Ritz visits Jay County

Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz was in Jay County on Tuesday discussing the challenges and triumphs she’s experienced while trying to overhaul Hoosier education policies.
She began her evening at Jay County High School, where she received a character counts award as part of the corporation’s Character Counts Night. Then she traveled to Jay County Courthouse for an event sponsored by Jay County Democrats to talk with local residents about the efforts her office is making and some of the struggles it has faced since she took office in January.
Ritz said she came to her position with a vision already in place.
“It’s imagining the possibilities and making them happen. I did it every year in my classroom,” she said.
The mission of the Department of Education, she said, is to build an education system.  
“Notice I did say system. Very few set out to actually change the system,” she said. “So we’re developing an education system of equity and high quality focused on student-centered accountability.”
Her office is already working on early education, career tech education and an overhaul of the A-F grading system put in place by former superintendent of public instruction Tony Bennett.
This year, the Indiana DOE applied for a Race to the Top grant, which will help fund preschool in the state.
“It can bring some really good money so that our little ones can start to have some school,” she said.
Kindergarten is not mandatory for students in Indiana, so many are starting school in first grade.
“Every year we get students in our classrooms in first grade who have not been to kindergarten and they have not been to a quality preschool or perhaps a good upbringing to have real good language development and when they get to our doors, they’re two years behind,” she said.  
She also said its been a long time since the education in Indiana has focused on career and technical education.
“I’m all about kids earning 40 credits, that’s not the problem,” she said. “The problem is there’s no pathways. There’s no opportunity and choice for children. There’s no here’s what you need to be working and to go off and be what you want to be.”
And she said there’s too much focus on A-F grading. Her office is working on developing a new model that she said would focus on student accountability.
“I’m not a fan of A-F grading,” she said. “I’m all about accountability to the individual student.
“But labeling is a whole different thing. When we put a grade level on the schools … it’s the students that we label.”
For the last 10 years, she said, teachers have been taught to teach to ISTEP testing and that’s shaped school curriculum.
“What’s happening now is we have a pass/fail test,” Ritz added. “When they don’t pass it, then we remediate the student to pass the test.
“Growth measure assessments are what we need to have in place. So we actually know you have a student ready for algebra in fifth grade.”
Ritz said she’s hopeful the state will transform from pass/fail beginning in 2016 and for the first time, data will follow students.
Shon Byrum, a Winchester resident who has announced he will run for a place on the Democratic ticket for the House of Representatives District 33 seat in 2014, asked how he can keep the young teachers he works with excited about teaching, despite all the standards they face.
“First of all, I hope you tell them we’re working on relieving the stress. It takes me at least a couple of years,” Ritz said.
“Our standards in the state of Indiana have become our curriculum. There’s nothing more boring.”
Ritz said her office is currently struggling with the Center for Education and Curriculum Renovation, a department created through an executive order by Gov. Mike Pence.
“I can tell you … what you’ve seen in the news is absolutely true,” she said. “Systematically, that department is working on taking over the Department of Education.”
She said it’s important for voters to know there are two education departments in the Hoosier state when there should only be one.
“There’s only one person that’s been elected to actually oversee it, but on a very regular basis that agency oversees mine,” she said. “I have a lot of conflict going on with that agency. What I don’t have is any problem servicing the students and the schools.”
She said she plans to keep fighting for teachers and students throughout the state, she said.
“All those things I told you about are moving forward,” said Ritz. “I won’t let anything get in the way of servicing our students and servicing our schools.”

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