The Indianapolis Public Schools district will target over 1,400 students who have been held back twice before the 8th grade by placing them in separate classes with specially trained teachers at a few schools. This group makes up over 4% of the district's students. Getting these far behind students caught up is seen as critical to improving the district's success on test scores and reducing dropout rates.

1. IPS to cluster kids who have been held back: 1,400 students who have repe... Page 1 of 3
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IPS to cluster kids who have been held back:
1,400 students who have repeated grades
twice will get special teachers and extra help
to catch up to peers
Gammill, Andy.Indianapolis Star [Indianapolis, Ind] 07 Feb 2008: A.1.
Abstract (summary)
Because No Child Left Behind requires an increasing percentage of students to pass state
tests, schools with high numbers of students not performing at their grade level will fare
poorly.
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Indianapolis Public Schools will target its toughest academic cases next year: the more
than 1,400 students who have been held back at least twice before eighth grade.
They make up more than 4 percent of the district's 36,000 students. In third grade alone,
226 IPS students have fallen at least two grades behind. By seventh grade, that balloons
to 435, one in six districtwide.
Officials have started to assign all of them to separate classes at four sites for fifth-
through seventh-graders and to more locations for struggling younger students.
"We cannot reduce our dropouts in middle school and high school -- we've got to start
early," said Assistant Superintendent Li-Yen Johnson. "When they cross that second-grade
threshold and they cannot read, they've already started on the downward trend of being a
dropout."
Getting these students caught up is critical to the district's success, said Superintendent
Eugene White. The problem surfaced as part of his ongoing effort to spotlight key
weaknesses in the district that need to be fixed.
Children are going to start with blank slates, he said, and teachers are going to provide
basic instruction and build from there.
"I believe in three years of doing this for our children, we're going to turn this district
around," White said. "We're going to assume they don't read well and don't do math well."
The students in the program will be assigned to one school and will attend that school no
matter where their family moves within the district. Older students would be together in
the same classes at Arlington, Howe, Marshall and Washington Community schools.
IPS hopes that will eliminate the shame of, for example, 13-year-old fifth-graders by
moving them into a school with students their own age.
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2. IPS to cluster kids who have been held back: 1,400 students who have repe... Page 2 of 3
Those students will have a teacher trained to work with struggling students and will have
more staff to support them, including aides, therapists and counselors.
IPS officials are creating their own system for handling the problem rather than trying to
copy a program developed in another district.
But there is a downside: Those schools where the struggling students are clustered will
likely be unable to make adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind
Act.
Because No Child Left Behind requires an increasing percentage of students to pass state
tests, schools with high numbers of students not performing at their grade level will fare
poorly. Schools that miss that benchmark are usually shut down or must be restructured.
And it could cost $1 million to set up the program while IPS is trying to cut money from its
budget to offer raises to staff. Another round of budget cuts is looming as property tax
caps limit the district's revenue starting next year.
The district plans to pay for portions of the program with federal Title I money, said
Minetta Richardson. She is the district's director of Title I, a federal program that provides
money to help struggling students.
That money will be used to add about 90 minutes to the school day for the children, she
said, so they could get additional instruction in the most important subjects.
School Board President Mary E. Busch said board members were surprised to see so many
students had fallen so far behind but have voiced support for a program to help those
students at special sites with children their own ages.
"Without a doubt, we should see increased graduation rates, decrease in the dropout rate,
getting our students more excited about learning," she said. "When they're sitting in that
classroom and they know they're not keeping up with others, that diminishes their self-
esteem."
The district, Busch said, will have to take the hit financially and in the annual ratings of
failing schools because the students who are lagging deserve the help.
"We'll do what we have to do," she said. "We've got to save our young people. We've got
to save them."
Call Star reporter Andy Gammill at (317) 444-6494.
______________________________________________
1 in 6 -- Number of seventh-graders held back two or more grades.
$1 million -- Cost to start a program to get struggling students caught up.
One school -- The plan would assign students who've fallen behind to one of several
schools, regardless of where they live, that will have special classes for them.
-- Andy Gammill
Copyright 2008 - Indianapolis Star - All Rights Reverved
Indexing (details)
Subject: Secondary school students;
No Child Left Behind Act 2001-US;
School dropout programs
Title: IPS to cluster kids who have been held
back: 1,400 students who have repeated grades
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3. IPS to cluster kids who have been held back: 1,400 students who have repe... Page 3 of 3
twice will get special teachers and extra help to
catch up to peers
Author: Gammill, Andy
Publication title: Indianapolis Star
Pages: A.1
Publication year: 2008
Publication date: Feb 7, 2008
Year: 2008
Section: NEWS
Publisher: Gannett Co., Inc.
Place of publication: Indianapolis, Ind.
Country of publication: United States
ISSN: 19302533
Source type: Newspapers
Language of English
publication:
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID:240940568
Document URL: http://search.proquest.com/docview/240940568?
accountid=46127
Copyright: Copyright 2008 - Indianapolis Star - All Rights
Reverved
Last updated: 2010-06-11
Database: Indianapolis Star
Copyright© 2012 ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. Terms and Conditions
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