Indiana schools chief hopes to focus on approved initiatives

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The Indiana schools chief says she hopes state lawmakers take a break from passing new education initiatives in their upcoming session and focus instead on implementing significant policy shifts they've approved in recent years.

State schools Superintendent Jennifer McCormick said there's plenty of work to do in fulfilling lawmakers' goals, The (Northwest Indiana) Times reported. Those goals consist of changing high school graduation requirements, revising student testing, easing teacher licensing and acting on numerous other education issues.

"When you talk about diplomas and graduation pathways, those are big items that have a huge impact on millions of students for a long time," McCormick said.

McCormick said teachers are also becoming fatigued by constantly changing expectations, standards and requirements.

"I'm not a big fan of just mandating everything in education because we've been down that road and sometimes it doesn't go well," she said.

However, McCormick said she still has a policy list that she'd like legislators to review during the 10-week session that convenes in January. Those policies include requiring school attendance beginning at age 5 instead of 7; developing a "rigorous, equitable, manageable and understandable" school accountability system to replace the A-F letter grades currently employed; and providing schools in financial distress more flexibility to move money between funds.

McCormick said she hopes the overall goal for lawmakers next year will be to "create a rich, innovative and immersive educational environment that challenges our students to be successful lifelong learners."

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Information from: The Times, http://www.nwitimes.com