On paper, Nikki Woodson, superintendent of schools for the Metropolitan School District of Washington Township, is an arguably impressive educator.
In 2011, she became the first African-American female superintendent in Marion County and one of the youngest in the state of Indiana. Woodson has earned post-secondary degrees from Ball State University and Butler University and received a doctor of philosophy from Purdue University.
Her numerous honors include distinguished Purdue University Fellow; named Indy’s Best & Brightest for recognition in the field of education; and last year, the American Association of School Administrators awarded her the Women in School Leadership Award.
Though Woodson’s career thus far has been notable, that all may pale in comparison to the fact that she has a passion for youth and genuinely wants to see them succeed.
As one of the largest K-12 public school districts in Marion County, Woodson is responsible for over 12,000 students (67 percent students of color and 57 percent qualify for free/reduced lunch) and nearly 1,800 employees.
Recently, she was appointed as one of two leaders in the U.S., to serve as a member of the International Baccalaureate Heads Council. In addition to all of the changes occurring on the state level such as ISTEP and new state education standards, this recently implemented International Baccalaureate learning model has brought changes to the Washington Township School District.
The Recorder spoke with Woodson to learn more about the new education model, her ever growing and diversifying pool of students and her take on the future of education.
Recorder: Something big has happened in Washington Township. Tell me more about that.
Dr. Nikki Woodson: Yes! We are one of six school districts in the entire world offering International Baccalaureate (IB) education for every student in every school. We’re offering that high-rigor framework for teaching and learning. It took five years for us to put this together and that includes professional development, working with our students, proving our teaching and learning process through the success of our students. This summer we were finally authorized by IB to be an IB World District.
Explain the IB program.
It not only increases the learning capabilities of our students, but it also improves the teaching process. Both go hand-in-hand. IB involves students constructing their own learning. A great example is when you and I were in school, you may have learned about money. Now, our students still have that as a state standard of Indiana, but they’re also learning about currency through a global lens. So for instance, in elementary schools, students will create a global marketplace learning about different exports from other countries, price those products and sell the items. That’s the way they’re learning about economy. Students are no longer fed information – they construct their own information and are involved in learning.
Why is this important for today’s student?
Research shows that the jobs our students will face in the future don’t even exist today. We’re preparing them for this. Learning to memorize things and regurgitating information from a book is no longer going to cut it for these students. They have to be designers, creators and inquirers to come up with ideas and synthesize information and knowledge. That’s what we’re teaching kids to do through IB.
Plus our students are growing up in an eclectic world. All of our students, starting in kindergarten, are also learning a second language. We’re the only public school district offering that. That’s part of the IB framework as well. They’re learning things like French, Chinese and Spanish and at the high school, they can choose from nine languages.
Speaking of diversity, over 72 native languages are represented amongst your students; six out of 10 students are students of color; and about seven out of 10 students qualify for free and reduced lunch. Additionally many students are transferring to Washington Township from the Indianapolis Public School districts and other parts of the area. How are you handling the diversity and influx of students?
In the past five years, we’ve grown almost 1,000 students. Those are students moving into our district, but we also have almost 600 non-resident students. We feel very strongly about school choice. So in Washington Township we offer district-wide school choice to all residents. We also offer school choice to residents who do not live in Washington Township. The only caveat is they must find their own transportation. We think this is why enrollment has increased.
With all of the ISTEP changes, are your students going to be prepared?
In Washington Township, we are always prepared for anything that comes our way. Obviously the new standards were released in May. We don’t know the name nor have we seen the new test students will take in the spring of 2015. But we feel strongly that through the strong teaching and learning that we already had in place, our students will be prepared.
It’s a new test, so I don’t know how we’ll be able to compare with our previous scores. Our 2014 ISTEP scores had tremendous increases across the district. So I’m concerned about people comparing 2014 with 2015.
What are some of your other goals for this school year?
We must stay abreast on the new ISTEP test, the new state standards. We’ve spent the summer trying to align what we could, but it was only a few months to work on this before school began, which was last week. Staying on top of the changes that are occurring from the Indiana Department of Education will be a huge task but we must continuously improve.
Funding is certainly a challenge. We’re trying to do extraordinary work with ordinary funding toward public education and the two just don’t match. In Washington Township, we’re thrilled to have the Washington Township Schools Foundation, which raises funds to support the work we’re doing, but we shouldn’t have to rely on foundations to provide the bare necessities.
Explain your relationship with the Washington Township School Board.
We have a wide range of people represented so our five board members are absolutely vested in the success of Washington Township Schools. At the same time, they ask very tough questions of me and they have very high expectations.
Talk about your relationship with district parents.
I am out in the community all the time. In the evenings I’ll be going to all the schools presenting a sort of ‘state of the schools’ information session to each schools’ parent group. I’m at every football and basketball game. Parents access me through social media now.
How would you encourage the public to support Washington Township education and education in general?
One way is to find out about your local public school. A lot of people have myths or things they’ve heard about public school in Marion County but when I take people on personal tours or talk to people who are curious about school choice, they’re always blown away when I take them to classrooms. And I don’t take them to our highest performing ones – we go to all of the ranges of school. Get into a school and actually see it.
For people who don’t have kids in school, there are ways to support too. We have information on our website such as being mentors or participating on the foundation level. A community is only as strong as our public schools so the stronger we as a community are, the stronger public schools will be.
