Indianapolis Public Schools paid a charter school company management fees and start-up costs and will continue making payments into mid-2020.

School 103 on the Far Eastside was the first failing IPS school restarted under a controversial law allowing the district to partner with outside groups to independently run a school. Only 4.6 percent of students passed both portions of ISTEP exam in 2016 -- a five point drop from when when IPS ran the school.

Indianapolis Public Schools saw drops in ISTEP scores at the vast majority of schools. Scores fell across the state, but the situation was worse in IPS, where the passing rate went down by 4 percentage points to 25.3 percent in 2016.

The state Board of Education has scheduled five public hearings for schools in Indianapolis, Gary, East Chicago and Evansville that have been placed in the lowest category of school improvement for five straight years.

Members of the Indiana board of education say leaders of Thea Bowman Academy followed all the state requirements to seek a new sponsor and were not “authorizer shopping” as they fought to stay open beyond this month. The board voted Wednesday to approve an authorizer associated with a private university to be the new sponsor of the Gary school.

The fate of Gary’s Thea Bowman Leadership Academy is in flux after the Indiana Charter School Board Tuesday voted down its change of sponsor request.

Thea Bowman Leadership Academy in Gary is seeking a second chance from Indiana Charter Board after Ball State University declined to renew its charter over long-standing governance concerns. Two Indiana laws intended to prevent failing charter schools from escaping closure or accountability through finding another sponsor could now face their first test.

Two Indianapolis public elementary schools could be managed by private charter companies starting this fall in a proposal that mirrors the restart of a Fareastside school last year.

The Indianapolis Public Schools Board has approved an “innovation and autonomy framework” that will completely reshape the operations of all schools starting next year by decentralizing power. IPS Superintendent Lewis Ferebee has characterized it as “reinventing” the district.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is making a stop at Purdue University in West Lafayette and Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis today as part of the department's sixth annual back-to-school bus tour. WFYI Public Media spoke with Duncan in advance about some local and state issues.