In 16 years, there have been a few controversial columns in this space that have gotten readers and our community talking. This is one of those.
Let me put it simply and cleanly.
It is time to strongly shake up the Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS). We canāt any longer tolerate business as usual or the status quo in IPS!
I realize that there are scores of great teachers, administrators and support staff from custodians and cafeteria workers, to teachersā aides, police officers, bus drivers and clerical support staff in the Indianapolis Public School system.
But, eight to 10 IPS schools are faced with being taken away from the districtās control. An open secret, but unknown to many in our community. If your children or grandchildren attend Arlington, Broad Ripple, Manual, Northwest, Howe, Washington, John Marshall or Tech high schools; or Emma Donnan or Harshman middle schools; your kidsā schools are on the short list of schools primed for an imminent state takeover.
IPS is an institution in a state of high stress and difficulty. Thereās an Internet blog about IPS where the hatred, racism, backbiting, backstabbing and poor morale is in full display. Others tell me morale within the system is the poorest it has been in many years.
Last week, one of the systemās top administrators, a Chinese-American named Li-Yen Johnson, issued an intemperate e-mail urging the community to stand up saying that the state was ātrying to keep the African-Americans hooked and quietā urging those she was writing to ānot be silent on this one.ā
Johnsonās e-mail was virulent; but at least someone in IPS is trying to alert the community to the crisis. Unfortunately, her missive missed a basic point.
Administrators like Johnson can no longer insist that our community support their status quo or endorse their business as usual!
There is no question that IPS must change the way they do business.
IPS must change how they educate the 33,000-plus students in their care.
IPS must change how they relate to the parents and grandparents of their students.
IPS must change how they interact and treat their employees.
IPS must change how they interact and relate to the community.
One of IPSā and the communityās problems is a total lack of understanding of who the IPS schools serve.
Reading Johnsonās e-mail, youād assume that African-Americans are the fulcrum of the IPS district. And while Blacks comprise 54 percent of the districtās enrollment, at 59 percent Pike Township has a higher percentage of Black students enrolled than IPS.
Itās estimated that of the total African-American population of Indianapolis and Marion County, barely half of that population lives in the IPS area. But thatās down from roughly 60 percent 10 years ago. And of the estimated total population of the area IPS serves, just 38.4 percent are African-Americans. Non-Hispanic whites are the largest group at 52.8 percent, followed by Hispanics at an estimated 7.8 percent. (Definitive 2010 census data wonāt be available until next month).
IPS has a growing multilingual and English as a second language student body as over one-sixth (17.6 percent) of IPSā overall enrollment are Hispanics. IPSā Hispanic enrollment is the second largest of any Indiana school district. Only Hammondās schools have more Hispanics than IPS.
Those concerned with IPS must understand that the neighborhoods the system serves arenāt neighborhoods with families with children of media myth. IPS neighborhoods arenāt overrun with families like the Nelsons, Huxtables or Obamas ā stable two-parent families. The reality is much more complex and difficult.
The 2009 Census American Community Survey (ACS) reports that two-thirds (66.7 percent) of all families with children in the IPS district are families headed by a single mom or increasingly a single dad.
IPS neighborhoods contain 44.1 percent of all single female families with children in Indianapolis/Marion County and 54.4 percent of all single male families with children.
By contrast, IPSā neighborhoods lack the ingredient researchers say is critical for student success – two-parent families. Only a third of families with children in IPS neighborhoods are two parent. Worse, IPS contains just 20.8 percent of the city/countyās two parent families with children.
Indianaās Department of Education (IDOE) thinks they can improve IPSā worst. But how, given that IPS is so untypical of most Hoosier schools?
IDOE is looking for partners to run up to 23 troubled schools statewide, including those in IPS. Thereās rumblings that Black-oriented groups with experience educating Black youth from single parent families may bid. But thereās no guarantee.
Worse, most major educational consortiums with the financial resources to operate these so-called ātakeoverā IPS schools (KIPP, Geo, Imagine) have failed miserably operating charters, so how can they be expected to handle the more difficult IPS challenge?
IPS argues that they have the expertise and experience in educating children from single-family homes with high poverty. But for five straight years, IPS hasnāt been able to reserve the failing trends of the schools now under the stateās educational sword of Damocles.
Worse is the posture of the elected board for the Indianapolis Public Schools. The individuals elected to set policy for a system facing its greatest challenge since cross district busing in 1981 have sat mute. They arenāt out as a group at the legislature testifying either for or against the school reform proposals. They are saying nothing to the voters who elected them; even those elected just eight months ago.
Unfortunately, having a board of seven āsilent sphinxes,ā as this column referred to the IPS Board some 14 years ago, isnāt the funny quip it was when I first wrote it.
The IPS Boardās silence is insulting; debilitating to the system and the community it serves.
So, the dilemma.
Iāve lost faith in the current leadership of IPS to do their jobs.
But I have no faith that Gov. Mitch Danielsā administration has the sensitivity, understanding, expertise, diversity and cultural competency to handle the job reforming the schools where our children are educated.
I do know this. The Indianapolis Public Schools are in crisis. Business as usual is no longer acceptable!
Itās time for change.
Whatās your view?
See āya next week.
You can e-mail comments to Amos Brown at acbrown@aol.com.