To Build the Education Systems of the Future, Look to Indianapolis
It’s easy to feel like America’s public education system is defined by stagnation and decline.
A falling national birth rate is putting more pressure on public school enrollment, even as more families choose private schools or homeschooling. Meanwhile, according to the latest PISA results, American reading scores just hit a generational low. In too many cities and communities, it all adds up to a broken status quo with no solutions in sight.
Yet there are reasons to be hopeful. Indianapolis, long a leader in education reform, offers one of them. This year, statewide proficiency rates on ILEARN—Indiana’s state test—barely moved. Schools run directly by Indianapolis Public Schools, our city’s largest school district, posted stagnant or even declining proficiency levels. Indianapolis charter schools, however, achieved gains that far exceeded state and local averages. That includes both independent charters and innovation charters that partner with the district for services.
This isn’t a one-year blip. Since the pandemic, charter and innovation schools have achieved significant English Language Arts and math proficiency gains across nearly every student subgroup. For example, Black and Hispanic students at innovation charter schools achieved ELA gains at more than four times the rate of their peers at schools directly run by IPS. Additionally, Black, Hispanic and low-income students who attend independent charter schools are two to three times more likely to achieve academic proficiency than their peers in traditional IPS schools.
No doubt, overall proficiency remains too low for schools of all types. But Indianapolis charter schools are on an unmistakably positive trajectory. It bears out the theory of change that charter schools are built on: Give talented school leaders autonomy, hold them accountable for results, and significant learning gains usually follow.
Global Preparatory Academy is a prime example of this theory in action. The school launched on the campus of a shuttered, chronically low-performing district school in 2016. Over the past decade, Global Prep has made steady academic progress and tripled its enrollment. This trajectory led school leadership to add a second campus to house their middle school grades in order to meet the demand from families. Examples like this are found across Indianapolis.
