As U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos visited Gary charter schools as part of a national tour earlier this month, she aimed to highlight creative ways they were preparing students for life after graduation.
During her time in Indiana, DeVos visited a hog roast and high school football back at a public high school in Hancock County. If invited, DeVos said, she would return to visit innovative programs at Northwest Indiana public schools.
The Post-Tribune spoke with multiple Northwest Indiana educators in public, private and charter schools to learn what message they would send to the U.S. Education Secretary.
All said they welcome DeVos to visit their schools.
‘We tap into their interests’
About half of the nearly 2,500 students that attend Griffith Public Schools qualify for free or reduced lunch, according to state figures.
“We are a high school, we are in an urban setting. If you look at the (those numbers), our schools should be failing, our kids should be failing,” Griffith Superintendent Peter Morikis said.
“Our kids perform well,” he said.
Part of the reason is the relationship principals look to develop with students to transform topics they want to learn into new classes and clubs, Morikis said.
For example, a few years ago, elementary school parents trained as engineers pushed for a robotics clubs. Eventually, it was added to the district’s curriculum.
At the high school, students interested in construction led to the addition of a trades class, Assistant Principal Delincia Smith said.
“We tap into their interests,” she said.
Last year, the high school also added a program where students can get food industry certification working inside its kitchen with its food services department.
Griffith is also building relationships with local businesses — including an auto body shop — to provide career education options in town.
It is a shift to years past when career education was more popular, Morikis said.
“Kids vote with their feet and that’s what we always say,” he said.
“If you are offering a class that is a dud and you have three kids that sign up for it,” Morikis said, “you need to cut (it) loose and figure out what else they want.”
“The last time I checked, public education serves the largest number of students and will continue to serve the largest number of students,” high school Principal Brian Orkis said. “That’s not going to change.”
“I think we are labeled as resistant to change and archaic, and I think that is a fallacy,” he said. “I think we do a very good job of changing with the times and accommodating kids’ needs.”
Morikis said he agreed with DeVos on the need for accountability and high standards.
“I believe every parent deserves to send their student to a high-performing school,” he said, “and that’s what we believe here at all of our schools.”
“Some of the criticism that public education is receiving, some of it is deserved,” Morikis said. “You have to own part of it. If you have not done well for your kids in your community, then you deserve to be held accountable for that.
“I have no problem with that, and I agree with her on that,” he said. “Hold us to high standards, but don’t hamstring us. Don’t restrict us. Give us all the same tools.”
Challenge ‘traditional ways of educating our students’
“Education today is more global and holistic and is no longer just about the ‘Three R’s.’ It is time for us to put aside any political, economic and cultural differences and realize that our future and that of our country lays in the hands of our children,” Joseph Majchrowicz, Diocese of Gary’s director of schools, said in an email.
Majchrowicz noted Bishop Noll Institute in Hammond offered STEM classes, math outreach programs in elementary schools. Andrean High School in Merrillville continues to maintain excellent academic ratings by the state.
“Overall, we have highly effective Catholic schools that challenge the traditional ways of educating our students,” he said.
Education policy ‘needs to be valid for all schools’
Hammond Academy of Science and Technology Principal Sean Egan said he would welcome a DeVos visit to his school.
At the Hammond charter school, he would show her the work pushing project-based learning, teamwork and other creative teaching strategies, he said.
“Absolutely, we’re just stupid not to want to work with her,” he said. “Do I agree with her stances … yes and no. She’s a hard sell.”
But, her policy focus “needs to be valid for all schools.”
The school aims to provide a better environment for students with teacher stability, smaller class sizes, a culture of respect and inclusion, he said.
At some public schools, “I do feel that’s often the case,” he said, that some take a “cookie cutter” approach to educating students.
Culturally, working at a charter has meant a more flexible staff environment and the ability to fire ineffective teachers more easily, he said.
“I give my teachers 150 percent free range” to be creative and energetic in the classroom, he said.
The best approach to educating students is holistic, Egan said. Aside from DeVos’ charter school advocacy, he admitted another part of the friction between DeVos and public education advocates is that she is regarded as an outsider, he said.
DeVos “really needs to prove … to the public education (community) of this state that she knows what they are living and supports them,” he said.
Inertia ‘doesn’t apply to all public schools’
Valparaiso Superintendent Ric Frataccia said he would invite DeVos to come to his schools, meet with individual students and the town’s chamber of commerce.
Eying innovation, the district is building a new technology wing at its high school and has introduced biomedical, robotics, architecture planning and pre-engineering classes in recent years, he said.
Its career center is also working on doubling the number of students that can attend advanced manufacturing classes, he said.
“I think there are a lot of folks that talk about public education, they don’t know what they are talking about,” he said. “They have bought into a narrative.”
“If she is going to lead the education system in the United States, she should probably be more careful with specifics” toward that end, Frataccia said.
Public schools compete, and often they compete with each other for students, he said. Within public schools, he was an advocate for accountability and competing against charter schools with high academic standards, he said.
“I am an accountability advocate,” he said. “I am a competition advocate. I don’t dislike charter schools just because they are charter schools.”
“One of those things that we are able to do as public schools is take all of those kids and move them forward,” he said. “We expect them all to move.”
Twitter @meredithcolias
