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Image Info: Eric Weddle/WFYI
Do Innovation Schools Work?
February 20, 2020
Indianapolis Public Schools has a unique, complicated system in place designed to help them address underperforming schools. Since its adoption about five years ago, IPS’s so-called “innovation schools” have been a dramatic, controversial change for education in the city.
Some credit its innovative, competitive approach for turning schools around, and others view the experiment as yet another example of the dismantling of public education.
IPS recently announced it wants to turn two problematic schools into innovation restarts. We hear from some who support the system, some who don’t, and the person who leads it. And we’ll hear from the head of an innovation school from Purdue University.
Produced by Drew Daudelin.
Guests:
Eric Weddle
Education Reporter, WFYI
Brandon Brown
CEO, The Mind Trust
Christina Smith
Co-leader of IPS Community Coalition
Scott Bess
Head of Purdue Polytechnic High School
Jamie VanDeWalle
Chief Portfolio Officer, Indianapolis Public Schools