Ritz seeks change

A veteran teacher upset with the current state of education energized supporters Tuesday at the John Jay Center.
About 50 people, mostly teachers, came to hear and see Glenda Ritz, who is running against incumbent Tony Bennett for Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Ritz currently works as a Library Media Specialist at Crooked Creek Elementary School in Indianapolis. She has been a teacher for 33 years and is one of 155 National Board Certified Teachers in Indiana.
“I feel compelled to be the Superintendent of Public Instruction because of what we’re doing to children in this state,” she said, while mentioning the controversy that many teachers say has surrounded Bennett’s mandates as superintendent.
Ritz said that her opposition to IREAD-3, a state-mandated program that requires third graders to read at least at grade level before advancing to the fourth grade, was her motivation to run.
She also slammed the ISTEP+ test, saying standardized testing is a faulty system that is used by the state as a tool for grading teachers and not for measuring the success of students.
Ritz said she believes that time is being wasted teaching to the standardized tests and that the time would be better spent teaching reading skills. That, she said, would then translate into better test performance.
She also addressed teacher evaluation. “We need to have very rigorous standards,” she said, saying that current evaluation methods are flawed and that more aspects should be factored in evaluations.
She also vowed to eliminate the evaluation system that has been adopted by the majority of school corporations across the state — including Jay County.
“RISE is not the law. It’s a suggested evaluation system. … When I’m elected it can go away,” she said to a large round of applause.
She said many schools chose the RISE evaluation system for convenience.
Ritz also expressed opposition to state takeover of school systems and a voucher program that uses public funds at private schools.

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