According to a new report, students in recovery at a recovery school are less likely to relapse than teens in other substance abuse programs. Indiana is home to one of the 34 recovery schools in the U.S. (Recovery.org)
Graduates from high schools designed for people in recovery from addiction are more than twice as likely to remain sober, compared to students in normal intervention programs.
Students who attend such recovery schools have a relapse rate of 30 percent within six months, according to a new report. After typical treatment, like 30-day rehabs and outpatient programs, attendees have a relapse rate of 70 percent.
Hope Academy in Indianapolis is one of 34 recovery high schools in the U.S. There are at least eight more being planned throughout the country.
“One ironclad requirement for entry into a recovery school is that students must express a strong desire to kick their habits,” the report authors write. “This no-nonsense approach is working; students who enter these schools are surrounded by like-minded individuals who wish to conquer their addictions and reap a better future.”
(Recovery.org)
It’s hard to make an even comparison between recovery high schools and other programs, due to such key differences.
Students must already be sober, and committed to maintaining sobriety, before entering a recovery high school. Students typically continue to to live at home. Treatment and support are intertwined with a high school curriculum.
Like any high school, at its core a recovery school is focused on academics. Students must pass their class, in order to graduate. When they do, their diploma often comes from their home school district.
“The curricula fuse traditional classes with electives geared toward personal growth and development, which better prepare students for life after school,” report authors write.
Recovery schools have bumped up against challenges. Throughout the country, states vary in how easy it is to establish and maintain a recovery school.
A leading recovery school researcher tweeted last year that there are four reasons recovery high schools close: transportation, stigma, awareness and funding.
Recovery.org has compiled a list of how friendly each of the 50 states are for recovery schools. Indiana falls behind most states, coming in at number 24.
In this 2012 photo, a cafeteria worker prepares lunch trays for first grade students. (Elle Moxley/StateImpact Indiana)” credit=”
Schools across Indiana are gearing up to welcome students back for a new academic year, with some already in session. As students return to school, it also means it’s time for school meals to begin again.
Families who use food stamps, have a child in a Head Start program, have foster children or have a child enrolled in the Migrant Education Program are automatically eleigible for the program.
Families who meet federal income requirements are also eligible for free or reduced lunch. A family of four making an annual income of under $45,000 would be eligible.
According to the department, all families will be provided with forms:
Application forms are being provided to all homes with a letter to parents or guardians. To apply for free or reduced-price benefits, households must complete the application as soon as possible, sign it, and return it to the school.
School lunch has not been without its controversy this year.
As we’ve reported earlier, U.S. Congressman Todd Rokita, R-Indiana, proposed legislation this May that would ease nutrition standards for a federal school lunch program and impose tighter restrictions for schools to offer free meals schoolwide.
In this 2012 file photo, a Carpe Diem student logs onto a computer. Indiana’s new science standards require a focus on computer science skills in elementary and middle school. (Kyle Stokes/ StateImpact Indiana)
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — For the first time, schools will be required to teach computer science skills to all Indiana elementary and middle school students.
Indiana will be one of seven states with formal statewide computer science standards this school year.
All summer, computer science has been a focus at the Lincoln St. Boys and Girls Club in Bloomington. About 20 rowdy campers pile into the club’s computer lab.
“So today what they’re doing is Archives,” explains Tabitha Cassani, the club’s program director. “It has a whole bunch of games from like the 80s and the 90s. Things that I played when I was little.”
Games like Pong, Oregon Trail, and Pac Man. The idea is to give kids a fun outlet to see how computer technology has evolved.
And the club also offers free classes in other computer skills, including typing, coding and robotics.
“It equalizes the playing field of kids being exposed to technology and getting that skill. Every job in the future is going to have a computer,” Cassani said. “Like my dad’s a mechanic, has a high school education, and he uses a computer every day.” Continue Reading →
Indiana Higher Education Commissioner Teresa Lubbers says more Hoosiers are graduating college, but racial achievement gaps persist. (The Statehouse File)
By nearly every measure, more Hoosiers are completing college than ever before.
However, black and Hispanic students are half as likely than white students to graduate on time, according to a new report from the Indiana Commission of Higher Education.
Across the board, about two-thirds of Indiana college students now receive a bachelor’s degree within six years of starting college.
“More students are graduating on time which saves them considerable amount of money,” said Teresa Lubbers, commissioner of higher education. “We calculated that an extra year of college costs about 50,000 dollars a year.”
But, she says, the graduation rate plummets when looking at Black and Hispanic students.
“We still see a significant achievement gap,” Lubbers said. “Black and Hispanic students are about half as likely white students to graduate on time.”
According to the department, most campuses have measures to help Black students graduate on time. Far fewer specifically focus on Hispanic students.
Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb was nominated as the GOP’s gubernatorial candidate after a vote this afternoon by the Indiana Republican central committee.
This puts some distance to the brutal public fights over policy and power between Gov. Mike Pence and Indiana State Superintendent Glenda Ritz — a saga that drove division lines among educators and the public alike.
Holcomb, 48, has not been apart of those battles — he’s only been lieutenant governor for four months.
Yet he is aligned with the Indiana’s majority Republican party who pushed school reforms the past 12 years — from expanding availability and funding for vouchers and charter schools to teacher evaluations. He was the campaign manager to former Gov. Mitch Daniels, who ushered in the sweeping changes with former state schools chief Tony Bennett, and was once the state Republican chairman.
So about 15 minutes after winning the nomination in a private vote, where does Holcomb say he stands on education policy and working with that other elected official across the Statehouse rotunda — state superintendent? Continue Reading →
The report showed the state is spending $18 million more on the program than it did last school year. In the first few years of the program, it was saving the state money, according to a calculation crafted by the General Assembly.
These scholarships allow a student from a low-income family that meets a specific set of criteria to use state money to attend a private school.
The program started in 2011 and in the first years, it grew exponentially. But although the number of students is still growing, it’s starting to level off.
Take a look at our interactive map to see where the most students are using school vouchers. The school districts located on the map mean a student using a voucher lives within that school district’s boundaries.
Fort Wayne Community Schools will spend about $10,000 on billboards this summer. District spokesperson Krista Stockman says state funding from a gain of two new students would pay for the billboards. (Peter Balonon-Rosen/Indiana Public Broadcasting)
Forget Don Draper. Forget Peggy Olson. The newest era of advertising may live within your public school district.
Schools will start soon, but where you live doesn’t necessarily determine where you go to school anymore. Families can choose where to go to school — private, charter or public school. The aim behind providing this choice? Proponents say it will force all schools to better themselves.
Whether it has done that remains controversial. But it has given birth to a new reality for public schools: with education competition, comes the need for education marketing.
If Marnie Cooke had her way, you’d see school colors plastered throughout downtown Noblesville.
“I don’t know when the city of Noblesville is planning on changing over street signs,” said Cooke, Noblesville Schools communications director. “But I hope to put a bug in their ear that it might be cool to have some black and gold street signs.”
The district relies on the community for funding, internships and students. So the district hired Cooke because of her private-sector marketing background. Continue Reading →
Over the last year, we’ve reported on the experiences of three first year teachers as they adjust to the new career. The group convened to discuss how the first year went, the lessons they learned, and how they’re preparing for their second year. (photo credit: Alex McCall and Eoban Binder/Indiana Public Broadcasting).
Eric Hylton argued for the teacher’s union, the Jay Classroom Teacher Association, and started his oral argument addressing the issue of principal discretion with setting teacher salaries. He argued that if a teacher is hired after the start of the school year, the principal should not have complete discretion in setting that teacher’s salary. He said the union should still negotiate that salary with the school district.
The union is arguing that there should be tight parameters for a new teacher, like years of experience, that determine salary. The school corporation and The Indiana Education Employment Relations Board (IEERB) say a superintendent should be able to set the salary as long as it is within an already set range.
The question at hand was this: when a superintendent in Jay County offered a salary to a teacher hired midway through the year, it fell within the range previously determined by the teacher’s union. But the union thought they should be able to bargain on this specific case and not let the superintendent choose a salary anywhere in that range.
In her opinion, Chief Justice Loretta Rush explained that the court found the superintendent to be well within his/her right in assigning a salary:
“We conclude, therefore, that the superintendent’s authority was neither unilateral nor unfettered and so did not conflict with the Association’s right to collectively bargain to establish salaries under Indiana Code section 20-29-4-1,” Rush wrote in the opinion.
Justice Robert Rucker dissented the opinion, agreeing with the trial court saying all salaries should be collectively bargained.
Governor Pence delivered his State of the State speech in 2016. (photo credit: Brandon Smith/Indiana Public Broadcasting).
Last night, Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence were chosen by the Republican National Convention as the Republican presidential and vice presidential candidates.
Tonight, Pence will take the stage in Cleveland at the 2016 Republican National Convention. He is now, officially, the vice-presidential running mate of Republican nominee Donald Trump.
But before that happens, we want to take a dive into Pence’s education policies in the nearly four years he’s been the governor of Indiana.
Just how much does he have in common with Donald Trump when it comes to schools and education? Definitely not nothing.
We worked with the teams at NPR Politics and NPR Ed to provide insight on how Pence influenced education policy during his term as governor.
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