Glenda Ritz, former Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction, will head up a new education consulting firm. (Rachel Morello/StateImpact Indiana)” credit=”

Glenda Ritz, Indiana’s former Superintendent of Public Instruction, will soon work on education matters in a new role. She now leads Advancing Public Schools as president and CEO.

The company’s mission is “dedicated to advancing the nation’s public school system through partnerships with local school boards in the areas of advocacy and literacy,” according to their website.

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The Indiana State Board of Education. (Eric Weddle/WFYI)

With two seats sit vacant on Indiana’s education policy-creating body, the state’s highest ranking education official is concerned.

As Gary Community Schools prepares for a state-hired emergency manager to take control, the seat on the state education board that represents the district remains vacant.

The same goes for East Chicago Schools as it faces a lead contamination crisis in the community.

The Indiana Board of Education member from the 1st Congressional District represents both areas. But that member, Eddie Melton, resigned from the board in November, after being elected a Democrat state senator.

Gov. Eric Holcomb, who took office in January, has yet to appoint someone to the vacant seat.

“It is a concern,” says Jennifer McCormick, state superintendent of public instruction and board chair. “I think the bigger picture is we want to make sure each district has a voice. I know the governor’s office also feels that urgency.”

The 9th District seat sits vacant, as well. Lee Ann Kwiatkowski resigned after she joined the department of education as McCormick’s chief of staff.

In all, 11 members sit on the board. The governor appoints most members. McCormick says having only nine members can cause slow down board business.

Earlier this month during a regular board meeting, one member was absent, leaving eight members to vote on a series of actions. State law requires six “yes” votes for an action to pass.

So when members cast a 5-3 vote to grant waivers to let formerly failing private schools become eligible for school vouchers — no action was taken and the waivers were not granted, due to a lack of votes.

Last month, Holcomb signed the law that created the waivers to help once-failings schools speed up their acceptance back into the Choice Scholarship program.

A spokeswoman for Holcomb’s office says they are working to fill the vacancies.

Since 2015, the 11-member board consists of the following members: eight appointed by the governor; one appointed by Speaker of the House; one appointed by President Pro Tempore of the Senate; and the state superintendent. No more than five members of the board can be from the same political party.

Indiana Center for Evaluation and Education Policy

A new study shows Indiana’s schools are segregated by race and income, something that’s true across the state.

The study comes from Indiana University’s Center for Evaluation & Education Policy, and focuses on how students from different races and economic backgrounds intersect.

The state is seeing a dramatic increase in minority students. For example, the number of Latino students attending Indiana schools has grown more than 500 percent since 1988. But these growing minority groups don’t mean schools are getting more diverse.

One finding is that the average black student in the state goes to schools where 68 percent of the student population is also non-white students. That’s compared to white students who on average attend schools where 19 percent of the school is non-white.

Jodi Moon is a researcher who worked on the study, and says the report found black families are mostly concentrated in more urban areas like Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and Gary, while Latino families are more spread throughout the state.

“The changing demographics of our country, the changing demographics of our state and the inequities we see are important conversations to be looking at,” Moon says. “This data enables those conversations to get started.”

Moon says the segregation taking place in rural parts of the state is based on family income levels, with more low-income families attending school together.

The study doesn’t consider whether segregation affects students’ academic or social performance. Moon says she hopes the data prompts more people to ask that question.

“I recognize that some people are looking for solutions, and I think that varies greatly depending on the region and geography in terms of what the opportunities are,” she says. “But really the first step is to know what enrollment patterns are occurring and evaluate what kind of possibilities there are.”

A new report highlights the disproportionate suspension of girls of color in Indiana schools. (Eric Castro/Flickr)” credit=”

Girls of color are much more likely than white girls to be suspended from Indiana schools and schools nationwide, according to a new report.

Indiana schools suspend about one in nine black girls, one in 29 Latina girls and one in 50 white girls, according to the report from the National Women’s Law Center.

“We should all be very alarmed,” says Jasmine Tucker, director of research at the National Women’s Law Center. “Discipline is a problem across the board and Indiana is up there with black girls, in particular, being especially likely — about six times as likely — to be suspended from school.”

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