Rebuilding Stronger

In last year’s State of the District, IPS Superintendent Dr. Aleesia Johnson kicked off a yearlong community engagement process to re-envision Indianapolis Public Schools through an initiative called Rebuilding Stronger. As she said then, “Our vision for IPS is clear — a sustainable district that serves all our students with excellence, warmth, support and love, and that lets children and families choose their own future rather than deciding their path for them.” She also made clear, “We need to develop these solutions together. We can do anything, but we can’t do everything — we need to build the plan around what the community values most.” 

Community Engagement 

Since last fall, we’ve engaged in more than 50 community meetings (both virtual and in person) with nearly 2,000 attendees. We also sent tens of thousands of invitations, emails, calls and text messages about community meetings, and received more than 2,000 responses to our surveys. 

Throughout this work, we heard a clear message again and again: IPS must provide every child in Indianapolis with what it takes to grow and succeed. In these discussions, we heard that this must include: 

(1) Offering excellent, more equitable choices for learning, including academics, athletics, and arts, that are accessible to more students.

(2) Providing supports that value every child as a whole child with a full range of human needs, not just an academic learner.

(3) Ensuring warm, safe, well-kept buildings that promote learning, including inviting outdoor spaces.

The Challenges

The hard truth is that student experiences in IPS have been divided between Choice schools — which often offer more challenging classes and the experiences described above — and neighborhood schools, which haven’t always had the same offerings. Today, race, income, and neighborhood predict far too strongly who enrolls in a Choice school. We also know that for so many children, it’s the arts, or music, or team sports that draw them into school and learning — yet at many of our schools, a child might have only one of those options. Rebuilding Stronger must address our biggest challenges that contribute to these inequitable opportunities and outcomes, including: 

• Academic Achievement: Academic excellence exists within our schools, but it’s far from universal.  
• Student Experience: Larger schools tend to have more enrichment offerings while smaller schools have fewer because their resources are focused on essential staffing needs.
• Enrollment: Our current enrollment practices have led to some schools achieving more enrollment stability than others.
• Facilities: We have too many buildings and many are in poor condition. 
• Finances: Our current mix of buildings and programs does not allow for strategic use of resources.

To ensure vision attainment, we must:

• Ensure equitable geographic distribution of high performing & high demand programming.
• Grow and replicate schools/programs with demonstrated academic success in supporting all students to both improve under-performing schools and explicitly close the opportunity gap for students of color.
• Ensure students have access to high-quality and rigorous curriculum and instruction, and co-curricular, athletic and enrichment environments.
• Address inequities that may exist in the school proximity boundary policy.
• Create conditions that stabilize student populations at individual schools thereby decreasing student mobility.
• Stabilize the IPS student population by ensuring successful grade level transitions as they move into Middle and High School.
• Foster learning models and partnerships that establish welcoming school environments for non-English-speaking communities.
• Ensure safe passage to school – whether by bus, vehicle or by foot – by leveraging the talent and resources of government, public- private partnerships, and nonprofits.
• Consider the long-term financial stability of IPS and ensure that any significant school changes (replications, closures, consolidations, new construction) are planned and implemented in a way that acknowledges community and neighborhood dynamics.
• Ensure facilities are high quality and inspiring for our students, and that unused facilities have a robust plan for reuse.