It's do-or-die time for some Hoosier schools:
Eighteen Indiana schools, including two in Fort Wayne, have a lot riding on statewide test scores that will be released this summer. If the schools fail again — marking a sixth consecutive year of being on academic probation — the state could turn them over to private companies charged with spurring improvement.
School leaders, teachers, parents and students are sticking up for their local schools at public hearings around the state, saying they want to retain control and that they know better than anyone what their districts need to succeed.
South Side and North Side high schools in Fort Wayne Community Schools are on the list. Harding High School can avoid state takeover after East Allen County Schools decided to close it after this school year and reopen it as a college and career academy in 2012. No current students can return to Harding.
The fact that many are "sticking up for their local schools at public hearings" is important. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett says his preference "is not necessarily turning the schools over to private management companies" and that he hopes"the local school community, in concert with the local school corporation, comes together and takes the necessary steps to right the ship themselves." That sounds about right. The best outcome was always thought to be the threat spurring corrective action, not the threat actually being carried out.
So many of struggling schools' problems come from struggling students whose parents aren't involved in their children's education, and so many of the extraordinary measures being taken these days seem designed to compensate for that lack. If these threats light a fire under the parents, there might be hope. If not, it's hard to believe that a private management company can overcome parental neglect any better than a public school can.
