care and high-quality pre-K, we will see an increase in demand,” Valentine said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to meet that demand in the next two years and more state funds could be added in the next biennium.”

Behning said he has a “significant commitment” to pre-K education but expects funding will need to grow over several two-year budgets, as happened to funding for full-time kindergarten.

Indiana’s COVID enrollment dip driven by 10,000 fewer preschoolers, kindergartners

2020-12-10T20:23:26+00:00

When Pike Township opened a new child care center in 2019, it was expected to grow each year. But instead of expanding this fall, enrollment at the fledgling preschool fell by nearly 40% from last year to 130 children.

At the same time, the number of kindergartners in the Indianapolis district dipped by more than 20%.

Pike Township is not alone. As Indiana parents keep their children home because of the coronavirus and opt out of online learning, districts are reporting the largest enrollment drops among young children. About 10,000 fewer preschool and kindergarten students enrolled in Indiana schools this fall, a Chalkbeat analysis found. That 10% decline drove statewide enrollment losses compared with last year.

The trend could have significant repercussions for thousands of Hoosier children who are missing out on early education that experts say is crucial to developing the social and self-regulation skills to thrive in school. That could be particularly severe for students from low-income families and English language learners, who often benefit the most from early childhood education. Even Indiana’s youngest students could benefit from programs to help them rebound from the educational disruptions wrought by COVID.

If the missing students enroll next year, schools and parents will need to decide whether to hold them back a grade or to put them into kindergarten or first grade without the preparation they would normally receive. Educators will have classes with students at widely different levels. How prepared children are will depend not only on whether they missed school last year but also on the kind of experiences their parents are able to offer during the pandemic.

“My concern is that some students have better access to resources than others. And so it unevens the playing field,” Pike Superintendent Flora Reichanadter said.

In kindergarten, students are learning pre-reading skills. “If they enter first grade without those reading skills, they’re going to be behind,” she added. “Now, it doesn’t mean that we can’t catch them up, but they walked in with a disadvantage.”

Indiana doesn’t require children to attend school until they are 7 years old, so parents can keep their children out of school if they hesitate to send them in person during a pandemic, worry about putting them in front of a screen for hours, or cannot supervise virtual instruction.

The most important benefits children get from preschool and kindergarten are soft skills, like learning to listen to teachers and work with other students, many experts and educators say.

Research shows that when it comes to learning those skills, “the earlier the better,” said Chloe Gibbs, an economist at the University of Notre Dame who studies early childhood education. As a result, catching children up could prove difficult, she said. Communities, schools, and policymakers should try to help families as soon as possible, such as by connecting them with learning materials or parenting resources.

“Are there ways that we can try to supplement what’s going on in the home to recreate some of these things, so that it’s not a lost year?” Gibbs said. “We really should be thinking carefully about, what can we do to target resources and attention and time to the kids who need it most?”

Experts and advocates are touting programs to help students who have missed months of in-person instruction recover from the disruption. That includes support for ambitious ideas like tutoring corps or expanded summer school. The focus of those discussions is usually students who are already in school. But Gibbs argued those types of programs could also play a vital role in helping children who miss preschool and kindergarten.

One of the most important questions is which students are missing out on early childhood education, said Daphna Bassok, a professor at the University of Virginia who is studying preschool and kindergarten enrollment trends in Virginia during COVID. In Virginia, by far the largest decline in preschool participation is among students from low-income families.

That’s concerning because it suggests that delays in school enrollment could exacerbate inequality, she said.

“The implications really differ if what you’re doing instead of going to kindergarten is a really engaging thing,” Bassok said. “The type of experiences kids are having this year really, really range.”

Across the state, enrollment is down by about 1.6% for all grades combined. The bulk of the decline is in preschool and kindergarten. Kindergarten enrollment fell by about 5,700 students this year, down 7% from last year. More than 65% of districts have fewer kindergartners this year than in 2020.

Springs Valley Community Schools, an 800-student district in French Lick, has one of the highest rates of enrollment decline in Indiana. The elementary school, which offered in-person instruction until it was forced to go remote last week, enrolled 46 kindergartners this year, about 40% fewer than last year.

Because enrollment was so much lower than expected, one of the kindergarten teachers shifted to another grade, Superintendent Trevor Apple said. The three remaining kindergarten classes have about 15 students each — a few students less than in a typical year.

For now, the rural school district can withstand the financial hit that results from state funding cuts because of lower enrollment, Apple said. But he hopes that the dip is temporary due to the pandemic and that the district sees enrollment rebound next year, he said.

“I’m slightly concerned but I’m hoping that it just will bounce back,” Apple said. “I’m going to suspend my judgment until next fall.”

Enrollment declines in Indiana are steepest in preschool, which is optional and only offered at some districts. Declines could also be unusually large because many school systems, including Pike, charge families fees because the state does not provide the same funding as it does for K-12 education. Many private child care centers that are not affiliated with districts — and not included in state enrollment data — also offer preschool programs.

Preschool has been growing in Indiana in recent years, with more students enrolled in public school programs each year. This fall that trend reversed, and over 4,000 fewer students enrolled in district-run preschool, a drop of almost 20% from last year.

Pike will furlough one preschool teacher at the end of the semester and reduce hours for several assistants because preschool enrollment is lower than projected, according to the district. Kindergarten teachers are protected from furloughs or layoffs by their contract, Reichanadter said.

There is other evidence that preschool participation is down. Low-income families in Indiana are eligible for vouchers from On My Way Pre-K, a limited program that began in 2015. The vouchers pay for tuition at high-quality school-based and private preschools.

On My Way Pre-K scholarships plummeted this year. About 2,000 children participated in the program, down over 40% from 2019-20. In Marion County, participation fell by nearly 70% to about 350 children.

Declines in participation are particularly large in urban communities across the state, said Marni Lemons, a spokeswoman for Indiana Family and Social Services Administration.

“We believe this reflects families’ uncertainties related to the coronavirus and uncertainty relating to school being held in person or online,” Lemons said.

Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee contributed to this story.

Teaching preschoolers online: Indiana’s experiment draws few takers

2020-11-23T21:46:06+00:00

In a push to expand early education several years ago, Indiana tacked on an extra $1 million for an unconventional idea: online preschool lessons.

Despite skepticism from early childhood advocates, lawmakers hoped the innovative strategy would provide an extra option for families and fill critical gaps in preschool access. But as the small program called Waterford Upstart starts its third year in Indiana, it has served far fewer children than intended, raising questions from a key lawmaker about whether the public investment is worthwhile.

“If we’re appropriating money for it, and nobody’s aware of it, then how are they going to use it?” said Indiana House education leader Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis. “And without having some usage of it, it’s hard to assess the efficacy.”

In 2018-19, Upstart’s first year, the program enrolled 192 children — only 55% of its annual goal. The following year, Upstart signed up only 31% of its goal.

The pandemic, which is affecting early education enrollment across the country, has depressed participation even further: Near the end of last month, Upstart had only identified about 60 children for the online program, 17% of its goal.

Now, Indiana is asking Upstart to make its case for whether the program can work here — and whether children are seeing academic benefits.

Upstart Executive Director and Co-founder Claudia Miner said the challenge lies in reaching a very limited pool: 4-year-olds from low-income families who don’t have access to state-funded pre-K.

She contended that for those children it served, Upstart has had a positive effect. An external evaluation of Hoosier children in the first year of Upstart showed significantly improved literacy skills. The program did not, however, have a noteworthy effect on math or social skills.

“It’s a worthy tool in the tool shed,” Miner said.

Not a substitute for preschool

Miner is quick to say that she doesn’t believe Upstart is a substitute for preschool. In fact, she doesn’t consider it to be preschool at all. She calls Upstart an at-home “kindergarten readiness” program.

Having 4-year-olds spend 30 minutes a day, five days a week learning through a laptop isn’t the same as a high-quality classroom experience, Miner said.

“Our intent has never been to replace anything that’s already happening in Indiana,” Miner said. “Our intent is always to fill gaps. And I think there are gaps in Indiana.”

She pointed to families who don’t live near quality preschools, who can’t drive their children to and from preschool every day, who work off-shifts, or who want to keep their young children at home.

Indiana uses Upstart to complement On My Way Pre-K, the state’s free program for low-income families. Upstart serves qualifying families who aren’t signed up for On My Way Pre-K — reaching children who probably wouldn’t otherwise be in quality early learning settings, Miner said.

Upstart provides a free computer and free internet access, and encourages children to spend 15 minutes on reading and another 15 minutes on math each day. Through interactive lessons, children learn skills such as letter recognition and counting. The program repeats concepts until children master them, then advances to harder questions.

Local early educators also coach families on supporting their child’s learning offline and gather families for group activities to help with social development — a piece that has moved online during the pandemic.

But as a newer program, Upstart has struggled to get its name in front of parents. Since it’s reaching so few families, word is slow to get around.

As a private Utah-based nonprofit, Waterford can’t see who’s eligible for government services in order to recruit those families. Instead, Upstart has a few people on the ground in Indiana and central staff who advertise Upstart through groups that support low-income families, such as food banks and libraries.

Even though more families are turning to remote learning this year, the pandemic has also limited Waterford’s ability to recruit in person.

Early childhood education in general in Indiana has been slow to take off. It took several years for the state to fill seats in On My Way Pre-K, even though advocates on both sides of the aisle say a pressing need exists.

For Tiffani O’Hair, a parent in Fillmore, Indiana, online preschool lessons better fulfilled her family’s needs than would an in-person preschool. She works 10-hour shifts at a Walmart distribution center, so she wouldn’t be able to drive her daughter to preschool during the day.

She also worried about shouldering the cost of preschool as a single parent.

“We could not afford to send her to preschool this year, so I looked into Waterford and read a bunch of good reviews,” she said.

Her 4-year-old is still learning to read on her own but loves being read to, pretending to read to her mom, and making up stories. O’Hair hopes Upstart will teach her how to use technology in preparation for when she starts kindergarten and supplement the social interaction her daughter gets at day care.

“That’s why I didn’t feel too bad about having her do the online preschool,” O’Hair said. “I do think the in-person would be better, but I think with this program it’s more one-on-one.”

A critical look ahead

Upstart costs the state just a fraction of the budgeted $1 million. In a typical year, such a tiny expense might not draw much scrutiny, especially since early childhood education has become a priority and enjoys bipartisan support.

In the upcoming legislative session, lawmakers are due to evaluate their recent investments in early childhood education and will likely face budget cuts because of the pandemic’s economic downturn.

Behning, the House education head and a staunch supporter of school choice, said he wants to see more data on how well Upstart prepares children from low-income backgrounds and hear how the program would increase sign-ups and use.

“It’s hard to make an informed decision because there’s just not enough data,” he said.

Upstart could provide a good option for families hoping to reduce risk of coronavirus exposure, he said. But he also raised a concern about Upstart’s ability to help children develop social skills.

Senate education leader Jeff Raatz, R-Centerville, declined to comment.

Miner argues that the state could loosen restrictions on Upstart to increase participation — such as allowing it to recruit outside of rural counties — and help Upstart find families.

“If the state worked with us, I think it would be better, because we are serving children that they’re not reaching,” she said. “So the question is, where are those kids?”

Miner also wants the state to lift the requirement that its on-the-ground coaches be licensed early education providers, saying it narrows their hiring pool.

Other challenges and benefits

Miner maintains that the first-year evaluation and Upstart’s track record in other states show clear benefits, particularly with reading skills.

Not everyone, however, is convinced. Some early childhood education advocates question relying on online learning at such a young age, when critical lessons include play, socializing, and problem-solving.

Susan Adamson, associate professor of education at Butler University, said online learning can be more complicated than it sounds — and some children may not have the necessary support at home.

“What I worry about is that when people conceptualize online learning, they first of all think it’s completely automated,” she said. “There has to be a person there. There really has to be a teacher there.”

Upstart’s results in Indiana so far show that academic gains are closely tied to usage — the more consistently children use Upstart, the better their growth.

The challenge is that only about half of students completed Upstart in the first year, according to the external evaluation.

Still, one school district has seen clear benefits from Upstart. In 2017, before contracting with the state, Waterford piloted Upstart in New Albany-Floyd County Schools. The southern Indiana district, which uses Waterford programs as an extra support for struggling early elementary students, helped Upstart find preschool-age children.

Nearly all of the Upstart participants ended up at or above where they should be academically, said Barb Hoover, the district literacy coach. For a couple of students later diagnosed with special education needs, Upstart provided a critical intervention.

Students who saw the biggest gains also attended an in-person preschool.

“The two of them together is best-case scenario,” Hoover said. “But if you can’t have preschool, this absolutely fits the bill. This absolutely helps.”

As pre-K gains momentum in Indiana, coronavirus throws new obstacles

2020-08-03T21:36:36+00:00

In a rural sliver of northeast Indiana, Jessica Downey co-owns the only child care licensed in her small county to offer the state’s pre-kindergarten vouchers for low-income families.

But last year, only one child signed up for On My Way Pre-K. Other children filled the rest of the spaces in Downey’s pre-K class.

“I honestly think if everybody knew about On My Way Pre-K, and there were providers offering it, there would be more people interested in it — people who want to get their kids in preschool, but they can’t afford it,” Downey said.

After several years of building up its pre-K program, Indiana is now poised to evaluate the success of On My Way Pre-K. The upcoming year holds the potential for expanding what has so far been a small-scale opportunity, but the coronavirus could foil future progress.

Decision-makers won’t have complete academic measurements since school building closures this spring led to canceled assessments, and looming budget cuts threaten to dash hopes of robust funding increases for pre-K. Fears of the virus could also lead to fewer families signing up this year, a setback to the state’s efforts to increase enrollment and spread the word about On My Way Pre-K.

About 750 children have enrolled for the 2020-21 academic year so far. With about 3,500 need-based scholarships available for 4-year-olds to attend a state-approved pre-K provider, the state will continue signing up families through the fall. Many families still don’t know about the initiative, especially in rural areas, where pre-K vouchers have only recently become available and aren’t as widely used.

“We definitely understand this enrollment period is different from any other,” said Nicole Norvell, director of the state’s Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning. “We know families are a little hesitant about bringing their children into child care or pre-K at this point.”

Despite the uncertainty, some advocates say the pandemic has underscored exactly how important pre-K can be. When schools shut down this spring to curb the virus spread, many families felt deeply the sudden loss of a robust educational experience, socialization with other children, and a reliable, safe place for children to spend their days while parents work.

Maureen Weber, president and CEO of Early Learning Indiana, an early childhood advocacy group and child care provider, said she hopes lawmakers “remember the urgency” they feel around schools and day cares reopening when deciding pre-K funding.

Whether that will resonate with lawmakers remains to be seen.

Education leader Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, said it’s too early to say what pre-K discussions could look like when the legislature convenes in January. Facing huge drops in tax revenues, the state will likely have to craft a slimmer budget. If the state prioritizes shielding K-12 education from deep cuts, other areas of the budget could shrink, Behning said.

He also noted, however, that pre-K appears to be gaining support in the legislature, including among some conservative factions who were once skeptical of the value of early childhood education.

The state has been tracking the effects of pre-K through a longitudinal study, which has so far showed stronger school readiness and academic skills in On My Way Pre-K students compared with their peers. But the study lacks a key piece of data: IREAD scores from the first class of On My Way Pre-K students, after the third-grade reading exam was canceled this spring.

It’s unclear how researchers might address the gap. Some schools may opt this fall to have fourth-graders take the IREAD exam that they missed.

In the meantime, to encourage sign-ups, the state has changed the On My Way Pre-K application process so interested families can complete it online. Officials are also working with providers to communicate with families about the safety precautions they’re taking to reduce the spread of the virus.

Navigating the process, especially during the pandemic, can be complicated, said day care owner Sherry Eggleston, whose Connersville preschool is newer to On My Way Pre-K. But she emphasized that the benefits can be huge, both for children who get an all-day, quality learning environment and providers who receive state payments.

“I think it needs to be for everybody,” Eggleston said.

Dylan Peers McCoy contributed reporting.

New program will train more Black men to become Indianapolis preschool teachers

2020-06-15T21:08:51+00:00

After teaching for more than 20 years, Kahlil Mwaafrika said he’s used to being an anomaly in urban Indianapolis schools. As an adjunct professor of early childhood education at IUPUI, only a handful of his hundreds of students are Black men.

“There’s very few people who look like me in buildings,” he said.

So in early 2018, he started working on a program to recruit, train, and place Black men as Indianapolis preschool teachers.

Mwaafrika brought his idea to Blake Nathan, CEO of the Educate ME Foundation, an organization that works to diversify the national teaching population by recruiting and retaining educators of color. Earlier this year, Mwaafrika and Nathan formed the idea into a program called Educate ME Early and partnered with Early Learning Indiana to create 50 two-year fellowships for men of color.

They hope to address the barriers that discourage men of color from working as preschool teachers, including a lack of representation in preschool classrooms and the misconception that teaching preschool is like a babysitting job.

Early Learning Indiana is providing funding for Educate ME to give fellows up to $1,000 in stipends throughout the two-year commitment. Once the fellows complete training and begin working, they’ll be paid $10-14 per hour. Educate ME will place fellows at Early Learning Indiana’s nine child care centers before staffing other sites.

Brittany Krier, chief strategy officer for Early Learning Indiana, said early learning teachers have an “unparalleled opportunity for impact” by working with students in the most formative years of their lives. The organization has been looking to diversify educators while trying to recruit more preschool teachers in general.

“As a field, we have some work to do to welcome more men, and more men of color, into the profession overall,” Krier said. She views this program as a starting point in the push to make Indiana teachers more reflective of their students.

It’s not clear how many Indianapolis preschool teachers are Black, since the state doesn’t track that data. But among full-time K-12 educators statewide, almost 93% are white, according to the state’s education department. Nearly 30% of students in Indiana are people of color, however, creating a disconnect in representation.

In early childhood education, 36% of the nationwide workforce are people of color. In Indiana, that number drops to 14%, according to a press release from Early Learning Indiana. Of Indiana’s some 30,000 early childhood educators, 7% are men.

This poses a challenge for both students and people of color, especially men, who are considering becoming teachers.

“It’s difficult to recruit young Black men if they don’t see themselves represented in the field,” Nathan said.

Preschool teacher Zachary Ferguson has been working at Day Early Learning in Fort Harrison for eight years. Of his 20 co-workers, only one is a man. He advises Black men who might be hesitant about entering the field to “take a chance.”

“I think we just have to strive to do better for our kids,” Ferguson said.

Becoming an early learning educator in Indiana requires much less training than for other grade levels, Mwaafrika said, making it easier to enter the field. But this also contributes to a stigma that can discourage people from considering early childhood education as a career.

Nathan said people often view it as a babysitting job. He hopes this program will help show people the benefits of working with children and the impact they can make. If a Black student has at least one Black teacher in grades three, four, or five, they are more likely to graduate high school, according to a 2017 study by the IZA Institute of Labor Economics.

Black educators can influence students of other ethnicities as well by “opening their cultural lenses,” Nathan said.

“Other races need to see African American teachers in the classroom that are well-educated and very competent in their instruction,” he said.

The Educate ME Early fellows start with an orientation through Early Learning Indiana and a state-required 12-hour training on topics including safety, curriculum, and discipline and child development. The candidates will spend their first year co-leading a classroom and can work as a lead teacher in their second year.

The program also offers a network of support for the new teachers, which Nathan believes is an important step toward keeping them in the field. Educate ME matches the fellows with mentors and connects them with other men going through the program.

The recruitment process has been slowed down by the coronavirus. When Nathan and Mwaafrika started accepting applications in January, they went into schools and organizations to meet people face-to-face. The state’s stay-at-home order forced them to move recruitment online.

Now they’re about a quarter of the way toward their 50-person goal, Mwaafrika said, and are accepting applications on a rolling basis.

While the program offers an opportunity for people who have been laid off due to the economic recession, Nathan said, they “still want people that have it in their heart to want to make a difference and change lives.”

One of the new fellows, Damani Gibson, said he has always enjoyed working with children, and he’s excited about the impact he could have on young students’ lives.

“Sometimes it just takes that one person to say ‘Hey, you can do this, you can do that, I’m here with you, I’m here to walk these steps with you to get you to where you want to be,’” he said.

As Indiana families head back to work, a $15 million fund aims to make child care safer

2020-05-15T22:27:08+00:00

A new $15.7 million philanthropic fund will help Indiana child care providers with the costs of taking extra health precautions during the coronavirus outbreak.

As the state eases stay-at-home restrictions and more people return to work, child care locations will have to change how they operate to minimize the risk of spreading the coronavirus. Changes could include reconfiguring classrooms to allow for social distancing, enhancing sanitizing procedures, or giving each child their own set of toys and art supplies. Some centers could consider expanding capacity to serve more children if other providers close.

“We think a part of helping families making the decision to return to child care is making sure they feel safe about going back,” said Maureen Weber, president and CEO of Early Learning Indiana, an early childhood education nonprofit that will administer the fund.

The fund, supported by the Lilly Endowment, will be available to providers for children ages 0-5 that rank in or are approaching the top two tiers of the state’s quality ratings. Child care providers can apply for up to $40,000 starting Thursday, with grant amounts depending on the number of children enrolled and extra dollars for providers that serve low-income families. (The Lilly Endowment also supports Chalkbeat. Learn more about our funding here.)

The state had encouraged day cares to stay open through the spring shutdown and offered grants to aid some providers that saw enrollment and revenue declines as parents kept their children at home. Still, about one-third of providers across Indiana temporarily closed during the health crisis, Weber said, and child care providers still face a lot of uncertainty as the state allows businesses to re-open — permitting more families to return to work — and monitors the continued spread of COVID-19.

“In the very best of times, it’s a very challenging business. There are very slim — sometimes negative — operating margins, just because of the cost of care and the challenges families have affording it,” Weber said. “And now there are some new challenges for providers.”

Hugs and snack time over video: How Indianapolis preschools go virtual

2020-04-06T23:14:42+00:00

It had been two weeks since Terri Anderson, a teacher at The Oaks Academy in Indianapolis, had seen her 19 prekindergarten students in person. But on a recent Friday, they met virtually for the first time on Google Hangouts. The result: a cacophony of 4- and 5-year-olds on unmuted microphones.

“It was the best sound I had heard since all this had happened,” she said.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has upended the educational system nationwide, even preschool has gone online. But school closures threaten to undo some of the progress that Indiana has made toward improving pre-K access for low-income families to help bridge critical early learning gaps.

Many pre-K classrooms have temporarily closed alongside K-12 schools to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Meanwhile, demand has waned at some Indiana child care centers as more families are keeping their children home. The loss of pre-K classrooms has consequences: First, education advocates fear that school closures will worsen the disparities for students across all grades who don’t have access to technology and whose families have fewer resources to support learning at home. Second, families could find themselves without child care as they continue to work during the pandemic in roles such as health care workers, grocery store clerks, delivery drivers, and custodians.

“One of the most important things children learn in a pre-K classroom is how to do school, how to behave with other children, how to self-regulate and be ready to learn,” said Maureen Weber, president and CEO of Early Learning Indiana, a nonprofit that provides and advocates for early education. “That’s one of the things that’s going to be harder for families to achieve independently.”

Because Indiana families have a lot of choices for where to go for preschool — districts, private schools, centers, homes, child care ministries — providers are tackling the challenge in different ways, both online and off-line.

At The Oaks, Anderson wanted the recent video meeting to be a joyful reunion for her pre-K class. She incorporated pieces of their daily routine, such as taking attendance with popsicle sticks that each had a student’s name. When she drew a student’s popsicle stick, she asked them to show the class a toy or something they had made at home, giving each a turn to speak “on the big screen.”

Anderson had them all hug their computers and give themselves hugs, too, wrapping their arms around their own shoulders.

“They need to be nurtured,” Anderson said. “They need a touch. They need a hug.”

Anderson acknowledged that parent engagement is key to children continuing to learn at home — something The Oaks, a private Christian school that enrolls students from a wide range of racial and socioeconomic backgrounds, regularly emphasizes.

Moving pre-K classrooms into the home also means teachers are supporting parents so they don’t feel stressed about their children “losing ground,” Anderson said. Teachers and instructional assistants regularly check in with individual students and families. The Oaks gives preschoolers 1-2 hours of learning each day, and more important than completing the work is instilling a sense of normalcy, she added. A lot of the key lessons are simple: Listen, follow directions, pay attention.

At first, parent Kelly McGary was worried when her son Sam’s preschool, Cooperative Play Academy on the city’s southside, closed its doors in early March. Sam had just learned to hold a pencil properly.

But now she’s less concerned after watching him video conference with his preschool class twice a week, and do engaging homework assignments, such as nature walks.

“I just have to put it in perspective. He’s 3½, he’ll be fine,” said McGary, a public health nurse. “Even if it lasts a few more months, we’re still interacting with him and providing for him. He has a safe place to play. I think he just misses his friends.”

At the Edna Martin Christian Center in Martindale-Brightwood, the approach to at-home learning has evolved over the last few weeks since the child care ministry temporarily closed its doors, said Alexandra Hall, director of early childhood education.

Teachers started by sending food home with students on the first day. Then, they started sharing learning resources. They gave students kits filled with art supplies, reusable writing worksheets, stories, and bubbles. Later, they decided they wanted to find a way to stay in touch with students in a dynamic, interactive way.

That’s how they started a series of 30-minute Zoom sessions throughout the day, mimicking a regular school routine.

“We figured if it works for adults, why wouldn’t it work with kids?” Hall said.

They hold virtual circle time and snack time. Families all gather for the video call with a healthy snack to show and share.

“That is what has just truly been a godsend during this time — to be able to look at people, even though you can’t touch them,” Hall said.

The online setting still allows teachers to be responsive to students. Just like in the classroom, “sometimes you have to throw your plan out the window,” Hall said — like when a student joined the video call in a superhero costume, prompting a show-and-tell that overshadowed the scheduled science lesson.

Even when e-learning isn’t as accessible, pre-K classrooms are finding ways to keep learning. For the five Indianapolis sites of St. Mary’s Child Center, where 93% of children come from low-income families, administrators are mostly focused on basic needs, such as directing families toward food resources.

Teachers are posting videos where they read stories, sing songs, or go on scavenger hunts. They’re encouraging families to find “teachable moments” but aren’t stressing academics.

“Children are such natural learners,” said Diane Pike, director of outreach and professional development. “If they are allowed to explore and communicate and ask questions and have that support at home, they’re going to be OK for kindergarten.”

Indiana is known for its K-12 voucher program. But pre-K vouchers are often left out of the conversation.

2019-11-07T16:20:24+00:00

School choice advocates wield heavy influence in Indiana, but not all of them have fully thrown their weight behind the state’s newest voucher program: pre-K.

Both of Indiana’s voucher programs were born from the same idea of educational choice, which allows low-income families to use public money to choose the best school for their children, regardless of whether it’s public or private.

But the preschool program, On My Way Pre-K, doesn’t enjoy the same kind of support among Indiana conservatives as its K-12 counterpart. That reality speaks to widespread attitudes toward preschool — that it’s the purview of the family, not the government.

On My Way Pre-K is in its fifth year of a measured launch, in stark contrast to the rapid expansion of K-12 vouchers that made Indiana’s one of the nation’s largest and broadest programs.

“Determining why folks choose to support one aspect and not another … sometimes it’s perplexing,” said John Elcesser, executive director of the Indiana Non-Public Education Association, noting that both pre-K and K-12 vouchers are grounded in the tenet that parents know what is in the best interest of their children.

Indiana’s business community largely drove the state’s push for pre-K, making an economic argument for giving a head start to children from low-income backgrounds. Five years in, On My Way Pre-K serves 3,517 4-year-olds across the state. Eligible parents receive vouchers of up to $6,800 to send their children to a top-rated preschool program, be that at a school, a daycare center, a church, or a private home.

Now Indiana is approaching a critical decision over whether to grow the program by increasing funding or expanding income eligibility. Early childhood advocates, pointing to research showing the benefits of preschool, are seeking a program that’s accessible to more families.

But it remains to be seen how effective their arguments will be against critics’ deep-rooted beliefs and doubts about the benefits of pre-K.

***

The notion that early childhood education should fall to the family — not the state — reveals itself in how the state’s school system is set up.

Although the state fully funds kindergarten, children in Indiana aren’t required to go to school until they are 7. Generally, preschools don’t have to meet any educational standards, which made it difficult to find qualified providers in the rollout of On My Way Pre-K. And the preschool program isn’t considered education in the way as K-12 is, as it’s run by a different governmental department — the state’s Family and Social Services Administration, not the Indiana Department of Education.

Indiana earmarked $22 million this year for the preschool vouchers, the only state preschool system. It is expected to spend more than $150 million on K-12 vouchers, which serve about 3% of Indiana students.

There’s hesitancy to dedicate more funds and expand preschool because there’s still a fundamental question of whether government, through public schooling, should be extended beyond kindergarten, said Rob Enlow, president of EdChoice, a national school choice advocacy organization based in Indianapolis. (EdChoice is a funder of Chalkbeat.)

“I think there are a lot of people on all sides of the aisle saying, ‘Hey, this is my responsibility, this is a family responsibility,’” Enlow said.

Enlow said EdChoice supported the On My Way Pre-K program because it believes that public money should follow the student to whatever school they choose. But the national organization notably gives greater support for the K-12 program.

It remains unclear whether students who go to preschool will see long-term academic benefits compared to students who stay at home, Enlow said, citing a controversial 2018 study out of Tennessee showing academic boosts fading by the third grade.

That’s a question that has slowed expansion efforts in other states and leads preschool advocates to try to prove its worth through pilot programs.

“I think that’s one of the challenges that I personally have, that I’ve always had with pre-K,” he said.

Critics of the Tennessee research have said the long-term effects of preschool are difficult to study because there are too many variables to tie a student’s success or failure in third grade back to preschool. Other studies have found that students who attend preschool are better prepared for kindergarten and see some lasting benefits.

Research has also found that preschool can serve as an effective early intervention for low-income students, closing the learning gap between their peers.

Mike O’Connor, a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co., a major supporter of On My Way Pre-K, said decisions about access for students should be made based on what’s best for their education, he said, not by politics. In an ideal situation, without politics at play, he said preschool vouchers would be seen as an extension of K-12 vouchers.

“You can pretend it’s the parents’ responsibility,” O’Connor said. “But if it’s not happening adequately… we are creating a population that is behind the curve.”

***

K-12 vouchers, when they were implemented in 2011, never faced the same steep ideological battle as On My Way Pre-K. Vouchers for older students appealed to a strong sense of family. They were touted as giving low-income parents the power to choose a better option for their children than the poor-performing schools many were attending. Conservatives also saw vouchers as an opportunity to push traditional public schools to compete and, ultimately, improve.

However, the program received backlash from public school groups who saw vouchers as a drain on state education dollars that would otherwise go to public schools — and were now being funneled to private institutions.

Pre-K vouchers, by contrast, aren’t disrupting the state’s status quo in the same way since, with few public options, communities have long relied on private preschool providers.

People are used to that structure, said Elcesser, of Indiana Non-Public Education Association, noting: “In the pre-K world, they embrace funding a mixed-delivery system. They want all types of providers, and that’s not the same in the K-12 world.”

Dianna Wallace, executive director of the Indiana Association for the Education of Young Children, which advocates for preschool, said On My Way Pre-K met less resistance for funneling money to private schools because students may not have any other options.

“When a child reaches the age of 5, that child has an opportunity to actually be educated,” she said. “But the difference in Indiana is that when that child is 4, that’s not been the case… It wasn’t a choice, it was that they would not have any other opportunity.”

In the next budget cycle, advocates will likely fight to add more funding to pre-K, but one of their greatest challenges would be creating enough momentum behind their movement. Pre-K advocates say they want to stay away from politicized ideological arguments, leaning instead on the benefits to the economy and the outcomes of research.

Still, it’s not clear what pre-K advocates need to do to make their efforts as successful as K-12 vouchers have been — or how big of a push Indiana’s most influential education advocates will take up for pre-K.

MOVING 4WARD is a collaborative reporting project by IndyStar and Chalkbeat Indiana. Over the course of the next few weeks and then occasionally throughout the year, the project will examine the current state of early childhood education in Indiana with an emphasis on how best to prepare our state’s 4-year-olds (hence the project title) for kindergarten and beyond. Expect stories to take a critical look at preschool programs, issues of access to those programs, the debate over the value of taxpayer-funded universal preschool, what lessons can be learned from other states, and — perhaps most importantly — what you, as a parent, need to know to make informed decisions about choosing your child’s preschool.

Why a seemingly chaotic pre-K class may be the best kind

Children who go to preschool are better prepared for kindergarten. But is that enough?

‘Lost opportunity’: Most 4-year-olds are left out of Indiana’s preschool expansion

Kindergarten has become a critical year of learning, but Indiana still doesn’t require it

Amid key expansion, Indiana fills its On My Way Pre-K seats

2019-10-16T19:29:16+00:00

After expanding statewide this year, Indiana’s prekindergarten program has filled all its seats — a significant milestone after facing challenges launching in new counties.

On My Way Pre-K is serving 3,517 children this school year, according to Marni Lemons, a spokeswoman for the state’s Family and Social Services Administration. The program offers vouchers for low-income families to send their 4-year-olds to pre-K providers who meet high quality standards.

The state’s pre-K program started small in 2015 and had to tackle two big issues: getting the word out to families and working with providers to improve quality.

Last year, On My Way Pre-K did not reach capacity — a critical factor that kept lawmakers from increasing program funding. Instead, they decided to open up pre-K to all eligible families in Indiana, rather than restricting pre-K vouchers to 20 counties.

Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb had pledged to serve 500 more families through On My Way Pre-K this year, while keeping the annual pre-K budget at $22 million.

Early learning advocates could leverage the growing pre-K enrollment to make the case for more funding to serve more children. With its relatively new program, Indiana trails most other states when it comes to public pre-K, and advocates estimate 27,000 4-year-olds in Indiana could be eligible for On My Way Pre-K.

This year, in order to reach more families, the state simplified the pre-K application, streamlined the income verification process, used feedback from families to improve its messaging, and increased its social media presence, Lemons said.

The state has closed the On My Way Pre-K application, so it is not tracking additional families who express interest throughout the year. But low-income families can still call a free hotline at 800-299-1627 for help finding a quality childcare provider or identifying other forms of financial assistance.

Kindergarten has become a critical year of learning, but Indiana still doesn’t require it

2019-08-22T14:43:38+00:00

Editor’s note: This story was produced by the IndyStar. Please do not republish without their permission.

Maya Dennis is excited. She just mastered writing a lowercase letter “f” and she knows it.

“I’m doing a great job!” the kindergartner shouts excitedly to no one in particular, though her tablemates crane their necks to see how Maya has neatly traced the letter between the dashed lines of her worksheet.

Their teacher at Jeremiah Gray Kindergarten Academy, Brooke Gagliola, is at the front of the classroom repeating the steps onto her own worksheet, projected onto a large screen for those students who haven’t quite mastered it like Maya yet.

It’s the eighth day of kindergarten for the 1,400 or so 5-year-olds in Perry Township Schools and for many of them this is their very first formal school experience.

And it’s an important one. They won’t just learn their letters in Miss Gagliola’s class. Kindergarten is often where little kids learn how to “do” school – how to interact with each other, follow directions and pay attention for prolonged periods of time. Increasingly, it’s also where kids learn foundational academic skills in reading, writing and math that will serve as the building blocks for their next 12 years of school.

“I’ve got 5-year-olds talking about a rhombus and a trapezoid or adding numbers already,” said Lora Hansell, kindergarten principal at Jeremiah Gray. “They are learning some pretty meaty things, things that we did not learn until first or second grade.”

But for all of its importance, kindergarten is still not required in Indiana. It’s one of 33 such states, according to the Education Commission of the States, which tracks legislation and policies nationwide.

The state fully funds kindergarten, so nearly all kids go. But Vickie Carpenter said they still see a few kids each year that start school without that critical experience. That puts them behind, she said.

“Kids that don’t go to kindergarten are at a big disadvantage for first grade,” said Carpenter, assistant superintendent for elementary schools in Perry Township. “It’s not like it was before. They don’t just play. They play with a purpose.

“Everything is intentional, and it’s around what kids need to learn socially, emotionally or academically.”

Students work on their letters in Brooke Gagliola’s class at Jeremiah Gray Kindergarten Academy, Friday, August 2, 2019.

So, why doesn’t Indiana require it?

Some say it’s unnecessary since the vast majority of kids already go to kindergarten.

Indiana requires school districts to offer kindergarten and the state fully-funds full-day kindergarten classes, though schools are only required to offer half-day programs. In short, the argument is all families have access to a kindergarten program and those that want to send their kids to kindergarten are already doing so.

There’s no real reason to require it says Rep. Bob Behning.

“The data says 97% of kids are participating in kindergarten already,” said Behning, an Indianapolis Republican who chairs the House education committee.

“It’s not like there’s this huge gap,” Behning said. “I’d assume some of those are parents who would prefer to have the option to have their kids still at home rather than in an institution.”

And in Indiana, where parental choice is of paramount value in education policy, many lawmakers agree they should have that right.

But there are two factors driving some policymakers to take a different position.

One is the increasingly rigorous academic expectations for students.

According to Indiana’s academic standards, by the end of kindergarten, students are expected to be able to recognize and read basic words such as “a” and “my” and count to at least 100 by ones and tens.

They start writing basic sentences. They learn how to give, restate and follow simple two-step directions.

Now, imagine starting school in the first grade, not having had a formal schooling experience and entering a classroom with 25 other kids who have already built all of those skills.

Perry Township sees this year as so critical, the district built four kindergarten academies. Opened three years ago as a creative solution to overcrowding at its elementary schools, the academies were custom-built to 5-year-olds’ learning needs.

“Kindergarten is a really structured day,” Hansell said. “On the bus, we have kids fall asleep because the day is long, but they love it.

“Our kids bounce in here ready to go, ready to learn.”

Ester Zing works on the letter “F” in her class, at Jeremiah Gray Kindergarten Academy, Friday, August 2, 2019.

Her kids will start the day with a morning meeting, where they may meet on their alphabet carpet. Each letter is in a square, which makes it easier for squirming 5-year-olds to find a seat.

Each day consists of academic blocks for reading, writing, math and specials, like music, art, PE, keyboarding and library time. And they get time to go outside and play so they can “climb, and run and spin,” Hansell said.

The idea of entering school behind is the other reason policymakers are looking for ways to get kids into school earlier. Achievement gaps are easier to close if they’re caught early and not allowed to widen over time.

This idea is what’s behind Indiana’s slow push into a state-funded pre-kindergarten program. On My Way Pre-K grants are available to low-income families, where kids tend to be at-risk for entering school behind their peers. The philosophy is that giving those kids and families access to a high-quality pre-kindergarten experience can put them on equal footing with their more affluent peers.

Kids who receive On My Way Pre-K funding are required to then enroll in kindergarten, but it’s still a tiny program, reaching only a fraction of potentially eligible families.

State Superintendent Jennifer McCormick is afraid some of the most at-risk kids are the ones being left behind in states that don’t require kindergarten.

She has made getting more children into school at an earlier age a priority during the past two years of her administration, backing bills that would lower the state’s compulsory school age from 7 years old to 5 years old.

It’s a slightly different mechanism than requiring kindergarten, McCormick said, but would have the same effect.

Vickie Carpenter, Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Schools in Perry Township Schools, left, helps Kindergarten teacher Brooke Gagliola, right, work with Maya Dennis on a class exercise, at Jeremiah Gray Kindergarten Academy, Friday, August 2, 2019.

In most states, the age at which students are required to start attending school is 6 years old, according to the Education Commission of the States, though in nine states and the District of Columbia it’s age 5.

In 13 states, including Indiana, the compulsory school age is 7 years old. In two states, it’s 8 years old.

McCormick has advocated for Indiana to lower the compulsory school age and several lawmakers have filed bills to do just that. Those efforts have had little traction at the Statehouse, though.

“You still have a facet of Indiana lawmakers who believe it’s best to keep the kids at home in that family environment and let those needs be the responsibility of home,” McCormick said. “What our team has tried to convey is that home looks very different across the state of Indiana.”

Some families will send their kids socially well-developed and ready for school, she said.

“I’m worried about those families who make the choice to keep their kids at home and don’t have the means or resources to provide some of the experiences that are necessary for that readiness piece,” she said.

There could be any number of reasons she said, whether it’s due to challenges with poverty, mobility, homelessness or kids coming from the foster care system.

“The reality is that we have kids who come into kindergarten or first grade classrooms that don’t even know how to hold a book,” McCormick said. “They haven’t been exposed to print. Sometimes they’re not potty trained.”

The sooner those kids can get into a high-quality educational setting, the better, she said.

McCormick said her team will continue to advocate for a variety of strategies to strengthen Indiana’s early childhood education landscape. Mandatory kindergarten is still on the wish list.

MOVING 4WARD is a collaborative reporting project by IndyStar and Chalkbeat Indiana. The project examines the current state of Early Childhood Education in Indiana with an emphasis on how best to prepare our state’s 4-year-olds (hence the project title) for kindergarten and beyond. Expect stories to take a critical look at preschool programs, issues of access to those programs, the debate over the value of taxpayer-funded universal preschool, what lessons can be learned from other states, and – perhaps most importantly – what you, as a parent, need to know to make informed decisions about choosing your child’s preschool.

Indianapolis ends preschool program, leaving 3-year-olds without access to scholarships

2019-08-13T23:00:29+00:00

Hundreds of 3-year-olds in Indianapolis will no longer qualify for preschool funding now that the city is ending its scholarship initiative.

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett did not include $4.2 million for the Indy Preschool Scholarship Program in his 2020 budget, unveiled Monday.

The scholarship program, which will end after this school year, paid for 6,526 3- and 4-year-olds from low-income families to attend high-quality programs of their choice over the past four years.

On My Way Pre-K, a state-funded $22 million preschool voucher program that was launched soon after the city’s pilot, will largely take its place. The state program serves some 3,000 4-year-olds from low-income families.

It doesn’t, however, accept 3-year-olds.

Former Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard launched the Indy Preschool Scholarship Program in 2015 as a five-year pilot. Thomas Cook, Hogsett’s chief of staff, said the purpose of the scholarship program was to “make the case to the state legislature that greater funding should be available for pre-K.”

“We’ve gone from a place where we didn’t have any significant capacity to serve children … to one that is going to be sustainable through efforts in state funding,” said Ann Murtlow, president and CEO of the United Way of Central Indiana, which facilitated the Indy Preschool Scholarship Program. “And that is a huge win for the state.”

Cook said the cost of funding the city’s scholarship program for only 3-year-olds would be “prohibitively higher.”

“Ultimately, neither the corporate or philanthropic [communities] expressed an interest in continuing to fund just 3-year-olds,” he told the Indianapolis Business Journal.

But Murtlow said there was no coordinated effort to create a separate program for 3-year-olds. In addition to city funding, the pilot had been backed by corporate and philanthropic donors, such as Eli Lilly, Anthem, Old National, IPL, and Community Health Network.

Research has shown ages 0-5 are critical years for children’s brain development. Preschool programs often focus on 4-year-olds before they enter kindergarten, but some programs in other states also aim to catch children earlier.

Cook said Hogsett would continue to lobby the state legislature to expand preschool funding to 3-year-olds. So far Indiana hasn’t moved to fund preschool for 3-year-olds who don’t otherwise qualify for free services through Head Start or special education.

During his term as mayor, Hogsett has largely prioritized reducing crime and fixing infrastructure issues. He has faced criticism for focusing less on education. He has, however, continued to back the preschool and charter school initiatives started by his predecessors and launched a push for more students to apply for college scholarships.

For now, the United Way will continue to focus on 4-year-olds, Murtlow said, although the ultimate goal is for younger children to have quality programs as well.

“We’ve got to get the 4-year-olds served, for sure,” she said. ‘You are only 4 once, and once they turn 5 you’ve lost the opportunity.”

Why a seemingly chaotic pre-K class may be the best kind

2019-06-28T10:00:41+00:00

Editor’s note: This story was produced by the IndyStar. Please do not republish without their permission.

Step into Elizabeth Dobrow’s classroom at IU Health Day Early Learning center and odds are Devorius Price will greet you at the door. The 5-year-old is full of excitement about the class’ caterpillars, some of which have already formed their chrysalises.

“They’ll turn into a butterfly!” Devorius will tell you, while pulling you by the hand over to see the fuzzy bugs and shiny shells.

Around the class, small clusters of 4- and 5-year-old preschoolers are engaged in different activities. Some are making paper crafts with their teacher. Another few are playing with blocks. One is asleep on a cot.

Devorius and several others are bopping around the noisy, busy room.

It’s barely controlled chaos.

But the running around, the babbling, the play — the chaos — is highly important. Because what you don’t see when you just step in the classroom — what you can’t see while Devorius is pulling you over to look at the caterpillars or when he’s chasing you on the playground in a seemingly never-ending game of tag — is what’s going on inside their heads.

These children are at the peak of brain development. They’re growing, making connections, learning. From birth until about age 8, kids’ brains are sponges, soaking up everything around them. By age 5, when kids start formal schooling, their brains are 90% developed.

“Really, those first three years of life are the most significant years for brain development,” said Erin Kissling, vice president of research and policy initiatives for Early Learning Indiana. Early Learning is an advocate for high-quality early learning and care statewide. It also operates nine Day Early Learning centers around Indianapolis.

“But the brain grows really quickly through the first eight years of life,” Kissling said. “So, we have this sweet spot in that zero to five space that, in our state, we haven’t paid that much attention to until very recently. And at this point, we’re really focused just on the 4-year-olds. Some would say we are even missing the most vital years of brain development, but we do have to start somewhere, right?”

Indiana is starting small — very small. Its state-funded pre-kindergarten program, On My Way Pre-K, is income-based and serves only 10% of the estimated 4-year-olds who would qualify.

Possibly because the state lacks a robust public pre-K program, there aren’t enough high-quality providers to accommodate all Hoosier 4-year-olds. For families who don’t qualify for assistance, the cost can be prohibitive — and that’s only if they even have high-quality providers in their communities. Some still don’t.

Pre-kindergarten lead teacher Elizabeth Dobrow (right) preps her class to line up before going outside to play at IU Health Day Early Learning Center in Indianapolis on Tuesday, May 14, 2019.

The different types of play

It’s hard to understate the importance of this time period for not just kids and the development of their brains — but for the people that they’ll become.

Devin Price said he’s noticed big changes in his son, Devorius, over the two years he’s been attending preschool at Day Early Learning.

“He can play with people now,” Devin said. “He’s got a control problem. That’s better since we’ve been here.”

Self-regulation is an important skill that develops in the preschool years.

Kids also develop persistence, an understanding of how rules work and nearly countless other skills – both academic and social emotional.

And the best way for this development to happen is through play, said Sarah Parks-Reese, pre-K expansion specialist for the Indiana Department of Education and the Family and Social Services Agency. The play is not just random, though. In high-quality early learning centers it is purposeful.

There’s dramatic play, where kids learn creative expression — skills that build toward important kindergarten standards such as identifying characters, plots and settings in stories. There’s exploratory play, where young minds start to develop initiative and self-direction. Outside on the playground, in that game of tag, they’re building critical gross motor skills. And they’re building other kinds of skills — social ones, such as conflict resolution and compromise.

When one kid tries to crawl up the slide, while others are trying to fly down it, they have to work it out among themselves. They’re learning that both can’t happen at the same time, so they must negotiate who goes first.

All of this play is underpinned by the Early Learning Foundations — a development framework that sets expectations for what children should achieve from birth to age 5 to be ready for future success in school and beyond. They include goals for development and learning in traditional subjects such as English and math — like being able to count backward from 10 — but also covers social emotional milestones like building relationships and self-regulation.

It looks like play. It is play. But it’s important, valuable play.

“We don’t want children in pre-K to be sitting at a desk, doing worksheets and things like that,” Parks-Reese said. “We really want the curriculum to be play-based.”

That’s why high-quality preschools have robust requirements for the kinds of classroom environments they provide to students.

Justice Vaughn (left), daughter of Cynthia Randolph-Vaughn of Cindy’s Center For Young Learners, helps students, Prose VanVeelen (middle), 2, and Frances Stratman, 1, color with chalk on Wednesday, May 29, 2019.

How Indiana rates preschools

All preschool is not created equal. Studies show that high-quality experiences have the greatest impact on young kids — preparing them for kindergarten and, possibly, improving outcomes for them and their families later in life. At least one study found benefits extend even to the children of kids who attended high-quality preschool.

So, in order to invest in high-quality experiences, it’s imperative to first understand what those look like and set criteria that help providers achieve a high-quality experience and then for families (and the state, as it starts to fund pre-K) recognize it.

Indiana’s system is called Paths to Quality. It’s a rating system that scores centers as a Level 1, 2, 3 or 4, with Level 4 the highest. Participation in the system is voluntary, so there are undoubtedly some providers doing a good job but not participating the system for one reason or another.

Level 1 centers ensure that minimum health and safety requirements are met.

An enriching learning environment comes next. To be rated a Level 2 or higher on Paths to Quality, providers must have 10 different learning centers — think of them as themed stations — available to kids, for everything from art, music and drama to reading, writing and math.

In most classes, those look as you’d expect: an easel with oversized paper, crayons and paints. Music centers might have hand drums or plastic xylophones. A corner stacked with building blocks.

Classes are also required to have a nature or science center, where you might find a terrarium full of caterpillars.

Level 2 centers are also required to offer outdoor time and differentiated programming for infants and toddlers.

Levels 3 and 4 build on the environment created in Level 2 centers. They must include a planned curriculum that is aligned to the stages of child development. Levels 3 and 4 also set higher standards for the professional development of the center director and staff.

To reach Level 4, centers must achieve accreditation from a nationally recognized body.

Indiana has about 4,500 registered childcare providers. Just 10% of those are rated a Level 4. One-fourth of providers are rated a Level 3; another quarter are at Level 1. Fewer than 200 centers statewide are a Level 2.

More than one-third of providers don’t participate in Paths to Quality at all, so they have no rating.

The system is designed to encourage providers to move along the Paths to Quality, incentivizing them to achieve higher levels. Though it’s only a small program right now, only Level 3 and 4 providers are eligible for state funds through On My Way Pre-K.

This ensures that the state is only paying for the kinds of experiences that research shows really pays off for kids. A high-quality preschool experience can boost low-income kids, who usually enter kindergarten behind their peers, and establish an educational foundation equal that of their peers.

“Children were showing like 15 months worth of gains in the nine-month period of attending a high quality pre-K,” Parks-Reese said. “So 15 months in nine months made them much more prepared for kindergarten, which in the long term, made them more prepared for first grade, second grade, third grade, so on and so forth, right?

“So, it’s really building that foundation and getting them ready for lifelong learning.”

A pre-kindergarten boy take his turn moving through a tunnel during outside play at IU Health Day Early Learning Center in Indianapolis on Tuesday, May 14, 2019.

Inside a Level 4-rated preschool

Providers rated Level 3 or higher — what it takes to be eligible to take state funds — are easy enough to find in urban centers such as Indianapolis. Marion County has more than 16 percent of the state’s high-quality providers. There are three counties in the state — Warren, Sullivan and Starke — without a single provider rated a Level 3 or 4 and another nine counties with just one high-quality provider.

Three counties in the state have just one provider total.

Even in Indianapolis where there are plenty of traditional, commercial preschool settings, many still have waiting lists. High-quality programs can also be found in other settings: churches, homes, community centers, schools.

Cynthia Randolph-Vaughn has transformed the first floor of her home into a Level 4-rated preschool called Cindy’s Center For Young Learners. There’s a water table on her front porch — recommended for sensory play. Inside, there’s an inviting fort for reading. Draped with blankets and piled with cushions, it was supposed to be for one kid at a time, Randolph-Vaughn said, but it’s next to impossible to keep them out of it.

“It was supposed to be for just one kid to relax,” she said, “but when one goes in, they all go in.”

Her walls are covered in artwork and educational posters. In the backroom, there are plastic bags with seedlings growing inside hanging on the sliding glass doors.

She’s got nine kids right now — ranging in age from four months old to nearly 5 years old — but has a list of other interested families. She’s looking to expand as soon as this summer.

Eventually, she may move her operations into a commercial center to accommodate demand because, even if the state hasn’t caught up, many parents have.

And they are looking for high-quality preschool experiences.

Call IndyStar education reporter Arika Herron at 317-201-5620 or email her at Arika.Herron@indystar.com. Follow her on Twitter: @ArikaHerron.

Children who go to preschool are better prepared for kindergarten. But is that enough?

2019-06-20T11:00:53+00:00

When Allison Kempers calls out that it’s time to clean up, each 4-year-old in her Wayne Township Preschool classroom hops into action.

They return blocks and markers to their assigned buckets. Books go back in the shelf. A last-minute letter to the fairies is tucked into the mailbox near the inches-tall, glittery door on the classroom wall.

Then Kempers points to the next item on their daily schedule, written on the whiteboard. It’s time to read.

Most children grab a book and meet her on the large circular rug. One boy takes the opportunity for a quick bathroom break, stopping to wash his hands before joining his classmates.

Next year some of these children will be in Robin Johnson’s McClelland Elementary kindergarten classroom. And, as usual, she’ll know almost immediately who they are.

There will be fewer toys, but they will still hop into action when Johnson rings the bell and says it’s time to clean up, stuffing papers into the cubby labelled with their name. They’ll follow the schedule on the whiteboard and know how to go to the bathroom and wash their hands without help.

What Johnson knows also is reflected in the growing national body of research on preschool: students who attend preschool are more prepared for kindergarten. It repeatedly shows up in their literacy and math skills.

Johnson sees it when children know the correct way to hold a book, recognize their written names or follow directions when she asks them to put away their work and sit on the reading circle.

Where research disagrees is on whether this academic boost lasts after those students finish kindergarten, into third grade or even adulthood — a conversation that often comes up as states consider expanding to a state-funded universal preschool.

Indiana isn’t close to creating a universal program. Its young voucher program is income-based and serves only 1% of the estimated 4-year-olds who would qualify. Currently, there aren’t enough seats in high-quality programs to accommodate all 4-year-olds, and often the seats that do exist are too expensive.

But as lawmakers start to grapple with how much and how fast to invest in preschool, it deems fit to question: Should Indiana worry about research on long-term results to justify an expansion, or should it stay focused on getting children ready for kindergarten?

Zander Madsen, 5, digs in the sandbox inside Allison Kempers’ pre-kindergarten classroom on Thursday, April 18, 2019.

The argument for expanding preschool

Neuroscience has shown that ages 0-5 are critical years in brain development, setting the stage for the rest of a child’s life. They are key years to learn vocabulary, movement and how to learn.

“There’s a consensus in the field that the early childhood years are of critical importance vital to cognitive growth,” said Georgetown University professor Bill Gormley. “Profoundly important because learning occurs so rapidly.”

Some early childhood education advocates see this as the root of the argument for making sure every child has access to preschool. Research followed, looking to answer the question of whether going to preschool improves the rest of a child’s life.

A study of Tulsa, Oklahoma’s universal program in 2017 caught the attention of advocates and politicians when it found that some positive effects were discernible as late as middle school.

The students they studied were months ahead of their peers in reading, writing and math, said Gormley, one of the study’s authors. They were more likely to have higher standardized math scores in middle school, and more likely to enroll in honors classes. However, those children didn’t necessarily have higher grades or fewer suspensions.

This generally fell in line with two well-known, decades-long studies that followed children who went to experimental preschool programs in the 1960s and ’70s. They found the preschool alumni were more likely to hold a bachelor’s degree, hold a job and delay parenthood.

Critics question whether these results are still relevant today, saying it would be too costly to scale up the intense services provided to the small groups of students — as much as $20,000 per student. And the gap in learning between students who attend preschool and those who don’t is smaller now than in the 1960s because families are better informed and have more options, including professional childcare.

But success stories from both projects are still continuing.

New research from the Perry Preschool Project, whose participants are now between 50 and 55 years old, found that the children of people who went to preschool also reaped similar benefits.

Released in May, the newest Perry study found that 60% of participants’ children had never been suspended, addicted or arrested, compared to 40% of the control groups’ children.

Children of participants were also more likely to be employed full-time or self-employed.

In her experience as a kindergarten teacher, Johnson said students who went to preschool are more confident and independent, both socially and academically, which makes them more successful in her class. And the bar is set high — her kindergartners are now learning lessons she used to teach in first grade, like reading and writing complete sentences.

“If they’re successful in kindergarten, they’re probably going to be successful in first grade, second grade,” she said. “It’s just going to keep carrying on down the line.”

For decades this narrative was building, which is why it was so shocking last year when a study out of Tennessee found that students in its preschool saw negative long-term effects.

Tori Wilburn, 5, reads a book alongside her classmates inside Allison Kempers’ pre-kindergarten classroom on Thursday, April 18, 2019.

The argument against expanding preschool

Students in the Tennessee Voluntary Pre-K Program performed better than their peers at the end of preschool, the study found. But children who didn’t go to preschool caught up in kindergarten, the study said, and generally surpassed them.

The study found similar results in third grade — that the preschool alumni did not perform as well as the control group. School records showed “somewhat more disciplinary actions” for the preschool participants.

“This assumption started with Head Start back in 1964 was that … if we can bring poor children up to the same starting line, they should do well in school later on,” said Dale Farran, one of the Tennessee study’s authors. “That didn’t happen with us.”

Farran, a Vanderbilt University professor, said she wasn’t expecting the negative results, and is still trying to figure out what caused them. One option she considered is that adding another year of school and asking children to sit still and listen to a teacher could make them dislike school. Another is that the kindergarten teacher wasn’t building on the knowledge some students already had from preschool, but rather starting back from the beginning for everyone.

Whatever the reasons, the study has provided new ammunition for those who are reluctant to spend more taxpayer dollars on pre-school.

Rep. Chris Judy, a Republican who represents Fort Wayne, told IndyStar he doesn’t support allocating more dollars to preschool, referencing data on long-term results.

“From the data I had received it looked like by the time they got to third grade, whether you’re pre-K or not, it’s the same level,” he said.

Judy said the state should focus on funding K-12.

“We have a limited amount of money in our budget,” he said. “At least 50 percent of it goes to K-12. So my question is, where does it stop?”

Critics of the Tennessee study say it’s difficult to tie this success or failure back to preschool. There are too many variables that are impossible to rule out between kindergarten and third grade, multiple experts told IndyStar.

The results may speak more to the quality of the preschool, which can vary by classroom, or of the elementary school. For example, the students’ success in third grade could have been hindered by an ineffective second-grade teacher.

That makes studying long-term effects difficult in general, which is why some advocates argue the expectation for preschool should be limited to whether it prepares a student for kindergarten.

Inside Wayne Township Preschool on Thursday, April 18, 2019.

Where Indiana stands

The negative results of the Tennessee study didn’t cause the state to abandon preschool, said Laura Bornfreund, director of the nonpartisan think tank Early & Elementary Education Policy at New America.

Instead, she said the state doubled down and worked on improving the quality of its program, including by better training preschool teachers.

Tennessee’s program met seven of the National Institute for Early Education Research’s 10 quality requirements in 2018, including teachers having a bachelor’s degree and class sizes with 20 or fewer students. Oklahoma’s program met nine.

“What we don’t want to see in pre-K — that’s not OK — is kids sitting where the teacher is talking at them for extended periods of time,” Bornfreund said. “They shouldn’t be doing worksheets or sitting at tables for long stints of time. Research supports that.”

That’s something for Indiana to consider, she said.

“Indiana’s program isn’t yet what I would necessarily call a high-quality program,” Bornfreund said. “It has a lot of potential.”

Indiana’s state-funded voucher program, On My Way Pre-K, was not ranked by NIEER in 2018 because the eligibility requirements for parents disqualified it as a state-funded program by the national group’s standards.

On My Way Pre-K is too new to have any data on long-term effects. The students participating in the state’s study just finished second grade.

Sara Schmitt, one of the authors, said researchers plan to check in on the students again next year, when they are in third grade. Ideally, Schmitt said they would have the students take the same tests administered in preschool and kindergarten, but that isn’t in the budget. Instead, they will look at standardized test scores.

“It’s going to be hard to make any claims about that in Indiana because we won’t really have the direct assessment data to truly be able to talk about the gains that exist after the spring of kindergarten,” said Schmitt, an assistant professor at Purdue University.

The state’s 2018 report found that children who used On My Way Pre-K had stronger gains in language comprehension, literacy, math, self-regulation and school readiness. They were measured against children who were in child care programs that are “adequate” but not rated high-quality by the state.

“These measured differences are modest in magnitude, and it is not clear if they will persist beyond kindergarten,” the report said.

But the report doesn’t stop with students. It also attempts to measure the benefit for parents — results that are of interest to local employers, and, in part, drives support from Indiana businesses for expanding the state-funded program.

By surveying parents, researchers found that more than a quarter were able to get a job after their children received the On My Way Pre-K grant and started preschool. Half of the parents said they worked more hours.

Overall, authors concluded that having a quality and reliable place to send their children also improved the lives of their parents.

Denise Hill said she put her daughter, Michelle, in preschool because both she and her husband work. They didn’t have time to prepare her for preschool themselves, she said. They chose to live in Wayne Township because they heard the public school system was good.

Hill got her daughter on the wait list for Wayne Township Preschool when she was 3. Her daughter spent a year in a local church program before a spot opened up.

They didn’t qualify for On My Way Pre-K, so Hill said they paid about $150 a week.

“We wasn’t really prepared for it because, we didn’t think we were going to have to pay that much,” Hill said. “But we didn’t mind because it was for the education of our child.”

When it came time for her to go to Johnson’s kindergarten class, Hill said the transition was seamless. Other children in their extended family didn’t go to preschool, and Hill said she could tell the difference.

Aside from being more prepared, academically, the 4-year-old was ready to be away from her parents for an entire day.

Now finished with kindergarten, her daughter still loves to read. To Hill, that’s what is important.

MOVING 4WARD is a collaborative reporting project by IndyStar and Chalkbeat Indiana. The project will examine the current state of Early Childhood Education in Indiana with an emphasis on how best to prepare our state’s 4-year-olds (hence the project title) for kindergarten and beyond. Expect stories to take a critical look at preschool programs, issues of access to those programs, the debate over the value of taxpayer-funded universal preschool, what lessons can be learned from other states, and – perhaps most importantly – what you, as a parent, need to know to make informed decisions about choosing your child’s preschool.

Chalkbeat reporter Stephanie Wang and IndyStar photographer Mykal McEldowney contributed to this story.

Contact IndyStar reporter Emma Kate Fittes at 317-513-7854 or efittes@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter: @IndyEmmaKate

‘Lost opportunity’: Most 4-year-olds are left out of Indiana’s preschool expansion

2019-06-11T19:55:26+00:00

As soon as Alina Keller walked into the home daycare, she wondered whether her son would be safe if she sent him there, let alone prepared for kindergarten next year.

For $100 per week, the daycare would downgrade 5-year-old Liam to using a sippy cup, put him down for three-hour naps, and leave him to play all day without any plans for teaching him letters or numbers, Keller said.

It was like “baby jail,” she said — “an absolute no-go and a nightmare.” But it was also one of her only options in her rural town of Goodland, Indiana.

“What am I supposed to do? I have to work to provide for my family, but at the same time, I have to make sure that my kid is safe,” said Keller, 32, a factory worker who lives about 100 miles northwest of Indianapolis.

Keller’s predicament is one facing many Indiana families five years into the state’s efforts to make early childhood education widely available: She lives in a preschool desert, in one of five counties with no early learning facilities nearby that the state considers to be high quality.

These gaps in access, paired with high tuition and low state investment, mean that whether your 3- or 4-year-old attends prekindergarten — and how good the experience is — can often largely depend on where you live and how much money you make.

Preschool can be a critical early intervention for children who have had less exposure to language and literacy. But there aren’t enough highly rated pre-K providers in the state to accommodate all 4-year-olds, officials say, with few or none in some rural pockets. And the price tag for a good preschool can be too high for lower-income families, whose children are more at risk of starting school behind their peers.

“A child is only 4 once, so each year that passes without families having the ability to put those children in pre-K is a huge lost opportunity,” said Ann Murtlow, president and CEO of the United Way of Central Indiana, a leading early learning advocate.

Indiana has taken some small steps to help its neediest families access pre-K, with lawmakers voting this year to open up the state’s $22 million fledgling pre-K program statewide.

But even with that change, Indiana has barely made a dent in improving early childhood access, advocates say: The income-based voucher program reaches just under 3,000 of what advocates estimate to be 27,000 4-year-olds from low-income families, with a rocky rollout that has left about 1,000 available spots unfilled.

“We’ve come a long way, but we should make no mistake that we still have a very long way to go,” Murtlow said.

The slow progress isn’t wholly unexpected in a state that lags the nation in early childhood education. Most states outpace Indiana in pre-K enrollment, with some — including Florida, Vermont, and Oklahoma, according to a national report — making pre-K available to all 4-year-old children.

But in Indiana, pre-K is quickly garnering support from community and corporate leaders who see it as an economic development strategy — offering a family benefit to working parents while also better preparing children who will become the future workforce.

Early childhood education matters, advocates say, in a state where people face longer odds for upward social mobility, where most adults don’t have an education beyond high school, and where stubborn socioeconomic and racial gaps persist throughout K-12, putting some students at enormous disadvantages.

A series of stories by Chalkbeat Indiana and IndyStar will examine the state of early childhood education in Indiana. Right now, our state is mulling a big question: How much, and how quickly, will Indiana invest in pre-K?

Morghan Hampton, 4, a pre-kindergarten student at Avondale Meadows YMCA Early Learning Center, smiles next to a set of lockers on Tuesday, April 30, 2019.

Pushing Indiana toward its first steps

A few years ago, Indiana was among a handful of states without a pre-K program, and some communities were growing impatient.

Deep in southern Indiana, the Harrison County Community Foundation had zeroed in on pre-K as a possible solution to the constant grant requests to help students who were falling behind in school.

“We didn’t know what else to do except to try to get these kids as good of a start as we could,” said now-retired foundation president and CEO Steve Gilliland.

So in 2013, the foundation started funding free pre-K for low-income families in Harrison County, calling it “Jump Start.”

Children experience critical brain development from birth through their early years, so pre-K at age 3 or 4 can help build a foundation for their learning — not just ABCs and 123s, but basic skills like how to follow directions, take turns, and listen.

Research has widely shown that quality pre-K can put children ahead in kindergarten and beyond. While some critics contend that the positive effects of pre-K wear off as students grow older, long-term studies of Perry Preschool in Michigan and the federal Head Start program have showed far-reaching benefits, such as participating children being more likely to graduate from high school and less likely to commit crimes.

In Harrison County, the results within the first year stunned observers. Full-day, quality pre-K closed cognitive gaps in language, pre-literacy, math, and quantitative reasoning skills for low-income students who started behind their peers, Indiana University Southeast researchers found, catching them up to be ready for kindergarten.

Even the expert analyzing the results found herself impressed, despite long knowing about the academic gains that pre-K could produce.

“Wow! You can do so much with just this one year,” said Melissa Fry, director of the IU Southeast Applied Research and Education Center. “I read research for a living, so it was a little strange I would have that reaction. But it’s exciting!”

In 2014, then-Gov. Mike Pence made it a top priority to create Indiana’s first pre-K program — a voucher program for low-income families to enroll their 4-year-olds at schools, centers, churches, or homes that meet certain standards. But state lawmakers reined in his vision, limiting the size of the pilot until a study could show the effects.

Still, the willingness of Indiana policymakers to provide any public funding for pre-K represented a seismic shift in thinking in this conservative state.

This year, the state program, known as On My Way Pre-K, has grown to serve nearly 3,000 children. But with $22 million in funding, it has room for many more. State officials have run into obstacles trying to expand the program’s reach in rural areas. They’re struggling to keep the application process simple and raise awareness of the opportunity among parents.

Families often worry first about finding an affordable preschool with openings near them with hours that work with their schedules, child care experts say, favoring references from friends and family. They might not be as familiar with the process the state uses to identify high-quality providers, or the vouchers that might be available to help them.

Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb says pre-K remains a key initiative, hoping to iron out issues this year and enroll more students to max out the money. Annual reports show students in On My Way Pre-K show stronger gains in language, literacy, and school readiness, and the state recently won a $7 million federal grant that will help plan a pre-K expansion.

Holcomb is “impatient” for wider expansion, and he said he hopes the success of On My Way Pre-K puts pressure on the state.

“I want to see a scale-up — not just a scale-out to all 92 counties statewide, but a scale-up — to be able to meet the needs of our children that are taking literally their first steps on their education path,” Holcomb told Chalkbeat.

In Indianapolis, businesses and philanthropies gave money in 2014 to supplement a city preschool program alongside the state’s that also serves 3-year-olds — to fill the need, prove the value of early learning, and spur the state to deepen its commitment.

And pre-K is popular: Nearly 7,000 Indianapolis families applied this year, said Sara VanSlambrook, chief impact officer for the United Way of Central Indiana.

“That’s why we need to keep advocating for expanding pre-K,” she said, “because there continues to be more demand than there are seats.”

For many families, On My Way Pre-K offered an opportunity they wouldn’t otherwise have been able to afford, the reports say, and allowed parents to start new jobs, go back to school, or work more hours.

Natasha Williams, 32, a fast-food worker in Indianapolis, uses the pre-K voucher for her daughter, Zakoya, to attend pre-K at the Early Learning Center at the Avondale Meadows YMCA. Without the voucher, which pays up to $6,800 for pre-K fees, Williams said she would have had to work two jobs to afford preschool, which would have kept her from spending time with her children and pursuing her own education in human resources management.

In less than a year, Zakoya has become a loquacious 5-year-old who can spell her name and recite colors and shapes — scoring above-average, her mother said, on kindergarten readiness tests.

“Before, she was in daycare, where she played with toys,” Williams said. “Now she’s talking, developing conversations, saying, ‘I want to read books,’ and teaching her little sister what she learned.”

A child plays with two dinosaurs during a lesson at the Avondale Meadows YMCA Early Learning Center.

A frugal state mulls the costs

But what’s the state’s responsibility for providing pre-K?

Some conservative lawmakers balk at the idea that the government should pay for preschool. Rep. Tim Wesco, R-Osceola, said he hews to the “classic conservative Republican view” that families should take responsibility for their children’s early education.

“Parents need to be engaged in a regular, very consequential way in their kids’ education,” Wesco said, adding, “I just have general concerns about the state taking on that additional responsibility when we struggle already to cover K-12. I feel like the state is very quickly moving toward universal pre-K, and that’s where I am not on board with it.”

In some ways, Wesco is working against the tide — On My Way Pre-K enjoys hearty bipartisan support. But attitudes like his could prevail because money is likely to be a sticking point, if not a blockade to expanding pre-K. In a frugal state, lawmakers are cautious about unlocking sizable funds like the millions of dollars that would be needed to serve more children.

“We are a state that measures, that thinks, that contemplates: Where can we invest?” said Betsy Delgado, chairwoman of the Indiana Early Learning Advisory Committee and vice president of mission and education initiatives for Goodwill of Central and Southern Indiana.

The state already combines pre-K funding with federal money to stretch its dollars. Recognizing the difficulty in getting dedicated state dollars outright, advocates have started to float a few creative ideas for funding pre-K, such as using revenue from food, beverage, or cigarette taxes, or seeking private donations.

There are some other publicly funded early education opportunities for children in need. The federal Head Start and Early Head Start serve more than 15,000 children from Indiana’s most financially struggling families. And the state is federally required to support preschool for nearly 13,000 children ages 3-5 who have disabilities — but until this year, the funding level had remained stagnant for nearly three decades.

Without reliable state funding for pre-K, families are largely dependent on the graces of preschool programs to offer scholarships — or they foot the bill, which can cost about $9,000 per year at a high-quality provider, according to the Early Learning Advisory Committee. That’s why upper-class families hold a sizeable advantage in early education: They can afford it.

Even many public schools charge tuition for preschool, though some tap into federal funds for giving extra services to students in poverty, and some target students who might be most in need of a boost before kindergarten.

Meanwhile, other states are providing support for many more of their preschool-aged children, paying on average for one-third of them to attend pre-K, according to Steve Barnett, senior co-director and founder of the National Institute for Early Education Research. Leading states on preschool are already considering even broader expansions of early learning — to serve children earlier, at age 3, or make pre-K free and accessible to all children regardless of income.

Rural states like Indiana tend to trail in early education, Barnett said, because there has been “a sense in them that they don’t have a problem to address.”

But momentum for change is already brewing in Indiana. Some of the heaviest hitters in Indiana support pre-K — corporations like Eli Lilly and Co., nonprofits like the United Way, politicians like Holcomb and Pence.

Community movements are also rising up, such as the Strosacker Early Learning Fellows in Northwest Indiana, where local leaders work to recruit more supporters of early education.

“The stakeholders in the Region can see we’re shooting ourselves in the foot if we’re not dealing with this topic,” said Mark Chamberlain, founder and CEO of Lakeside Wealth Management in Chesterton, who was in the first class of fellows. “Just by moving the needle a little bit in the right direction, it’ll create some more awareness, and more people will jump on the train.”

Those local trailblazers will eventually force slow states like Indiana to catch up, Barnett predicted: “Because the rest of the states are going to be asking why they should be left behind.”

Haadiyah Muhammad, 5, watches as Isaac Black III, a teacher at Avondale Meadows YMCA Early Learning Center, gives a lesson on the number seven.

Seeding new opportunities in preschool deserts

After deciding not to send her preschooler to the day care that she considered “baby jail,” Alina Keller had no good options.

A relative watched her son until a new preschool opened last summer along her commute to work. A 20-minute drive away, the preschool is in a different time zone than Keller’s home in Goodland. It doesn’t rate at the top of the state’s quality scale, but for Keller, “it was really the only option.”

Still, Keller said preschool has kickstarted her son’s imagination. He’s less shy, minds his manners, and is eager to learn.

“He actually brought me the flashcards and wanted to sit down and work with them,” Keller said. “Compared to me saying, ‘Hey, if you do this, you’ll get a surprise!’ Or, ‘Hey, if you don’t do this, you’ll get in trouble.’”

Newton County, where Keller lives, is one of five counties in Indiana with no high-quality preschools. But even for many counties that have one high-quality preschool or a few, that presents limited options for parents, depending where they live.

As a result, the lack of quality preschool options creates little deserts throughout the state where people don’t have access — and often have to turn to unregulated home daycares or other programs that can be exempt from meeting even the most basic health and safety standards.

Even in more densely populated cities like Indianapolis, advocates say there aren’t enough high-quality seats. Studies have famously shown that preschool efforts fall flinchingly flat when quality isn’t taken into consideration.

The state puts about $4 million of its pre-K funds toward grants for providers to expand and improve. But that’s no easy task, especially since Indiana prioritizes having a mix of provider types. Churches in particular often struggle to meet the state’s highest standards, child care officials say, because it can be more difficult to fulfill structural and safety standards for kitchens, bathrooms, or accessibility in older buildings not intended to house preschools.

And many preschools already operate on a shoestring budget, often paying teachers dismally low salaries, in part because sometimes parents can’t afford to pay more.

On the north side of Newton County, Community Church in Roselawn is trying to fix the shortage of options, by reopening its preschool.

The church had a preschool until the local school district opened one — there wasn’t enough demand to keep both open. But the school district recently stopped offering its program, leaving the area without a licensed preschool.

“God must just have struck that desire in my heart that that was truly the thing that our community needed the most,” said Dawn Kuiper, the church’s connections coordinator.

With support from the Child Care Resource Network, and local education, economic development, and philanthropy leaders, the church secured about $150,000 through a state grant, an Early Learning Indiana grant, and private donations to renovate and restart the preschool. It plans to open a fee-based program this fall, with the goal of offering On My Way Pre-K vouchers.

“No one in our community even knows this voucher exists,” Kuiper said. “It’s like our community having food stamps, and having no grocery store you could spend them on — or not even knowing you could get them.”

National report downgrades Indiana for excluding some families from pre-K vouchers

How much do children benefit from preschool? Ask this Indianapolis kindergarten teacher

You don’t have to go to kindergarten in Indiana. But educators say it ‘levels the playing field’

2019-05-31T21:43:56+00:00

On the second-to-last day of school, kindergartners at Stout Field Elementary School on the westside of Indianapolis lined up to get a taste of first grade.

They walked down the hall, holding folders that would tell their new teachers how well they could read and where they were still struggling.

When the students started kindergarten 180 days ago, not all of them knew their letters or could write their names. But now, some of them can read through picture books on their own, sounding out new, longer words. They created their own stories in class and learned to count, add, and subtract.

“Show them your best work,” kindergarten teacher Mandy Sequin told her students before sending them to meet their first-grade teachers. “Make me proud. We’ve worked super duper hard.”

Children in Indiana don’t have to go to kindergarten, but it appears from school enrollment data that practically all of them do. With a new focus on preschool, and an emphasis on meeting higher standards in later grades, educators say kindergarten is becoming more rigorous — and a more critical building block for everything students will learn in years to come.

“To think about all that we learned in a year — they’re not ready if they come in at first grade,” Sequin said. “There’s just no way.”

It’s only been in recent years that the state has placed more value on this early childhood experience, making full-day kindergarten available for free to all Indiana families in 2012 and providing more funding for schools to offer programs — changes that education leaders predicted at the time would drive up kindergarten attendance.

Still, while most states require children to attend school at age 5 or 6, Indiana and a dozen other states wait until age 7. From time to time, educators and policymakers raise the question of whether school should start earlier for little Hoosiers, but lawmakers have so far balked at taking that choice away from families, and some say they don’t see a need to mandate kindergarten when so many children already attend.

House education leader Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, said it’s most important to focus on making sure struggling students have access to kindergarten. The state’s growing pre-K voucher program for low-income families, On My Way Pre-K, requires recipients to send their children to kindergarten.

“That was a good way of making sure those who are most vulnerable and most in need not only get the bump in a pre-K program, but will continue to get that push that kindergarten would provide for them, in terms of being ready for first grade,” Behning said.

At Stout Field in Wayne Township, 82% of students come from families with incomes low enough to qualify for free or reduced-price meals. Students from low-income families are more likely to start school behind their peers because they might have less exposure to literacy and other learning experiences. But preschool or kindergarten can be a critical intervention as children’s brains develop in their early years.

“It levels the playing field,” explained Arthur Hochman, a professor of elementary education at Butler University. “If you and I are running a race, and every time we run a race, I get to start a lap ahead of you — why would you continue racing me? There’s no hope for you. You’re starting off behind the curve.”

In kindergarten, children are starting to have some of their first learning experiences. Words are a foreign language. They have to build up their number sense — how much is 10?

In Sequin’s class, the students count the number of days they’ve been in school with paper clips, making chains for every 10 days and a long chain for 100 days. To do subtraction problems, they draw circles and take some away by crossing them out, putting a big circle around what’s left over.

“Duh duh duh,” they practice the sound of the consonant “D,” and “puh puh puh” for P. They listen for words that have the same beginning sounds, or the same end sounds, or words that rhyme. They take apart words to change “join” to “coin” to “coil,” clap out syllables — “fi-nal-ly!” — and shout out sight words on giant flash cards: “she,” “you,” “who.”

Sequin had one student who never showed up for school, two who moved away, a few who joined partway through the year, and one who left for awhile but came back. Three students are learning English as a new language.

The children who struggle a little bit more tend to be the ones who weren’t here for the whole year, Sequin said. With less time, they don’t know the routines as well, so Sequin has to both help them and teach the other students how to be gentle with those who are behind.

“It rocks our world a little bit, when you’re in a flow,” she said.

Out of Sequin’s “family” of 17 students, all but one will be moving on to first grade. Some of them might have to work harder in first grade, but when Sequin looked at her class, she knew they would be ready. And it wasn’t just because they had studied consonant and vowel sounds, grouping numbers, and how plants grow.

A veteran teacher, Sequin saw how her 5- and 6-year-old students had matured. They could follow rules — or respond to a gentle reminder — exercise more self-control, and work independently.

By the end of the year, the students are ready to face their next challenges. Their first-grade teachers promise they will learn to love reading even more. The kindergartners sit at desks and marvel at the first-grade belongings stored inside. They get cups of crayons and a coloring page, and the teachers watch how they hold the crayons, what colors they choose, and how they share.

“Your picture has three words at the top,” first-grade teacher Samantha Kelly tells her future class.

One boy reads, “First… grade… ruh-ahh-kss… rocks!”

“You’re going to love first grade,” Kelly tells them.

Indiana charter schools face hurdles to offering pre-K. But some have figured out a way.

2019-05-10T19:48:27+00:00

Sitting around a rainbow-colored carpet, preschoolers clamor to answer Maestra Maria’s question during the morning lesson on Earth.

What is there on Earth? They want to talk about las plantas y las flores, el agua y las frutas.

Maestra Maria deftly brings them back in line with a gentle reminder about what the students are supposed to do when they want to answer a question.

“Levantar la mano,” one student says. Raise your hand.

This year, Global Preparatory Academy at School 44 is starting children in its Spanish immersion program as early as it can, launching a new bilingual prekindergarten classroom.

It’s an unusual foray into pre-K for an Indianapolis charter school. Even as the state is putting more focus on early childhood education than ever before, the charter sector has been slow to reach 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds through pre-K.

Many charter leaders recognize the benefits of educating children during these critical developmental years and creating a smooth transition from pre-K to kindergarten, particularly those who serve mostly students of color and from low-income families in urban areas. But charter schools face significant challenges to offering pre-K, including a lack of a steady funding stream and a different set of rules and regulations for serving younger learners — and the fact that charters can, technically, only be K-12.

That’s pushing a handful of charter schools to look to creative partnerships in order to provide children with an earlier start to school.

Global Prep, which already partners with Indianapolis Public Schools as part of its innovation network of independently operated schools, works with the district to run its pre-K program. That way, the district handles licensing and funding, and students can attend for free.

In exchange, Global Prep can start its dual-language program one year earlier, teaching academic skills such as sounding out words and social skills such as sharing in both English and Spanish. Plus, students have the opportunity to stay in the same near-northwest side building from pre-K through grade 5.

“There’s a certain openness that kids have at age 4 to a new language,” said school founder Mariama Shaheed. “They just think school is supposed to be done in two languages.”

Jameka Robinson chose Global Prep over a private school for her 5-year-old son, Joshua, so he could learn Spanish. She hopes to keep him at the school so he can be both bilingual and biliterate: “Having a second language is a gift you can give to a child,” she said.

Other charter schools have sought out partnerships with private providers. Day Early Learning, which is run by the early education nonprofit Early Learning Indiana, has two pre-K classrooms at George and Veronica Phalen Leadership Academy.

The classrooms run independently from Phalen, and Day Early Learning charges tuition or accepts state or federal vouchers. But the pre-K location helps both partners achieve a common goal: making sure children have access high-quality early education to get ready for kindergarten, said Erin Kissling, vice president of research and policy initiatives for Early Learning Indiana.

Anna Shults put a lot of thought into pre-K when she opened ACE Preparatory Academy three years ago but decided she didn’t have the capacity or skills to start a strong pre-K program.

This year, ACE Prep brought in an outside operator, Pre-K University. “Think of them as much as a subtenant as they are a partner,” Shults wrote in an email to Chalkbeat.

These partnerships work in part because pre-K can’t be part of schools’ charters. Charter agreements, by law, only cover grades K-12.

“We make it clear to our schools that we don’t monitor their preschool programs,” said James Betley, executive director of the Indiana Charter School Board, which oversees 25 charter schools throughout the state. “That’s not something we’re permitted to do, or something we want to do at this point.”

Charter schools could open their own pre-K programs, but they would have to go through a separate licensing process through the state Family and Social Services Administration.

Because Indiana does not universally fund pre-K, charter schools can struggle to afford to offer pre-K if they don’t want to charge tuition. If they wanted to tap into limited state funding for pre-K, they would have to meet a separate set of quality standards, which can be a rigorous process. And there’s no guarantee that students will qualify for or receive one of the 4,000 need-based scholarships.

Still, it’s clear there’s a rising need for pre-K. Many traditional public school districts have started pre-K programs, drawing from their larger funding pools or charging tuition. In the last decade, the number of children in public school pre-K programs has doubled to about 20,000 students this year, according to state data. Some 460 schools offer pre-K, about 200 more than a decade ago.

For Sarah Lofton, principal of Avondale Meadows Academy, money is the high hurdle.

“I think we’d have plenty of interest,” she said. “Financing it is just the challenge.”

In a recent discussion about writing grants, Lofton was thinking about all the things she wanted for her school. “Sure, I would love a few more sets of Chromebooks,” she said, “but pre-K was the big-ticket item.”

Looking to reach children statewide, Indiana expands its pre-K voucher program

2019-04-25T20:16:26+00:00

For the first time, children from low-income families across Indiana could have the opportunity to go to prekindergarten for free.

The state will open up its pre-K voucher program, On My Way Pre-K, to eligible families statewide — a key expansion of what had been a limited pilot program only available in 20 counties, including most of Indiana’s larger cities.

Families in rural communities and small towns in particular will benefit from the expansion, since many of them could not previously apply for the vouchers.

“We as a state should do everything possible to encourage our kids to learn at an early age and learn to love learning,” said state Rep. Tonya Pfaff, D-Terre Haute, a high school teacher and co-author of the legislation to broaden the pre-K program.

The pre-K expansion easily passed the legislature this week with bipartisan support. The legislation still awaits the approval of Gov. Eric Holcomb, who highlighted increasing pre-K access as part of his agenda for this year.

But some lawmakers were still divided over whether the expansion was ambitious enough or went too far. Indiana will extend pre-K to more families without an increase in funding — the pre-K budget will remain at about $22 million each year for the next two years.

Pfaff said she didn’t think the state was taking a big enough step toward serving more students.

“We should be putting more funding toward pre-K,” she said. “We should be accessing more people through pre-K. Unfortunately, we’re just not there yet.”

A handful of conservative Republicans opposed the expansion, voicing concerns over the state taking responsibility for providing pre-K.

“My question is, where does it stop?” said Rep. Chris Judy, R-Fort Wayne. “Our primary focus is K-12, so what is our role in the pre-K as a state government? … We have a limited amount of money in our budget.”

Indiana is in the early stages of supporting early childhood education. On My Way Pre-K launched on a small scale in 2015, growing to serve about 3,000 children from low-income families this year. The vouchers subsidize up to $6,800 for a 4-year-old to enroll at top-rated preschools of the family’s choice.

Still, Indiana continues to lag behind other states, many of which have had longer-running programs that reach many more preschoolers. Advocates estimate that Indiana has 27,000 eligible 4-year-olds that the state could be serving.

On My Way Pre-K is struggling to sign up enough families, particularly in rural areas where the program is new. That’s one of the reasons why the state hasn’t pursued a more aggressive pre-K expansion, and why lawmakers aren’t adding more funding to the program.

But making the program available statewide is expected to help fill the open seats.

If the seats aren’t all claimed right away, the state can also now accept a limited number of families who don’t meet the program’s income or job requirements. Some spots could be made available to families who make slightly more than the cutoff — up to $47,638 for a family of four, for example, which is above the program’s standard threshold of $32,700.

Some families could also be exempt from the requirement that parents are working, seeking jobs, or in school. The state could make some allowances if a parent cannot work because of a disability, or if grandparents are raising a child.

National report downgrades Indiana for excluding some families from pre-K vouchers

2019-04-17T11:30:47+00:00

An annual national report on preschool dumped Indiana from this year’s rankings, excluding the state’s fledging On My Way Pre-K program because of a controversial requirement that bars some families in need from signing up.

In order to qualify for Indiana’s prekindergarten vouchers, income-eligible parents must also be working, attending school, or seeking a job. Local early education advocates often tout the workforce benefits of Indiana’s pre-K program, which they say helps many parents maintain or seek jobs while their children are in school.

But that means “the primary purpose is not education,” said Steve Barnett, senior co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research. Instead, the organization deems On My Way Pre-K to be a child care program.

“Child care programs can still provide education, of course,” Barnett noted in an email to Chalkbeat. But by drawing the line, NIEER’s annual “State of Preschool” report released Wednesday lists Indiana as one of just six states that does not fund a preschool program.

That’s a downgrade from last year, when Indiana ranked second-to-last in the nation for access to pre-K among states with programs.

The state added the work requirement in 2017 so it could commingle its pre-K dollars with federal child care funds. But last year, state lawmakers recognized the change posed a potential stumbling block, worrying it shut out otherwise eligible 4-year-old children being raised by grandparents or whose parents are unable to work because of disabilities.

This year, lawmakers are proposing a special carve-out to allow a limited number of those families to tap into pre-K vouchers. Officials are also poised to make the small-scale program available statewide, expanding eligibility while maintaining state funding at $22 million per year.

It’s not immediately clear how many more children could qualify for On My Way Pre-K if lawmakers approve the expansion plans. In 2017-18, On My Way Pre-K served 2,423 children, according to the national report. But the program isn’t at capacity — the challenges of introducing the vouchers in rural areas have left the state with millions in unused funds.

Across the nation, the NIEER report notes that progress on preschool has stalled and calls for renewed efforts to extend early childhood education to more children.

As pre-K expands in Indiana, slow sign-ups lead to millions in leftover state funding

2019-02-08T21:20:12+00:00

Indiana expects to leave about $6 million in state funding for pre-Kindergarten untouched this year due to a slower-than-hoped expansion, according to the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration.

With last year’s pre-K expansion into 15 new counties, the state estimated it could serve about 4,000 children from low-income families. So far, only about 3,000 have signed up, which officials chalk up to the challenge of introducing a new program in rural counties, where enrollment is lower. Pre-K providers also blame a complicated sign-up process for deterring interested families.

“We’re confident that we can serve more kids next year,” said Nicole Norvell, director of the state’s Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning.

Indiana set aside $22 million this year for the pilot program, known as On My Way Pre-K, to subsidize costs for low-income families. On My Way Pre-K also taps federal Child Care Development Fund money. Norvell estimated On My Way Pre-K will use about $14 million federal dollars and more than $15 million in state dollars this year.

Last year, before the expansion fully launched, the state estimated it had almost $9 million left over.

Norvell said the leftover state funds can still be used for On My Way Pre-K in future years.

Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle characterized the issue of On My Way Pre-K not filling all of its seats as a hitch in procedures and rollout, rather than stemming from a lack of need or problems with the program itself.

“Is it slightly concerning? Yeah, but I’m not laying the blame anywhere,” said Senate education leader Jeff Raatz, R-Centerville. “We just gotta get it out there. It’s not been around long enough. I think we’re in good shape.”

Advocates and lawmakers are closely watching the state’s first long-awaited steps into investing in pre-K. While supporters want to make On My Way Pre-K widely available to children across the state, they are also careful to push for Indiana to maintain a high-quality program, in the hopes that the initial pilot years will show positive outcomes for families and children.

While this year seemed ripe for advocates to call for further expansion of the program, the state legislature appears poised to hold back from increasing pre-K dollars. Gov. Eric Holcomb called for the state to serve an additional 500 children in each of the next two years with the same level of funding.

Lawmakers are proposing ways to increase access to pre-K within its current spending limits, such as making it available statewide instead of by county or adding some flexibility within income requirements.

Another proposal seeks to address the limitations of a requirement that parents are working or in school in order for their children to receive pre-K vouchers, by making allowances for families who have parents with disabilities or grandparents as the primary caretakers.

Advocates say the need is there: Early Learning Indiana estimates that Indiana has about 16,000 4-year-olds in need of care whose families meet the income eligibility for On My Way Pre-K.

Because On My Way Pre-K is new in some areas, families might not have heard about it, Norvell said, and there are not many providers who have qualified under the program’s standards.

The state is continuing to enroll students throughout the year. Norvell said she also plans to hire more pre-K managers to market the program and is providing grants to help providers qualify to offer On My Way Pre-K.

Marshall County, a rural area in north-central Indiana about 25 miles south of South Bend, is particularly struggling to attract families for On My Way Pre-K.

Home to Plymouth, Indiana — population 9,960 — and a half-century-old blueberry festival that contends to be the state’s largest four-day festival, the county signed up just eight 4-year-olds so far, according to numbers provided by the state.

“It’s kind of sad,” said Carey Weir, owner and director of Carey’s Child Care Inc. in Plymouth. “We hyped it up, and there’s interest from the providers’ side, but I think just getting the parents to know about it is our dilemma right now.”

Carey’s Child Care, which Weir said does not have any 4-year-olds enrolled through On My Way Pre-K, is among just a handful of approved providers in Marshall County. At least one local provider dropped out of the program because of concerns about the amount of work to meet requirements.

Some providers also say they’re unsure how to guide families through the application process, which includes scheduling an in-person appointment with an intake agency.

“I don’t want to eliminate a segment of our population who really lack resources, just because they also lack resources to follow through with the process for applying,” said Christine Cook, principal of Triton Elementary School in Bourbon, which is gearing up to start offering On My Way Pre-K. “I think that it could be easier for families.”

At Max’s Playhouse in Culver, owner Brandy Pohl said she sought out clients who were eligible for On My Way Pre-K. She thinks the best way that families will find out about the program is through word of mouth — so she’s hoping the six On My Way Pre-K students enrolled this year will result in more in the future.

“I just think it’s going to take time and branding for the families to realize that On My Way Pre-K is an option for them,” Pohl said. “But I absolutely think the rural counties need it. I just think we have a harder hill ahead of us.”

Indiana won a $7M federal grant for early childhood education. Here’s how it will be spent

2019-01-08T19:06:09+00:00

Indiana won a nearly $7 million federal grant to improve its early childhood education system, the state announced Tuesday.

The state will use the one-year grant to improve the quality of early childhood programs and identify gaps in services for low-income families and in rural areas, officials said. The grant will also help the state plan for expanding On My Way Pre-K, its pre-Kindergarten voucher program for 4-year-olds from low-income families, the state said in a news release.

While early learning advocates have called for a statewide pre-K expansion, Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb said last month that he thinks the state can reach more children with the $20 million it already spends annually on the program. He suggested increasing pre-K funding in 2021.

Indiana had originally applied for nearly $10 million from the federal program, and it’s unclear why the state was awarded less, said Indiana Family and Social Services Administration spokeswoman Marni Lemons. But she noted that several other states also received smaller grants than what they requested.

The grant has opportunities to apply for additional funding in coming years.

Indiana seeks $10 million federal grant to find gaps in early childhood education

2018-11-29T21:59:00+00:00

Even though Indiana has been increasingly investing in early childhood education, the state still faces big challenges in how it serves its littlest students — and leaders are hoping a federal grant will help change that.

Too many poor children in rural areas, children in foster care, and children ages birth to 3 don’t have access to high-quality preschools, state leaders and early learning advocates fear. Families often don’t understand their choices. Health care and social services agencies often don’t know how to connect families with preschools. Preschool workers often don’t have enough training.

“Sometimes we’re not as knowledgeable as we’d like to be about where those gaps exist for those families,” said Nicole Norvell, director of Indiana’s Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning.

To identify and address the gaps, Indiana is applying for a nearly $10 million federal Preschool Development Grant. The plan, submitted to the federal government earlier this month, would cost about $14 million, with help from about $4 million in matching state dollars.

Up to 40 states could receive awards. It’s uncertain when states will hear back about their applications, but it could be as early as the end of December.

The federal grant is specifically aimed at planning and assessing needs, not necessarily for directly funding additional preschool seats. Indiana is proposing to look at how the different pieces of its early childhood landscape fit together, crafting a strategic plan while improving the quality of preschool providers and workers.

“Indiana, like every other state, is struggling to build an effective system of care and education for children birth to 5,” said Maureen Weber, president and CEO of Early Learning Indiana. “I think this grant could go a long way.”

Weber and other early learning advocates are also pushing for Indiana to expand its pre-Kindergarten program, known as On My Way Pre-K. The state invested $22 million this year in vouchers for low-income families to pay for their 4-year-olds to attend high-quality pre-K. The city of Indianapolis, with private partnership dollars, added $40 million over five years to pay for pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds from low-income families.

“One of our greatest challenges is that too many Hoosiers lack the education and skills for available jobs and the jobs of the future,” Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb wrote in the application. “The opportunity to devise a comprehensive strategic plan that supports the early childhood education system is an integral step to building capacity so that young Hoosiers are prepared for elementary school and beyond.”

Here are some of the areas Indiana plans to address, according to the grant application:

Increase opportunities for infants and toddlers.
Smooth the transition to kindergarten.
Bring together local preschool providers so they can share resources and strategies.
Better support foster families seeking child care.
Increase family engagement efforts.
Improve training to better understand how to work with families who are culturally and linguistically diverse.
Train partner agencies on safe sleep, and train child care workers on addressing the needs of children and families who have experienced trauma.
Incentivize local and regional agencies to support early childhood programs in their areas.
Increase the number of top-quality preschools.

Indiana faces a tight budget in 2019, lawmakers say. Will expanding pre-K be in the cards?

2018-11-19T22:08:41+00:00

Nearly every time the state prepares to craft a new two-year budget plan, Indiana lawmakers warn it will be difficult to balance different funding priorities. But 2019 could be especially tough, they say, since the bulk of new revenue could already be earmarked to assist children affected by the opioid crisis.

Extra resources for preschool and teacher raises are among the areas competing for the remaining funds.

“This is going to be a puzzle that we’re going to have to solve together,” said House Speaker Brian Bosma at a panel discussion hosted by the Indiana Chamber on Monday.

Bosma, a Republican from Indianapolis, said the state anticipates about $325 million to $350 million in new revenue for the next two-year budget cycle, which begins in 2019. But, he said, $275 million could potentially be earmarked for the Department of Child Services to help stem its growing caseload and staffing needs in light of Indiana’s opioid crisis.

That leaves little for new projects, such as raising teacher salaries or improving school safety resources, or expansion of existing ones, such as preschool. Half the state’s budget is generally set aside to fund schools and districts, parceled out based on a formula that factors in a school’s demographics, special education needs, and more. For the past few budgets, lawmakers have given modest increases to schools, around 2 percent.

But that doesn’t include preschool, which is funded separately as a line item. Bosma on Monday expressed some uncertainty that the program can be expanded in the way pre-K advocates have called for — requests that have ranged from adding more counties to pushing it statewide. Known as On My Way Pre-K, the program so far has cost $22 million per year and is available in 20 counties. Currently, about 4,000 4-year-olds from low-income families use grants from the program to attend a high-quality pre-K provider of their choice.

“I’m very open to expanding it, as long as the focus is on the people who can’t afford the programs themselves,” Bosma said. “The problem is, this is going to be a more difficult budget year than many are aware of … expanding the program right now might be difficult.”

Republican and Democrat leaders, from the House and Senate, said Monday that they supported an expansion of the state’s preschool program. It’s an issue that has seen broad bipartisan support, with lawmakers approving an increase in 2017.

Gov. Eric Holcomb and state Superintendent Jennifer McCormick have come out in support of expanding access to strong preschool programs, particularly in rural areas and to ensure students are prepared for kindergarten.

In the past, lawmakers have been skeptical about how much to spend on the pre-K pilot program, but each year has seen incremental increases in funding, with the number of counties quadrupling since its start.

Bosma suggested the state might have to look to other funding sources, such as ones at the federal level.

Earlier this year, Indiana applied for a federal Preschool Development Grant, which can be used to conduct a statewide needs assessment and coordinate existing federal, state, and local programs that serve children from birth to age 5, according to the grant description. Up to 40 states and territories will receive awards between $500,000 and $10 million, which are expected mid-December.

Lawmakers have also been in talks about how money could be set aside for raises for teachers and other educators. But it’s unclear how much of a pay hike is on the table or how the dollars would get from the state to teacher paychecks. Bosma said there’d be more details later this week and when lawmakers come back for session to begin in January.

Most of Indiana is a licensed child care ‘desert’ for infants and toddlers, new report says

2018-10-31T04:01:32+00:00

Most of Indiana has a severe shortage of licensed child care for infants and toddlers, meaning the state’s youngest children potentially lack options for early learning during a critical time in their development, according to a report released Wednesday by the Center for American Progress.

In Indiana, the capacity of licensed child care centers and homes only covers 12 percent of the state’s 245,000 infants and toddlers, the report said. Or, to put it another way, there are more than eight infants and toddlers for every licensed child care spot.

The shortages are more pronounced in rural and lower-income areas, according to the report from the left-leaning, Washington, D.C.-based public policy research and advocacy organization.

“It’s the most important time for these kids in terms of their development and in terms of their ability to set themselves up for quality learning environments later on in preschool and elementary school,” said study co-author Rasheed Malik, senior policy analyst for early childhood policy.

One of the most severe shortages outlined in the report is in Adams County, southeast of Fort Wayne along the Ohio state line, where licensed child care providers have only 18 spots for the county’s 2,058 infants and toddlers.

Not every infant and toddler needs child care, and not every family will choose a licensed option. But these “child care deserts,” as the report calls them, can limit families’ access to early childhood programs where children’s interactions with caregivers “have long-term effects that lay the groundwork for healthy socio-emotional regulation, learning ability, and resilience,” the report said.

For working families, the shortage can also make it difficult to find child care while parents are at their jobs.

The report, which uses state data on licensed child care providers, doesn’t include small, unlicensed in-home providers, arrangements with family members, or church preschools.

Still, Malik said even though the report doesn’t capture the full scope of child care in Indiana, it’s a measure for the market that shows a need for more child care options for young children.

Numbers from the Indiana Early Learning Advisory Committee also illustrate a shortage in high-quality programs for the youngest children: While an estimated 160,000 children ages 0 to 2 need care, only 16,000 infants and toddlers are in high-quality programs.

Infant and toddler care can be much harder to find and more expensive than early childhood options for 3- or 4-year-olds, costing about $10,000 to more than $11,000 per year, according to the committee’s estimates.

The high costs of providing care for infants and toddlers is likely what fuels the shortage of options, Malik said. In contrast, he said, options for 3- and 4-year-olds are on the rise because of increasing state and local investments in prekindergarten.

Among the Center for American Progress report’s recommendations is greater public investment in child care for infants and toddlers.

“These are our most precious resource, and research has told us every dollar spent there is well rewarded for society,” Malik said.

Indiana lawmakers went to preschool. Here’s what they learned

2018-10-24T22:11:08+00:00

In a preschool classroom, 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children woke up from their naps Wednesday afternoon to greet a crowd of curious state lawmakers.

The classroom at St. Mary’s Child Center in downtown Indianapolis kept the lights dim as some children stayed snoozing peacefully in their cots. Around a tiny table, the earlier risers took out books and talked to the Indianapolis lawmakers who were interested in how prekindergarten can give children a better start in life.

Four-year-old Preciosa opened one of her favorite books. “It’s about a bad seed,” she explained the title and theme to Rep. Cherrish Pryor, pointing to the words “I’m a bad seed,” and turning the page to show Pryor the bad deeds of the striped seed.

“That looks like a watermelon,” said Pryor, a Democrat.

“It’s just a seed, silly,” Preciosa replied.

As Republican Sen. Jim Merritt leaned in to look at the book, Pryor warned him: “Be careful. She’ll correct you.”

What early childhood advocates wanted the seven visiting lawmakers to see was the difference that high-quality preschool can make for children living in poverty, in the hopes that lawmakers will expand access to early learning opportunities next year to more children across the state.

Almost all of the 224 children at St. Mary’s five locations come from poor families. But while research says children in poverty often lag years behind their more affluent peers, executive director Connie Sherman told lawmakers that 83 percent of St. Mary’s children finish preschool ready for kindergarten.

“We believe this is how you change the world,” Sherman said.

She cited statistics on “the cradle-to-prison pipeline” — the likelihood that children in poverty will grow up and go to prison. “Unless something happens along their trajectory, that’s their destiny,” Sherman said.

Early childhood education can be the intervention that changes that trajectory, she said. It can be the place, she said, where young children who have lived through trauma — such as being abused, moving in and out of foster homes, or seeing a loved one get shot — can feel safe and develop critical skills.

Sherman showed off the students’ artwork and explained their investigation into ants, when they tried to catch their own ants from outside to put inside an ant farm. They spend as much time outside as possible, she said, because it isn’t always safe for them to play outside at home.

“This, I believe, could help give kids a fighting chance,” said Republican Sen. John Ruckelshaus. “This is beyond numbers. This is the human element.”

Similar visits have been playing out across the state for months, arranged by lobbyists and advocates pushing to expand Indiana’s voucher program to help poor families pay for high-quality pre-K. While pre-K is a bipartisan issue with many supporters in the legislature, expansion has been deliberate, incremental, and a question of how much lawmakers are willing to spend.

When lawmakers consider pre-K funding in January, Sherman wants them to think about how nap time used to be the most difficult time of day at St. Mary’s. The children would scream, cry, and even hit staff members when nap time came around.

“Of course,” Sherman recalled an expert telling her, “because children who come from trauma and adversity, they’re scared to close their eyes.”

So St. Mary’s began washing blankets in lavender, gave children lavender-scented yarn balls to hug, played a soothing sound machine, and taught the children a rhythmic exercise to tap their fingers and rock their bodies to sleep.

“For some of them, it may be the best sleep they get,” she said.

On the tour of the classrooms, Pryor stood up after reading the book with 4-year-old Preciosa. The room was buzzing with children, teachers, and politicians and lobbyists who stood around chatting. But she looked over at a corner and noticed that one child was sleeping through it all, curled up on a cot with a little blue blanket.

How one small Indiana city sees child care as a potential economic driver

To fund pre-K, advocates in Indiana pitch tax credit scholarships, ‘pay for success,’ tax hikes

2018-10-16T16:00:10+00:00

Early childhood education advocates are suggesting new ways for the state to fund prekindergarten — by bringing in investments from local communities and corporations.

In a new report released Tuesday by the Indiana University Public Policy Institute and Early Learning Indiana, advocates recommended the state look into tax credit scholarships, social impact bonds, food and beverage tax revenues, or local referendums to pay for expanded pre-K access.

“I don’t think it should be shouldered just by the government or by the private sector alone,” said Madeleine Baker, CEO of the Early Childhood Alliance in Fort Wayne, who co-chaired the report’s advisory board. “I think there needs to be partnership across the board. Everybody has to have skin in the game.”

Tuesday’s report kicks off a renewed campaign to expand early childhood education in Indiana, which is shaping up to be a budget battle in the upcoming legislative session that starts in January.

It could be fairly easy for the state to launch tax credit scholarships for pre-K programs, since Indiana already spends $14.5 million on the school choice strategy. Businesses and individuals receive a 50 percent tax credit on donations to scholarship funds for students from low- and middle-income families to cover the cost of private school tuition in grades K-12.

With social impact bonds — often called “Pay for Success” models — private investors contract with the government to provide money up-front for early childhood initiatives, which is paid back if the programs are successful. Illinois, along with Idaho and Utah, uses the strategy.

Passing a local property tax increase or an option income tax is an increasingly popular option for funding early childhood education with long-term revenue. But raising taxes is a tough sell in Indiana, and likely more so in the state’s rural areas.

An effort to pass a local referendum for early childhood education in Indiana has failed before. In Columbus, voters refused to back a referendum in 2012 that would have supported a public-private partnership widely pointed to as a success.

The other new ideas for funding streams — tax credit scholarships and social impact bonds — also come with trade-offs, said Bruce Atchison, principal of early learning for the Education Commission of the States.

“If you have a big corporation that’s going to put half a million dollars into that, that’s great,” Atchison said. “But when the corporation moves from the state or has a downturn in profits, it might not be so willing. So the long-term sustainability of the social impact bond piece becomes a concern.”

While the report did not include a big-picture estimate for how much more money the state should spend on pre-K, it did put a price tag on the cost of not investing in early childhood.

Employers in Indiana lose $1.8 billion each year from workers taking time off or leaving their jobs because of child care issues, the report said. Those absences are equivalent to losing 31,000 full-time employees and result in costs to businesses for paying for parents’ time off, hiring and training new workers, and paying for overtime or temporary workers.

The report also said the state loses $1.1 billion in economic activity each year from people reducing their spending if they lose out on wages because of child care issues.

It’s a popular argument in support of pre-K: Early childhood education benefits the workforce, both this generation and the next. Advocates say increasing high-quality pre-K seats helps parents stay or get back into the workforce while preparing young children with essential skills.

“Economic development speaks to Republicans,” said former Indianapolis mayor Greg Ballard, a Republican himself who championed pre-K and co-chaired the advisory board. “I’m hoping they look at these figures and say, hey, maybe that’s something we should be looking at.”

He added that he hopes the ideas for public-private partnerships — which he used to launch Indianapolis’ pre-K program — will also speak to the Republican lawmakers who dominate the legislature.

“I don’t think there’s yet a general understand that this should be done for many reasons, not the least of which is economic development,” Ballard said. “It’s just not in our psyche yet that this is part of who we are as Hoosiers.”

The state’s pre-K program, known as On My Way Pre-K, is in the fourth year of its five-year pilot. At a cost of $22 million per year, it is available in 20 counties and pays for roughly 4,000 4-year-olds from low-income families to attend the high-quality pre-K provider of their choice.

If the state is to continue funding the pre-K program, advocates’ best shot for securing money is in the upcoming session, when lawmakers craft the state’s two-year budget.

Expanding pre-K is likely to have the support of Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, who pushed in 2017 for an earlier expansion of the program to more rural areas of the state.

The issue has already won the support of Republican state schools chief Jennifer McCormick, who said earlier this month that too many Hoosier children enter kindergarten unprepared.

Advocates cite research showing the long-term returns on investment of pre-K and a study showing the success of pre-K in Oklahoma. They even point to research showing where Tennessee’s pre-K program fell short as an example of how important it is to maintain high quality standards for pre-K.

A recent report also showed that universal preschool in Washington, D.C., helped more mothers return to the workforce.

But funding is still likely to be a sticking point: How much money will lawmakers be willing to invest in pre-K?

“In a budget year, everyone has a request for something,” said Tim Brown, general counsel and director of policy for the Indy Chamber, in an interview last month with Chalkbeat.

Advocates say they are still struggling to convince people that pre-K is a worthwhile investment that amounts to more than daycare.

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett, a Democrat, said he believes pre-K has already proved its worth. Researchers have been studying the early outcomes of the state’s pilot program, which is showing both academic gains for children, and an increase in work and education opportunities for parents.

“I think the results of those programs are self-evident, that they do make a critical difference to get our young people off to a great start in life,” Hogsett told Chalkbeat recently. “So I hope that those results will speak volumes as the legislature crafts its next biennial budget.”

Mike Pence passed up a big federal preschool grant. Now Indiana could have a second shot

2018-08-14T20:46:05+00:00

Four years ago, then-Gov. Mike Pence created an uproar when, at the last minute, he nixed Indiana’s chance for up to $80 million in federal dollars to develop the state’s fledgling public prekindergarten program.

But later, as On My Way Pre-K grew, Pence acknowledged that the federal grant could be “a good fit.” And now, Indiana could have another shot at those dollars.

The application for the next round of the federal preschool grant was expected to open Tuesday. Early childhood education advocates, who are pushing again to expand On My Way Pre-K, are watching to see if Indiana’s current governor, Eric Holcomb, will pursue the funds — which could be a key piece of making pre-K more broadly available across the state.

“It’s high time our state caught up with the rest of the nation,” said Ann Murtlow, president and CEO of the United Way of Central Indiana, one of the state’s most influential supporters of early childhood education. “Surely federal grant funding could make a significant impact in providing much-needed high-quality pre-K for low-income 4-year-olds in our state.”

Holcomb, who has been supportive of pre-K expansion, hadn’t decided whether Indiana will apply for the federal grant, a spokeswoman wrote in an email last week. His office was waiting to see the details of the grant’s requirements in the application.

Some of the political fight around the expansion of pre-K in Indiana has died down since Pence took his stand, in part because of the progress of On My Way Pre-K. But Holcomb will likely still have to weigh similar tensions: How much should Indiana invest in pre-K, and how quickly?

The federal Preschool Development Grant could be used to craft Indiana’s game plan for expanding early learning opportunities, by conducting a statewide needs assessment and coordinating existing federal, state, and local programs that serve children from birth to age 5, according to the grant description.

In that way, this version of the grant is significantly different from the one Pence walked away from. In the past, in other states, the grant funded thousands of new and improved pre-K slots or created new programs.

Pence had initially backed out of the federal grant application in 2014, saying he had concerns about “strings” that could come with it. “When it comes to early childhood education, I believe Indiana must develop our own pre-K program for disadvantaged children without federal intrusion,” a statement from his office said at the time.

Two years later, Pence changed his stance, reaching out to federal authorities to ask about the next opening for the grant. Pence said he felt the state had built the supports to further expand the program. He explained that, in pushing for Indiana to launch a public pre-K program, he had promised lawmakers to “not expand the program until we saw evidence that it was working.”

But one expert says the federal grant still could have helped Indiana take steps to improve pre-K quality, particularly with instruction and curriculum, and that the infusion of federal dollars wouldn’t have necessarily forced a fast expansion.

“Indiana really missed out on the initial opportunity to focus on quality, to start small and then put some dollars in place over subsequent years to be able to build on that and expand,” said Laura Bornfreund, director of early and elementary education policy at New America, a think tank.

In the new round of this grant, up to 40 states and territories will receive awards between $500,000 and $10 million to conduct a statewide needs assessment, develop a strategic prekindergarten plan, maximize parental choice, and improve the quality of programs. States have until Oct. 15 to apply, and the funds — almost $250 million in total — would be awarded in mid-December.

On My Way Pre-K, the state’s program for 4-year-olds from low-income families, currently serves about 4,000 children in 20 counties. About three years into the program, state lawmakers roughly doubled the amount of funding for the program to $22 million this year. That doubled the number of students served each year and expanded the program’s reach to more parts of the state.

The city of Indianapolis, with corporate and philanthropic matching dollars, is spending $40 million over five years to fund pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds from low-income families. Indiana also has federal Head Start and Early Head Start programs that last year served about 14,000 children from low-income families, and the federal Child Care and Development Fund program helps nearly 32,000 children receive care.

Advocates say they want to see continued expansion with a focus on quality. Early Learning Indiana, an advocacy organization, estimates that about 160,000 children ages 3 to 5 years old need some type of care because their parents are working. Just a small fraction of all preschool-aged children in Indiana — about 15 percent — are enrolled in high-quality care, the group said.

While Indiana has made strides toward improving early childhood education, parts of the state still lack access to high-quality preschool, said Early Learning Indiana director of public affairs Jeff Harris.

“Indiana has done a nice job of really focusing on quality,” he said. “It’s a matter of growing it strategically and responsibly to make sure we have those high outcomes.”

Correction: August 15, 2018: An earlier version of this story inaccurately stated that the grant application process opened Tuesday. That was the original schedule, but it was then pushed back.

How much do children benefit from preschool? Ask this Indianapolis kindergarten teacher

2018-07-27T00:14:28+00:00

On the first day of school Thursday, 5-year-olds trickled into Mandy Sequin’s kindergarten class at Stout Field Elementary School on the westside of Indianapolis.

Some children had just stepped off the school bus for the first time, toting backpacks. Others said goodbye to teary parents who dropped them off. One little boy was crying, and many of his classmates seemed to be taking in the newness of the whole situation with awe and apprehension.

Ready or not, here they were.

Already, some of the 5-year-olds are ahead of the others. In Sequin’s class of 17 — it will likely grow throughout the year, as more students enroll — at least eight attended preschool, which educators and researchers say gives them an edge in school.

In the growing conversation about expanding early learning opportunities in Indiana, a central question is: Is preschool worth it? As policymakers consider the outcomes of limited city and state pre-Kindergarten programs, many want to see proof of how well preschool prepares children for kindergarten. Some remain skeptical of the gains, even as early childhood education advocates point to studies showing the benefit of preschool many years on.

But with 18 years of teaching experience, Sequin says she often can clearly see the differences between preschool graduates and those who didn’t go to preschool, as soon as they come into the classroom.

“The first thing it helps with is learning school, so we don’t have to spend as much time on that,” Sequin said, explaining that preschool graduates often already understand how classrooms work and how they’re supposed to behave. “We can jump right into the academic part of it. And then also, it helps get them further.”

Children may get a head start on academics in preschool, but the behavioral piece — knowing how to transition into the classroom — is the greatest advantage that preschoolers have, said Michael Conn-Powers, director of the Early Childhood Center at the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community.

“We’ll teach them to read, we’ll teach them the math and the science — but children have to have the social-emotional skills to know how to sit and pay attention and follow the rules, and be able to take turns and take care of themselves,” he said.

As the first few students settled into Sequin’s classroom Thursday morning, they followed her instructions to pick a chair and hang their backpacks on it. Two former preschoolers took her directions to sit on the carpet in the middle of the room to watch “Daniel Tiger” cartoons.

A boy who didn’t go to preschool sat down, then got up. He wandered to the classroom’s book corner, then went back to his seat and put on his backpack. Sequin reminded him twice to sit down. He asked to use the bathroom. He clapped his hands. He lifted up his shirt. He chattered to himself.

It may have just been first-day nerves, but throughout the morning, he struggled to sit still and pay attention to instructions. Sequin, who knows she will have to teach some students basic behavioral expectations from scratch, redirected him gently.

Good preschools can teach young students how to adapt to new settings, a valuable lesson that Conn-Powers said children can’t get at home or in unstructured preschools.

“It’s not like a child is automatically penalized if they didn’t go to preschool, but there might be a transition period where they are getting used to being in a group of 20 kids, and learning to have to follow the guidelines and the rules and the expectations of a brand-new adult, who’s a stranger,” he said.

Still, educators acknowledge that going to preschool doesn’t always result in a more ready child with better long-term gains, and in turn, not going to preschool doesn’t count a child out. And children will grow at their own paces throughout kindergarten.

Sequin’s class reflects that mix: Two boys who didn’t have preschool experience wanted to speak up when they were supposed to be quiet — but so did a boy who went to preschool, raising his hand to interrupt Sequin while she was talking to the class.

“Can I tell you something?” the boy said. “I don’t know how to count to 100.”

“It’s a good thing you’re here, because we’re going to learn that this year!” Sequin told him.

One of the boys who went to preschool looked bewildered, but sat with two other students he knew from last year. Another boy who went to preschool stayed quiet and wouldn’t stand when the rest of the class was dancing to a song about movement. But he helped clean up the classroom after breakfast when Sequin looked to him as a helper.

In contrast, Macee McGee, a girl who didn’t go to preschool, was talkative and engaged. She pointed to the number 3 and spotted her name on a wall. She seamlessly blended in during reading time and when it was time to walk quietly through the hall.

Naturally inquisitive, she had been working on reading skills at home with her big sister, Macee’s grandfather Clarence McGee said.

“She knows what to expect,” he said.

But some children need more of a push. Amora Lasan’s parents enrolled her in preschool because they were worried when it took her a long time to start talking, and she wasn’t understanding numbers easily.

“We wanted her to get an early start,” said her father, Allen Lasan. “A lot of people wait until kindergarten.”

Amora graduated from preschool knowing how to write her first and last names with proper capitalization, a skill that kindergartners are expected to master by the end of the year.

Like several others in her class, Amora went to preschool last year at Stout Field Elementary, a full-day program for about 20 students, targeted at low-income families and accepted based on need, said Principal Tim Wickard. Overall, about 86 percent of students throughout the school last year came from lower-income families, according to state data.

Some of her kindergarten classmates attended Wayne Township’s preschool programs, which include developmental preschool for students with special needs.

But access to quality preschool remains limited. Early learning advocates say there aren’t enough high-quality preschool options, public or private, and they estimate tens of thousands of Hoosier children from low-income families still lack access to preschool.

The state recently launched a need-based pilot program for pre-Kindergarten, serving about 4,000 4-year-olds across 20 counties. Indianapolis has a similar, complementary program that also includes 3-year-olds.

Experts say preschool has proved to be beneficial especially for children of color, children with disabilities, and children learning English as a new language — helping those who are less ready for school to become more ready. Some of the gains come simply from more exposure to school concepts, like literacy. It’s an early intervention and investment that educators hope can mitigate the need for remediation and reduce suspensions down the road.

For many educators, there’s no question that early childhood education is effective. Conn-Powers said the real question lies in quality — the strength of a program’s curriculum to support social-emotional and academic development.

If schools don’t see increased kindergarten readiness, it doesn’t mean preschool “didn’t work,” he said. “It means somewhere along the way, we’ve left something out. We’ve cut corners. We made some mistakes, and so the quality of our preschools are lacking.”

How one small Indiana city sees child care as a potential economic driver

2018-07-06T22:25:32+00:00

In the small city of Crawfordsville, Indiana, Mayor Todd Barton has traced the local workforce shortage back to a surprising problem: the lack of preschools, day cares, and after-school programs.

In his two terms as mayor, he has been pitching and promoting Crawfordsville, a blue-collar city of about 16,000 people that serves as the economic hub for a rural area some 50 miles west of Indianapolis. He has traveled to Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Japan to talk about jobs and try to lure investors. He’s looking to improve the city’s housing, transportation, dining options, and other quality-of-life aspects.

But as he hears from local employers that they can’t find workers to fill hundreds of jobs, particularly in skilled positions, Barton said he also hears from residents that they can’t find or afford somewhere for their children to go while parents are working.

The difficulty of finding child care poses a barrier to wooing new businesses and workers, retaining young professionals, and connecting unemployed adults with jobs.

“We know we have a challenge,” Barton said. “The question is, how much can we impact it?”

So expanding quality child-care options has become Barton’s latest economic development project. And he’s leveraging a popular argument for early childhood education: the workforce benefits.

In Indiana, the burgeoning conversation on early learning hasn’t necessarily been driven by the educational value alone. Thanks in part to a critical push from local businesses, it’s also been about how high-quality prekindergarten can create attractive climates for businesses that want to recruit, help families get back to work and school, and foster the next generation of workers.

“As we’re recruiting folks to come to Indianapolis, the expectation of those who we are recruiting is, ‘Hey, we want our kids in a strong learning environment,’” said Michael O’Connor, director of state government affairs at Eli Lilly and Co. Lilly is among the Indiana businesses that invested in Indianapolis’ pre-K program and also advocated for the state-funded pre-K program for low-income families, known as On My Way Pre-K.

Indiana is spending $22 million this year to provide pre-K to about 4,000 4-year-olds from low-income families in 20 counties. But On My Way Pre-K is still in its early stages, and advocates have estimated 27,000 Hoosier children from low-income families, many in more rural areas like Crawfordsville, lack access to pre-K.

The economic angle will likely play a key role as advocates push to continue funding and potentially look to expand On My Way Pre-K in the 2019 legislative session, a budget-setting year.

The workforce argument for early childhood education is not new, nor is it unique to Indiana. But in this economic-minded Midwestern state, it’s been particularly persuasive in building public investment in pre-K, and raising the profile of early learning opportunities in general.

Showcasing the return on investment in pre-K, O’Connor said, was critical in garnering early support from lawmakers skeptical of the academic value for children and whether early gains would last.

“We had to get past this fundamental belief of, ‘you’re asking us to subsidize day care,’” O’Connor said. “And the way in which we wrestled that was this economic argument.”

In addition to tracking outcomes for children, state officials and researchers at Purdue University are also studying the effects of On My Way Pre-K on families. In the most recent update last October, the state found the program is reaching many children who had not previously been in child care. Slightly more than one-third of surveyed families said their children would not have attended preschool if they hadn’t qualified for On My Way Pre-K.

Parents are also required to be working or in school in order for their children to enroll in On My Way Pre-K. The survey reported that with access to pre-K, some parents were able to find new jobs or start school, increase their work or school hours, stay in a current job, search for a new job, or obtain better shifts at work.

With unemployment rates at a low point in Indiana — 3.2 percent in May, under the national unemployment rate of 3.5 percent — it’s becoming tougher, and more critical, to find new workers. That’s bringing additional interest from employers to pre-K, said Jeff Harris, director of public affairs for Early Learning Indiana, a nonprofit that advocates for early childhood education and runs preschool centers.

“People often say it’s a two-generational strategy, but it’s more,” Harris said, explaining that employers could see smaller benefits, too: fewer absences at work, less turnover of workers, more availability for night classes or other development opportunities.

In Crawfordsville, Barton said local employers are interested in the child-care issue, which they have been discussing at monthly economic development meetings. But many of the city’s largest employers have headquarters elsewhere, making it more difficult to address the issue on the ground.

Chalkbeat could not reach local contacts for comment at some of those businesses, including Penguin Random House, a book publishing company; LSC Communications, a printing company; and Pace Dairy, a dairy processing facility for Kroger.

For Barton, a Republican, his first challenge will be to determine the shortage of child care spaces and the demand for them. He said he plans to look to current providers to expand or improve in quality.

Like many of Indiana’s small and rural areas, Crawfordsville and surrounding Montgomery County simply lack child-care capacity for any ages, let alone high-quality options. Only about a dozen child-care providers in the county are registered with the state, with few on the state’s Paths to Quality rating scale and even fewer in the top quality tiers.

“It would be wonderful to have a lot of day care options and be able to review where you want to send your child based on the quality of the programming, but the reality is there just aren’t many day care options available, period,” said Brandy Allen, director of planning and community development in Crawfordsville. In supporting the economic development effort, she has also shared her personal experience of struggling to find child care.

School leaders say they’re willing to help, but are crunched for funding such efforts.

“We all have early childhood programs or preschools,” said Scott Bowling, superintendent of Crawfordsville schools. “But the limitation there, really – the funding is an issue. I hate that it always has to go back to that, but it always does.”

The state provides some funding for preschoolers with disabilities — but otherwise, districts often dip into their state funding for K-12 to support pre-K or afterschool programs. It’s yet to be seen whether lawmakers will choose to expand and increase funding for On My Way Pre-K, which is not available in Montgomery County.

“The investment that we do make in pre-K is worth it, that’s why we put in the effort. But it’s hard to go too far with that without hurting the K-12 side,” Bowling said.

Similarly, districts are tight on funding for improving the quality of their programs, said North Montgomery Schools Superintendent Colleen Moran.

On My Way Pre-K is an incentive to reach higher quality standards, since the state only allows the funding to go to providers at the top levels of its ranking system, called Paths to Quality.

“We haven’t gone a step further because we don’t have to, and there isn’t any more money to make facilities up to that high 3 or Level 4,” Moran said.

Quality poses perhaps a tougher obstacle than quantity. Supporters like Moran, Bowling, and Barton all want to build quality early childhood programs that go beyond training providers in basic health and safety to providing a planned curriculum that supports child development. Some early learning advocates even say that a low-quality program can be worse than no program at all.

But in a place like Crawfordsville, it’s a struggle to make quality part of the discussion.

In the southeast corner of Montgomery County, Fuzzy Bear Ministry Preschool and Daycare in Ladoga has received several grants to expand and improve in quality. The preschool has moved up to a Level 3, the second-highest rank on Paths to Quality, and is now working toward accreditation in the hopes of rising to Level 4.

Preschool director Kim McVay said improving the quality was “the right thing to do” to better serve children and families. She said she sees an increase in professionalism from teachers, who have received more training.

But as much as she touts the quality of the program — it’s one of just two Level 3 providers in the county — McVay said that’s not usually a deciding factor for families.

“It all comes down, 90 percent of the time, to the bottom dollar,” she said. “If we’re charging more than somebody else — nope, they’re going to go somewhere else.”

Her biggest battle, she said, is educating the community on why it’s important to have high-quality early learning.

“Paths to Quality is not understood as well as it would be in some place like Indianapolis where they have it everywhere,” McVay said. “It’s going to take time. You’re not going to change overnight the mindset that you’re starting out with.”

Text messages, toiletries, and backpacks: Indiana gets creative with pre-K outreach in rural areas

2018-04-30T15:38:14+00:00

In the years since Indiana first launched its need-based prekindergarten grants in 2015, many families have said they were interested — but then never signed up.

Program manager Erica Woodward tried to call to follow up with them. She didn’t hear back.

What she later found out was that many of the parents didn’t pick up phone calls from unknown numbers, thinking they might be creditors.

So this year, she started texting families instead. Many responded to her, and about 15 more of them ended up enrolling in the state’s On My Way Pre-K program.

This is just one of the strategies that the state is using in its critical effort to double the number of students in On My Way Pre-K, which pays for 4-year-olds from low-income families to attend a high-quality pre-K program of their choice for free. After an initial launch three years ago mostly centered around Indiana’s largest cities, the state is spending $22 million to expand the program from about 2,000 to 4,000 children and reach 15 additional counties, many of them rural — which can present a greater challenge to reach families that qualify.

Still, how well this year’s expansion goes will likely set the stage for the future of the five-year pilot program. Advocates and policymakers are carefully tracking the demand for pre-K, the availability of high-quality providers, and the growth of students to see whether the investment pays off.

While the state says it expects to fill the about 4,000 available seats, staff in the new participating counties have needed to get creative about signing up families. While larger cities have seen a crush of families interested in pre-K opportunities, rural counties are working with a pool of far fewer eligible families and providers, who may be unaware the program exists.

“The need for On My Way Pre-K, regardless of whether we hit the target, is there,” said Woodward, program manager for four southern counties.

In rural counties, she said it takes a serious grassroots effort by local community and education organizations to spread the word about On My Way Pre-K. People often think it’s just a new preschool — they may not realize it’s an opportunity for their children to attend high-quality pre-K for free.

Organizers also work to make sure eligible families meet all the requirements of the program. If parents meet the income thresholds but aren’t working or in school, they’re guided to a local community center, community college, or workforce agency.

To entice people to finish the application process, counties are giving away backpacks filled with food or toiletries.

It works with varying results. Already, some counties new to On My Way Pre-K are seeing high interest from families, the state said — potentially more interest than the program can meet.

Pre-K supporters tout the program for giving access to high-quality early childhood education to people who would have otherwise struggled to afford it. It helps parents hold down full-time jobs or go to school. And early reports on the program show it helps children who, at age 4, are already lagging behind their peers.

Even though the state trails behind most of the nation in this area, pre-K is growing slowly and deliberately in order to focus on results and quality during the pilot.

“When the five years are done and we have a full study, we can do an analysis for if we want to do extra funding for the program, and to make sure capacity is out there,” said Dennis Kruse, a Republican who leads the Indiana Senate’s education committee. “We don’t want to have On My Way Pre-K to be watered down by adding too much money too soon, and then it’s not as effective as it was for the first five years.”

The pace frustrates some advocates, who want to see more children benefiting from early learning. While some lawmakers are wary of expanding pre-K because they believe government is stepping into what has traditionally been a family’s role, most lawmakers appear to be on board with On My Way Pre-K, which was spearheaded by Republican governors Mike Pence and Eric Holcomb.

The sticking point would likely come down to money. Expanding pre-K further could be expensive, particularly if the state lifted or loosened the income eligibility rules. Already, the public funding requires a small match from community partners. It’s unknown how pre-K could continue to be funded, though many agree the likely reality would still be a blend of public and private dollars.

Still, three years into the pilot program, one expert notes the state’s investment in pre-K has changed the way many look at early childhood education, particularly in the high-need, low-income communities served by On My Way Pre-K.

“It is changing the nature of preschool from health and safety to high-quality education,” said Susan Adamson, a Butler University assistant professor who focuses on early childhood education.

Consider that before Jackson County became the first rural county to participate in On My Way Pre-K in 2015, it had just two pre-K providers whose quality was recognized by the state for having a curriculum to prepare children for kindergarten. Now, it has 13.

That benefits all students at those providers, not just those enrolled through the state’s program.

Krystal Perry, a single mother working full-time in Columbus, Indiana, started looking for somewhere to sign up her twins for pre-K as soon as they turned 4. She wanted them to be ready for school, and she figured it was better to start early.

“I know they say that pre-K is not a mandatory thing, but they can never learn enough,” Perry, 34, said.

But she worried about the cost, she worried about her children being safe, and she worried about finding a full-time, year-round program.

She found a high-quality, full-day pre-K program that offered scholarships for her twins, and later, she signed up for On My Way Pre-K when it was expanded to her county. She said she hopes that frees up the school’s scholarship dollars for other families.

Her children come home and sing songs, recite days of the week and months in the year, and chatter about colors, shapes, and numbers.

“Being a full-time parent and working full-time, it gets hard and stressful,” Perry said. “Not having to worry about if I’m going to make enough money at work for my kids to be in school, that’s a whole other level of stress relief off my shoulders.”

In Columbus and surrounding Bartholomew County, the state pre-K program offered a chance to build on a longstanding local mission to improve early childhood education, said Kathy Oren, executive director of the Community Education Coalition.

“We want to give every kid an equal shot,” she said. “I think it will increase the number of children that attend pre-K. It will increase the academic outcomes for kindergarten readiness, third-grade reading, and over time, our children will do better. We’ll have more children graduating from high school and going on to gain post-secondary skills.”

But the state program is just one piece of a large issue. While Oren hopes On My Way Pre-K will be successful, she doesn’t expect it to solve all of the county’s needs. Oren said she believes there are still many families in need of affordable high-quality pre-K, and not enough seats at high-quality providers.

“I think it’s always going to be a blended approach in Indiana, and in Bartholomew County, of public-private funding,” Oren said. “But what that exactly looks like, I don’t know.”

Preschool funding for students with disabilities hasn’t changed in Indiana since 1991

2018-04-25T23:23:44+00:00

Indiana preschoolers with disabilities have received the same $2,750 from the state for more than 25 years, even as advocates say the cost to educate them has risen dramatically.

The amount hasn’t changed despite inflation, cost of living increases or statewide attention on preschool, leaving local districts to shoulder the rest of the cost. That means taking money out of already cash-strapped budgets at the expense of things like teacher raises, smaller class sizes and additional programs.

Across the state, 13,066 students qualify for special education preschool services, up from 4,004 in 1991, the earliest available data from the state. At $2,750 per child, that amounts to almost $36 million this year that Indiana is sending to districts.

Read: Why Indiana ranks second to last in the nation for access to its pre-K program

Advocates say that’s not enough and are making a push ahead of next year’s legislative session to demand more funding from the state for the programs.

“We don’t have any districts where the funding matches the expenditures,” said Tammy Hurm, who handles legislative affairs for the Indiana Council of Administrators of Special Education. “It’s something we’ve always advocated for, but we just decided in the last year that it needs to be our primary focus.”

As politicians consider ways that Indiana could increase funding in the wake of declining state revenue, they are turning to the federal government to increase its contribution to the special education preschool program, a no-cost option for families once their children turn 3.

“The federal government has always underfunded their commitment,” said Rep. Tim Brown, chairman of the influential budget-writing House Ways and Means Committee. “That’s why the number has kind of been flat from the state.”

Under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, states are required to offer early education services to students age 3 to 5 who have disabilities. As far back as 1975, federal officials said the goal was to fund 40 percent of the extra costs associated with educating those students. But that promise was never fully kept.

The current funding level for IDEA is 15 percent, and the highest level in recent years was 33 percent after extra funding came in from the recession in 2009. The recently passed federal spending bill did increase funding for developmental preschool grants by $13 million, but split between states, it’s a small boost.

Brown said special education advocates came to him with a request for more special education preschool dollars for 2019, when lawmakers will meet to craft a new two-year budget. Brown said that was the first time he was confronted with the fact that funding had remained flat for so long. It’s on his list of issues to consider next year.

“We made a commitment to these children and this project,” Brown said. “It’s time to look at what the state can do.”

Cate King said much of the learning in her developmental preschool class at IPS School 48 revolves around play.

There’s no specific ask in mind because costs can vary widely. But estimates put together by the Indiana Council of Administrators of Special Education put costs anywhere from $2,800 for students needing just speech and language services to nearly $12,000 if the student needs speech, physical and occupational therapies. The majority of students won’t need such intensive therapies, but the cost of even mild interventions outpace what the state allocates to support them.

The state’s On My Way Pre-K program offers preschool tuition to families of 4-year-olds, but lawmakers have only approved about $74 million for the program since it began in 2015. Students with special needs can qualify for the state preschool program, as long as their families meet the eligibility requirements.

Read: Lawmakers want more research before they spend big on preschool. When it comes to vouchers, there’s no such hesitation.

In Indianapolis Public Schools, where 519 students receive special education services in preschool, the state contributes $1.265 million, and $261,178 comes from federal funds for a total of about $1.5 million. But annually, those students require services that cost upwards of $4.7 million. The extra $3.2 million comes out of the district’s operating fund.

“Some kids may just need speech therapy or occupational therapy, and they’re best served in a typical pre-K setting,” said Brent Freeman, IPS’ director of special education. “But the funding is the same for every pre-K student.”

Freeman said the lack of funding is especially frustrating because the district can see that developmental preschool is helping children learn. While most still leave for kindergarten below the state average for “age appropriate functioning,” according to Indiana’s kindergarten readiness test, 91 percent of the students made big improvements.

“It does justify the investment,” Freeman said. “We know we can grow students, we can help them grow, and yet with the (funding we have), we are still falling short of even state average for kindergarten readiness.”

It’s a domino effect, he said. The more students with special needs fall behind, the less likely it is that they’ll be able to eventually join their peers in typical classrooms. But it’s exactly that participation with general education students that can push them to learn and catch up more quickly in time for third-grade reading and other milestones, Freeman said.

Brayden, a student in Cate King’s developmental preschool class at IPS School 48, works with different therapists as part of his education.

At IPS School 48, Cate King has two half-day classrooms devoted to preschoolers with disabilities. Her students’ needs run the gamut, she said — some just need some extra language support, while others require physical therapy and feeding. It’s her third year at the school, which pulls students from across the city.

On an afternoon this winter, her students spent time reading, doing puzzles, refining scissor skills and playing with trains and boxes. Those activities, especially the playing, aren’t uncommon in any preschool classroom, King said, but for her students there’s more emphasis on using visuals and developing language.

One young boy had grown attached to a brightly colored tablet device. King said tablets and other assistive devices, as they’re called, help students communicate and practice speaking.

Over and over again, the boy practiced his letter sounds and matched letters to pictures.

“Who’s that?” King asked, pointing to Elmo on the screen. “Say Elmo!”

“Elmo!” he repeated.

“Good job,” King said. “Where’s A? Ah Ah Ah.” She makes the sound as he searches for the letter and points to it.

All this work is done in anticipation of his reward: A dance break to a jazzy alphabet song enthusiastically led by Elmo.

Other students build train tracks in the shape of figure-eights and circles, needing a few gentle reminders from King to share the train cars. Much of the day is like this, she said, with a couple 10- to 15-minute whole-group lessons, but mostly, lots of play and smaller activities designed to get the students to improve verbal skills, and learn how to interact with their peers.

King’s students might also get pulled out for other physical or occupational therapy, medical services or support for students who are blind or low-vision.

“It’s not really developmentally appropriate to sit and work much more than we do,” King said. “The bulk of what we do is play, but we are learning.”

Trains are a favorite of King’s students.

King said she has purchased many of the toys and materials in her classroom, and some things were leftover from previous teachers.

“Since I’ve been here, we haven’t had a stipend that we’ve gotten,” King said. “Our school provides paper, crayons, stuff like that, but as far as big stuff, toys … that’s just stuff that I’ve gone to purchase.”

And King’s personal spending isn’t unusual, advocates say. When districts have to dip into operating funds, mostly used to pay for teacher salaries and benefits, there’s just less to go around.

“The trade-off is you can’t give raises,” said Weston Young, chief financial manager for the district. “Eventually that is a self-perpetuating problem because then you can’t attract people and retain them.”

Why Indiana ranks second to last in the nation for access to its pre-K program

2018-04-18T04:02:49+00:00

Indiana ranks second to last in the nation for access to state-funded prekindergarten among states that offer it, according to a new national “State of Preschool” report released Wednesday.

In 2017, the state served just 2 percent of 4-year-olds — or 1,792 students — through its prekindergarten voucher program for low-income families, called On My Way Pre-K. That put Indiana behind all but one of the 44 states that offer state-funded preschool, according to the annual report conducted by the National Institute for Early Education Research.

State leaders noted the state’s recent expansion of pre-K wasn’t reflected in the report. Last year, the Indiana legislature agreed to increase funding for On My Way Pre-K to $22 million, to extend the program into 20 counties and double the enrollment of poor 4-year-olds in the upcoming 2018-19 school year.

“We’re disappointed that the organization missed an opportunity to recognize Indiana for our commitment to doubling the state’s investment in pre-K,” said Marni Lemons, spokeswoman for the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration.

But the expansion is still unlikely to catch Indiana up with the rest of the nation. On average, the report said, preschool programs across the country serve about one-third of states’ 4-year-olds.

“Indiana shows promise with increased funding and 15 additional pilot counties in 2017-18, but it also has far to go,” NIEER Senior Co-Director Steven Barnett said in a written statement. “Indiana should move beyond a pilot program to enable more children to access high-quality early learning experiences.”

Still, the $10 million spent on pre-K prior to the expansion put Indiana in the top 15 for per-student state funding.

On My Way Pre-K was also recognized in the report for requiring providers to prepare students for kindergarten through a planned curriculum, and for analyzing the quality of classrooms and student growth each year and over a five-year study.

But Indiana was rated low in the report for meeting other quality standards — a sharp contrast to the state’s touting of deliberately growing its pre-K program with a focus on access to high-quality providers.

And the report noted that Indiana doesn’t vet pre-K curriculum or require pre-K teachers to have a bachelor’s degree.

Indiana was rated similarly low in this report last year, which was the first time On My Way Pre-K was fully assessed in the report. The state approved the limited pre-K pilot program in 2014, specifically targeting 4-year-olds from low-income families and allowing families to choose from eligible pre-K providers. Initial results of studies by the state, though, show participants are making significant gains.

Across the country, the report found that states are investing less per student, even as they’re serving more children in preschool programs. It highlighted concerns over the quality of programs and whether states do enough for young children who are English-language learners.

These 15 Indiana counties can now join the state’s effort to pay for preschool for poor 4-year-olds

2017-06-07T17:26:01+00:00

Indiana today announced the 15 additional counties that will be able to use state grants allowing low-income 4-year-olds to attend preschool.

The counties were added to the program earlier this year when the Indiana General Assembly voted to nearly double state funding, up to $22 million per year. Now, 20 counties total will be able to take part in the state’s preschool program.

The new counties are Bartholomew, DeKalb, Delaware, Elkhart, Floyd, Grant, Harrison, Howard, Kosciusko, Madison, Marshall, Monroe, St. Joseph, Tippecanoe and Vigo.

Allen, Jackson, Lake, Marion and Vanderburgh counties will continue to participate. Their programs began in 2015 when the state first voted to fund preschool.

According to Gov. Eric Holcomb’s office, preschools in the additional 15 counties can begin enrolling students in the state program in fall 2018, though limited enrollment could begin as early as January 2018.

Counties were chosen based on how many students would be eligible and whether the county was considered rural or urban, among other factors. The law instructed the state to prioritize rural counties.

Read more about how lawmakers expanded the state preschool program here, and see the rest of their education policy decisions this year here.

New preschool compromise plan would add 15 counties, expand voucher access

2017-04-20T23:02:55+00:00

Lawmakers have arrived at a tentative compromise for how to expand Indiana’s preschool program, and it includes controversial proposals to expand vouchers and online learning.

Under the compromise plan, 15 additional counties would be included in the state’s preschool program — up to 20 from the current five. The cost of the expansion will likely be unclear until early Friday, but House Speaker Brian Bosma said it will be closer to the $10 million per year increase called for by the House than to the $4 million increase proposed by the Senate.

This year’s debate over preschool has been heated. Bosma and other Republican leaders, including Gov. Eric Holcomb, have come out strongly for expansion, while others, notably Senate Appropriations chairman Luke Kenley, a Republican from Noblesville, have been more skeptical of spending money on a program still being studied by the state.

For many Democrats, the two Republican plans don’t add nearly enough money for early education. Preschool advocates, who have lobbied for spending $50 million per year, tend to agree.

None of the counties in the existing preschool program — Allen, Jackson, Lake, Marion and Vanderburgh — would receive less funding than they did last year unless the number of students or preschool providers have decreased significantly. But going forward, rural counties would be prioritized, said Rep. Bob Behning, the bill’s author.

To qualify for Indiana’s preschool program, a family of four still couldn’t earn more than $30,861. But in the original five counties only, families of four making up to $44,863 could apply if all the lower-income families who were interested already received grants and there was funding left over.

Controversial language allowing a new voucher “pathway” remains in the bill, but in a more limited fashion, Behning said. If a child used a preschool scholarship to go to a program at a private school that accepts vouchers, they could then automatically receive a voucher for kindergarten if they stay at that same school. Behning said about 171 kids now attend 24 voucher-accepting schools with preschool programs, and of those, just six kids would be eligible to continue with a voucher for kindergarten.

The plan also includes specific requirements for parents receiving vouchers, including how often their children will attend preschool and that they will read to their children every week. It’s not clear how such measures would be enforced, but parents would have to agree before they could get a preschool scholarship.

The compromise plan would also allow families who use an “in-home” online preschool program to be reimbursed for their costs. The state would agree to study these online programs, and priority would be given to parents of children who live in counties with no high-quality preschool providers.

The compromise proposal still must receive final approval from the House and the Senate, which is expected later this week.

How a computer program designed for home-based preschool in Utah could get a piece of Indiana’s education budget

2017-04-06T17:46:43+00:00

Indiana lawmakers are moving ahead with a proposal that would spend several million dollars over the next two years expanding preschool. But $2 million of that wouldn’t be spent on classrooms, teacher salaries or picture books.

Instead, it would give parents access to software that claims to get kids ready for kindergarten in “just 15 minutes a day.”

The unusual proposal — which might not survive the contentious budget-writing process — is part of an ongoing debate about how to expand education for Indiana’s youngest students. Indiana already grants low-income families vouchers to use at preschools in five counties, including Marion County. But that program serves fewer than 1,600 kids, and demand far exceeds supply.

To help, Senate lawmakers are discussing how to add funding for both traditional preschool and an online program. But educators and preschool advocates say they aren’t convinced that any software will meet the needs of the poor children that Indiana says need preschool most.

“I can see how a good online program, guided by family in the home, can supplement high-quality pre-K, but it certainly is not a substitute,” said Ted Maple, president of Early Learning Indiana, a non-profit child care provider and advocacy organization. “A skilled preschool teacher would design activities that encourage children to work together, learn how to be part of a classroom community.”

Read: What makes a preschool great: 4 things parents should look for

Upstart, a software program developed by the Utah Department of Education and the nonprofit Waterford, is at the center of the proposal. The program’s website claims that Upstart “prepares children for kindergarten in just 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week.”

Parents and children work for a year with the software, which adapts its instruction based on a child’s progress. The focus is on literacy: letters, vocabulary, basic grammar and sounding out words. Upstart also provides people to check in with the family if they have questions or if attendance falls below a certain level.

Utah, South Carolina, and Floyd County in southeastern Indiana already make the software available. Idaho is also considering the program.

According to Utah’s report from 2016, when a little more than 5,000 kids used Upstart, those kids made gains on literacy tests over peers who didn’t use the program. But the children participating were overwhelmingly white, native English-speakers from educated, two-parent households. Half of the Utah families studied made more than 200 percent of the federal poverty rate, which is $48,500 per year for a family of four.

That raises questions about whether its effectiveness will translate to other environments, Maple said, though Upstart says its program has proved effective with a wide range of students. To qualify for Indiana’s preschool program, a family of four can’t earn more than $30,861 annually, and the state has made poor children its top priority as it began subsidizing early education in recent years.

But Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, chairman of the budget-writing Senate Appropriations Committee, said the $2 million investment in “in-home education” would allow Indiana to reach 1,000 more students, potentially in rural areas where preschool options are more limited.

Across the state, just 36 percent of 3- and 4-year-olds are in preschool at all. And nine Indiana counties do not have a preschool provider that is deemed “high quality,” so residents couldn’t participate in the state voucher program even if it was expanded.

Sen. Travis Holdman, R-Markle, noted that the online option would also come at a lower cost. If families already have access to computers, the program would cost the state $1,000 per year, or $2,000 if a computer needed to be provided. That’s far less than the $6,800 full-day and $2,500 half-day preschool grants that the state’s current program typically doles out.

But Holdman also said that the online program doesn’t align with Indiana’s specifications for safety and academics for high-quality preschools.

During an impassioned debate on the Senate floor on Wednesday, Sen. Mark Stoops, D-Bloomington, voiced extreme skepticism about the online program given research showing the benefits of preschool.

“We’re funding (preschool) at a $4 million increase,” Stoops said. “But then we’re taking $1 million of that and we’re applying that to a really untested, kind of strange, virtual homeschool program.”

Kenley, just as strongly, disagreed.

“Your argument that we have studied this to death and we know with absolute certainty that this is the silver bullet that solves all of our problems,” he said. “I don’t think is a foregone conclusion.”

The Senate’s proposal also comes as schools across the country continue to struggle with online education. Kenley himself acknowledged there were issues with virtual schools when he presented his budget plan late last month, which limited funding for virtual schools serving older students compared to the House’s plan.

Today, the Indiana Senate passed its version of the two-year budget, which will head to conference committee for more debate. If the online preschool plan makes it into a final bill, it’s unclear if it will be opposed by Gov. Eric Holcomb, who has said he is “open-minded” about the online education option. But he wants to make sure that the state is investing money in traditional options as well, he said.

“This is a worthy discussion that the Senate has put forward, the in-home option,” Holcomb said. “We need to be increasing the quality facilities that we have throughout the state.”

Push for major preschool expansion increasingly unlikely to go through in Indiana

2017-04-03T17:39:56+00:00

Preschool advocates, both in Indianapolis and across the state, have pushed for big funding boosts this year to grow the state’s program for low-income families. But as the session winds down, it seems less and less likely that anything but a modest increase could become reality.

Gov. Eric Holcomb reiterated on Friday his support for expanding the number of kids served by Indiana’s preschool program, a position that is at odds with the much smaller proposal that passed the Senate last week.

“Most important for me is that we double the number of students that have access to preschool,” Holcomb said. “How we get there, I’m willing to be open-minded about it.”

How to expand the state’s preschool program, which provides grants for 4-year-olds from low-income families, has been a key education issue during the 2017 session. Some lawmakers have called for major increases, while others have been skeptical about whether further investment is prudent.

The Indiana Senate put its support behind an amended version of House Bill 1004, which would allow all of the state’s 92 counties to participate. The original House plan also only expanded the program to up to 10 counties.

But in the Senate’s budget proposal, also released last week, only $4 million per year would be added to the program, bringing it up to about $16 million per year, rather than the $10 million increase that Holcomb and House Republican leaders have encouraged since the year began.

The Senate version also puts extra restrictions on parents, requiring they be employed, in job training or actively looking for a job before their child could receive a preschool grant. The bill even goes as far as requiring parents agree to certain attendance rates and to read to their kids each week. It’s unclear how such provisions would be enforced.

Another major change to the preschool plan is that it no longer has any language that would expand the state’s voucher program to children who receive a preschool grant, a big point of contention earlier in the session when the bill passed the House.

The preschool bill is likely headed back to lawmakers so the House and Senate can work out differences before it can move to the governor. Lawmakers have a little less than three weeks to come to a compromise.

A key preschool proposal has moved closer to becoming law, but House Republicans and Democrats aren’t happy vouchers would be part of the deal

2017-02-07T22:23:15+00:00

Although some Republican lawmakers said they were conflicted, a key preschool proposal — which includes controversial voucher provisions — passed the full House today.

House Bill 1004 would expand the state’s preschool program from five to 10 counties and loosen income requirements to allow more families to participate. Preschool providers could also apply for grants — which would be matched by local philanthropies — to establish programs or expand existing ones.

The part of the bill some legislators took issue with would let families who get a state preschool scholarship also receive a voucher for kindergarten, meaning they could access the state’s taxpayer-funded voucher program sooner than rules currently allow.

Rep. Wendy McNamara, R-Mount Vernon, said she’s consistently voted against bills that would expand Indiana’s voucher program, and this bill ties her hands by putting vouchers right alongside preschool. She ultimately voted for the bill, but she said if the voucher language came back to the House for a final vote at the end of session, she might change her mind.

“The way this particular bill is written is forcing me to make a choice between changing the lives of kids in exponential ways and between something that I have consistently voted against since the first day I’ve been in office,” McNamara said. “I’m going to support this bill unenthusiastically.”

Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis, refused to vote for the bill, calling it “inconceivable” that he would end up voting against preschool. DeLaney said the bill, aside from the voucher pieces, just doesn’t go far enough, which is misleading to the state and angers constituents.

“We pretend it’s a statewide program and it’s not,” DeLaney said today. “We ask taxpayers across the state to pay for a program for some people in five or 10 counties.”

McNamara and a few other Republicans who spoke today voted for an amendment offered earlier this week by Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary, that would have removed the voucher language from the bill. The amendment failed.

“We just start muddying the waters,” said Rep. Kevin Mahan, R-Hartford City, who voted for the amendment to remove vouchers from the bill. “…I have had a handful of people ask me to support vouchers, and I have had thousands ask me to support early childhood education.”

Indiana began its statewide preschool program in 2014, setting aside $10 million per year for low-income families to spend at preschool providers that met safety standards and offered programs that combined academics and child care. The two-year pilot served just five of the state’s 92 counties — Allen, Jackson, Lake, Marion and Vanderburgh.

The counties were chosen based, in part, on how ready they were to start a preschool program, as well as factors that made them “geographically diverse and represent urban and rural areas,” according to a 2015 state report.

The bill passed the House 61-34. It next heads to the Senate, where committee leaders will decide whether to give it a hearing. The Senate’s preschool bill is still awaiting a committee vote.

Everything you need to know about the brewing debate over preschool in Indiana

2016-12-21T13:03:38+00:00

When Indiana lawmakers get back to work next month after a nine-month legislative break, one of their top priorities will be deciding whether more Indiana 4-year-olds should get free preschool tuition.

The state has spent two years trying out a program in a handful of the state’s 92 counties that has provided preschool support to fewer than 1,600 kids, but demand for the program has far exceeded supply.

That has some Indiana officials, including Gov.-Elect Eric Holcomb and incoming state superintendent Jennifer McCormick, calling for an expansion of the program. But it will be up to lawmakers to decide how much money — if any — the state can spare to provide this service to more kids.

With that discussion beginning next month, we’ve compiled some stories to help educators and community members get a handle on the issue.

The basics of early childhood education in Indiana: A new era begins.
Not so fast: Indiana senators worry about cost of expanding preschool
Indiana House speaker calls for a big expansion of preschool support.
Limited funding means thousands of poor Indy kids won’t get preschool scholarships.
Another big push for expanding preschool aid is coming, but Indiana lawmakers remain skeptical.
Indy business leaders promise to fight for preschool for more kids.
As the state and city begin new aid programs, preschools seek to expand.
Surprise! Pence is interested in federal preschool funding after all.

Find more preschool stories from Chalkbeat here.

State Board of Ed: Expand free preschool to more (but not yet all) 4-year-olds

2016-11-16T19:57:17+00:00

The Indiana State Board of Education today joined education advocates, lawmakers and the state’s next top education official in supporting an expansion of free preschool programs for low-income kids.

“Preschool, as all research has shown, gives our schoolchildren a leg up in their education,” said board member Gordon Hendry. “If we’re going to improve, if we’re going to have a significant impact on education in this state … we should expand the early education program.”

The state first launched a pilot program in 2015 that awards scholarships to Indiana’s neediest 4-year-olds to help them attend high-quality public and private preschools. But the popular program, supplemented by a city-supported version, only serves a fraction of kids who qualify. Fewer than half of the 4,200 poor families in Marion County who applied this year are expected to win preschool scholarships.

Board members today approved a resolution calling on the state legislature to expand the program to more poor kids, but they didn’t echo calls from some advocates that the program be expanded for all children. Some board members have said they’d like to see the state go further.

“The same people who question (preschool’s) importance are the ones paying for it for their own children,” said board member Vince Bertram, who was not present for the resolution approval today but supported the resolution in a meeting last month. “We know the results, we know years of research on early childhood education. I think this is a funding issue. We need to stop saying we are piloting this.”

A push to expand preschool to every four-year-old in the state took a hit last week when state Superintendent Glenda Ritz, who had advocated for an ambitious universal free preschool program, lost her re-election bid to Republican Jennifer McCormick, a superintendent from Yorktown.

But McCormick also wants to see preschool expand — as long as priority goes to poor kids who need it most.

McCormick said at a recent debate in Fort Wayne that eventually she wants to have a universal access program by 2020, though her plan would grow the program more slowly than Ritz’s would.

The idea of expanding the pilot program has been gaining steam with major support from civic leaders, who presented their version of a preschool pilot expansion plan to lawmakers this past summer. Lawmakers eventually expressed support for the proposal so long as local philanthropic groups continue to contribute.

The board today also passed a resolution supporting efforts to reduce the costs of textbooks and class materials for families. Ritz has already called for a $1,000 textbook tax credit, but McCormick has said she’s not sure whether any families should be getting a textbook tax break, as it could further reduce state revenue.

“This is something that we feel the legislature should give serious consideration to,” Hendry said. “(They should) explore programs that would limit or eliminate out-of-pocket expenses for all parents and families.”

Indiana is one of eight states in the United States that charges families for textbooks and materials.

Another big push for expanding preschool aid is coming, but Indiana lawmakers remain skeptical

2016-09-28T21:29:49+00:00

There is perhaps more bipartisan support in Indiana for preschool aid than any other education issue, but one key group remains unconvinced that it should expand — the legislature.

That became increasingly clear today when a coalition of business and community groups called on legislators during a meeting of an interim fiscal policy committee to support a plan to expand the state’s preschool pilot program by adding in more state money. An expanded program could support more children to attend more preschools in more counties and help the five counties where the pilot is now — including Marion County — to meet high demand.

The state’s preschool tuition support pilot program, along with a similar program instituted by the city of Indianapolis, “have demonstrated significant demand for high-quality preschool,” said Jay Geshay of the United Way of Central Indiana. “The success of this program makes it clear to us that it’s time to expand.”

But Republicans on the committee are still unsure of the benefits to be gained from state-funded preschool.

“If we’re going to put X number of dollars into preschool, we’re not putting it somewhere else,” said Rep. Todd Huston, R-Fishers. “So what’s the argument to be made about why to make the investment here?”

The proposal would add more state money to pay preschool tuition for poor children and remove requirements that philanthropic groups and business match preschool funding. It would also raise the family income limit to about $44,900 from about $30,000 now, making more children eligible. The proposal did not come with an estimate for how much more it would cost the state.

Indiana lawmakers have long hesitated — or been downright opposed — to ponying up state money for preschool. In 2014, only a last-minute resurrection of a controversial bill made possible the current pilot program, and the $10 million to support it. That took Indiana off a list of just 10 states at the time that provided no direct aid for poor children to attend preschool.

The coalition of preschool advocates, who presented some details of their plan earlier this summer, said there is plenty of data to support the idea that preschool helps kids academically and socially. The presentation included data suggesting that every dollar Indiana spends on preschool would return four times as much in future savings. Preschool reduces the need for some special education, school remediation and juvenile justice expenses, the report said.

“Many kids enter kindergarten without knowing any letters or numbers,” said Connie Bond Stuart, the regional president for PNC Bank and board chair for the United Way of Central Indiana. “They have a difficult time ever catching up.”

Stuart and others said they were asking just for an expansion of what already exists, rather than a bolder move toward a universal state program, which is what state Superintendent Glenda Ritz has proposed.

Still, lawmakers remained unconvinced.

Some referenced a study from Tennessee last year that stunned preschool advocates with its findings that the state’s voluntary preschool program actually scored worse on academic and behavioral measures by third grade. Other studies show high quality preschool leads to long term benefits, such as avoiding jail, higher pay and more stable marriages, later in life.

Some lawmakers also argued the pilot needs more time to show results in Indiana.

“I don’t think we can even measure that yet,” said Sen. Doug Eckerty, R-Muncie. “I can’t with a straight face tell anybody that we have a successful program yet.”

There are some important things to keep in mind before trying to compare Indiana and Tennessee, said Amanda Lopez, a consultant who worked on the coalition’s report. Indiana only awards funding to providers that have earned a level 3 or 4 rating on the state’s four-step Paths to Quality scale. That means the programs meet safety standards and have an academic program.

“The quality standards that Tennessee has are not the same as Indiana’s,” Lopez said. “Tennessee expanded their statewide pre-K program very quickly, where the infrastructure wasn’t really in place … They’re also funded at a much lower rate than in Indiana.”

After the meeting, Michael O’Connor, public affairs manager for Eli Lilly and an Indianapolis Public Schools Board member, said lawmakers need to consider the long-term, even if it seems costly now.

“The legislative officials have to sometimes step outside the boundaries of normal government decision-making,” O’Connor said. “What we’re asking the state to do is to look at this as a an investment.”

Ritz and McCormick agree on Indiana’s need for more preschool — not on how much to spend

2016-08-25T17:23:06+00:00

Most politicians and policymakers in Indiana agree that more kids should have access to good preschools — they just don’t agree on how to fund it.

So it goes for the the two candidates for state superintendent. Both Democrat incumbent Glenda Ritz and Republican Jennifer McCormick support making preschool available to more kids, but differ on how that should happen.

Ritz has campaigned strongly for a “universal” preschool plan, funded with what she anticipates would be $150 million per year from the state’s budget, plus federal and private grants.

READ: Find more on this year’s races for superintendent, governor and IPS school board.

The ambitious program would create more high-quality programs across the state as well as more seats in those programs. Ritz says the plan would ensure that students with the highest needs are ready for kindergarten and that more kids overall are able to benefit from preschool.

“The department will make high quality pre-K available within the boundaries of every school corporation within the state of Indiana by 2020,” Ritz said at a press conference earlier this year. “The funds are there if the political will exists.”

McCormick, who is the superintendent of Yorktown schools near Muncie, takes a more conservative stance when it comes to funding and thinks the state should prioritize students who are struggling or from low-income families rather than offer pre-K to all Indiana four-year-olds.

“I’m just hoping (preschool funding) doesn’t come out of those K-12 monies,” she said. “I’m glad the conversation is happening, but I think we are going to have to be careful on how is that funded, what are those impacts on the local levels, such as facilities and partnerships that are already in those area schools with preschool programs. What data is out there to say are we getting the best bang for our buck?”

McCormick’s approach adheres more closely to what Indiana Republican leaders in the legislature have said they would support heading into the 2017 session. So far, lawmakers, such as Rep. Bob Behning and House Speaker Brian Bosma, both Indianapolis Republicans, have indicated interest in expanding the state’s current preschool pilot program, but have come out against a broader, more expensive plan like Ritz’s.

However, McCormick said at a recent debate in Fort Wayne that eventually she wants to have a universal access program by 2020, the same end-goal as Ritz.

The current pilot program awards preschool scholarships to needy families using a lottery. The program is funded by the state and is supplemented in Indianapolis by a separate program that uses money from the city, businesses and private foundations. Both programs are in high demand. Fewer than half of the 4,200 poor families in Marion County who applied this year are expected to win preschool scholarships.

The current state program covers preschool for 4-year-olds but McCormick said she thinks Indiana should also create programs for kids who are even younger since many language problems and other issues are easier to address with early intervention.

“Are we being reactive or proactive?” McCormick said. “(We need to) do our homework on the root causes of some of the issues we are seeing.”

Both Ritz and McCormick agree that the state should pursue all opportunities for additional federal funding.

In 2014, Gov. Mike Pence faced heavy criticism for rejecting a grant that could have brought up to $80 million to the state’s preschool efforts. Pence, whose conservative fiscal positions helped land him a spot on Donald Trump’s presidential ticket as his running mate, argued at the time that he was worried that Obama administration had attached too many strings to the money.

He has since reversed course, expressing interest in new federal grants.

“That Gov. Pence did not accept money from the federal government was a huge mistake, which I think at the very end of his term he was starting to rectify,” Ritz said. “But you know, you have two or three years of kids that are never going to be that age again that missed out.”

To learn more about preschool in Indiana, check out these stories:

This story has been updated to reflect new details on McCormick’s stance on universal preschool access.

What makes a preschool great: 4 things parents should look for

2016-08-11T20:11:12+00:00

It isn’t always easy to know what’s helping kids learn and what’s a waste of time in a classroom filled with three- and four-year-olds zigzagging around, playing with toys, assembling puzzles, grabbing books off shelves and smacking wet paint brushes on sheets of paper pinned to easels.

But in good preschools, all of those activities, however chaotic they may seem, are targeted at helping kids learn skills they’ll need to be ready to start reading and writing in kindergarten, and to discover the ability to manage their own behavior in a way that will allow them to work well with others.

It takes careful observation for parents shopping for preschools try to discern the good from the bad. So what should they look for?

Experts say little kids mostly learn through play. But as they play, good preschools pay attention to how they interact with others, reinforcing good choices and discouraging others. A simple test is to look at the faces of the kids and the adults: Do they seem happy? A more complicated test is to ask to see if the preschool has specific learning plans for kids at all levels. (The best ones do.)

Making the right choice can boost a young child’s readiness for the fast-approaching start of formal schooling.

“The students in today’s world have to be ready for kindergarten,” said Kenith Britt, dean of the Educators College at Marian University. “If they aren’t ready for kindergarten, the chance of them reading by third grade diminishes significantly just based on the nature of schools. … Early childhood learning gives them the opportunity to be prepared.”

Here are four ways parents can gauge whether a preschool has a quality program:

IF IT LOOKS JUST LIKE SCHOOL, THAT’S A RED FLAG

At Day Early Learning at Eastern Star Church on the eastside of Indianapolis, three-year-old Ra’Jon Whitaker scooped handfuls of dried beans and pasta out of a specially designed, waist-tall bins one morning last week.

There’s not a pencil or paper in sight for this activity.

First with his hands, and then with brightly-colored cups and a small shovel, Ra’Jon scooped and poured the beans. He filled a green funnel full of beans, and his face lit up with an idea about what his creation might be.

He turned and offered the cone to a teacher nearby.

“Here, I made you ice cream,” Ra’Jon said, pretending to lick the top.

That’s how unstructured, but purposeful, play turns into learning. Ra’Jon, with a wide variety of materials and tools at hand, recognized the shape of the funnel as equivalent to an ice cream cone.

“If a parent sees lots of chairs and desks and paper and pencils, that’s a warning sign,” Britt said. “Students need to learn how to play, learn how to communicate. … They need to focus on active learning.”

Playing with dried beans, pasta and other physical toys — like blocks that stack and connect or magnets — help preschoolers better understand their own sense of touch and the physics of the world around them.

“With little ones you can see how their brain works while they play,” said Karen Ruprecht, director of innovation for Early Learning Indiana. “They’re little scientists who are testing out theories and asking, ‘I wonder what will happen if I do this?’”

Preschool students play with beans and dried pasta at a sensory center in a preschool classroom at Day Early Learning at Eastern Star Church.

TIME SHOULD BE TREATED AS VALUABLE

It’s easy for preschools to waste a lot of time. Just ask anyone who has tried to line up a group of little ones for a “quick” trip to the bathroom or water fountain.

Good preschools limit unproductive time and capitalize on it for other types of learning. For example, children can learn to treat each other fairly and resolve disputes, like who has the next turn.

Walking in a line, sitting still and listening to instructions are all skills students need for kindergarten, and good preschools know how to teach them efficiently, said Kendra Thomas, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Indianapolis.

“Students learn to delay gratification, cooperate with others and pay attention,” she said. “All factors that affect a child and their success.”

At Eastern Star, preschool classes stay together in the same room most of the day. Transitions, such as from nap time to group time or to meal time, don’t drag on as children walk from room to room.

Teachers who are good observers use what they learn about students while they play to make connections when they work in groups or one-on-one.

Norma Callahan, the lead instructor in Ra’Jon’s classroom who has been working in childcare since 1989, said group time is where students begin building a foundation for what to expect in elementary school classrooms.

When one of her students, Lauren, chose to play with a puzzle that depicted the numbers 1-10, Callahan watched carefully. Lauren easily identified the numbers in order, but when Callahan began to point at numbers at random, Lauren struggled to name them. Callahan mentally added identifying numbers out of order to strategies she would use later during group learning. It’s an easy way to build on what Lauren and her classmates choose to discover on their own.

“Expanding on their choice is a learning opportunity,” Callahan said. “Expanding on it is what drives group time.”

Teacher Norma Callahan reads a book to her preschool class during group time at Day Early Learning at Eastern Star Church.

KIDS ARE HAPPY WHEN THEY SEE THE SAME FACES

One-on-one connections between teachers and parents can play a huge role in learning.

The way Callahan carefully observed Lauren, for example, and responded to her needs builds trust and bolsters confidence.

So it’s a good sign if a preschool has a track record of treating its staff well and retaining most of its teachers from year to year. A good way for parents to tell a preschool is that sort of place is to simply pay close attention to whether the teachers look like they want to be there.

“Are teachers getting burnt out? Are they happy?” Thomas said. “The program should not have a high teacher turnover rate.”

On average, early educators leave their jobs within two or three years, according to Thomas. They often cite low pay and stress as reasons for leaving. So it’s worth asking about how competitive teacher pay is and what the preschool’s turnover rate is.

“Some of the most important things when raising a child is consistent discipline and warmth from a stable figure,” Thomas said.

Early Learning Indiana carefully monitors teacher morale, said Lisa Skinner, who directs the center at Eastern Star. The organization provides training, including a full-day session each August. It also makes a point to celebrate success.

“I work my staff hard, but we see the end results and we party,” Skinner said.

Norma Callahan, lead teacher, assists a preschooler painting at an easel in a preschool classroom at Day Early Learning at Eastern Star Church.

CHECK THE RATINGS

Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration in 2008 launched Paths to Quality, a voluntary rating system for preschools and child care centers that offers a helpful guide for parents.

So far, 92 percent of licensed childcare centers and preschools statewide have participated, along with 70 percent of licensed homes providing child care.

The program’s website includes a 1 to 4 rating for all preschools that participate.

All told, 2,590 homes, centers and church ministries have been rated through Paths to Quality statewide. Of those, 61 percent rate as a 1 or 2, meaning they only meet basic safety and health requirements. In Indianapolis, the numbers are more bleak. Fewer than 40 percent of homes, centers and ministries rated a 3 or 4.

Still, the number of preschools and child care centers rated a 4, which requires national accreditation, is growing fast — to 363 this year, up from about 100 at the start.

Parents of young children get a number to call for help finding preschools

2016-06-22T21:03:28+00:00

Indianapolis-based Early Learning Indiana announced today it will use more than $10 million in federal grant money over three years to support a statewide push to help low income families find child care and preschool options for young children.

The program established a statewide call-center (1-800-299-1627) and online search tool to make searching easier for families.

Non-profit Early Learning Indiana is the state’s oldest child care provider, but in this case the group will provide coordination and support for preschools and child care centers across the state. The group will aid nine local referral agencies around Indiana that offer information for families searching for child care, offer training for staff at preschools and child care centers and provide other services.

Indiana in 2014 for the first time began offering state aid to support preschool scholarships for poor children with a small pilot program in five counties. The city of Indianapolis also launched its own preschool scholarship program the following year. Both of those programs have attracted far more applicants than scholarships available.

“We’ve seen a stronger interest from families for childcare and early learning opportunities for children of all ages, as well as an increased demand for preschool,” said Kent Mitchell, vice president of outreach and partnerships for Early Learning Indiana.

There could soon be more demand for quality preschool, if politicians advocating for expansion get their way. Governor Mike Pence, state Superintendent Glenda Ritz and Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Gregg have all called for expanding state-supported preschool scholarships.

Less than 40 percent of Indiana children ages five and younger who are enrolled in a preschool or child care center, attend one that has a high quality rating according to Early Learning Indiana, meaning they rate a 3 or 4 on the state’s four-step voluntary ranking system.

“Preschool expansion — if it does happen here in Indiana, and we hope it does — will be a critical moment in our state,” Mitchell said. “This contract positions us and our local agencies to be in a position to support that. We really need a coordinating agency like this…we’ll support the local agency to ensure that they are well-staffed, well-trained and ensure they are being effective in their communities.”

Early Learning Indiana has a goal to increase the percentage of children in high quality childcare and preschool programs to 75 percent in the next decade.

Glenda Ritz says Indiana can afford preschool for all students

2016-06-07T15:04:37+00:00

State Superintendent Glenda Ritz today announced that she plans to make a strong push for the legislature in 2017 to make preschool available to all Indiana kids before they start kindergarten — and she said there’s plenty of money available to do it.

“The department will make high quality pre-K available within the boundaries of every school corporation within the state of Indiana by 2020,” Ritz said. “The funds are there if the political will exists.”

Ritz said more details will be coming about her proposal soon. It will include a public-private partnership, modeled after programs in New Jersey and other states, she said. The plan would cost the state about $150 million per year, which is less than one percent of the state’s annual budget, Ritz said. Funds could come from not just state money, but federal grants as well as private contributions.

READ: Find more on this year’s races for superintendent, governor and IPS school board.

Indiana Democrats, and some Republicans, have long lobbied for better access to preschool, especially for the state’s poorest children.

“Indiana cannot have a system of high quality when we have students that come to school that are unready to learn,” Ritz said. “We cannot have a system of equity when some students are exposed to early childhood education while many of poorest and neediest are not.”

And Hoosiers should not have to wait long to participate, she said. Her plan would have Indiana take what she called a “side-by-side” approach — creating more preschool spots at the same time it helps improve existing programs so they meet the highest state standards for early childhood education. Top-rated preschools are required to have strong educational and safety components as well as childcare. In Ritz’s vision, the work would be done in partnership with other state agencies, such as the state health department and the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration.

Ritz’s announcement comes at the heels of a call by Gov. Mike Pence last week for federal funds to support the state’s current preschool pilot program, which serves about 1,585 kids in five counties.

The move was a major reversal for Pence, who faced heavy criticism in 2014 when he ordered state officials to stop work on a grant application that could have brought Indiana up to $80 million in federal money to support preschool. At the time, he said he feared the federal money would come with too many strings attached and intrude into the state’s decision-making about its preschool program.

Preschool scholarships, which are awarded to needy families by a lottery under the state’s pilot, have seen high demand. In Indianapolis, additional scholarship money from the city, businesses and private foundations made extra scholarships available to about 800 more kids across the county.

Even so, fewer than half of the 4,200 poor families in Marion County who applied this year are expected to win scholarships to pay their preschool tuition.

Ritz said her plan would move away from the current scholarship model and instead create a system where the school district would perhaps be the distributor of funding to each preschool program.

Ritz’s 2017 legislative agenda also includes plans to:

Increase school and community partnerships so kids can have better access to mental health services and healthcare.
Amp up efforts to reduce bullying and make sure school staff are trained in discipline practices that don’t disproportionately target black and Hispanic students.
Boost support for school counselors to better meet the needs of middle- and high-schoolers pursuing state-funded college scholarships.
Address inequities in school funding by expanding families’ access to tax credits for school materials, increasing reimbursements to schools for textbooks and examining how the state’s funding formula can be changed to better support schools with many poor students.

Find more details on the Indiana Department of Education’s website.

Surprise! Pence is interested in federal preschool funding afterall

2016-06-02T21:36:36+00:00

Less than two years after Gov. Mike Pence shocked Indiana by rejecting $80 million in federal preschool funding, he’s reversing course.

Pence told federal authorities in a letter Thursday that he is interested in getting federal funds to expand the state’s fledgling preschool pilot program, which along with extra funds from Marion County currently serves just 2,300 children in five counties.

“I am also pleased to inform you that the pilot program is going extremely well, and we are encouraged by the support and interest it has received at the local level,” Pence wrote in the letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Secretary Sylvia Burwell. “I would sincerely appreciate it if you would let us know when the application will be available for the Preschool Development Grants program.”

The letter marks a stark reversal for Pence, who faced strong criticism for failing to apply for a “development grant” in 2014. Indiana was a top federal priority with a chance to win as much as $20 million a year in grant funding. At the last minute, Pence decided not to apply for the grant in order to avoid “federal intrusion.”

Democrats were quick to point out that Pence’s letter expressing interest in federal funding is an about-face for the governor. Both the head of the Indiana Democratic Party, John Zody, and State Superintendent Glenda Ritz released statements calling the letter “showboating.”

“Sadly, we have been here before with the Governor,” Ritz said in a statement. “Over two years ago when the Governor ‘expressed interest’ in seeking pre-K funding, the Department spent hundreds of hours applying for $80 million in federal funding only to have the Governor change his mind and cancel the application at the last minute.”

Sen. Jean Breaux of Indianapolis, the assistant minority leader in the Indiana Senate, said the Democratic caucus would support increased preschool funding. But she said Pence’s letter is a political move to show support for preschool during an election year.

“The timing is a bit suspect,” she said. “Particularly when he turned down millions of dollars in federal funding during a bid-year when Indiana could’ve had money for pre-K.”

Although Pence didn’t pursue federal funding, he advocated for the first state program to provide direct aid for preschool, a small pilot that began in 2015.

The state spends $10 million per year on the pilot program, which serves children in five counties. In Marion County, local and private contributions increase the number of vouchers, but demand still exceeds funding and slots are granted by lottery. Fewer than half the 4,200 Marion County children who applied for vouchers this year are expected to win them.

Preschool advocates told Chalkbeat in April that they were planning to lobby for a significant increase in state preschool funding.

“We’ve have learned a lot from the pilot,” said Andrew Cullen, the vice president of public policy for the United Way of Central Indiana. “That’s what the pilot was there for, so it’s time now to talk significantly about an expansion.”

Limited funding means thousands of poor Indy kids won’t get preschool scholarships

2016-04-01T15:21:00+00:00

Thousands of Indianapolis families vying for preschool scholarships will be disappointed this spring. More than 4,200 hundred children applied for spots in a program that’s expected to serve about 1,600 kids.

With studies showing that whether a child enrolls in preschool is an influential predictor of school readiness and long-term success, interest in a program that covers tuition for low-income three- and four-year-olds in Indiana has vastly outpaced the number of vouchers available.

Applications dipped slightly this year — about 700 fewer qualified children applied to participate in the program since last year — but there are still far more children needing scholarships than money available to help them. That includes children who applied for both a state-funded program and one that’s a partnership between the City of Indianapolis and private donors. Both programs have the same application process

“There’s a significant gap in how many kids we’re able to serve versus how many want and need high quality pre-k,” said Ted Maple, president of Early Learning Indiana, a non-profit childcare provider and advocacy organization.

The scholarships are a big step forward for early childhood education in Indiana, which didn’t receive state funding until recently. But the number of kids served is still a sliver of the need in Marion County, which has more than 27,000 preschool-age children.

Decades of research show that high-quality preschool programs not only give kids better academic and social skills when they enter kindergarten, but also have long-lasting benefits. Low-income children who go to preschool stay in school longer, earn more money and may even be less likely to commit crimes.

There also are immediate economic benefits because the cost of childcare, which can be more than $10,000 per year, is a huge burden for low-income families, Maple said. The Indiana preschool vouchers target families earning less than 127 percent of the federal poverty limit, which is $30,861 for a family of four. The city program gives scholarships to families who make up to $44,955.

For Charlene Fletcher-Brown — a single mother whose daughter won the preschool voucher lottery last year — the scholarship has helped her afford basics, like clothing and gas.

“It’s been amazing not to have to worry about how I could afford childcare,” Fletcher-Brown said.

When it comes to preschool, Indiana is behind the curve. Before the state created its preschool pilot program in 2014, it was one of just nine states in the nation without any funding for preschool. Enrollment is also anemic in Indiana — just 40 percent of 3- and 4-year-old Hoosiers attend preschool. In Illinois, the enrollment rate is 54 percent, according to census data.

“Indiana has lots of neighbors to learn from,” said Laura Bornfreund, a researcher with the New America Foundation.

Some states are rapidly expanding their preschool programs. Some major cities like New York have made free pre-kindergarten available to all four-year-olds. Indiana is a long way from implementing a sweeping program like that, but Bornfreund said that beginning with a pilot and then scaling it up can help ensure that the preschools serving kids are high-quality.

She cautions, however, that the state needs to have a plan for ongoing expansion.

A strong push for expansion is on the horizon. Preschool advocates are planning to lobby aggressively for more state preschool funding during the upcoming session, said Andrew Cullen, the vice-president of public policy for the United Way of Central Indiana.

After three years of pilots, the state has learned how to reach families and improve preschool quality, said Cullen.

“We’ve have learned a lot from the pilot,” he said. “That’s what the pilot was there for, so it’s time now to talk significantly about an expansion.”

Preschool has won bipartisan support but there have been hitches along the way. The state scholarship pilot was championed by Gov. Mike Pence, who worked to win approval from reluctant legislators. In 2014, however, he made a controversial decision not to apply for up to $80 million in federal funding for preschool.

The scholarships available to children in Marion County are heavily funded by local and private sources. In addition to the state funding — $10 million across the five pilot counties — the city’s program pools government dollars with corporate and philanthropic donations that add up to $8 million a year.

That approach has significantly boosted preschool access in the city, but advocates say that for expanded preschool to be sustainable in the long-term, the state must provide more funding — not rely on corporate and philanthropic donations.

“Just like we don’t expect Eli Lilly or United Way to pay tuition for K-12, we can’t expect Eli Lilly or United Way to pay tuition for pre-k,” Cullen said. “That’s fundamentally government’s role.”

Discouraged teaching preschool, she was inspired to keep going by a young boy's email

2015-12-17T17:32:37+00:00

Chalkbeat journalists ask the people we come across in our work to tell us about their education stories and how learning shaped who they are today. Learn more about this series, and read other installments, here.

Megan Bouckley’s tiny southern Indiana hometown of about 2,100 people is just slightly bigger than NBA great Larry Bird’s famously small hometown of French Lick, which is about a half-hour drive way. The idea of living in a huge city like Indianapolis once intimidated her. But now she works as a fourth-grade teacher at Riverside School in IPS. The intense focus on the performance of schools in IPS, she said, reminds her of growing up in a small town where everyone knows you and everyone is watching how you behave. We met her at the showcase for projects by Teach Plus fellows earlier this month.

Here’s her story:

I grew up in southern Indiana in a town called Orleans. I graduated with 57 people from a tiny high school. I was salutatorian in my class. I think I never and always wanted to be a teacher at the same time. I vividly remember being in classrooms and thinking, “If this was my room, I would…” and “If I were the teacher, I would…”

I had all these ideas about what I would do that would be better than what was happening. But I was a kid so you can’t say that to anyone.

I went to Indiana State University because I didn’t want to go to a big school. I was afraid of it. I decided interior design was what I wanted to do and they had a great program. After my first semester, I quit doing that. I thought I wanted to do early childhood education, but I wanted a job so I studied elementary education. But I thought I wanted to work with smaller kids.

My first job out of college I taught pre-K at a learning center. I enjoyed it for the most part but I just felt like I wasn’t using my skills. I found a job in Indianapolis at a township school that I thought I was going to love. But I hated it. I was driving an hour to work crying all the way there. I was working until 6 p.m., driving all the way home in tears and working until I went to bed trying to fix a problem that I didn’t feel like I could fix. So I quit.

I found another job in pre-K but I was done teaching. I interviewed for everything. I interviewed for hospital jobs, for sales jobs, for all these things that I knew I didn’t want to do. But I needed more money and I needed to not hate my job. I didn’t even get the first look. I kind of gave up for awhile. I loved my little pre-K kids, but I was making no money and bored out of my mind.

Then I got a phone call from a teacher at School 44 who I had taught with in pre-K at my first job who said, “We have an opening. What do you think?” I thought, “why not test it out?” They offered me the job. Now I’m in my second year. I feel like I am in a place where I have a voice, and I can be a leader. I feel like that’s what was lacking in my other jobs. I just felt like I was going through the motions. Now I feel like I have an impact on kids.

One reason I took the job was that after seven or eight months of being miserable when I was at my most down, a kid from my first job who had yelled and screamed at me and said “I hate you!” sent me an email that just said, “Hi! How are you?”

He remembered me. That’s when I said: “I have to keep doing this.” Some of these kids have no one but us. We’re all they’ve got. We have to be champions for them.

Indiana high school senior to U.S. Secretary of Education: Help me get to college

2015-09-17T03:12:56+00:00

Rosa Ramos Ochoa, a senior at Ben Davis University High School, was sure she had earned a scholarship under Indiana’s 21st Century Scholars program, which can provide students with up to four years of college tuition if they meet certain goals, because she finally had a Social Security number.

But it didn’t matter, she told U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan during his visit to Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis.

Even though she was such a successful high school student who earned 72 college credits — enough to qualify as a junior in her first year — Ochoa can’t manage to get in-state tuition. It doesn’t matter that she has lived in Indiana since she was 1-year-old. She is still considered undocumented, and that’s all that matters.

“I lost it because I’m not a U.S. citizen,” Ochoa said. “I applied three times before I actually got accepted to 21st Century Scholars. The last time I was in eighth grade, and I really wanted to make a change because my mom works in a warehouse, and she’s had a hard time, and I don’t want to struggle like that in my future.”

Ochoa’s story illustrates a problem Duncan sees across the country, he said.

“It’s honestly one of the biggest frustrations the president and I have,” Duncan said. “We have so many students who have basically lived here all their lives … and to see you do all that hard work and we’re going to deny you the right to go to college? We’re cutting off our nose to spite our face.”

The problems of undocumented students came up more than once as Duncan met with Ochoa and 15 other Marion County students at Crispus Attucks. The education secretary earlier this year criticized Indiana for excluding undocumented students from the state’s On My Way PreK program.

“We have far too many students, particularly from disadvantaged communities, who start kindergarten a year to a year-and-a-half behind,” he said. “I’m happy we’re seeing more governors invest in this, but having said that, there is still a tremendous unmet need. One is the lack of funding for undocumented students.”

During the student panel discussion, one high school student after another told stories about community service, college goals and changes they’d like to see in the city.

“We are being the change by providing 300 bags of food each week for elementary school students,” said Sam Varie, a senior from Lawrence Central High School. “We’re showing peers the importance of serving people in need.”

Ochoa is part of a schoolwide effort to raise money to send a Guatemalan student to high school. It is not free in Guatemala like it is in the U.S.

For her part, Ochoa is determined to continue her studies despite challenges in her past — the move from Mexico as a baby, a father who went to prison, a single mom whose only option was to work hard with little reprieve and next to no money for school.

She holds down a job after school, as well, working at a call center. She manages to do her homework while she’s there. She hopes to study nursing and become a neonatal nurse who helps take care of babies in the intensive care unit after they are born.

“It’s kind of hard — it’s not being punished — but now come other things, sometimes, because of decisions they made, not me,” Ochoa said.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Mike Pence has said Indiana took cues from rules for other federal grant programs when it denied undocumented poor children access to the state’s new preschool tuition aid pilot program.

Duncan says that’s absurd — and it needs to change.

“We want to continue to challenge that,” Duncan said. “It’s a wrong reading of the … statute. So we’re hoping Indiana does the right thing and fixes it. I don’t know of another state that’s both expanding access and denying opportunity. That’s a conflict of values that we will always challenge and never support.”

As for Ochoa, she is hoping to get private scholarships to send her to college. She’s applying for many, and she’s already been accepted to Marion University and IUPUI. Before she could even walk off the stage tonight, she was already being approached by adults from organizations across the city who wanted to help her.

Wayne Township Superintendent Jeff Butts said Ochoa is not the only student in the district with such a story.

He turned to her after the panel, listing her accomplishments — Indiana high school student, academic honors diploma, associate’s degree from Vincennes University — but he said it with an air of disbelief because come graduation in June, it doesn’t make a difference.

Ochoa said other students don’t realize quite how fortunate they are to get more choices about how to pay for school.

“So it’s practically like I’ve never been here, but I’ve been here this whole time,” she said. “Even though I wasn’t born here, I’d like the same opportunity they have.”

Duncan: Indiana's preschool pilot should be open to all kids

2015-08-18T20:15:44+00:00

Despite criticism from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan that Indiana’s preschool pilot program should not shut out children who are in the country without permission, Gov. Mike Pence’s office said the rule is needed to stay consistent with the way federal preschool programs work.

Chalkbeat reported earlier this month that the state’s new preschool pilot program, open to about 2,300 children in five counties, blocked children of immigrant families from enrolling if they are not U.S. citizens. Federal rules that require K-to-12 public schools to be open to non-citizen children don’t apply for preschool.

After Education Week magazine reported on Chalkbeat’s story, Duncan issued a statement Friday saying it doesn’t make sense for Indiana to bar children because of their immigration status.

“Indiana is rightfully proud of its steps to expand preschool programs and elevate quality, but it’s shortsighted and wrong to deny children educational opportunity from the starting line because of their immigration status – especially children who are clearly here through no fault of their own,” Duncan said. “There is no better bang for our buck educationally than preschool, and we need more children in America getting an early start – not fewer.”

Duncan specifically rejected the notion that Indiana’ program had to be designed to block some immigrant children to comply with federal law.

“Nothing in federal law requires state or local preschool programs to exclude any child from participation on the basis of their immigration status, and doing so just doesn’t make sense,” he said.

But Pence’s spokeswoman Marni Lemons said the program was always intended to be very limited, and its purpose is to collect data to inform future decisions about preschool funding.

“It does require that an eligible child be a citizen or qualified alien because it is designed to be consistent with how funds are distributed under the federal Child Care and Development Fund grant program,” she said in an email. “However, it is important to note that unauthorized children are not at risk of not being accepted/being enrolled in other publicly funded preschools.”

The state preschool pilot program was Pence’s signature legislative accomplishment of 2013. The program took Indiana off a list of just 10 states that provided not direct state aid to help pay tuition support for poor children. Before the pilot program, the only government aid to help poor children attend preschool came from the federal CCDF grant, which is administered by the state.

When Indiana designed the pilot program, it sought to match its rules to the federal program to make it easy to administer. Duncan and others say Indiana could have designed its program to allow all children, even those who are not U.S. citizens, to participate.

Lemons said immigrant families should look to other options for preschool support.

“We encourage families who are still seeking pre-kindergarten opportunities to reach out to their local public school systems and to Head Start programs in their counties,” she said. “Those programs are funded with federal funding streams and do not require citizenship documentation.”

Senate President David Long and House Speaker Brian Bosma declined comment.

Special education funding dries up for some kids in kindergarten

2015-08-11T22:00:30+00:00

Some of Indiana’s students with special needs are not receiving the help they need, and it’s mostly because of the state’s narrow age range during which kids can be diagnosed as falling behind their peers.

Kids who get extra help — and extra state funding — in preschool often don’t see that support follow as they enter kindergarten, special education experts explained to legislators Tuesday at a study committee meeting.

In Indiana, a child can be identified as having a “developmental delay” from birth to age 5 for challenges such as cognitive or emotional issues, problems with hearing or vision or even lags in eating or dressing skills. The state offers preschools an extra $2,750 per-student to support them.

But once kindergarten comes around, the money disappears.

Because state law doesn’t recognize developmental delays as a special education category for kids older than 5, neither do elementary schools.

Preschoolers who have already been receiving state-funded special education services can lose them entirely in kindergarten if they aren’t diagnosed with a disability in a recognized category, such as autism or speech and language problems.

It’s common that young children with some developmental delays don’t show signs of a specific disability that early, Brownsburg Early Childhood Center coordinator Jennifer Newingham said. In fact, she said, until age 8, it’s not really possible to give an accurate intelligence test, which are used in the process of evaluating a child’s cognitive ability. They’re simply too young for that kind of test.

“Here’s a kid — he’s not where he needs to be based on nationally accepted developmental milestones — so we’re going to provide him support to make sure he’s where he needs to be,” Newingham said of typical state preschool services. “But once they hit 5, you’re on your own.”

Newingham said last year in her school, 52 kids were identified as having a developmental delay of one kind or another. Only 17 of those students qualified for any special education services in kindergarten.

About 4,189 preschoolers last year qualified as having developmental delays, said Pam Wright, director of special educations services for the Indiana Department of Education. That’s about 20 percent of the almost 18,000 preschool students in the state who were identified with any disability last year. So it could cost the state about $4 million per year to extend the qualifying age for developmental delays through age 9, she said, an age limit 31 other states use.

Newingham said kids who start school without the proper support are being set up to dislike school and eventually fall even further behind.

“What happens is unfortunately we put children in a situation where they are expected to fail before we can help them,” she said.

Starting to fall behind quickly

It can be a long wait for a student who has an undiagnosed disability to get the help they need in school.

Kids entering kindergarten often get tested for disabilities, but if the results don’t fit into already recognized disability categories, schools aren’t required under state law to re-evaluate students until they have data showing two years of poor performance, said Kim Dodson, associate executive director of The Arc of Indiana, a local nonprofit that advocates for people with disabilities.

Indiana should increase its age range for diagnosing developmental delays to at least age 7, she said, so more kids can qualify for special education once they get into elementary school. Then there’s no wait or gap in support.

“The kids who aren’t identified past the age of 5 get identified later,” Dodson said. “They miss out on all those educational opportunities and resources that would make them more successful in school because they weren’t identified with a disability.”

Sen. Pete Miller, R-Avon, said he learned of the age discrepancy when he visited the Brownsburg Early Childhood Center back in March.

“It was too late for me to introduce a bill, but I had tried to get this in the budget bill, but there just wasn’t enough time to try to identify what the (cost) would be,” Miller said. “We didn’t know if it was a $1 million impact or a $10 million impact. I think we still have some questions about what level of support … but at least now we at least have a number of kids we’re referring to if we do want to move forward with this policy.”

But parents don’t have to sit around and wait for schools or the legislature to step in, Dodson said. Parents can try to get their children diagnosed or request help earlier on their own, she said.

Most kids identified with delays, Dodson said, work through them if given the right help and might not end up needing more expensive Medicaid or special education services later on.

“I think the biggest thing is the potential of early intervention services between the ages of 5 to 7 is monumental,” Dodson said. “We all know there are hundreds of studies out there that show the earlier you are giving kids the tools they need to be successful, the more progress they are going to make.”

Some immigrant children are shut out of new preschool programs

2015-08-04T14:25:48+00:00

The thousands of poor Indiana children who will attend new publicly funded preschool programs this year through Gov. Mike Pence’s state preschool pilot and an Indianapolis program sponsored by Mayor Greg Ballard all have one thing in common.

They all must be legal U.S. residents.

Children who are in the country without permission aren’t welcome into either the state or Indianapolis preschool program.

How can public schools be barred from excluding those kids while publicly funded preschool programs are free to do so?

Indianapolis program leaders say they’re following the state’s lead. State officials say they’re following federal guidelines. And while federal law does, indeed, require schools to give all children fair and equal access to public education regardless of citizenship, the rule starts in kindergarten.

“I don’t think that anybody was consciously saying, ‘We want to exclude or not be welcoming,’ but there were some boundaries that we had to identify in terms of who could we serve with public dollars and federal dollars,” said Beth Stroh, who administers the city preschool program through the United Way of Central Indiana.

The state says it’s not allowing non-U.S. citizens into the program to stay in line with the rules of its other programs.

“This maintains consistency in policy among our early childhood education programs,” said Jim Gavin, a spokesman for the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration. “The Child Care and Development Fund and Early Education Matching Grant programs also require that the eligible child be a citizen.”

But immigrant advocates say the rule unfairly excludes kids, arguing it prevents children who are already at risk for difficulty in school from getting the same early help their future classmates in similar circumstances can receive.

“It’s a shame,” said Indianapolis immigration lawyer Fatima Johnson. “They’ll be behind everyone else. If only a portion of kids are kindergarten-ready, how much money and resources do you have to spend later to catch the kids up?”

The number of children who could be excluded because of this requirement is likely small. Children born in the U.S. to parents who are in the country without permission, which are estimated to account for 88 percent of all children of immigrant parents, are U.S. citizens by birth and therefore welcome into the program. And so are refugees with legal status. Indiana is estimated to have 10,000 foreign-born children under age 16 who are not U.S. citizens, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

Some school districts have found a way to accommodate preschool-age children who are in the country without permission.

Wayne Township, on Indianapolis’ West side, is a participant in the state’s On My Way preschool program. Superintendent Jeff Butts said the district accepts all students for its preschool program. But if they don’t qualify for the state preschool program they can still get tuition help through a federal poverty program. The district’s preschool offers 80 preschool spots funded by the federal grant. Citizenship is not a requirement for that program.

Stroh said the state and city programs tried to invite children from families that don’t speak English fluently to apply. The state translated its applications into English and Spanish. Stroh said the city added French, Burmese and Chin, another common language spoken by immigrants in Indianapolis.

But she said they didn’t follow through with that throughout the entire process. The information that was sent to the families who were accepted into the program was only in English, Stroh said.

“We did make an effort,” Stroh said. “That’s a way we can improve the notification process. (Some) couldn’t even read the cover.”

It’s unclear if undocumented children will be accepted into future rounds of the state or city program. FSSA Spokeswoman Marci Lemons said the department didn’t want to speculate.

Johnson said she hopeful that rules could chance so more children could be included.

“The number of people who are sensitive to this issue is growing,” Johnson said. “These people are here to stay. They’re not leaving. It would behoove Indiana to have educated people.”

As the state and city begin new aid programs, preschools seek to expand

2015-07-31T16:39:40+00:00

Gail Wolfe started a preschool 10 years ago with three students, $350 to spend on furniture and a few empty rooms to use inside Lynhurst Baptist Church on Indianapolis’ West side.

The retired elementary school teacher’s goal was simple. She wanted to create a safe space in the neighborhood for young children to learn and play until it was time to go to kindergarten. Eventually, her idea caught on.

Today, about 45 children attend the preschool. The classrooms are brimming with blocks and books, and walls are adorned with brightly colored student artwork.

“They are doing things that look like play, but actually it’s a learning process,” Wolfe said. “Blocks help you figure out how to manipulate, planning and consequences. Dress-up helps reinforce fine motor skills.”

The preschool is once again expanding — this time to accommodate students from the state’s On My Way preschool pilot program. The program, which has been expanded to serve about 1,600 kids in five counties, was championed by Gov. Mike Pence and first signed into law in the 2014 legislative session.

Lynhurst Baptist Church is one of several smaller preschools in Indiana that are capitalizing on the momentum of two new public preschool programs — the state pilot and one sponsored by the city of Indianapolis — to improve and expand their facilities.

To date, 862 highly rated preschols in Marion County have expanded to add space for 862 new children to enroll since the start of the state pilot program, according to United Way.

The new spaces will help solve a problem created by the growth: Early education advocates have said they’re worried there’s not enough room in high-quality programs to accommodate the rising demand that will accompany programs injecting millions of new aid dollars to help families pay preschool tuition.

“To me, it was a no brainer,” Wolfe said about participating in the state preschool pilot. “We’re already here and we have the space. I have 10 to 12 children who have never been in a program, but yet they’re going to kindergarten next year. They’re going to be able to reason, think things out, predict. They’re hopefully going to be better prepared for what’s going to face them in kindergarten.”

Wolfe said she couldn’t afford to expand without the help of United Way, which has given her about $180,000 in grants over the past five years to help her preschool move up two levels on the state’s four-step Paths To Quality voluntary rating system. It’s now rated a 3, which certifies a preschool has adequate health and safety standards and an education program. To reach the top rating, preschools must earn a national accreditation.

Fewer than 15 percent of 800 preschool centers in Indianapolis are rated a 3 or 4.

On a Monday earlier this month, Wolfe stood in a room that is being converted into a new classroom, pointing out walls that were half painted and furniture in various stages of disarray. The new classroom was paid for in part by United Way grants and will help the preschool stretch to accommodate about 1o extra kids.

“We were kind of just a basic preschool trying to meet the needs of the community, and thanks to United Way, I feel like we’re really a gem,” Wolfe said. “I know we’re a great thing for the West side of Indianapolis.”

Providers have had a relatively short timeline to improve their capacity to take on more kids through the state and city scholarship programs, so United Way’s Director of Education Beth Stroh said the state and community groups like United Way stepped in to make sure there was enough space.

Since the state pilot launched early this year, United Way and the state Office of Early Childhood and Out of School Learning have made 16 grants totaling nearly $226,000. United Way has also spent $355,000 on 13 classroom expansion grants.

Sometimes, very small changes can help a preschool reach a 3 or 4 rating on Paths to Quality, Stroh said, which would qualify them to accept tuition vouchers from families using the state pilot program.

She said United Way focused giving grants to programs that could expand and meet the the two highest levels quickly if they got some extra resources, like money to buy high-quality learning materials or new furniture for a classroom.

That helps preschools take the risk of hiring new teachers by helping preschoola be sure they will have the space to add classes.

“We needed to make sure there were seats,” Stroh said. “We knew every one of those seats would be valuable.”

Studying new preschool programs could bolster success evidence but cost is a barrier

2015-07-29T19:57:19+00:00

Indianapolis preschool advocates are pondering a rare opportunity: What if they could help prove that spending money on preschool helps poor children learn and do better in school?

While there is strong evidence that preschool makes a big difference, high-quality studies that show those effects can be difficult and costly, so there aren’t a lot of them.

As Indianapolis begins offering preschool aid for about 1,300 children, the program creates a perfect setting for a “gold standard” study that compares students who enroll in preschool to similar students who apply but aren’t selected. The method is called a “randomized control” study.

The questions are: who would do the study and who would pay for it?

City officials and business leaders say they are weighing the pros and cons of trying to dig up more dollars to study Mayor Greg Ballard’s Indianapolis preschool program, which will use city and philanthropic funding to pay preschool tuition, to see how much it boosts the progress of poor three- and four-year-olds who receive the aid.

“A study of that nature would be of state and national significance,” said former Deputy Mayor of Education Jason Kloth, who worked with the City Council to get the program approved late last year. “It’s just really important to do it right.”

Arguably the most well-known such preschool study, known as the Perry Preschool Project, started in the 1960s in Ypsilanti, Mich., and studied a group of 123 children through age 40. It showed children who had high-quality preschool did better than those who missed out on the program throughout their lives. For example, they did better in school, made more money in their future jobs and were less likely to commit crimes, according to HighScope, which ran the study.

But some Indiana politicians have been skeptical about spending state money on preschool, citing conflicting evidence. Some studies have showed that higher test scores in early elementary school for children who had high-quality preschool may fade by the third grade. Preschool advocates say the evidence of benefits later in life is stronger than the “fade out” theory.

Some Indianapolis business leaders are intrigued by the possibility that a study of the program could win over the skeptics. The program struggled to garner political support despite intense business community lobbying and a $20 million commitment of private matching dollars from a group of companies led by Eli Lilly and Co.

The Indianapolis program will spend $40 million over five years on preschool tuition starting this fall. The public-private aid program finally won funding from a divided city council when it approved an initial $4.2 million to pay for the first year in March.

Demand has been huge.

A lottery was used to select which of the 4,967 qualified applicants received up to $6,800 annually for children who attend full-day preschool and at least $2,500 for half-day programs. Last summer, Ballard’s office estimated as many as 6,000 poor Indianapolis families would place their children in preschools if they had financial help. The city nearly met its goal of 5,000 applicants.

The program aims to serve the poorest children first: those from families with annual income below $55,000 for a family of four. About 87 percent of applicants had income at or below that level. About 98 percent of applicants had annual income of $80,500 or less for a family of four.

Jeff Kucer, vice president of PNC Bank, which rallied around the preschool program along with other corporate sponsors last year, said he’s seen enough research to know that preschool pays off in the long run.

But the effort to gain support for a broad statewide preschool aid program funded by the legislature, he said, could be helped by local data demonstrating the city’s program is making a difference.

“I do think there are people out there that aren’t convinced,” Kucer said. “If this study would prove it, ultimately it’s going to be worth the money.”

Cecilia Hyunjung Mo, an assistant professor of political science at Vanderbilt University, who has advised Kloth on the pros and cons of a study, said the cost range is big depending on the features of the study, ranging from several hundred thousands of dollars to as much as $1 million.

“They’re expensive, they’re time-consuming, but they are raised as the gold standard of what studies should be, so we can have good information about whether a particular strategy is a good investment,” Mo said.

But some are skeptical of the idea, including United Way’s Director of Public Policy Andrew Cullen. He said his organization, which is administering the city program, would rather spend money on providing more preschool scholarships.

“In order for there to be a randomized control trial, you must have a group of children who are not receiving high-quality early childhood education,” Cullen said. “It would be an interesting research project for sure, but I think for the time being we’d rather be focused on expanding quality and access than by investing significant dollars in a study.”

Separately, the state is spending $1 million to work with Purdue University on a study of the effectiveness of the state’s On My Way preschool pilot program, which has expanded to serve about 1,600 children in five counties. The program was championed by Gov. Mike Pence and signed into law in 2014. The study was a key component that help persuade some reluctant Republicans to sign on to the bill that created the program.

Melanie Brizzi, who directs the Indiana FSSA’s Office of Early Childhood and Out of School Learning, said the idea of that study is to get a comprehensive picture of the program’s effectiveness by evaluating the participants through third grade.

Students will be randomly selected and evaluated on factors including their social, emotional and cognitive growth, academic achievement, behavioral programs, absenteeism, Kindergarten retention,and placement in special education, she said. But the effort won’t qualify as a gold standard study.

The more study of preschool, the greater the chance of unearthing information that can help preschools do better, Brizzi said.

“The amount of research being conducted is incredible and it’s a huge opportunity,” Brizzi said. “We have tremendous opportunities to provide preschool in a way that meets parents’ needs. … (This) has the added benefit of raising the bar of quality for all children.”

For now, Indianapolis’ new director of the Office of Education Innovation Kristin Hines, who replaced Jason Kloth after he left earlier this year, said city officials are studying the issue.

“It’s certainly a conversation that we are willing to explore, and we’re supportive of the process in theory,” Hines said. “We just want to make sure it’s done in the right way.”

Test yourself: Do you know the basics of Indiana education?

2015-07-17T09:00:48+00:00

[slickquiz id=2]

Coalition's ambitious goal: improve and expand preschool in Indiana

2015-07-02T11:14:28+00:00

A new coalition dedicated to making it easier for poor children to attend preschool in Indiana has set lofty goals for the next five years: raise the quality of 400 preschools, spur enough expansion to create space for 1,000 new preschoolers and help train 300 preschool teachers so they can earn better credentials.

The ultimate goal of the plan, advocates say, is to prepare the state for the possibility that a statewide preschool program could be widely expanded in the next few years. The initiative is supported by a $20 million grant from the Lilly Endowment.

Although the legislature has balked at expansion from the small program it created last year to help pay preschool tuition that eventually could serve 2,000 poor children in five counties, advocates are pushing hard for more.

“It’s where we need to go,” said Ted Maple, president and CEO of Early Learning Indiana, which operates a network of preschools, as his organization launched the five-year plan called Partnerships for Early Learners on Tuesday. “This is a large amount of money from a very generous grant. It can’t change what needs to be changed on its own. Clearly, much more is needed.”

The plan focuses around spending about $6 million to help more of Indiana’s nearly 2,500 preschools earn a higher rating on the state’s voluntary four-step preschool quality rating system, called Paths to Quality. A rating of three or four certifies that preschools offer a safe environment and a curriculum that promotes learning.

Currently only 900 preschools in Indiana, serving about 35 percent of Indiana children attending such programs, are rated a 3 or 4.

Partnerships for Early Learners also plans to spend $3 million to help those high-rated preschools increase the number children they can serve, $3 million on training for preschool teachers and $2 million to promote family involvement in learning.

Preschool advocates said this spring at a Chalkbeat event that the lack of qualified preschool teachers in Indiana is one of the main challenges of expansion.

Maple hopes the effort will include helping children to learn starting from birth, such as through nurse-family partnerships.

“It’s the type of funding that allows us to innovate and be creative,” Maple said.

The effort will seek both public and private partners. For instance, 15 AmeriCorps members — part of a national public service effort — will work in 15 state preschool pilot sites this year with the goal of getting parents more involved.

The focus on public and private partnerships is what will help Indiana create a program that will last, said Karen Ponder, a North Carolina-based preschool consultant who helps states trying to improve their systems.

Ponder, who once ran then-North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt’s statewide preschool program Smart Start, recently started consulting in Indiana and attended Tuesday’s launch. Even though she agrees much more needs to be done in Indiana, she said the new plan is a step in the right direction.

She said Indiana should look at North Carolina’s progress as an example. The state started with one of the lowest educational attainment records in the nation, she said. Then it became a national example for early childhood education as its preschool program expanded to all of its 100 counties.

“You can get there,” Ponder said, “from almost anywhere.”

Appointing IPS board members on Brewer's agenda for mayoral campaign

2015-06-18T19:13:48+00:00

Indianapolis Republican mayoral candidate Chuck Brewer thinks the city should be more involved in education — so much so that he proposed adding two mayoral appointees to the Indianapolis Public School Board.

Brewer, a veteran and owner of the downtown Soupremacy restaurant, set out six education priorities for his campaign, including a plan for working with IPS that has two potentially controversial ideas: the mayor naming a Republican and Democrat to the IPS school board and creating common enrollment and school evaluation systems that would apply both to traditional public and charter schools.

Brewer said the appointments, which would up the board to nine members from seven, would let both the district and city cooperate and collaborate better than they have in the past.

“The engagement of our city’s top elected leader, the mayor, is necessary, and I want to help IPS grow and succeed,” Brewer said at a news conference today. “The two mayoral appointments will provide the opportunity for solid positive impact while respecting the democratic process and the role of the seven elected IPS board members.”

But Gayle Cosby, who currently serves as an elected IPS board member, said she believed appointment would actually dilute the diversity of the board.

“I think we would end up with a school board that’s unrepresentative and probably unresponsive to the needs of our community,” Cosby said. “You lose the voter’s voice.”

The idea of appointing IPS board members isn’t new — The Mind Trust, an Indianapolis non-profit group that pushes for innovation and change in education, called for total mayoral control of the IPS school board back in 2011.

“Chuck deserves credit for raising the issue,” Mind Trust CEO David Harris said,

But Harris, who was the director of charter schools under former Mayor Bart Peterson, also said he believed two appointments to the school board doesn’t go far enough.

“If the mayor is going to have appointments, he or she should have a majority of appointments so it’s clear who’s responsible,” Harris said. “It creates clear lines of accountability. There’s one identifiable elected official that the public can hold responsible for the quality of the schools.”

In 2011, The Mind Trust released a bombshell 160-page report calling for a massive overhaul of the management of IPS. It called for the mayor to appoint members of the school board, slashing central office spending, empowering principals to manage schools more freely and creating a strategy to recruit charter school operators to work with the district.

In the three and a half years since the report came out, IPS has embraced all of those ideas to some extent with one glaring exception: there has been no support for the idea of mayoral appointments to the board.

Brewer said he spoke with IPS Superintendent Lewis Ferebee about the proposed appointments. The conversations were productive, he said, but he wouldn’t comment on how Ferebee felt about the issue.

IPS spokeswoman Kristin Cutler said Ferebee also wouldn’t give further details.

“Dr. Ferebee welcomes conversations with candidates, but doesn’t comment directly on election matters,” she said.

IPS board member Kelly Bentley said she doesn’t support or oppose the idea of appointing board members, but having the discussion in the context of the mayor’s race makes the subject needlessly political.

“We’ve got a lot of important work we’re trying to do,” Bentley said. “This is just a distraction that we don’t need right now. It’s a discussion worth having, but it probably should occur outside of the politically charged environment of a mayor’s election.”

Brewer’s education plans focus on IPS

Unlike his opponent Democrat Joe Hogsett, Brewer said his vision for how the city needs to improve education concerns more focused on IPS. Hogsett has spoken about the need for the mayor to have a broader view of education across the city, including township school districts.

“I’ve started to meet with a number of the different superintendents to find out what their needs are, and I’m about halfway through,” Brewer said. “Right now, I’m focused on the district that has our brand name: Indianapolis. When people focus on where they want to live and if they want to live in Indianapolis, generally the first school system they Google is IPS.”

And with that focus comes ideas for more changes, some of which the district has started to embrace on its own. A common enrollment process — one application system by which parents can select their school preferences from among traditional public schools, magnet schools and charter schools — has also been considered by Ferebee.

But Brewer also wants to take the mayor’s process of overseeing and evaluating charter schools and extend it to IPS schools as well.

“A single evaluation and a single enrollment system is going to allow parents to apply an apples-to-apples comparison of schools in the district,” Brewer said. “It’s going to enable them to make the best decisions for their children.”

Other parts of Brewer’s education plan are:

Deputy mayor. Jason Kloth’s last day in this role is Friday, but Brewer said he wants to keep the deputy mayor role.
Charter school office. Brewer would extend the mission of the charter school office to also oversee workforce development efforts.
Preschool. The plan calls for the state legislature to expand support for poor children to attend preschool.
Charter schools. Brewer endorsed Mayor Greg Ballard’s work to expand charter schools with good test scores and apply accountability to those that fail to improve.
Summer jobs. The plan suggests an online database of summer jobs available through the city and other organizations and a push to offer more of those jobs to high school students.

City reshuffles education staff as Jason Kloth departs

2015-06-18T03:31:23+00:00

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard’s office overseeing education programs and charter schools is undergoing a transition.

Friday is the last day of work for Deputy Mayor Jason Kloth, who came in 2012 from Teach For America to the newly created position of deputy mayor for education. He’s headed to a new post focused on improving workforce development for a non-profit.

Brandon Brown, who oversaw charter schools in Kloth’s office, left earlier this month for a job as vice president of The Mind Trust, an Indianapolis non-profit that works to spur innovation and change in education.

Kristin Hines will now oversee charter school work for Ballard. Hines was an academic and policy analyst for Ballard’s charter school office who previously worked at the Indiana Department of Education. The Purdue University graduate also taught through Teach For America in Texas.

The changes come seven months after Ballard announced he would not run for re-election. Democrat Joe Hogsett and Republican Chuck Brewer are running to replace him. The election is Nov. 3.

Kloth’s next job is focused on finding ways to smooth the transition from high school to college, technical education or jobs, and to ensure students enter the workforce with the skills employers are demanding. The role is a new effort of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, a collaboration of the leaders of top companies, universities and philanthropic groups in the city.

Kloth was just 31 and working in Washington, D.C., as Teach For America’s senior vice president when Ballard tapped him as deputy mayor. The Champaign, Ill., native was sent by Teach For America to teach sixth grade in Texas near the Mexican border after graduating from the University of Illinois. Teach For America is a national organization that places recent college graduates as teachers in low-income schools nationwide for two-year stints.

Kloth came to Indianapolis in 2008 as the first local executive director when Teach For America began placing teachers here before leaving for the Washington office in 2010. Before becoming deputy mayor for education, he turned down a similar job in Chicago.

At the time, Ballard cited Kloth’s “national-level credibility” in the education reform debate.

As deputy mayor, Kloth led four key efforts: establishing a city-backed preschool tuition program, growing the mayor’s stable of charter schools, closing down troubled charter schools and helping craft laws to support the mayor’s efforts to improve schools.

The preschool program, announced last summer, was not fully approved until March after objections from City-County Council Democrats about the proposed funding method. The final plan, however, is one of Ballard’s signature accomplishments: a five-year, $40 million public-private partnership to pay preschool tuition for poor children. The city approved the first $4 million of an expected $20 million contribution this year. The rest was raised by business and philanthropic groups.

The program saw huge demand with about 5,000 applicants for 1,300 spots for the first year.

“We think there will be a substantial return on investment, especially for low-income children,” Kloth said.

On charter schools, the mayor’s office sponsored 22 at the start of Ballard’s term but will oversee 40 charter schools by 2017. The rapid expansion comes even after five mayor-sponsored charter schools closed down.

Two of those schools closed amid raucous debate.

The Project School was shut down because of academic and financial difficulties just weeks before the start of the 2012-13 school year, and Flanner House School closed last fall amid allegations that adults cheated on the state ISTEP test by changing student answers.

The others — Andrew Academy, Padua Academy and Monument Lighthouse — decided to close, merge or convert to private schools after consultation with Kloth and his team about poor test scores.

Kloth said holding charter schools accountable when they don’t live up to expectations and expanding those that do well are critical to the mayor’s charter school work.

“It’s important to ensure those who receive charters meet the promises they laid out to students, neighborhoods and the taxpayer,” he said.

Kloth also played a role in crafting new state education laws.

He worked with Indianapolis Public Schools Superintendent Lewis Ferebee and legislators on a bill that gave the district more flexibility to partner with charter schools or other outside organizations to overhaul low-scoring schools.

He also helped push through a law that passed late in this year’s legislative session to require Marion County schools to report more data on discipline broken down by race and ethnicity in response to concerns that some groups — notably African-American boys — were routinely disciplined more harshly at some schools.

In his new role, Kloth said he hopes to find strategies to close the gap between the 54 percent of jobs in Indianapolis that require some higher education and the 47 percent of people who qualify for those jobs.

The difference results in higher poverty and a missed opportunity for the state, he said.

“This issue deserves dramatically more attention than its receiving,” he said. “How can we assure students can transition form high school with the certification they need, or to a path to technical education or a two or four year degree, so they can enter the middle class and have a meaningful career?”

Huge demand for preschool aid far exceeds scholarships offered

2015-05-06T12:56:31+00:00

Preschool aid for poor families proved wildly popular in the first-ever enrollment period for a new city-backed program: more than four times as many children applied than the 1,300 scholarships available.

“We could not be more pleased,” Deputy Mayor Jason Kloth said. “If you look at the success rate of these programs elsewhere, in the earlier years they tend to have lower participating rates.”

Not in Indianapolis.

A lottery will be used to select which of the 4,967 qualified applicants will receive up to $6,800 annually for children who attend full day preschool and at least $2,500 for half day programs. Families should hear next week.

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard championed the five year, $40 million public-private aid program starting last summer and finally won funding from a divided city council, which approved an initial $4.2 million to pay for the first year in March.

The program struggled to garner political support despite intense business community lobbying and a $20 million commitment of private matching dollars from a group of companies led by Eli Lilly and Co.

Last summer, Ballard’s office estimated as many as 6,000 poor Indianapolis families would place their children in preschools if they had financial assistance. It nearly met its goal of 5,000 applicants.

“The application phase indicates overwhelming demand for this program,” Kloth said.

The program, which is open to poor families across Marion County, saw the most applicants coming from zip codes within Indianapolis Public Schools that the city deems “high need” because of the number of families in extreme poverty. About 1,200 applicants came from families that live in the poorest neighborhoods of IPS, which is expanding its preschool options, too.

Lawrence Township saw 638 applicants from high-need zip codes. Another 611 came from high-need zip codes in Perry, Decatur and Pike townships.

The city’s recruitment campaign was led by the United Way of Central Indiana and the Neighborhood Resource Center.

The United Way’s Christie Gillespie, vice president for community impact, said outreach included ads on billboard and radio but also community meetings and visits to community events, churches, barber shops, beauty salons and even door-to-door.

The city worked in conjunction with the new, smaller state pilot preschool program to jointly promote both options as ways for poor families to get assistance to pay for preschool.

The next step is to ensure there are enough preschools that qualify as “high quality” to enroll all the scholarship winners. To receive scholarships, preschools must be rated a 3 or 4 on a the state’s voluntary four-step rating system, which means they offer safe, healthy facilities with education programs.

As part of the city program, United Way is assisting preschools to earn high enough ratings to qualify to create more space for scholarship winners.

“A big part of the whole pool of money that was raised through the private sector, the intent was that we would increase the resources we have for capacity building,” Gillespie said. “That’s all about increasing seats at level 3 and level 4.”

Right now, United Way estimates the city is about 100 spaces short of enough room for all 1,300 scholarship winners to enroll in high-rated preschools — a gap they expect to close before children begin arriving in the fall.

“We feel pretty good about that,” Gillespie said. “Now are those seats in the high-need areas where they need to be? Those are moving targets we will be watching weekly.”

Video: Experts discuss challenges of Indianapolis preschool expansion

2015-05-05T18:35:42+00:00

Preschool options are growing in Indianapolis and statewide, but real practical hurdles remain before early education advocates say the state will have enough quality preschools to serve a growing need for early childhood education programs.

In Indianapolis, expanding preschool will require teacher training, better teacher pay and other incentives to build programs that can help poor children catch up to their wealthier peers so they will also have the skills they need to begin kindergarten, preschool experts said at an event organized by Chalkbeat.

Video is now available from a panel moderated last month by Chalkbeat Bureau Chief Scott Elliott about the future of preschool in Indianapolis. It included Indianapolis Deputy Mayor for Education Jason Kloth, Early Learning Indiana President Ted Maple, Butler University College of Education Dean Ena Shelley and Flanner House Child Development Director Shalonda Murray.

The event was April 18 at Butler University’s Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall. Sponsored by Kroger, Chalkbeat’s partners to produce the panel included Butler, WFYI, the American Graduate Project and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

If the video doesn’t play above, click here to watch it.

Panel: Partnerships, big and small, are key to preschool progress in Indianapolis

2015-04-18T18:38:41+00:00

Despite a strong new push to expand preschool in Indianapolis, the only way a large number of children can arrive for kindergarten better prepared is if schools, policymakers, families, communities, businesses and many others work together, local experts said today.

Preschool educators and policymakers gathered today at Butler University to talk about the future of preschool in Indianapolis at an event hosted by Chalkbeat in partnership with WFYI public media and Butler’s College of Education and sponsored by Kroger. Panelists included Indianapolis’ Deputy Mayor for Education Jason Kloth; Ted Maple, president of Early Learning Indiana; Ena Shelley, dean of Butler University’s College of Education; and Shalonda Murray, director of the Flanner House Child Development Center.

Some of the most promising or effective methods of serving young children are partnerships, they said.

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard’s $40 million, five-year public-private preschool program, which earned final City Council approval last month, is an example. Smaller partnerships also are making a difference, such as those between Butler’s lab preschool at Indianapolis Public School 60, or a new partnership between Early Learning Indiana and two local charter schools.

“I think partnerships like that are a lot of what our programs are based on,” Maple said. “And I think it’s working. There are shared costs, there are shared goals, there are shared kids. Partnerships only work if it’s not one-sided, and there’s certainly benefits to both, and we want to see more partnerships like that.”

But partnerships aren’t only about managing costs. They also are about building trust with families, Murray said.

“Providers have to take in all of those different facets of the neighborhood and the community,” Murray said. “We are looking at teacher compensation, family engagement, community engagement and also engaging other community programs for the families that will eventually benefit the child as well.”

Only preschool providers who have earned a level three or level four quality rating from the state can qualify for Ballard’s program or a new state pilot program, both of which provide aid to poor children to pay for preschool. Those higher ratings mean the programs are both safe environments for children and provide academic lessons.

Between the city and state, about $55 million will be funneled into Indianapolis preschools over the next five years, Kloth said, but until more preschools earn the higher ratings, there won’t be enough space for the children to attend qualifying programs. Of about 800 preschools in the city, only about 53 are level three or level four.

“One of the primary intentions of our programs is not only to get children and families into these schools, but it’s over that five-year window to change the supply of level three and four programs in the market,” Kloth said. “So when the state does expand it, there’s a supply of providers to take those resources. I’m not sure the market could take more.”

But a big barrier to better preschools is finding enough quality teachers Shelley said the low wages for preschool teachers are in stark contrast to the certifications required to become a preschool teacher.

The state requires students seeking a license to teach preschool to take a total of 12 tests in various content areas and child development — more than an elementary school teacher is required to do, she said. That costs hundreds of dollars, Shelley said.

“You can’t ask students to pay what is expected of tuition and then go out and make minimum wage,” she said. “We have people who want to do the work, but the salary has to be such that they can do the work.”

Murray and Maple said they’ve encountered many potential teachers who are educated and have innovative ideas and enthusiasm, but they don’t have the required background in teaching. That either means programs have to train their employees, or the state should consider other pathways to a license.

“We are looking at people with the education, but not necessarily the experience,” Murray said. “So we are trying to recruit individuals who have the education as well as the experience, but at the same time, these individuals want to make a livable wage.”

And as far as funding, Murray argued that the state faces a difficult trade off: it can fund preschool now, or pay later for the long-term costs of children who continue in poverty as adults.

“A lot of these children that we are focusing on are in poverty now, and if we don’t make an impact now, they will be in poverty later as well,” she said.

State and city programs are already underway. Earlier this week, Gov. Mike Pence announced the state’s new preschool pilot would grow by about 600 more seats this fall. The city’s serves about 1,000 students. What will move things forward, Maple said, is more collaboration.

“I think what we really need to be working toward (is building) a cohesive system between schools, the community base, providers and others that really creates an early childhood system that’s worthy of investment from families and from parents,” he said. “One that is really high-quality and has enough seats to serve the kids in Indiana.”

Preschool is expanding, but practical challenges remain

2015-04-16T23:37:45+00:00

Public funding for early childhood education in Indiana expanded once again today as Gov. Mike Pence announced the state’s new preschool pilot would grow by nearly 600 more seats this fall.

The announcement is one more piece of good news for preschool advocates in Indiana recently who think the state is long overdue in its investment of Indiana’s youngest learners:

Pence’s announcement today follows the Indiana legislature’s approval last year of the state’s first program offering state aid for preschool in five cities.
Indianapolis recently approved its own $40 million public-private effort to support preschool tuition for poor children.
School districts and private preschools are making headway toward expanding preschool services.

But the momentum raises a big question: Now that some public funding is available for preschool, are there enough high quality preschools to serve more children who are expected to enroll?

In fact, Indiana has a ways to go if it wants far more children to begin learning basic skills before they start school in kindergarten.

Some of the state’s top preschool advocates and experts say several practical hurdles stand in the way. Today, they say there simply aren’t enough high-quality preschools — and adding more will depend heavily on the state’s ability to attract quality preschool teachers, train them effectively and keep them in the workforce.

A public event Saturday at Butler University featuring the state’s top preschool advocates hosted by Chalkbeat will address those issues and aim to shed light on the future direction of preschool in the state.

Bureau Chief Scott Elliott will moderate a panel that includes Indianapolis’ Deputy Mayor for Education Jason Kloth, Early Learning Indiana President Ted Maple, Butler University College of Education Dean Ena Shelley and Flanner House Child Development Director Shalonda Murray.

The event, which is from noon to 2 p.m. at Butler’s Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall, is free and open to the public. (For more details, go here. Butler, WFYI, Kroger, the American Graduate Project and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting are sponsoring the event.)

“Obviously, this is a great first step,” Maple said of the recent preschool expansion efforts. “It’s a big first step, but it’s not going to serve all the children that need high-quality early childhood education. Every leader that I’ve heard talk about this has acknowledged this.”

Pence’s announcement today is built on a new public-private partnership between the state and outside groups. Early Learning Indiana contributed $150,000 in grants as part of a total $435,000 investment to 40 providers around the state so more than 580 children could be added to those programs. The state contributed about $185,000 to the effort. United Way of Central Indiana and Lilly Endowment also supported the expansion.

“These kids are going to have a brighter future because of the people involved in this process,” Pence said during a press conference today at a preschool run by Wayne Township Schools.

Despite the progress, Maple said early learning advocates are still hoping for more substantial public funding.

“There’s a bigger long-term investment needed from the state,” Maple said.Less than 15 percent of 800 preschool centers in Indianapolis are considered to be high quality on Indiana’s rating system, called Paths to Quality. Kloth’s focus is on improving that number.

Kloth said the state and city programs must aim to maintain a balance of public, private, church and community center-run preschools. Private preschools, he said, are a critical part of the city’s preschool market.

“If all school districts provided this and that change occurred quickly, you could devastate the childcare market,” Kloth said. “You want to be sensitive of the unintended consequences of the changes you make.”

That’s because preschool helps offset the more expensive cost of infant care in child care centers, he said.

“If you took all the preschool-aged children out of the child cares, their cost structure would fall apart,” Kloth said. “They wouldn’t have the three- and four-year-olds to offset the more expensive infants.”

And the longterm success of expanded preschool cannot be maintained without skilled teachers specially trained in early childhood education, Shelley said. Treating preschool teachers as professionals equal to teachers in school systems would make a big difference.

But today, most privately run preschools pay teachers by the hour, Shelley said, and that won’t cut it.

“A lot of people really want to do this work but they can’t afford to take the salaries,” Shelley said. “How do you say to someone ‘You’ve just … completed a very rigorous program, but you’re going to go out and make minimum wage?’ That is not a sustainable financial model.”

Murray, who came to Flanner House after running Auntie Mame’s Child Development Center, said she has faced that problem throughout her career managing private preschools. She said new funding for preschool could help stabilize the field.

“The professionals who are available may have little exposure and little education,” Murray said. “There are a lot of deficits that need to be addressed.”

Applications for the state and city programs are due April 30. To R.S.V.P. for Chalkbeat’s event or to find more information, click here.

Council approves funding for Indianapolis preschool program

2015-03-03T03:54:02+00:00

Indianapolis’ hotly debated preschool program cleared its final hurdle Monday when the City-County Council approved spending $4.2 million to send 1,000 poor children to high-quality preschools later this year.

Paying for the program was the final decision needed to put into action what is expected to be a five-year program. The vote was 19-10, with support coming from both Democrats and Republicans in a standing-room only crowd at the Indianapolis City-County Building.

“While this is not a crime bill, it’s part of the way to level the playing field so everyone has the chance to succeed,” said Republican Councilman Jeff Miller. “We must do this, and we are doing this for the kids that need it the most.”

Mayor Greg Ballard, who first proposed the program last summer and signed an ordinance approving its basic framework in December, cheered the bipartisan effort in a statement. The vote came after months of negotiation between Ballard, a Republican, and Democrats who control the Council about how to fund the program and who it should serve.

They ended up with a compromise: the program is slightly smaller than first pitched and serves needier children, according to Council Vice President John Barth, who successfully shepherded the plan through the Council when its fate was in jeopardy.

“Tonight’s vote is a perfect example of the progress that is made when all parties work together to do what’s best for our city,” Ballard said. “Thanks to the priority this issue has been given, thousands of Indianapolis children will have access to high-quality preschool that will provide a solid start in their education.”

The city will pay for the program using a variety of sources. Tapping into the a fiscal stability fund will net $2 million, with $500,000 of that coming from interest. Another $1.7 million that was saved through a change to the homestead tax credit program and $500,000 will come from county option income tax, according to the city’s Office of Education Innovation.

The city’s investment is estimated at $20 million over five years. Another $20 million is expected to be raised by corporate and philanthropic donors.

Those who voted against the program said they didn’t think the city could afford to fund preschool and argued education was the state’s responsibility.

“I don’t think anyone in here has argued against the value of education,” said Democrat Councilwoman Angela Mansfield. “It would be great if we had excess funds. In my district there is a severe lack of sidewalks and streetlights. It doesn’t make sense to be spending money on preschool when we’re not meeting the needs we’re required to as a city.”

But parent Tamika Bennett, who moved to Indianapolis from Birmingham, Ala. seven years ago, said she’d rather see the city take an opportunity to invest in education, even if it’s not technically its job.

“Yes, there are potholes,” Bennett said. “I’m sick of them. If I had to place my money on anything, it would be my kids. You haven’t created better infrastructure in the seven years I’ve been here. I really don’t think I want to wait around another seven years for you to do that.”

Councilman Zach Adamson, a Democrat, said the state’s meager investment in a statewide preschool pilot program shouldn’t be the reason the Council lets an opportunity go by to educate kids.

“While this is the job of the state. it is too important to wave our hands in the air and wait for them to come around,” Adamson said. “It doesn’t solve every problem but it’s a great start.”

Ballard first proposed the preschool program last year as part of an initiative to reduce crime across the city. The Council also voted Monday to fund hiring 155 more police officers.

Democrat Councilman Stephen Clay, who voted against the program said he doesn’t believe that investing in preschool will help solve the city’s crime problem.

“What we have is a right now problem,” Clay said. “The real question becomes if we pass this tonight, is anyone here going to feel safer?”

But others said the city will see long term benefits from paying for preschool. Several studies have shown kids who attend high quality preschool are less likely to commit crimes or drop out of school as teenagers.

“It’s going to take awhile,” said Republican Councilwoman Janice McHenry. “By the time these children get into their high school years, we will see a difference.”

Deputy Mayor Jason Kloth said tonight’s decision wouldn’t have been possible without the financial backing of the business and philanthropic communities, which have committed to raise about half the cost of the five-year program. He said Eli Lilly and Co.’s support kept the program alive when it was in doubt last year.

“We are thrilled for children and for their families, and we are exceedingly grateful to the members of our community,” Kloth said. “This would not have been possible without their collective effort. I’m humbled to have been a part of it alongside them.”

Committee OKs using reserve cash to pay for city preschool program

2015-02-12T02:41:57+00:00

A City-County Council committee tonight backed a bipartisan plan to tap reserves and other funds to pay the city’s share of Mayor Greg Ballard’s plan to pay for up to 1,000 poor kids to attend preschool.

The Community Affairs and Education Committee unanimously approved the plan. Using primarily set aside money, rather than the city’s general fund, must also win support of the full Indianapolis City-County Council, which in December passed the framework for the preschool program by a wide margin.

“The truth is that quality preschool and quality early education shouldn’t be a privilege,” said Council Vice President and Democrat John Barth. “We’re making an important dent and an important first step with these votes tonight.”

The committee approved setting aside $4.2 million in city dollars to fund the first year of what is expected to be a five-year program. The city plans to use $2 million by tapping into the city’s fiscal stability fund, with $500,000 of that coming from interest, $1.7 million that was saved through a change to the homestead tax credit program and $500,000 from county option income tax, according to the city’s Office of Education Innovation. Both the Republican mayor’s office and several council Democrats have backed the plan.

The city’s investment is expected to be $20 million over five years. Another $20 million is expected to be raised by corporate and philanthropic donors.

Councilwoman Pam Hickman, a Democrat, said she wanted to make sure the Council would not be asked later for public safety tax money to replenish cash depleted by tapping into reserves. Previously, the reserve fund has funded new Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department recruits. City officials urged that no public safety dollars would be used to pay for preschool.

“That would be a real downer,” Hickman said.

Councilman Jefferson Shreve, a Republican, said he worried about approving only one year of funding for the program since its future viability would hinge on annual council decisions. He also noted philanthropic gifts are dependent on public support. But he ultimately voted in support of the plan.

“It seems that this is very optimistic,” Shreve said. “At the minimum, your office is (proposing spending) $43 million over five years. We’re a long way from there.”

The council committee unanimously approved United Way of Central Indiana Inc. as the preschool program’s administrator. The organization, which also is running the state’s new preschool pilot program, hopes to increase the number of high-quality preschools in Indianapolis, as well as lead efforts to encourage families to enroll their children.

United Way CEO Ann Murtlow her organization’s aid has helped increase the number of highly-rated preschools in Indianapolis by more than 15 percent.

“We have demonstrated a clear moving of the needle on this community issue,” Murtlow said.

United Way, which said it will raise $7.5 million for the program, said it will spend at least 92.5 percent of the public funds it receives to pay for the program on scholarships. Twenty-five percent of the scholarships will be for three-year-olds. Each scholarship would range from $2,500 to $6,800 per year depending on the provider.

The organization’s administration fee for the program is up to 7.5 percent, Murtlow said, or around $315,000 per year. That pays for two United Way staff members to run the program as well as contractors to support the outreach, technology and transportation.

Preschool supporters came out in large numbers, wearing matching green shirts, to support the program.

Maddie Denton, a Kindergarten teacher at Greenbriar Elementary School in Washington Township, said she is saddened by the children who start school in her class without the most basic school skills.

“They deserve to know how to hold a pencil and scissors when they walk through my door,” Denton said.

The plan is expected to be heard at the council’s full meeting in March.

City-County Council begins debate about how to pay for preschool

2015-02-10T03:44:12+00:00

Paying for a new city-sponsored preschool program could get tricky for the Indianapolis City-County Council.

Under a proposal the city could consider this week using about $2 million from a reserve fund for the first year. A plan has yet to be figured where the rest of the city’s share of $20 million over five years will come from.

The overall plan is to spend $40 million on preschool through a public-private partnership among the city, businesses and philanthropy groups to serve 1,000 poor children. It was passed the council by a wide margin in December after months debate leading to a compromise between council Democrats and Republican Mayor Greg Ballard.

Democrats blocked by Democrats blocked the plan initially objecting to Ballard’s plan to pay for the program by repealing the local homestead tax. Council Vice President John Barth will propose appropriating $4.2 million for the first year of the plan at a council committee meeting on Wednesday.

“We’re moving forward with what we what we agreed on,” Barth said.

A proposal submitted to the council outlines about $2 million annually is proposed to come from the city’s fiscal stability fund. Once used to shore up the city’s finances, council CFO Bart Brown said it was tapped into recently to fund the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department’s latest recruit class.

City officials also plan to use about $1.7 million that was saved through a change to the homestead tax credit program, and tap into the county’s general fund.

Deputy Mayor Jason Kloth said the mayor’s office worked with Democrats and Republicans to foster support for the plan.

“We’ve gone to immense lengths to forge bipartisan support for the sources of funding,” Kloth said.

Preschool advocates including Eli Lilly and Co., which rallied businesses in support of the plan last year, are hoping the debate over how to fund the plan passes the Council without any hiccups. Lilly Foundation President Rob Smith said businesses have raised $6.2 million to support the plan so far.

“I’m confident this will pass out of committee and pass the full council,” Smith said. “There will be questions and a good debate, but it will pass and we can begin to really ramp up the implementation of this program.”

But some council members from both parties have already warned they would be watching to see what sources the funds come from before they give their final support to the program.

“Not one cent of this money should come from (police),” Republican Councilman Aaron Freeman said back in December. “Not one cent should come from the public safety tax. I will be a ‘no’ vote at that point. We should find another mechanism to fund this outside of that.”

These 9 education changes could move ahead in the legislature — but 6 others probably won't

2015-02-02T15:39:02+00:00

February is beginning and the Indiana legislature is kicking it into gear. Already, the education issues that likely will be the biggest — and those that won’t — have come into focus.

There’s no question a huge battle will take place over the role of state Superintendent Glenda Ritz on the Indiana State Board of Education. But of the 122 education-focused bills the Indiana General Assembly is expected to consider, just a fraction will make it through to Gov. Mike Pence’s desk in April to become law.

Last week, Chalkbeat spoke with the chairmen of the education committees — Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, in the Senate and Rep. Robert Behning, R-Indianapolis, in the House — about what’s likely to happen.

9 issues you can expect to hear more about:
1. Glenda Ritz’s future will be a major debate. If last week was any indication, Republicans are serious about major changes to the state superintendent’s role.

The House Education Committee passed two major bills that together would redefine Ritz’s job, her state board responsibilities and even the authority of the Indiana Department of Education, which Ritz oversees.

House Bill 1609 would erase the guarantee in state law that the state superintendent also serve as chairwoman of the state board. House bill 1486 makes a series of shifts in responsibilities over testing, standards, student data, state takeovers and teacher evaluation from Ritz or the education department to the state board.

Is there anything Ritz can do to slow this train?

That remains to be seen, but teachers unions have already begun rallying their members and supporters to sign petitions, call their legislators and attend legislative town hall events to protest the bills.

In an emotional committee meeting last week, Rep. Terri Austin, D-Anderson, asked her Republican colleagues to consider a shared leadership model for the state board as a compromise. But so far, Republicans have not shown any signs of bending.

This week the Senate will take up its own version of the bill, Senate Bill 1, in the rules committee, where it will be shepherded by Sen. David Long, R-Fort Wayne, the Senate president.

2. The future of teachers unions is emerging as a serious issue. Flying somewhat under the radar is a bill that would bring huge changes that could leave teachers unions fighting for their futures.

Senate bill 538, heard last week in the Pensions and Labor Committee, could allow teachers to seek other organizations — such as companies that provide training or liability insurance — to negotiate on their behalf, not just unions.

Teachers already in unions would have to reaffirm their commitments to those unions. The law would require every local union to hold an election to re-select their union or choose a new organization as its bargaining representative by 2017.

With most of the state’s 289 school districts represented either by the Indiana State Teachers Association or the Indiana Federation of Teachers, that could place before them a monumental task of organizing for dozens of elections in each of the next three years.

3. Lawmakers are looking for ways to ensure more fairness in school discipline. The problem of huge racial disparities in discipline — for example, black boys are suspended and expelled at a much higher rate than their white classmates nationwide and in Indiana — has emerged over the past year as a major concern.

The legislature is looking for a way to address it, but lawmakers may not choose the path activists would prefer.

Last year, those disparities were highlighted by a joint announcement of the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice, which called for action to ensure children are not disciplined unfairly. Indiana has among the biggest disparities in the nation.

An effort to create new laws to ensure fairness was dropped last year by the legislature and the question of what to do was sent instead to a summer study committee. Republican legislative leaders were persuaded that some changes are needed.

Kruse, for example, said it seemed schools that suspended students for too many absences were misguided.

“That’s not a reason to expel a kid,” Kruse said. “A lot of times, that isn’t the student’s decision. We need to do all we can to keep the kid part of the system.”

Bills proposed by Democratic legislators would require schools to follow discipline best practices. Instead, Republican leaders are supporting bills that would provide grants for schools to develop programs to improve school climate and find alternatives to suspension and expulsion. That is part of both House Bill 1640, co-authored by Behning and Rep. Greg Porter, D-Indianapolis, and Senate Bill 443, a bill that has both Kruse and Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, as co-authors.

4. There’s a serious effort to get schools to count student test scores more in teacher evaluations. The question of whether student test scores should be a bigger factor in teacher evaluations is being simultaneously debated in the legislature and by the State Board of Education.

On Wednesday, the state board will consider recommendations that would establish guidelines that would expect students’ test score gains to count for up to 50 percent of their teachers’ evaluations.

When the evaluation law was created in 2011, the legislature specifically left it up to local school districts what percentage test scores should count. But House Bill 1486 would give the state board new authority to establish minimum and maximum thresholds for how much test scores should factor in.

If the bill passes, the guidance the state board is expected to offer to schools — advice that suggests test scores count for more — could instead eventually be required statewide.

5. A major overhaul of testing isn’t likely. A number of bills the Senate Education Committee will hear deal with changes to the state’s standardized testing system — some propose new tests while others undo the past year’s worth of work on creating a test just for Indiana.

Senate Bill 566 would get rid of ISTEP in favor of a potentially cheaper national test, while Senate Bill 501 proposes to go back to Indiana standards in place almost 10 years ago in 2006, effectively ending the education department’s current process working with vendors to write a new test aligned with new standards that were created last year. Kruse said he was wary of making too many changes to a system that has such big effects on students’ futures.

“I don’t want to mess up our kids and make it harder for them to get to college or would make it harder for them to get a job,” Kruse said.

However, Kruse did say some of the new ideas had merit, and it’s possible there could be new laws passed that would make changes to the tests, although maybe not dramatically overhaul the whole system.

6. Cutting red tape could mean dropping health and safety rules. The Senate is considering a huge 300-page bill aimed at cutting wasteful regulations author Pete Miller, R-Avon, says are unneeded. But some of the changes include fairly recently created laws that have raised objections.

For example, Senate Bill 500 would eliminate rules put into place in just the past few years aimed at curbing bullying and giving students with diabetes more control over their ability to administer insulin to themselves and test their blood sugar. It would also make accreditation for public schools voluntary.

Nervous lawmakers are giving the bill a closer look. A vote is expected in the Senate Education Committee this week.

7. Teachers look likely to get a tax credit. When lawmakers in committee heard House Bill 1005, which would give teachers a $200 tax credit for money they spend out of their own pockets for classroom supplies, there was unanimous support.

Not only were Democrats and Republicans for the bill, so were the Indiana Chamber of Commerce and the Indiana State Teachers Association — two groups that don’t often agree.

Look for the bill to continue sailing ahead.

8. Indiana might push ahead with a foreign language immersion pilot program. Behning is personally pushing House Bill 1635, which would create a pilot to establish programs that would allow students to learn half the day in a foreign language, such as Chinese, Spanish or French.

Behning said he modeled the bill after a similar effort in Utah, which has spurred widespread dual-language immersion, especially in Chinese. Behning, who traveled to China last year, said he believed more Hoosier children learning Chinese could give the state an advantage as the country becomes an increasingly important U.S. trading partner.

9. A big school funding debate is just about here. Most of the work on the state budget so far has taken place behind the scenes. But the budget will be released this month, and Republicans have promised an overhaul of the school funding formula. When school districts get a look at estimates for what those changes will mean for their districts, expect the debate to heat up in a hurry.

6 issues you can consider all but dead this session:

1. There’s not much enthusiasm for expanding preschool. One of last year’s biggest issues was Pence’s successful push to establish state-paid preschool for poor children for the first time.

The program, which launched last month, is tiny, but demand is strong. This year just 500 children are expected to enroll, including only about 100 students in Marion County. It is expected to grow to at least 1,600 next year. Senate Bill 344, authored by Democrat Rogers, would double the size of the pilot program. But Kruse said he does not expect the bill to get a hearing in his committee.

“I think it’s just too premature to do anything more,” Kruse said. “Our effort is supposed to be higher quality than other states, so if ours proves to be high quality, and that we’re helping students, then that makes it better to expand after we know it works right.”

2. Don’t expect a reconsideration of academic standards. Last year’s other big education debate resulted in a bill passing that outlawed Indiana’s use of Common Core standards and required the state to put new, locally created standards in place.

But those new standards didn’t satisfy critics of Common Core, which were jointly agreed to by 45 other states in an effort to ensure American children finish high school ready for college and careers. Some felt Indiana’s new standards, in place now since July, are too similar to Common Core and grumbled that perhaps standards should be changed again. Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, introduced Senate Bill 501, which would re-establish standards the state used in 2006.

But Kruse said he doesn’t expect the bill, or any other efforts to change the standards, to go forward.

“The development of standards has been done by teachers and educators, and in general it takes six months to a year to develop those standards,” Kruse said. “And just in one fell swoop and a couple senetences in a bill to eliminate that process — even I think it is not good.”

3. It’s not likely Indiana will establish an incentive for teachers to earn National Board certification. The certificate is a challenging credential awarded to applicants who demonstrate high quality teaching through a variety of evaluated tasks.

Indiana is way behind its neighbors when it comes to National Board certification, and ranks just 43rd among the states with only 168 teachers who have earned the credential. One of them is Ritz, who also served on the National Board of Professional Teaching Stanards board for a time.

Next door in Illinois, more than 6,000 teachers have National Board certification. Ohio and Kentucky each have more than 3,000 National Board certified teachers, and Kentucky has set a goal of at least one in each of its schools.

But Behning said he has yet to see evidence that the certificate has a demonstrated connection to improve student test scores. Unless he is convinced otherwise, he said he is unlikely to move forward two bills — House Bill 1332 and House Bill 1583 — that would offer incentives to teachers who earn the certification.

“I’ve said show me the data and I‘ll look at it,” he said.

4. Although Indiana is far behind in school counseling, efforts to change that appear dead. Last summer, an Indiana Chamber of Commerce survey raised big questions with a survey that showed 90 percent of the state’s counselors said less than half their time is spent helping students prepare for college or careers.

On top of that, Indiana has one of the nation’s worst ratios of counselors to students: just one for every 620 students. Only six other states do worse. Senate Bill 277, which Kruse co-authored, would require a guidance counselor in every Indiana school. But Kruse said last week the potential cost of the bill — estimated at nearly $60 million — would scuttle it. He killed the bill in the committee’s meeting this past Wednesday.

Instead, he said the idea could be reconsidered in the future, perhaps widening the requirement to require schools to have a counselor or social worker, depending on their needs.

5. Textbook fees will likely remain. Indiana is one of just two states that allow school districts to charge parents for their students’ textbooks rather than providing them for free. That doesn’t seem likely to change. Although Ritz, Democrats and unions have made this idea a centerpiece of their agendas, Senate Bill 340 is likely not moving forward, Kruse said. The bill is authored by Rogers.

“The biggest population who need it the most are getting free textbooks,” Kruse said. “There are a lot of people who make enough money, they can afford the textbook rental. And if we do make it free for everyone, that would take money from teacher salaries and everybody.”

6. At least in the House, there is not much enthusiasm for new rules around curriculum. While some Republicans are pushing for rolling back specific regulations, others want new rules around what kids must be taught and how schools should operate.

Behning, however, said he is wary of such bills.

“I generally still believe we shouldn’t micromanage but should provide more flexibility,” he said. “There are times when we may provide guidance.”

Some examples are curriculum changes that have been proposed are Senate Bill 233, requiring schools to allow Christmas displays; Senate Bill 130 requiring schools to teach cursive writing, and Senate Bill 562, which critics say would allow more discussion of the religious creation stories alongside the theory of evolution in science classes, as well as global warming.

While there is some enthusiasm for those ideas in the Senate — all three have passed the Senate in recent years — Behning said he would need to be persuaded to give bills that dictate curriculum and school changes hearings in the House.

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IPS ended 2014 with a $4.1 million surplus despite less state aid

2015-01-14T20:30:35+00:00

Indianapolis Public Schools weathered a deep $10 million dip in state aid last year compared to 2013 but still finished 2014 with a small $4.1 million surplus it put toward savings.

The district had planned for some of that drop in aid, but Superintendent Lewis Ferebee said it still took $5 million in new budget cuts last year to produce a savings. IPS spent $232.5 million last year from its general fund, which pays for day-to-day operating costs like salaries, benefits, learning materials and utilities.

“We’re doing better due diligence in terms of projecting and monitoring our revenue and expenditures,” Ferebee said. “Since this administration came on board last school year, there have been efforts to restructure. We’ve received less funding but we’re also being better stewards of the funding that we receive.”

Part of the reason IPS saw so much less state aid come in last year was because of some extra dollars the district received in 2013, notably a $6 million payback from the state after a court ruled it overcharged the district for the cost of operating four failing schools it took over and turned over to outside operators. But at the same time, the state has been reducing the basic per student state aid amount for high poverty districts for several years, which has meant less money for IPS.

So Ferebee looked internally for cost savings.

He trimmed $1.5 million from the administrative payroll of the central office. Critics have long complained that IPS was overly bureaucratic. Ferebee agreed, saying he saved money but cutting jobs and spreading those duties to other administrators.

After Ferebee presented his year-end financial report to the Indianapolis Public School Board on Tuesday, board members said they want to push even harder to save money, especially because school funding has become a key issue for lawmakers this year and Ferebee has said he is concerned that IPS could see even deeper cuts in state aid going forward.

Since taking over as superintendent in late 2013, Ferebee has pushed IPS to be more open about its financial situation, beginning with his shocking revelation last March that a $30 million budget deficit claimed by prior administrations did not exist. Ferebee said IPS in the past had systematically overestimated its budget. He has since invited independent audits that largely confirmed his findings, fired the district’s prior financial chief and began giving the board more frequent and specific updates on the district’s financial state.

Board member Kelly Bentley, a longtime critic of the district’s financial reporting in a prior stint on the board, said lawmakers setting the state’s next budget should understand that even small reductions in per-student funding make a big difference for districts like IPS. For each student, IPS received $7,058 in tuition support last month, according to IPS. Compare that with $7,209 back in January 2013.

Losing that $150 per student costs IPS about $4.6 million — or nearly equivalent to the district’s entire 2015 budget for school security.

“It’s important to let them know what we’re spending our money on,” Bentley said. “Sometimes it’s difficult for legislators to grasp that $150 (less) per pupil is a significant amount of money.”

IPS Treasurer Paul Carpenter-Wilson said the district is losing money partly because of a change in the way Indiana counts students. Enrollment is counted twice a year now, in September and February, and adjustments are made to raise or lower funding if enrollment grows or falls. In the past, enrollment was only counted once in September. The district’s estimates for how much aid it will receive based on September’s count did not anticipate lost enrollment that was evident in the February count.

Fewer students in February meant a cut in state aid in the following months.

“As the state continues with two (count days) and financial adjustments made for each, we will continue to refine our projections using these new data methods in order to be as accurate as possible,” Carpenter-Wilson said.

More cost savings for IPS are expected this year. IPS administrators said their plans in 2015 include:

Selling off vacant former school buildings. IPS plans to lease or sell three former school buildings — School 21, School 78 and School 92 — that all have been vacant for at least six years. Scott Martin, IPS’s operations director, said the district is losing money by maintaining and securing buildings that aren’t being used. Private groups have expressed interest in buying the former schools and turning them into everything from senior citizen housing to preschool centers, Ferebee said, but charter school groups have so far not shown interest as the buildings need significant repairs.
Replacing older buses with new, efficient models. About 40 percent of the district’s fleet of 305 buses are at least 12 years old. IPS transports about a third of its students on those buses and pays Durham School Services nearly $25 million annually to bus the rest. IPS will seek to sell the older buses and buy new ones that use less fuel and have lower maintenance costs.
Refinancing bonds. IPS estimates it could save up to $1 million each year — and more than $13 million over the life of the bonds — by refinancing two bonds at lower interest rates.

Teacher quality changes among low profile education ideas advocates are pushing

2015-01-09T22:23:00+00:00

An idea pitched this week would aim to solve one of Indiana’s biggest education challenges — raising the quality of teaching across the state — by prodding more teachers to seek National Board Certification.

Haven’t heard about it?

A flood of proposals from powerful interests — Gov. Mike Pence and Republican legislative leaders, who control the legislative process with large majorities in both houses, in particular — have focused much attention on issues everyone expects to be the central battleground on education during the legislation session that runs from January to April. Topics such as school funding, school choice and state Superintendent Glenda Ritz’s powers are expected to dominate the education debates.

But Democrats, and lobbying groups of all stripes, have their own agendas. Some of them are offering up what they think are creative solutions to other widely-recognized education problems.

On teacher quality, the Indiana State Teachers Association announced its legislative agenda this week, including a proposal for Indiana to offer an incentive of 10 years of extra pay to teachers who earn a certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, a challenging credential awarded to applicants who demonstrate high quality teaching through a variety of tasks.

Next door in Illinois, more than 6,000 teachers have National Board certification. Ohio and Kentucky each have more than 3,000 National Board certified teachers and Kentucky has set a goal of at least one in every one of its schools. ISTA wants to match that goal here by 2025. Those other states offer incentives for teachers to undertaking the difficult certification process. ISTA proposed a 10-year, $2,000 salary annual stipend for teachers who complete the credential.

“Improving student learning is intricately linked to improving the practice of teaching,” said ISTA President Teresa Meredith. “(National Board Certification) forces an individual to reflect not only on what is being taught and how, but why it is being taught.”

Hoosiers for Quality Education, the lobbying arm of the Institute for Quality Education, an education reform-minded organization that advocates for school choice and raising teacher quality, has different ideas about how to improve teaching: less regulation that it views as simply red tape.

Tosha Salyers, communications director at the institute, pointed to the battle over Project Restore in Indianapolis Public Schools as an example. When the district proposed to expand the innovative program, which raised test scores at School 99, to a second school, union leaders initially balked. They said the two teachers who designed it could not be paid higher salaries and remain classified as teachers. Contract rules meant they had to be reassigned as administrators. Ultimately, a compromise was worked out.

The institute is advocating for an idea similar to one of Pence’s proposals called “Freedom to Teach,” which would empower the Indiana State Board of Education to disperse $2 million in grants from a special innovation fund for schools that want to try out creative ideas. But the plan would also allow the schools to be released from state regulations, including laws that require teachers to be paid on a union-negotiated wage scale.

Teachers should have more freedom to negotiate individually, said institute president, Betsy Wiley.

“If I’m in a school corporation and not in the union, they are still negotiating my contract and I get whatever I get,” she said. “Maybe a young teacher is less concerned about health care benefits or retirement and more interested in the front side and salary … allowing them to have that flexibility we also think is important.”

Unions, and their Democratic allies, have strongly opposed Pence’s idea, describing it as just a new effort to limit teacher collective bargaining.

Another lower profile issue is busing cuts at schools with financial trouble.

That problem is connected to broader school funding issues, which prompted a lawsuit in Franklin Township that the Indiana Supreme Court recently said it would rule on.

Franklin is among a handful of school districts that have felt an intense budget squeeze from caps of property tax rates instituted in 2009, which have left a few schools short of funds meant to cover the cost of school bus service. In response, schools have considered eliminating busing altogether or charging parents for the service.

Lower courts have now said school districts are not required to offer busing, but if they do, they cannot charge for it.

Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Portage, said this problem needs to be fixed and it will be a priority for Democrats.

“All the money in the world we spend on education doesn’t do any good,” she said, “if we can’t get our children to school.”

Indiana's five biggest education stories of 2014

2014-12-23T18:44:44+00:00

(NOTE: Chalkbeat Indiana will publish on a reduced schedule after today until Jan. 5. We will be republishing some of our favorite stories from 2014, so check back during the break to revisit some of our most interesting reporting of the year. During the break, our daily Rise and Shine feature and morning newsletter will also be on hiatus. We hope you’ll continue to join us in 2015 as we work to bring you even broader and more in-depth coverage of education in Indiana.)

From political battles at the Indiana Statehouse to major moves at Indianapolis Public Schools, 2014 was a big year for education in Indiana.

Here’s a recap of five of the most influential education news events of the year as Chalkbeat sees them. Do you agree or disagree? Tell us in the comments below!

1. Indiana Junks Common Core:

Early in 2014, Indiana became the first state to back out of its plan to follow Common Core academic standards, which in 2010 it had adopted along with 45 other states. Indiana had been one the earliest and most enthusiastic supporters of Common Core. In four short years, everything changed. Common Core became embroiled in national politics and caught in the crossfire of decades-old philosophical debates about the best ways for children to learn. This spring, a bill to void the Common Core as the state’s standards passed the legislature and was signed by Gov. Mike Pence, earning praise for the governor from critics who distrusted the federal government’s endorsement of the standards. But the cheers subsided when drafts of the new standards were released. Common Core opponents complained that many of the standards were identical or nearly the same as Common Core. The quick change of direction on standards also knocked Indiana off schedule for connecting its new standards to state tests, creating new difficulties for schools trying to prepare students to pass those tests.
2. State launches first ever preschool pilot:

Pence pushed hard to get a small preschool pilot approved by the Indiana General Assembly in 2014. Most of the five counties participating — including Marion County — are poised to start serving children in January. Pence made beefing up state’s preschool investment the top priority on his education agenda for the legislative session, and got the program established despite serious doubts from some of his Republican allies in the legislature and a few setbacks that put the bill in peril. Meanwhile, the city of Indianapolis separately approved the framework for a $40 million public-private effort to expand preschool options for poor families in the city.

3. Glenda Ritz and Mike Pence take their battle to a new level:

The distrust among Indiana’s top education leaders was obvious at nearly every Indiana State Board of Education meeting in 2014. Tensions that built after Pence created by executive order the Center for Education and Career Innovation in 2013, climaxed with battles over who was responsible for shortcomings that brought the attention of federal officials. The U.S. Department of education raised concerns in May that Indiana was not following an agreement under which it was freed from some sanctions of the federal No Child Left Behind law and set a short deadline to make fixes. After weeks of finger pointing, state Superintendent Glenda Ritz’s report was approved and the NCLB waiver renewed for another year. After constant complaints from Ritz that CECI was designed to usurp her power, Pence surprised everyone last month by announcing he would shut the agency down to assuage her fears. But that pledge came with a twist: He wants Ritz to give up her role as chairwoman of the state board. 4. A massive effort to overhaul teacher evaluations changed little:

After the first school year under tougher new teacher evaluation rules, hardly any teachers were rated in the lowest category, results that mirrored the old system. Statewide just 219 educators were rated “ineffective” last May of 50,000 educators who were evaluated. In fact, nearly all rated educators — 97 percent — were classified in the top two categories as effective or highly effective. Legislators are weighing changes to the state’s teacher evaluation law, which was first passed in 2011, saying that the high scores suggest that the law does not go far enough to identify which teachers need help or should be removed.
5. IPS reveals financial stunner:

Superintendent Lewis Ferebee sent a shock wave through the Indianapolis Public Schools community back in March when he revealed the $30 million deficit the district had been struggling with for nearly a year doesn’t exist. In fact, IPS ended 2013 with an $8.4 million surplus. Ferebee speculated that IPS’s prior administration “intentionally overstated expenses to protect our cash balance.” The revelation, which was met with skepticism from his predecessors, led the administration to change the way it reports and manages finances, with more detailed reports to the board and the public. Two outside audits of IPS’s operations revealed a recent history of poorly managed finances and an unsophisticated investment strategy for managing the district’s cash reserves.

Ballard signs city preschool ordinance (update)

2014-12-11T16:08:40+00:00

Mayor Greg Ballard sat on a tree stump surrounded by four-year-olds today in a Warren Township Schools classroom as he signed an ordinance making the city’s newly approved preschool program a reality.

“I’m really proud that we’ve made it to this point,” Ballard said in front of a room of supporters and teachers. “It says something about our community to see such enthusiastic support. People want this in the city.”

Ballard said he chose to make preschool official in Warren Township because of the district’s existing commitment to preschool. He said he hopes Marion County school districts eventually become providers of the city program.

“They do it really, really well out here,” Ballard said. “We want to help them out as much as we can from our side, try to get as many scholarships and help them in getting quality providers in their system.”

The program’s approval comes as corporate support is mounting for preschool education in Indianapolis.

The Indianapolis business community, led by Eli Lilly and Company, has already netted more than half of its goal to support the city’s recently approved preschool program to provide low-income families with high-quality early education programs.

Lilly, which pledged to rally $10 million to support the public-private program from corporate donors, has raised more than $6.1 million so far. Major gifts include $2 million from Lilly, and $1 million each from Indiana University Health, Cummins and Anthem, the company said.

“This is a great example of the public and private sectors working together to strengthen the fabric of our community,” Rob Smith, president of Lilly’s corporate foundation, said in a statement. “We want to thank our elected officials for their bold leadership and look forward to working closely with them early next year to ensure full funding of the first year of the program. We are gratified that many in the business community have made financial pledges and want to thank them for their strong support. We will be engaging other businesses in the months ahead to raise the full $10 million.”

Other donations include $500,000 from PNC Bank, $250,000 from Indianapolis Power and Light, $200,000 from Community Health and $150,000 from Emmis Communications.

The Republican mayor encountered resistance from the Democrat-led City-County Council soon after he announced his plan for preschool in July.

When political pressure mounted to find a solution to Democrats’ concerns about funding for the plan, Lilly hosted about 50 CEOs, executives and community leaders at their downtown campus to urge support for Ballard’s plan.

The companies said their investments were contingent on Ballard and the Democrat-controlled council working out a deal on preschool.

(Disclosure: Chalkbeat is a grantee of the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation.)

After uncertainty, Ballard's preschool plan passes easily

2014-12-02T04:35:30+00:00

More than 1,000 poor Indianapolis children will have access to high-quality preschool starting in 2016 after an Indianapolis City-County Council vote tonight to approve a $40 million public-private partnership between the city, business and philanthropic leaders.

The solid 19-8 vote margin to approve a compromise between Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard and council Democrats follows nearly six months of debate in the city about how to pay for it. The vote was uncertain enough that Ballard led a rally at Indianapolis City Market earlier today to whip up support before the meeting.

Ballard, who first proposed a similar plan in July as part of his crime prevention plan, called the vote “historic.”

“The city of Indianapolis today took a major step forward becoming a place where all children have the tools to succeed,” Ballard said in a statement immediately following the vote. “Tonight’s bipartisan approval … will help prepare many Indy children for a brighter economic future and ultimately make Indy a safer city by addressing the root causes of poverty and violence in our community.”

It hasn’t been an easy road to get to this point.

Ballard’s plan was resisted by City-County Council Democrats soon after it was proposed. The Democrats said Ballard’s preferred funding mechanism — eliminating the local homestead tax credit — would hurt Indianapolis Public Schools and other Marion County schools.

After his fellow Democrats effectively killed the plan, Council Vice President John Barth helped resurrect it by meeting with the mayor’s office and business leaders to forge a compromise. That compromise, which doesn’t touch the local homestead tax credit as a funding source, unanimously passed a Council committee last month.

Barth, who shepherded the council through a lengthy debate over the issue where nearly every council member present voiced their opinions, said he was pleasantly surprised at the final vote tally and was expecting it to be closer.

“I’m just thrilled,” Barth said. “I think the debate helped us pull some people over to the ‘yes’ side and that’s great.”

Council members debated in front of a packed house of supporters, many who were wearing bright blue tee-shirts passed out at the mayor’s rally earlier in the evening.

There were two key sticking points for council members from both sides of the aisle: the first being whether the city should fund education, with some arguing the state is solely responsible for doing so. The second concern was about spending city money on programs, like preschool, aimed at long-term challenges rather than addressing crime and poverty right now.

Councilman Ben Hunter, a Republican who supported the preschool plan, said he understands the argument that the state should pay for preschool. But since it’s only happening on a small scale with the new preschool pilot, he said the city can’t wait around.

“This is what big cities do,” Hunter said. “They solve their own problems. We’re going to take care of our children. We need to continue to close the gap to prove to the state that we are going to solve our issues.”

Councilwoman Virginia Cain, a Republican, said she couldn’t support the proposal because the city shouldn’t add programs when it can’t support its existing responsibilities like public safety, public works and animal control.

“We need to make Indianapolis more safe now,” Cain said. “I had to pull teeth to get one road repaired. We’re not even getting what we should be doing done efficiently. I can’t be for this.”

The debate over Indianapolis’ preschool plan is far from over. The Council will take up the matter of how to fund the program early next year, and several Republicans said tonight they would reverse their support over the plan if money was taken out of the city’s public safety fund. Barth said there are “no plans to tap into any public safety money.”

“Not one cent of this money should come from (police),” said Republican Councilman Aaron Freeman. “Not one cent should come from the public safety tax. I will be a ‘no’ vote at that point. We should find another mechanism to fund this outside of that.”

For now, city leaders who backed the plan and other advocates are celebrating.

“Tonight is an historic night and a huge victory for thousands of low-income children, families and the working poor,” said Deputy Mayor for Education Jason Kloth. “We could not be happier for them.”

Ballard rallies crowd for preschool before Council vote

2014-12-02T00:13:36+00:00

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard cheered the city’s proposal to fund preschool for poor children with his supporters Monday night as city leaders braced for a close City-County Council vote.

The City-County Council will vote tonight on the measure, which survived months of political bickering and dealmaking. That resulted in a proposal with bipartisan support to serve up to 1,300 three- and four-year-olds in high-quality programs starting in 2016. The meeting starts at 7 p.m.

“The hours upon hours just to get to this point has been unbelievable,” Ballard said to a sea of people gathered at Indianapolis City Market. They wore matching bright blue shirts that city leaders passed out as they entered. “It took a lot of anguish sometimes. I’m hoping that everything goes just as planned tonight.”

The preschool program cleared a critical hurdle last month when it unanimously passed a council committee. But some opposition remains from council members in both parties who think the state, not the city, has the responsibility to fund preschool.

Republican Councilor Ben Hunter, who spoke in support of the plan at the rally at Indianapolis City Market, said he expects the vote will be close, and not along traditional party lines. There are 29 City-County council members. There are 15 Democrats and 14 Republicans.

“[Council Vice President John Barth] thought the vote was going to be right at 16,” Hunter said. “That gives us one vote for error. I told him I thought it was around 17. We’ll see. I’m going to do a lot of talking to my caucus. If this doesn’t pass, we are not impacting children in a meaningful way as if it did pass. That is a vote against children.”

Barth, who helped broker the deal between Ballard and Democrats, said he was hopeful the vote would go as anticipated.

“This is a big deal for us all to be here tonight,” Barth said. “Let’s get this done.”

IPS wants to keep expanding preschool, if it can find the money

2014-12-01T15:58:14+00:00

On a typical day inside Mary Oliver’s classroom at School 48, a dozen or so three-and four-year-olds are using play dough to create shapes, stacking blocks in towers on the floor and playing games on the iPad.

It’s not play time. This is what learning looks like in preschool.

Molding play dough helps build the dexterity necessary to handle pencils and scissors. Balancing toy blocks develops spatial skills and hand-eye coordination. iPads require kids to learn how to do an isolated finger point.

“Everyone assumes that preschool is all play, but what they don’t understand is the kids are learning the whole time,” Oliver said. “Preschool is practice for the real thing.”

So much of the debate about preschool over the past year has been focused on the statehouse, where a small statewide pilot program passed last spring, and on the Indianapolis City-County Council, which is expected to approve its own plan to aid poor families with city and philanthropic aid to help pay their preschool costs.

But well before those debates began to swell over how to expand preschool opportunity in the city — and who should pay for it — Indianapolis Public Schools had taken matters into its own hands.

In one of his last acts as IPS superintendent, Eugene White pushed an ambitious plan for more preschool seats in more schools in 2013. Then his successor, Superintendent Lewis Ferebee, declared earlier this year that he wanted to go further, offering universal preschool for all four-year-olds in the district within the next five years, with a goal that all IPS students could have exposure to a teacher like Oliver before starting kindergarten.

IPS looks even more likely to lead the next preschool expansion under a newly elected school board, with three new board members taking office in January. Several of them, as well as those still on the board, have said they are eager to use preschool as a primary tool for improving test scores down the road — but only if it can get past serious financial obstacles.

District leaders still aren’t exactly sure what a universal preschool program would look like at IPS — or what they can afford. IPS’s preschool program currently has capacity to serve about 900 kids — or just about a third the number of kids who later enroll in kindergarten each fall.

The district already has redirected $3 million in federal Title I grant money to support its preschool program, and IPS in 2015 will be asking the state legislature to expand state support beyond the small preschool pilot program it passed earlier this year. That program is expected to serve about 100 students countywide starting in January. But lawmakers have expressed reluctance to add more state aid to the program in the next two-year state budget.

“We haven’t put all the pieces of that together yet,” said IPS deputy superintendent Wanda Legrand said.

Building toward universal preschool in IPS is one of several efforts that have combined to build momentum to improve early childhood education in Indianapolis.

Beside district efforts and the state pilot, city leaders expect their own program to serve at least 700 kids starting in 2016 thanks to a compromise between Mayor Greg Ballard and City-County Council Democrats Indianapolis. Corporate leaders are increasingly adding major financial support to programs that support preschool, most notably a nearly $23 million grant from Lilly Endowment to Early Learning Indiana to support more high quality preschools to open across the state.

Renewed energy for preschool in IPS
Principal Linda Hogan oversees the hallways at School 102, also known as Francis Bellamy Preschool Center, where IPS teachers help four-year-olds arrange themselves in neat, quiet lines — they call the line-up practice “hugs and bubbles” — as they walk to and from the lunch room and other activities.

It hasn’t always been this way. Once an elementary school, the East side building closed because of declining enrollment and was empty of students until last year.

Similarly, support and funding for preschool in the district has fluctuated over the years.

The district has long had an early education program for special education students. Since 2012, it has also operated a preschool program at School 60 in partnership with Butler University and St. Mary’s Child Center.

And for more than a decade, the district hosted the federally funded Even Start program, which provided early education programs for kids as young as two years old, and job training and GED programs for their parents in the same building. But after federal funding ran out, the district had trouble sustaining the program.

“They spent every day in the classroom interacting with their children,” Hogan said, praising the defunct program. “You had that connection with the parents.”

Support for expanding preschool started building again two years ago, when White announced big plans to establish all-day preschool at more than 10 schools. He wanted to serve 1,400 students, but that plan was scaled back to about half the size because of the district’s budget woes.

When Ferebee was hired last year, he made a renewed push for preschool. Legrand said the district sees it as a strategy to improve student performance all across the district.

“One huge benefit we’ll see is the early experience and exposure to literacy,” Legrand said. “More kids reading on grade level will eventually improve the dropout rate.”

Finding more money
The new school board may be poised to embrace more preschool, but paying for it isn’t easy.

“I’m a huge supporter of universal preschool, but it’s going to come down to whether or not the funding’s there,” said newly elected school board member Kelly Bentley. “Whatever happens, it has to be stable, long-term funding.”

At the other end of the spectrum are those who think IPS has not been aggressive enough. When board members voted in the spring to spend $2 million to expand the program by 25 percent, and add classes to nearly 15 buildings, board member Sam Odle said he didn’t think it was moving fast enough.

Odle said the district should try to harness the philanthropic support surging in the community around preschool. Others believe the state should take responsibility for offering preschool for the poorest children. Bentley said the district should partner with other preschools in the community as a way to expand its preschool seats without breaking the bank.

“There’s some great preschool programs already out there,” Bentley said. “We don’t want to reinvent the wheel.”

As district leaders and politicians grapple with how to expand preschool, teachers say a solution can’t come soon enough.

Oliver said she has students starting at the schools who can’t count to 10 and don’t know the letters of the alphabet. Some struggle to spell their own names.

“It’s about time,” Oliver said of expanded preschool. “It’s been proven how amazing having preschool is and what it can do for students and for families. I feel like we’re so far behind on that. Let’s get it in place … and get the right people behind it.”

Families can now register for Marion County preschool pilot

2014-11-19T21:36:55+00:00

Families with 4-year-olds entering kindergarten next fall can now register for the Marion County’s preschool pilot program.

About 100 preschool spots will be open for Marion County kids starting in January. To register and apply for grants, families must have an annual income of no more than $30,290 for a family of four, live in Marion County and had a child who is 4 and eligible to start Kindergarten in August 2015. Tuition aid would range between $2,500 and $6,800 a year depending on income.

For information on how to apply visit this website. Instructions for filling out the application are available here.

Applications are due by Dec. 15, according to the Family and Social Services Administration. If the families applying outnumber the available grants, the administration will decide who gets a grant through a random lottery. Families can then choose any qualifying preschool program and can call 1-800-299-1627 for help.

The pilot is the first time Indiana has had direct state aid for preschool. Before, Indiana was one of nine states that did not offer direct tuition aid for poor children to attend preschool. The bill that created the pilot was a priority for Gov. Mike Pence, who fought earlier this year to get the program approved by the legislature.

Marion County is one of five counties to participate in the pilot. With philanthropic grants and state dollars, the program could end up totaling $15 million in public and private funds. Gov. Pence and the administration plan to ask the 2015 General Assembly to continue funding for the pilot in the state’s next budget, the FSSA statement said.

State preschool pilot opens next week for 100 Marion County kids

2014-11-14T00:29:20+00:00

There will be spots for about 100 Marion County 4-year-olds in the state’s pilot preschool program next year.

Marni Lemons, a spokeswoman from the Family and Social Services Administration, said registration and information for families about how to receive a grant would be available as early as next week. The agency opened up registration to preschool providers yesterday.

The pilot will be the first time Indiana has had direct state aid for preschool. Before, Indiana was one of nine states that did not fund early education at all. The bill that created the pilot was a priority for Gov. Mike Pence, who worked with legislators multiple times to make it a reality.

The state-funded program will be called “On My Way Pre-K,” and FSSA Director Melanie Brizzi said getting providers involved is the first step in helping more Indiana children have better access to early childhood education.

“We look forward to engaging as many programs as possible to help us open the doors to new learning opportunities for Hoosier children,” she said in a statement.

Marion County is one of five counties to participate in the pilot, which was created to help poor families send their kids to high quality preschools.

Families can begin applying for grants next week once the agency makes its announcement, Lemons said. They will be notified if they receive a grant around Dec. 15 and can then choose an approved preschool from their county. Children will start preschool in January, and participation is currently limited to kids who would be entering Kindergarten next fall.

With grants and state dollars, the program could end up totaling $15 million in public and private funds. To qualify, a family of four could make up to $30,289 annually. Tuition aid would range between $2,500 and $6,800 a year depending on income.

Preschool providers can continue to apply to participate throughout the duration of the pilot, but the FSSA said they should consider applying sooner rather than later. To be approved, a provider must be rated a level 3 or level 4, among other requirements detailed on FSSA’s website.

Education on Joe Hogsett’s mind as he announces mayoral bid

2014-11-13T04:25:16+00:00

Democrat Joe Hogsett, a former U.S. attorney, announced today he would run for mayor next year, and education was one of the issues on his agenda.

Republican Mayor Greg Ballard said last week he would not be seeking a third term. Hogsett is expected to be a strong candidate to replace him. If he were successful, it would return the mayor’s office to Democratic control after eight years under Ballard, who defeated Democrat Bart Peterson for the job in 2008.

During his announcement speech at the city’s Landmark for Peace Memorial in King Park, Hogsett referenced some of the city’s hottest education issues: preschool, school discipline and teacher pay.

He called for city leaders to put aside partisanship, alluding to the sometimes intense debate over Ballard’s plan for city support of preschool, which appears headed for city-county council approval after a compromise this week followed more than a month of discord.

Hogsett hailed “city leaders who put aside the need to get a win for their own political party in order to achieve a victory for the young preschool children across Indianapolis.”

Although Hogsett has said he disagrees with Ballard’s original funding mechanism for the plan, he said he could support the idea of expanded preschool if it can be funded a different way.

More than once Hogsett brought up a need to curb the city’s dropout rate and address what he called an “expulsion epidemic” that disproportionately affects black students, especially boys.

“Tonight in too many schools in this city, a teacher will plan for tomorrow’s class weighed down by the knowledge that more of her students will dropout than go to college,” he said.

As Ballard has done with preschool, Hogsett cited education as a way of decreasing violent crime. Studies have linked decreases in dropout rates and lower crime rates.

He called for more support for teachers in the forms of better resources and higher pay. But he also hailed innovation in education, an idea pushed by reformers who favor ideas like charter schools, praising “the teacher whose innovations in her classroom take her students and school to new and uncharted heights.”

Compromise on Ballard's preschool plan takes a big step forward

2014-11-12T03:18:03+00:00

Indianapolis appears to be on its way to launching a city preschool program to serve the city’s poorest children.

After a bumpy three-month ride, a bipartisan City-County Council committee tonight tentatively approved a $40 million plan — similar to the one first proposed over the summer by Mayor Greg Ballard — to place between 700 and 1,300 three- and four-year-olds in high-quality preschool programs starting in 2016. The proposal now goes to the full council for a final vote.

The plan’s unanimous approval follows months of disagreement followed by delicate negotiations between top Democrats and the Republican mayor’s office to reach a deal. Democrats first punted Ballard’s plan after disagreeing with his method of funding it by eliminating the local homestead tax credit, which they said would disproportionately cost public schools.

Meanwhile, the city’s corporate and business community, led by Eli Lilly and Company, rallied for Ballard’s plan, promising to raise $10 million to support it if the Council approved. Mayor Greg Ballard praised the revived plan last week.

“Everyone wins,” Councilman John Barth said. “It’s really a high-quality program that everyone has put together. There’s an increasing number of our city’s children that live in poverty. Giving families a pathway to success is a key component of how you help get families out of poverty.”

A compromise plan

The approved plan is slightly smaller than what Ballard first had in mind. Under the compromise, three- and four-year-olds will be able to take advantage of the program — not just four-year-olds — and a council committee would have oversight over it. The new program also will prioritize the poorest children, starting with families of four earning up to $30,290 getting the first spaces in line.

It is expected that $10 million in public funds would be used to pay for the program if it’s passed by the full council. The funding of the program was not approved tonight.

City dollars proposed to be used to support the new plan include $1.7 million that was saved through a change to the homestead tax credit program, higher interest expected from city investments, and money saved from the mayor’s education office budget if it decides separately to assess 1 percent fee to charter schools. An additional $10 million would come from corporate donations, with the rest raised through other philanthropic sources.

Big companies back preschool

More than two dozen people waited nearly four hours to show their support for the plan at the lengthy committee meeting.

Among them was Rob Smith, president of Lilly Foundation, who said the city’s investment in preschool makes good business sense because it will lead to better educational opportunities for the city’s children and more prosperous citizens.

“We don’t have a particularly good track record of people breaking the cycle of poverty,” Smith said. “We have no more important priority than improving the quality of education that’s received by all our children. Even in the face of many competing priorities … there’s no better investment the city of Indianapolis can make than investing in high-quality early childhood education. We’re excited about the opportunity to participate.”

LaNier Echols, a Carpe Diem Meridian charter school dean who was recently elected to the Indianapolis Public School Board, said a city preschool plan will help keep kids in school and out of jail. She said she encountered a mother on the campaign trail this fall who said her son was lucky to get a spot in a high-quality preschool program this fall.

“It is our duty to equip (students) with the necessary skills for them to prosper,” Echols said. “A child’s education should not be left to luck. The future of our city, state and country depends on it.”

The plan to create a fund and establish a preschool program was approved unanimously, but some city officials still expressed concerns about how the program would be funded.

Council member describes “arm twisting”

Republican Councilman Robert Lutz, who said he voted for the plan after a “severe arm twisting” from Ballard, said the plan sounds like it will pay dividends down the road, but he might vote no once it reaches the full council if any funds will be diverted from hiring police officers.

“I’m a supporter of quality preschool,” Lutz said, “but I want to be very cautious that we are shifting no funds that were dedicated to the hiring of police officers. These children getting into these programs have to be safe on the streets. I promised (to vote yes) … because this is an important issue that does need to be debated.”

Councilman Vop Osili, who voted in favor of the plan, said once a city program is approved he hopes that the onus is put on the state to expand its preschool pilot program. Gov. Mike Pence pushed the legislature to approve a five-county pilot earlier this year.

“This really is not the role of the city,” Osili said. “While we can do it, we should do it. But we most also push and prod our state to step up and do its responsibility as well. That is essential. We’re not done.”

Mayor Ballard praises revived city preschool plan

2014-11-05T20:26:12+00:00

Mayor Greg Ballard’s plan to enroll hundreds of poor children in a city preschool program next year took a big step forward Tuesday thanks to a compromise with the City-County Council’s Democratic leadership.

Ballard today praised the scaled-down deal for a $40 million, five-year plan funded by city funds and philanthropic aid brokered by Council Vice President John Barth. The plan is similar to the one Ballard first proposed over the summer as part of a wider effort to address the city’s growing crime rate.

“Today marks a great day for the future of our city and its children,” Ballard said in a statement. “Four months ago, I proposed a holistic approach to make our city safer by addressing the root causes of crime and poverty, including a plan to make preschool affordable to families in need. Indy is now positioning itself as a leader in local support for preschool.”

Ballard said there was no doubt more students in preschool would benefit the city.

“The research is clear – children from low-income families who attend high-quality preschool do better in school later in life and are less likely to get in trouble with the law as juveniles and as adults,” he said in the statement. “I encourage the council to get this agreement on my desk so I can sign it and we can start enrolling children in preschool next year.”

Ballard’s plan derailed because it didn’t have the support of top Democrats on the council, who didn’t like his preferred approach to pay for the preschool through the repeal of a local homestead tax credit. But talks have continued. What came out of the talks was a compromise: a slightly smaller, $40 million plan aimed at poor three- and four-year-olds, according to Barth.

The new plan will prioritize the poorest children first starting with families of four earning up to $30,290. City dollars used to support the new plan include $1.7 million that was saved through a change to the homestead tax credit program, higher interest expected from city investments, and money saved from the mayor’s education office budget if it decides separately to assess 1 percent fee to charter schools.

“My belief going in was we wanted to take a deep, rather than wide approach,” Barth said. “This is exactly how government should work. That people are willing to continue to come to the table and come to some consensus (is good for) the longterm health of the city.”

Deputy Mayor for Education Jason Kloth said the Office of Education Innovation, which is funded by an approximately $600,000 appropriation, has been thinking for some time of assessing a 1 percent fee to the charter schools it authorizes and that it is in the process of talking to its 39 schools about the fee. He said if that happens, the mayor’s education innovation office would no longer need a separate appropriation, so that money could be used to pay for the preschool plan.

“Our hope would be the council would consider reallocating those funds for an educational purpose, potentially preschool,” Kloth said.

Eli Lilly and Company and other corporate groups, which plan to give $10 million to make the plan work, were a key group in making progress on the compromise. Eli Lilly executives said the philanthropic support was contingent on city leaders coming together to find a workable solution this year.

“Both sides really stuck through this, through some difficult times,” said Michael O’Connor, the company’s director of state government affairs. “We’re pleased that this represents a true compromise. We are comfortable that a $40 million plan is substantial and impactful and will really be catalytic in getting this moving in a statewide manner.”

The revived plan was hailed by preschool advocates in the city, including Early Learning Indiana president Ted Maple.

“I’m excited about our leaders coming together to create what appears to be a good solution,” Maple said. “Obviously, if a disadvantaged child has two years of high-quality preschool, I believe the impact will be greater. It’s still a very significant plan and I think it will help a lot of young children and families. It would really put Indianapolis on the map nationally with regard to the city taking on a leadership role in early childhood education.”

Stand for Children director Justin Ohlemiller, whose organization advocates for change in Indianapolis Public Schools and at the state level, said the compromise was a good sign for continued momentum to expand access to preschool.

“We have to look at the entire continuum of education for our children,” Ohlemiller said. “Anytime you have funding that will increase capacity for early childhood education, those institutions including IPS that see preschool as a key to the future of our children will jump in and try to expand their offerings. It’s absolutely necessary in IPS.”

The new plan will be formally introduced at Monday’s City Council meeting, where it is expected to have support of as many as nine cosponsors from both parties. Some Democrats, including Councilwoman Angela Mansfield, said in recent weeks the city should pursue other priorities ahead of preschool, like expanding animal control efforts and saving trees that are dying because of the deadly emerald ash borer beetle.

“With any proposal, you start by building a coalition and then you grow it based on the quality of your idea,” Barth said. “There’s no doubt that emerald ash borer is an issue to be dealt with. You weigh this opportunity versus addressing emerald ash borer. The priority’s pretty clear. That’s the debate we’ll be having.”

Record-breaking vocabulary lesson highlights preschool

2014-10-30T21:59:05+00:00

About 230 Indianapolis preschoolers helped set a world record Thursday by taking part in the largest ever vocabulary lesson.

It was part of an event to highlight early learning programs in 35 cities sponsored by PNC Bank.

“Being a part of something big is exciting for them,” said Ted Maple, CEO of Early Learning Indiana, a local preschool program that brought most of the kids to the Indianapolis Children’s Museum for the lesson. “And there aren’t many times the classes from our different centers get together.”

The bank’s Grow Up Great program, which has spent $350 million to support preschool, is completing its first decade this year. A spot in the Guinness Book of World Records is part of the celebration.

“We just feel it is so important for kids to get off to a good start in learning as opposed to having them trying to catch up later,” said Jeff Kucer, PNC’s client and community relations director in Indianapolis.

Each child received a copy of the book “Mr. Tiger Goes Wild,” from which the vocabulary words were drawn.

Learning vocabulary is among the most important skills for parents and preschool teachers to work on with kids to get them ready for school, Kucer said.

“It’s important for kids to learn as many words as they can before kindergarten,” he said. “It’s all part of the pre-K mentality, to get the brain growing and thinking as it’s developing in the first five years.

PNC’s Grow Up Great offers grants to support preschools, gives the bank’s employees credit for volunteer hours working with preschoolers and provides advocacy on behalf of public policies that support preschool.

Preschool advocates hoping for change of heart in Pence as grant deadline extended (updated)

2014-10-21T20:08:29+00:00

Update [5:03 p.m. Monday]:

Gov. Mike Pence says he will not change his mind about his decision not to apply for an $80 million preschool grant, despite the fact the application deadline was extended until tomorrow. State Superintendent Glenda Ritz urged him to submit the state’s application earlier today.

“While I respect the views of those who support applying for federal pre-k funding, I stand by my decision,” Pence said in a statement. “Federal funding does not guarantee success. This is not about the money, it’s about our children and we have an obligation to get it right. Our administration will remain focused on the successful launch of the five county pre-k pilot program approved by the Indiana General Assembly earlier this year.”

Earlier [4:08 p.m. Monday]:

Early education advocates are calling on Gov. Mike Pence to change his mind and apply for an $80 million preschool grant after learning the federal government has extended the application deadline.

Indiana State Superintendent Glenda Ritz said in a statement today she is urging Pence to apply for the grant after learning the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services have extended their deadline until Wednesday to the 16 states that are eligible because of “technical difficulties” with the grant submission website.

The state already has its application completed and was prepared to submit it last week by the original deadline. But in a last-minute move, Pence decided not to apply because he feared “federal intrusion” in preschool. The move shocked preschool supporters, but was cheered by anti-Common Core and tea party groups in the state.

“Gov. Pence has repeatedly stated his support for creating a high-quality system for early childhood education for Indiana,” Ritz said in a statement. “Now, Indiana needs his actions to back up his words. This grant is a once in a decade opportunity for Indiana to invest in a sustainable early childhood infrastructure, while also benefiting children and families right away. The work is done, all the application needs now is Gov. Pence’s signature.”

Pence’s spokeswoman Christy Denault did not immediately reply to a request for comment, but it seems unlikely that Pence will change his mind. He told the Indianapolis Star’s Matt Tully in an interview published today that the decision not to apply was “a tough call” but “the right thing” to do.

But Tully said Pence, who shepherded preschool pilot program legislation through the Indiana General Assembly earlier this year, didn’t cite a specific problem he had with the grant in their 30-minute phone call.

“I wanted to make sure we were keeping faith with the program that the General Assembly had authorized, which was a pilot program,” Pence told him. “… As governor of the state of Indiana, I looked at this (grant) and thought it was too far, too fast.”

Indiana education advocacy group Stand for Children also called on Pence to take advantage of the new deadline.

“We respectfully request that Governor Pence revisit his decision to not apply for this grant, which could yield nearly $80 million in funding to expand access to quality preschool for thousands of low-income Hoosier children,” said Stand Indiana’s executive director Justin Ohlemiller. “Early indications are that Indiana has a great shot at success if it does apply. That’s why we need to take advantage of this rare second chance to do right by our most vulnerable kids across the state.”

The grant could have netted the state up to $80 million over four years. Indiana has until tomorrow to apply.

Glenda Ritz calls Pence's preschool decision "bad for children"

2014-10-20T21:17:45+00:00

Indiana State Superintendent Glenda Ritz today criticized Gov. Mike Pence for halting the state’s efforts to seek an $80 million federal preschool grant “without warning.”

“Whatever his motivation, one thing is clear: Pence’s about-face with little or no notice to those who had worked in concert with his administration on the grant application is bad for our state and our children,” Ritz said in a statement.

“The governor expressed concern about federal requirements that would have come with this money, but thus far has failed to provide any specifics,” she said.

Ritz wasn’t the first person to weigh in on Pence’s surprising decision. Reaction to his choice, which leaves $80 million in federal funds on the table, has been mixed.

Here’s a roundup of what people have said.

Ritz went on to lay out her view of the grant’s value:

“Here are the facts. First, the grant did not require a state or local match. Funds that we rejected will now be used by other states. Second, the funds would not have resulted in kindergarteners taking tests to qualify to enter kindergarten. But, third, we would finally have had the ability to ensure that our children come to Kindergarten ready to learn and these funds would have helped form the basis for their future educational attainment. We need high quality early childhood education.”

When Pence’s change of direction on the grant was first reported by Indianapolis Star columnist Matt Tully on Thursday, it shocked Indiana’s early education advocates. Chalkbeat quoted Stand For Children executive Director Justin Ohlemiller saying he was caught off guard by Pence’s decision:

“The announcement left us shocked and troubled,” said Stand For Children executive director Justin Ohlemiller, whose organization advocates for change in school districts and at the state level. “Our hope is that there will be a clearer explanation and more detail in the coming days about why the sudden decision to not move forward. Our first reaction is that we’re shocked given the momentum that has been built with multiple parties working toward this goal, not to mention we seemed to be in a very strong position to vie for the funding.”

In a guest column for The Statehouse File on Friday, Pence argued the state should go its own way on preschool. Pence wrote:

“It’s important to note that many early learning programs across the country have not been successful over the years. On behalf of the children the pilot is designed to serve, it is imperative that Indiana get this right. Indiana’s program is based on parental choice and includes the flexibility and accountability needed to ensure children are in programs that get real results. “It is important not to allow the lure of federal grant dollars to define our state’s mission and programs. More federal dollars do not necessarily equal success, especially when those dollars come with requirements and conditions that will not help – and may even hinder – running a successful program of our own making. “An important part of our pre-K pilot is the requirement that we study the program so we understand what works and what doesn’t. I do not believe it is wise policy to expand our pre-K pilot before we have a chance to study and learn from the program.”

The state’s move to pass on the grant brought a flood of opinion over the weekend about why Pence made the move and whether it was the right decision.

The Associated Press wrote that social conservatives and tea party groups considered it a victory that Pence was persuaded not to work with the federal government on preschool. The AP’s Tom LoBianco wrote about efforts to scuttle the grant by Hoosiers Against Common Core’s co-founder Heather Crossin:

“Crossin is hardly a stalwart Pence supporter; her group lambasted the governor for formally withdrawing the state from Common Core education standards earlier this year, while replacing them with standards strikingly similar to the federal rules. And a little more than a week ago, her group chastised Pence for his creation of a “data czar” to oversee reams of government data, including student information. “Many similar groups, long considered Pence’s political base stemming to his years in Congress, have expressed frustration at his decision to seek an expansion of Medicaid using a state-run alternative. “But Wednesday they were cheering the governor.”

Earlier this month, Hoosiers Against Common Core described the grant as expanding “taxpayer funded day care.” When advocates complained that group’s lobbying cost the state $80 million that could have helped poor children prepare for kindergarten, it responded by arguing Indiana’s chances of winning the grant were far from certain. The group posted on its website:

“The truth is that the categories and eligible award amounts were determined based upon the state’s population of four-year-old children eligible for the program, nothing more. “The only thing that makes a state more likely to win is to agree to the 18 pages of federal requirements stipulated throughout the grant, such as mandating full day care, extensive testing, and data collection on children who are only four-years-old.”

The Indiana State Teachers Union, which is often critical of Pence, drew a direct line between the activism of Hoosiers Against Common Core and Pence’s decision. On its blog, ISTA wrote:

“Some have also speculated that the governor was concerned that by accepting the federal grant, the state’s preschool program couldn’t be folded into Indiana’s controversial school voucher program. Whatever the backdrop and underlying motivation, one thing is certain: thousands of Indiana’s neediest children will once again pay the price for loyalty to narrow political agendas.”

Over the weekend, the Indianapolis Star reported that the debate over the grant exposed a rift on the political right between those who are pushing hard for more preschool funding in the state and those who are skeptical of state-funded learning before kindergarten. The Star’s Robert King wrote:

“The governor also expressed concerns about unspecified ‘requirements and conditions’ associated with the federal grant that could hinder Indiana’s program. “But corporate supporters of preschool education say the state has plenty of resources at its disposal — including financial support from the private sector — to move forward more quickly. “‘Indiana has a unique, but urgent opportunity to seize the moment as the private and public sector are ready to take a bold step to educate our young people,'” said John Elliott, a spokesman for Kroger grocery chain. “‘We respectfully disagree with the governor’s decision not to pursue $80 million in federal funding and ask that he reconsider his decision,” Elliott said. “There are enough engaged stakeholders focused on this priority to help build upon the administration’s pilot program and ensure rapid, successful and measurable growth in early childhood programs.’ “On the other side of the issue are social conservative groups — another traditional base of political support for Pence. “His rejection of the federal grant was greeted warmly by American Family Association of Indiana, which is skeptical of the benefits of preschool programs and dubious of putting 4-year-olds into government programs.”

Some of Pence’s critics speculated that the decision was driven more by his presidential ambitions than by Indiana’s needs. (One of his potential primary opponents, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, also was criticized for deciding not to apply for the same federal preschool grant.) The Indiana-based blogger Doug Masson wrote:

“The cynical mind, however, immediately jumps to Gov. Pence’s presidential ambitions. Even bearing in mind that our share of this federal money is coming out of our pockets anyway and will now be going to some other state instead, I think we can all agree that forgoing $80 million to improve the education of young Hoosiers is a small price to pay to ease the minds of Iowa and New Hampshire caucus and primary voters.”

The editorial board of the Indianapolis Star joined Pence’s critics, writing in an editorial over the weekend that the decision was “perplexing and disappointing.” It wrote:

“Mike Pence, once a skeptic about the value of early childhood education, has taken major steps forward on the issue in the past two years. He was beginning to lead on the issue in a way that no previous Indiana governor had shown. His sudden step back is a hard blow for the state. And worse, for its children and their families.”

Preschool advocates stunned Pence dropped bid for $80 million grant

2014-10-17T00:42:47+00:00

Indiana’s early childhood education advocates said they were stunned to learn today that Gov. Mike Pence had decided not to apply for a federal grant that could bring up to $80 million to support preschool for nearly 2,000 children from poor families.

“The announcement left us shocked and troubled,” said Stand For Children executive director Justin Ohlemiller, whose organization advocates for change in school districts and at the state level. “Our hope is that there will be a clearer explanation and more detail in the coming days about why the sudden decision to not move forward. Our first reaction is that we’re shocked given the momentum that has been built with multiple parties working toward this goal, not to mention we seemed to be in a very strong position to vie for the funding.”

Applications were due to the U.S. Department of Education Wednesday. But Indianapolis Star columnist Matthew Tully reported Indiana Early Learning Advisory Committee members learned by email today that the Pence administration did not apply, citing concerns about “federal intrusion” in preschool, after months of collaboration between public and private groups to craft the proposal.

Early Learning Indiana President Ted Maple, whose organization just received a $20 million grant from the Lilly Endowment to expand preschool access, said his organization helped prepare some information for the grant but was not formally part of the committee. Maple said he was seeking answers.

“Our focus at Early Learning Indiana is to ensure that as many kids as possible have access to high-quality early childhood education,” Maple said. “I’m not sure what the story is behind this application, so we’ll continue to do our work and hopefully we can continue to garner more resources and more partnerships.”

Indiana Senate Minority Leader Tim Lanane, D-Anderson, said in a statement he was disappointed by the news.

“The idea that we would, at this point, abruptly throw this opportunity away is hard to fathom,” Lanane said. “The governor owes those of us who have labored hard to get our state on board and see the benefits of early childhood education more than just a statement. It seems imprudent that we reject $80 million because of fear of some speculative ‘pitfalls’ and ‘unproven objectives’ perceived attached to them.”

Pence’s office did not immediately respond to Chalkbeat’s request for comment. Tully wrote: In Wednesday’s email, Early Learning Advisory Committee Chairman Kevin Bain, a Pence appointee, announced that the “administration has decided not to submit the federal pre-K grant application.” He then posted a statement from the administration. “While accepting federal grant dollars can at times be justified to advance our state’s objectives,” it reads in part, “when it comes to early childhood education, I believe Indiana must develop our own pre-K program for disadvantaged children without federal intrusion.” The statement does not point to specific issues with the federal rules but notes that “we must be vigilant as we design the program the Indiana way and avoid the pitfalls that too often accompany untested and unproven objectives in federal policy.”

The decision comes at a time of increased public and private interest in preschool and expanding high-quality early learning options for poor children. The state had good odds of receiving the grant, as it was named a “category one” state along with Arizona, meaning the state could apply for up to $20 million a year, according to Tully. Only 15 other states were eligible for the grant.

Ballard's preschool plan may have new life in city budget

2014-10-14T03:10:22+00:00

Mayor Greg Ballard’s plan to provide preschool to 1,300 low-income Indianapolis children next year may not be dead after all.

The Indianapolis City-County Council tonight voted to approve a $1 billion 2015 budget, and included in it was a last-minute amendment that could put $1.7 million toward the mayor’s plan to cut crime and expand access to preschool.

Since proposing the $50 million program, the Republican mayor has encountered several roadblocks from the Democrat-led council. The tension showed when parents protested after a council committee tabled Ballard’s preferred way to fund the program: getting rid of the local homestead tax credit.

Ballard says removing the local homestead tax credit would cost about half of the county’s homeowners an average of $22 per year. Democrats urged him not to cut more than $3 million that goes Indianapolis Public Schools and other school districts annually.

The budget, which included an amendment to transfer $2 million of what it usually spends on the local homestead tax credit, passed the Council by a wide margin. Council Vice President John Barth, who is developing his own preschool plan, said city officials realized it only costs $10 million, not $12 million to fund the homestead tax credit.

That means $1.7 million could go to funding a preschool plan, Barth said, but it’s up to the full 29-member council to decide to spend the money that way. The money is currently not committed to a specific cause.

“It’s just sitting there waiting to be spent,” Barth said. “I’m among those who are hopeful that it could be spent on preschool, but I’m 1 of 29, so we’ve got to build a coalition to achieve that.”

Ballard’s plan called for the city to spend $25 million over five years to fund half the plan, with the rest coming from philanthropy. But Democrat Angela Mansfield said the city has more pressing matters that the money should go toward.

“Animal care and control is in a dire situation,” Mansfield said. “I’m rather concerned that some individuals are jumping to the conclusion that … we should be spending funds on things that we’re not required to do, instead of taking care of things that we are required to do. We’ve (also) got a huge problem with dying tees (in city right-of-way).”

Deputy Mayor for Education Jason Kloth said he was cautiously optimistic about tonight’s action. Kloth said the mayor’s office has continued to talk with council leadership and that negotiations over the mayor’s plan are ongoing.

“We’re appreciative of the ongoing dialogue and are hopeful these funds will be used to support preschool for our most vulnerable children,” Kloth said. “This could represent a positive step toward addressing the considerable need for expanded access to preschool across Marion County.”

The business community, led Eli Lilly & Co., has rallied around the mayor’s proposal. Lilly’s foundation promised $2 million of its own money and pledged to help raise $10 million from other companies. Kloth said he wants that money to be put to use for the city’s kids.

“I think there’s an expectation that the public sector will rise to the challenge to ensure that no philanthropic funds that could be used to serve children are left on the table,” Kloth said.

Rob Smith, president of the Lilly Foundation, said Eli Lilly & Co. has raised about $4 million so far and expects to make more announcements soon. The other donors include PNC Bank and IU Health.

“We’re raising this money with the hope that the City Council agrees on something that’s substantial,” Smith said. “We’re going to have to let these talks unfold. We remain confident that something meaningful will get passed. This is the first step.”

Lilly invests $22.5 million to boost preschool in Indiana

2014-10-02T21:24:23+00:00

Lilly Endowment Inc. announced today it will spend $22.5 million to help expand or open more high-quality preschools across Indiana.

Part of the goal is to prepare the state, which will launch a small preschool program in five counties in January, in hopes it will soon expand public support of early learning.

The private philanthropy group, founded by executives of Indianapolis’ pharmaceutical giant, will give $20 million to Early Learning Indiana, formerly known as Day Nursery Association, to create more spots in high quality preschools around the state. Another $2 million will go to United Way of Central Indiana to improve preschool options just in Indianapolis and its surrounding counties.

“These new grants extend and deepen the Endowment’s commitment to improve the quality of early childhood education across Indiana,” Sara Cobb, the Endowment’s vice president for education, said in a statement. “We know that the children who participate in these high-quality programs will have brighter, more successful futures. Indiana will be better because of it.”

The five-year grant comes at a time when there is growing interest in investing public dollars in preschool. Earlier this year Gov. Mike Pence won a hard-fought battle to established Indiana’s first-ever preschool program, offering direct state aid as tuition support for poor children. In Marion County, Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard is pushing for a $50 million public-private preschool program but has struggled to win Democratic support.

“There are all these efforts that are going on that we want to align with,” said Early Learning Indiana president Ted Maple. “The city and state want to invest in high-quality early learning. This project is about ensuring those investments are well-spent.”

Eli Lilly and Co. has already rallied around Ballard’s effort, pledging to bring $10 million from the business community, starting with $2 million of its own money, if city leaders can agree on how to fund the program, which stalled last month.

The new grant, unlike Ballard’s plan and the statewide pilot, does not provide direct scholarship support to families. The goal, instead, is to grow the number of high quality preschools for parents to choose by directing money to make existing preschools better, support the opening of new high quality preschools, engage parents to learn about preschool and train good preschool teachers. The grant aims to help 400 Indiana preschools improve their ratings on Indiana’s four-step Paths to Quality preschool rating system.

Few Indiana preschools have been rated high quality by earning a 3 or 4 on the Paths to Quality scale. In Indianapolis, for example, only 15 percent of the city’s nearly 800 providers currently have been rated that high.

Early Learning Indiana, which operates 10 preschool centers in Indianapolis along with the state’s largest childcare referral agency Child Care Answers, hasn’t yet chosen the areas of the state where it will invest. Maple said the first six months of the grant will be spent on researching and finding willing partners.

(Disclosure: Chalkbeat is a grantee of the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation.)

PNC pledges $500,000 for preschool if Ballard’s plan prevails

2014-09-25T20:14:14+00:00

PNC Bank in Indiana is joining in with a half-million dollar pledge of financial support for preschool if only Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard can find a way to get his $50 million plan approved.

The plan, announced in July, would create a public-private tuition support program for low income families to send their children to highly-rated preschools. But on Monday, City-County Council Democrats shelved the plan over objections to Ballard’s idea to eliminate the Homestead Tax Credit program to raise the money fund it. City officials have said they will keep working to try to find a compromise.

Lilly executives have vowed to work with other businesses to raise $10 million over the next three years for the preschool plan starting with a $2 million commitment from their foundation, but that investment is contingent on Ballard, a Republican, and a Democrat-controlled council working out a deal on preschool.

So is the PNC money.

“PNC’s funding support will be contingent upon the willingness of Mayor Greg Ballard and City-County Council to act now on a plan to expand access to high-quality preschools in Indianapolis,” Connie Bond Stuart, PNC regional president of Central and Southern Indiana, speaking on behalf of the PNC Foundation, said in a statement. ” The city has a viable opportunity to provide life-changing help to hundreds, eventually thousands of vulnerable children.”

Stuart said Ballard’s plan is an opportunity to use early learning to address the root cause of many problems in Indianapolis.

“This is a time of great opportunity and promise for early childhood education in Indianapolis,” she said. “Research shows that 90 percent of a child’s brain is formed by the time he or she is 5 years old, and we recognize that access to quality early childhood education has the potential to positively influence the trajectory of the lives of young children.”

In 2004, PNC Bank created the $350 million Grow Up Great initiative aimed at better preparing young children to begin school.

To see Chalkbeat’s continuing coverage of Ballard’s preschool plan, check out our story roundup.

State preschool pilot will launch in January, Pence says

2014-09-24T20:29:35+00:00

A new state preschool pilot program in Marion County should get off the ground in January, although it might start out by serving a small number of students.

Gov. Mike Pence hailed the pilot, which he said would launch in January in four of the five counties that were selected to begin offering state aid to pay preschool tuition for poor children, at a day-long conference for state and and local officials to plan the program.

Pence praised lawmakers in both parties for ultimately supporting a preschool bill that was one of his top legislative priorities after a long and arduous debate in the legislature earlier this year. At one point, the bill appeared dead, but Pence worked with legislative leaders to revive it.

When students begin receiving aid next year, it will mark the first time in Indiana history the state has directly supported preschool tuition, removing Indiana from a list of just nine states that have yet to fund preschool.

“There is work to be done today,” he said proudly. “We’ve brought together people with vast experience in this area.”

The $10 million program allows for another $5 million in grants or private contributions. The entire program, therefore, could spend $15 million in public and private money on tuition support for children to attend preschools.

The bill established an income eligibility limit for a family of four to $30,289 annually. For families, tuition aid would range between $2,500 and $6,800 a year depending on income. The pilot could serve as many as 4,000 four year olds in the five counties. It is only limited by budget. There is no cap on the number of participants.

“There is a great deal of urgency I have to get these dollars out first and foremost to help the kids who need them,” Pence said.

Pence added that he did not expect to lead an effort to expand the program in the next two-year budget, which lawmakers will begin crafting in January, to allow time for the pilot program to be put in place and for an evaluation of it effectiveness to be undertaken.

“I want to be faithful to the nature of this program,” he said. “This is a pilot program. This was a heavy lift to get the first ever funding for pre-K education through the General Assembly. the agreement was it would be a pilot and we will take our time.”

Pence also declined comment on a move by Democrats on the Indianapolis City-County Council to block a separate $50 million preschool expansion proposal offered by his fellow Republican, Mayor Greg Ballard. Among the reasons the Democrats cited for shelving any city-led preschool program until at least 2016 was the opportunity for poor children to enroll instead in the state pilot program.

“I wouldn’t want to comment on what local government leaders are deciding in any city in Indiana,” Pence said.

Ballard's $50 million preschool plan in peril

2014-09-23T02:42:10+00:00

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard’s ambitious preschool program is in danger of being scrapped altogether after being stripped of its proposed funding method with no alternatives on the table.

City-County Council Democrats have said they are working to find another way to pay for Ballard’s $50 million preschool program — besides an elimination of the local homestead tax credit.

But nothing was unveiled at tonight’s council meeting except a statement from the council’s top Democrats that they would work to find an approach to fund preschool for 2016 — nearly two years from now. Until then, Council President Maggie Lewis and Vice President John Barth said children could be served next year by the state’s much smaller pilot program, which will reach nearly 800 economically disadvantaged four-year-olds in Marion County.

“We are committed to seeking an approach to fund pre-k for 2016 and beyond and look forward to working with entire community and the mayor to seek bipartisan solutions that are proven, and sustainable,” according to Lewis’ and Barth’s statement.

Ballard’s office said Monday that the Democrats were shirking their responsibilities to poor children by not passing his proposal, which would have served 1,300 children starting next fall, or proposing one of their own.

Also in jeopardy is millions of dollars from corporate partners led by Eli Lilly and Company, who have said they would raise $10 million to support a preschool plan if the City-County Council can forge a compromise.

The mayor was deeply critical of the Democrats.

“It is tremendously disappointing that council Democrats have chosen to abdicate their responsibility to our children and our city,” Ballard said in a statement released late Monday. “We have offered multiple funding proposals to provide high-quality pre-K to thousands of children from low-income families. The corporate community has been very clear that without sustainable funding from the city, we will lose millions of dollars in private sector donations. The public, my administration and Indy’s corporate community agree the time for action is now.”

Barth told Chalkbeat earlier this month he planned to unveil an alternative preschool proposal at tonight’s meeting, which would pay for a city preschool program within the existing budget instead of eliminating a local homestead tax credit as Ballard proposed.

(Explore: Read Chalkbeat’s coverage so far on Ballard’s preschool plan)

But Barth said today he shelved his plan because it didn’t yet have broad enough support to be successful.

“I don’t see any value in introducing my proposal if we don’t have a financing approach finalized that has broad agreement,” Barth said. “My approach is to do things in a bipartisan way and I’m looking forward to working on this over the weeks ahead.”

Ballard’s plan to eliminate the local homestead tax credit left a foul taste in Democrats’ mouths from the moment he announced it. Council Democrats say school districts and public libraries stand to lose too much money if that happens.

IPS, for example, could lose $730,000 annually, but Superintendent Lewis Ferebee said that cost would be made up by having better-prepared kindergartners and through new matching grant money coming to IPS from Ballard’s program.

Still, it looks like Ballard’s preschool plan is effectively dead unless a new funding idea is announced soon.

Tonight was the deadline for the City-County Council to vote on the elimination of the homestead tax credit, according to deputy Mayor Jason Kloth. But that plan was killed when a Democrat-led council committee voted last week to table the idea. The move angered parents and advocates who waited three hours to speak in favor of preschool but were not given a chance to speak.

Barth said even if the city doesn’t have its own program, there will be an expansion of preschool next year because of a new statewide pilot program in 2015 that was pushed through the legislature earlier this year by Gov. Mike Pence.

But the state program will serve far fewer kids than Ballard’s program, which aims to enroll 1,300 new four year olds in preschool.

“It’s important to remember that the council has already funded a preschool program for 2015 in partnership with the Indiana General Assembly,” Barth said. “Because of that, we have the time to thoughtfully look at the budget and look ahead to subsequent funding periods.”

Despite Ballard’s frustration, Kloth said the mayor’s office wouldn’t stop talking with council leaders about the issue.

“We remain ever optimistic,” Kloth said, “and will sit down with Democratic leadership anytime, anyplace to get this done now.”

Democrats block funding for Ballard's preschool plan; meeting erupts

2014-09-17T02:59:27+00:00

Indianapolis City-County Council’s finance committee voted to table funding for Mayor Greg Ballard’s $50 million preschool expansion plan and quickly adjourned a three-hour meeting tonight as several people hoping to testify for the plan shouted and jeered the public officials as they exited.

Council Democrats, who have criticized the mayor’s plan since he announced it in July, have objected to Ballard’s plan to raise revenue to pay for the preschool program by eliminating the local homestead tax credit. After pushing preschool to the end of a lengthy agenda, which included public testimony on other topics, the committee voted without hearing from the public.

It was a political setback for Ballard and for the possibility of expanded preschool. His plan could still be revived with a new funding source. A key Democratic council member has promised to present an alternative plan soon.

Ashley Thomas, who sat with her three-year-old daughter Hope waiting to speak in favor of Ballard’s plan to expand access to preschool, said she was stunned by the meeting’s quick end. She wants Hope to have the option of high-quality preschool.

“I really expected for them to want to hear from someone who would be affected by the changes that they make,” said Thomas, who is involved with the education reform advocacy group Stand for Children. “For them to just do what they did…it just makes you feel disappointed, to say the least.”

Republicans at the meeting decried Democrats for letting politics get in the way of preschool. Democratic Councilwoman Angela Mansfield, who ran the committee meeting, did not speak with reporters afterward and could not be reached for comment.

Republican Councilman Ben Hunter blasted her after the meeting’s end.

“It’s just a disingenuous effort and sad leadership on Mansfield’s part,” he said . “You let people sit through all of this and you hurt them at the end.”

Stand for Children Executive Director Justin Ohlemiller was among those who said they were still holding out hope that the preschool plan can be revived, perhaps by funding it another way. Democratic councilman John Barth has promised to deliver an alternative plan that would fund preschool within the existing budget, but he has not yet unveiled the plan.

As the committee met, Ballard and his staff touted the preschool plan to a small crowd across town at a Pike Township school auditorium. If Ballard’s plan is going to be funded by eliminating the tax credit, by law the vote must occur by Monday. That leaves little time to debate the idea.

“We were never wed to the homestead tax credit as the mechanism for funding early childhood education,” Deputy Mayor Jason Kloth said. “We are optimistic that through ongoing negotiations with the council we will be able to figure out some alternative forms of funding. What is clear is that there is commitment to the notion of preschool on both sides of the aisle.”

A few of those who oppose eliminating the local homestead tax credit said they hoped officials can overcome their differences to still expand preschool. Ballard estimates dropping the credit could cost some local homeowners an average of $22 a year. There is also an estimated $3 million loss for the city’s 11 school districts.

“They’re going to have to do something, but it has to be affordable,” said Pike Township resident HeLoise Miller-Archie said.

Democrats have opposed Ballard’s preschool program from the start because of the cost to local school districts and other public entities.

Indianapolis Public Schools stands to lose as much as $730,000 annually from the elimination of the homestead tax credit, but Superintendent Lewis Ferebee said the district comes out ahead even if that happens.

That’s because the mayor will match city and privately-raised dollars to money IPS is spending on preschool for low income kids, which Ferebee said would more than offset the lost revenue. IPS has enrolled about 860 children in preschool this year.

IPS would also benefit, however, if a different funding source is found. That way, the district would keep the $730,000 and still receive additional matching dollars from the city and private donors to support its preschool programs.
“We can’t lose in that there is definitely a need for pre-K,” Ferebee said. “This plan addresses our most needy families. I don’t think anyone can argue with that.”

The City-County Council is expected to consider the preschool plan at its meeting Monday at 7 p.m.

Chalkbeat reporting so far on Mayor Greg Ballard's preschool plan

2014-09-15T22:53:56+00:00

In late July, Mayor Greg Ballard announced a new $50 million initiative to increase access to high-quality early education. Research shows that kids who participate in such programs are more successful later in life.

The initiative also aims to reduce crime and examine practices in school discipline. To read more about the mayor’s plan and how it has been received, take a look at our stories linked below.

July

Ballard’s education plan praised for boldness

$50 million preschool push a centerpiece of Ballard’s plan to cut crime

Ballard hopes big money leads more kids to better preschools

School discipline, race data prompt Ballard’s study plan

August

Ballard takes aim at tax questions for preschool plan

September

Democrats raise doubts about Ballard’s preschool plan

Lilly rallies business leaders to back Ballard’s preschool plan

Ballard’s $50 million preschool plan in peril

PNC pledges $500,000 for preschool if Ballard’s plan prevails

Lilly rallies business leaders to back Ballard's preschool plan

2014-09-12T17:48:29+00:00

The CEO of Eli Lilly and Company was among Indianapolis business leaders today who urged city leaders to embrace Mayor Greg Ballard’s $50 million plan to expand access to preschool in an effort to reduce crime as the political debate about the idea heats up.

“The time to invest in high quality early learning in this community is right now,” said Lilly CEO John Lechleiter. “Cities simply cannot be world class without offering access to a quality education for all of its citizens and that starts with high quality early childhood education.”

The pressure is on to find a solution to Democrats’ concerns about funding for the plan, and Lilly hosted about 50 CEOs, executives and community leaders from the city’s financial, health and human services and education sectors at their downtown campus to urge support for Ballard’s plan.

Lilly executives have vowed to work with other businesses to raise $10 million over the next three years for the preschool plan starting with $2 million from their foundation, but that investment is contingent on Ballard, a Republican, and a Democrat-controlled council working out a deal on preschool.

“Let’s show our political leaders that we aren’t going to sit on the sidelines,” Lechleiter said. “We’re going to get involved. None of us can afford to be on the sidelines of this issue.”

The mayor’s plan to fund preschool depends on eliminating the local homestead tax credit. That move would cost some Indianapolis homeowners an average of $22 per year that they now save from their tax bills, but Ballard said it would be worth it to support 1,300 more spots for preschoolers and to help local providers meet high-quality standards.

Some Democrats, however, have argued eliminating the tax credit would both cost some homeowners more and hurt the city’s 11 public school districts by also taking away more than $3 million they receive. They have promised to present an alternative funding plan. Ballard insists that school districts would benefit more by enrolling more incoming students who were better prepared to start kindergarten than from keeping their share of the tax credit money.

The clock is ticking to find a funding solution. The City-County Council’s finance committee is expected to consider the issue Tuesday. If council members want to use the tax credit as a funding source, it must decide to do that by its Sept. 22 meeting.

Other business leaders at today’s meeting echoed Lilly’s call for support.

“We’re here to talk about money and funding, but there’s another sense of urgency that’s not being talked about,” said John Hammond, a partner at Ice Miller LLP Public Affairs Group who was an adviser to former Indiana Gov. Bob Orr. “We’ve got this dilemma in our political and policy apparatus. I think I know what to do. We can walk out of here thinking we had a great discussion but there’s really nitty gritty things that have to get done, I presume, in the next several weeks.”

Jason Kloth, Ballard’s deputy mayor for education, said his office hopes to forge a compromise with Democrats but said time is short.

“If we want to do this through the elimination of the tax credit, it’s a matter of days and weeks, not a matter of months and years,” Kloth said. “I’d encourage all of you to reach out to counselors that you know. (Your influence) goes a very, very long way. We’d very much appreciate that.”

(Disclosure: Chalkbeat is a grantee of the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation.)

Democrats raise doubts about Ballard's preschool plan

2014-09-10T23:49:37+00:00

Democrats who are wary of some parts of Mayor Greg Ballard’s blockbuster $50 million proposal to help more children attend preschool across Indianapolis will offer their own preschool expansion plan later this month.

While some of Ballard’s allies are charging that Democrats are playing politics and putting at risk opportunities for poor Indianapolis children, both supporters of his plan and some of those with reservations say they are optimistic that expanding preschool can still happen.

“My Democratic friends have been in favor of pre-K until Republicans say, ‘let’s do this,'” said City-County Council member Aaron Freeman. “Amazingly, it’s a fight. Everybody’s got to have an alternative plan. Frankly, I’m sorry, but the time for deal making and the time for alternative plans is kind of gone.”

Even so, Democrats and Republicans have been holding talks in search of a compromise.

“We are 100 percent committed to getting preschool done for our children and for our city for 2015,” Deputy Mayor Jason Kloth said.

From Ballard’s July announcement calling for preschool to be a central pillar in his plan to sustainably curb the city’s crime and education problem, there were signs that the political road ahead might not be smooth.

For instance, Council president Maggie Lewis and other prominent Democrats were noticeably absent from the announcement and soon after began raising concerns about Ballard’s preferred method of funding the program: eliminating the local homestead tax credit.

Ballard has argued that while cutting the homestead credit would cost some Indianapolis homeowners an average of $22 per year that they now save from their tax bills, it would be worth it to support 1,300 more spots for preschoolers and help local providers meet high-quality standards.

Democrats have countered that eliminating the tax credit would both cost some homeowners more and hurt the city’s 11 public school districts by also taking away more than $3 million they receive. But Ballard responded that the school districts would benefit significantly by enrolling more incoming students who were better prepared to start kindergarten because they had been to preschool first.

Council Vice President John Barth, a Democrat, said he plans to unveil an alternative to Ballard’s plan in time for the City-County Council’s next meeting on Sept. 22. Though Barth hasn’t finalized all the details of what his plan will entail, he’s sure that it won’t include using the elimination of the homestead tax credit as a funding source.

“The resistance to that funding mechanism is not new and is well known,” Barth said. “I am working on a proposal that gets specific and into the weeds on how a pre-K program would work in Indianapolis.”

Ballard’s staff and some Republican council members said they are open to considering alternative funding plans if it can assure the preschool plan happens.

“We appreciate and welcome any and all ideas that Councilman Barth would propose,” Deputy Mayor Jason Kloth said. “The homestead tax is one sustainable source of funding preschool and putting more police officers on the street. However, we are open to any sustainable funding source and are eager to hear the Democratic counter-proposal for funding this.”

Kloth said he is in talks with Barth and others, including Lewis, to work through their differences with the mayor’s plan. Most of the negotiations are centered around how to fund the program, Barth said.

“To me, if we agree preschool is No. 1, then we need to re-balance the budget to demonstrate that,” Barth said. “That’s a painful process, but we’re working through that. I’m trying to navigate through the middle and get everyone on the same page.”

Republican Councilman Jeff Miller said he became a strong preschool proponent after he saw the learning gains his child made while attending a preschool program. He said he would be receptive to hearing an alternative to the mayor’s plan if it means more kids get to attend preschool.

Miller said there likely will be support for an alternative plan among Republicans on the council.

“For me, it’s never been about the funding having to come from here, here or here,” Miller said. “The funding has to come from a source that is viable. It felt like the homestead credit was a good way to go. But I’ll be the first to say that if there are other plans out there, I’m willing to listen to them.”

Others aren’t open to deal making.

Councilman Steve Tally, a Democrat, said he opposes the mayor’s proposal because of it will cost money that now goes to public schools, libraries and other services. Indianapolis Public Schools, for example, stands to lose $734,000 if the homestead tax is eliminated.

“In addition to increasing the tax burden on our residents, it disproportionately impacts people who live in very modest homes and our seniors who have paid their mortgages off in some of the most challenging neighborhoods,” Tally said.

Some councilmembers just think it’s time to eliminate the homestead tax credit for good.

“If there was a way to (fund preschool) with some other funding mechanism, I’d certainly consider it, but my concern is that any proposal that’s floated is going to be for the purpose of avoiding eliminating the homestead credit,” said Republican Councilman Will Gooden. “I’m afraid if they’re treated separately at this point, the can is once again going to get kicked down the road.”

Time is running out for the council to decide if it wants to use the tax credit elimination. By law, Kloth said, there is a Sept. 22 deadline to vote on the tax credit.

Meanwhile, education leaders and preschool advocates are waiting to see if the city will make a big commitment to preschool.

Ted Maple, president of preschool provider Day Nursery Association and a long time advocate for expanded preschool, said he doesn’t care how the city’s preschool program is funded as long as it is high quality.

“I’m hopeful we can come to an agreement as soon as possible,” Maple said. “We have too many children out there that need early childhood education. We as a community have waited too long to do the right thing for kids. If we put it off now, we’re at risk of putting it off again for a really long time.”

Ballard takes aim at tax questions for preschool plan

2014-08-21T03:03:43+00:00

Confusion remains for some residents over how Mayor Greg Ballard plans to fund his recently announced anti-crime initiative, which includes a $50 million public-private partnership to increase access to preschool.

At a town hall meeting Wednesday night at Southport Presbyterian Church, the mayor and his staff tried to explain: The city hopes to raise $25 million through philanthropy, but the other $25 million is planned to come from the elimination of the Homestead Tax credit, which would add $5 million each year over five years to efforts to increase preschool quality and offer scholarships to low-income families.

Mainly, the confusion arose over the Homestead Tax Credit vs. the Homestead Tax Deduction — two different things, the mayor’s chief of staff, Ryan Vaughn, explained.

“Everyone say it with me, it’s not the deduction, it’s the credit,” Vaughn said.

“People think we’re eliminating the deduction,” he said. “Not at all. Even if we wanted to, we have no legal authority to do so.”

The Homestead Tax Deduction gives relief to taxpayers by reducing the amount of property taxes they owe. Instead of requiring taxes to be paid on the full assessed value of a home, taxes are only required to be paid on 40 percent of the assessed value of a home (the deduction is capped at $45,000). For example, if a home is assessed at a value of $100,000, the homeowner would only pay taxes on $40,000.

Funding for the preschool initiative has no effect on that deduction.

Ballard proposes to eliminate the homestead credit. Anyone who lives and works in Indianapolis pays income taxes to the city. Currently, Ballard said, the city gives some of that money back to homeowners as a credit on their taxes.

“The only people that benefit from that choice are homeowners, not renters, not teenagers living with their parents, not those living in subsidized housing,” Ballard said. “And not even all homeowners, because if you are at or above the property tax caps, you get no financial benefit whatsoever.”

The mayor said only about 54 percent of homeowners in Marion County see a benefit from the tax credit, and they’d lose only about $22 per year if it were eliminated. A map of the county showed the the area where people currently receive the most value from the tax credit is in Washington Township, which is because the area has property with high assessed value and low school township taxes.

“What this credit is about is the working poor is subsidizing the property rich,” Ballard said.

Perry Township resident Matilda Maynard wasn’t convinced, however, that doing away with the tax credit was in her best interest. She said many people in her community are retired and that even a small amount of money matters.

“It may not mean a lot to you guys,” Maynard said. “But it means a lot to us.”

She thinks the city should look at other areas to cut to raise funds for preschool.

Jason Kloth, deputy mayor for education, said it is “absolutely appropriate” that residents are questioning where their tax dollars go and taking an interest in public policy and the funding priorities of the city.

“We believe that the Homestead Tax Credit, which takes income tax to pay down property taxes, oftentimes for people who are more affluent, is one way to (prioritize funding),” Kloth said. “But for us, we believe we need to start to get at the root causes of crime, and early childhood education is one of the most research- and evidenced-based ways of doing that.”

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