Wilson: Meet 3 Indianapolis Charter School Networks That Are All In on Virtual Learning
An earlier version of this article was originally published on the CRPE blog.
Three highly respected school networks in Indianapolis seamlessly transitioned to virtual learning.
At Purdue Polytechnic High School, which has two campuses and enrolls 442 students, remote learning began on Monday, March 16, following the city-wide school closures on the previous Friday. By Tuesday, March 17, 95 percent of Purdue’s North Campus students were attending virtually, slightly surpassing the school’s average daily attendance.
Last year, Purdue students, of whom 65 percent are children of color and over 50 percent come from low-income households, outperformed students statewide on Indiana’s ISTEP high school assessment. They also surpassed their district peers, with nearly twice as many students passing both the math and English Language Arts components.
When the crisis hit, there was no need to reinvent the wheel. At Purdue, a charter school that emphasizes project-based and experiential learning, students were already familiar with working on their individual laptops. Instead of physically gathering each morning in their "personal learning communities," they simply logged into Google Hangouts for a video meeting with their classmates. To maintain a sense of community, students gave virtual tours of their home environments. Throughout the day, students continued to collaborate in small groups through video conferencing as they tackled their fifth major project of the year. Sophomores, for example, are collaborating with Eli Lilly staff to address a specific problem related to expanding the healthy human life cycle worldwide. Upon project completion, they will be assessed on three key academic and professional skills.
Students are still mastering academic content aligned with state standards using Edmentum, an online learning platform. They watch instructional videos and complete online assessments to demonstrate their understanding. Academic interventions now take place in small groups on Web Whiteboard, and every student receives one-on-one coaching at least once a week. The school continues to provide individual and group counseling and is partnering with external providers to ensure students receive necessary services. Even the school nurse has transitioned to online consultations and offers virtual yoga classes to students experiencing anxiety. Despite legal uncertainties surrounding special education compliance and virtual schooling, Scott Bess, the head of school, remains determined to provide education and maintains close communication with parents to minimize any risks.
Surprisingly, connectivity was hardly a challenge. Only a few students required assistance in accessing discounted internet connections, and the school furnished a handful with mobile hotspots.
At Paramount Schools of Excellence, which operates three charter schools serving approximately 1,000 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, distance learning was also implemented on Monday. Eighty-three percent of students come from low-income households. Paramount Community Heights, the flagship school, achieved the highest scores in the state last year. According to Tommy Reddicks, Paramount’s CEO, the network began intensive preparations for the pandemic as early as February. "Every teacher understood that this situation might arise. We wanted to be the best in the country at handling it," Reddicks said.
He attributes the successful launch of distance learning to the network’s commitment to well-established systems. "We are entirely dedicated to systems-based and standards-based education, incorporating rigor," he explained. "To safeguard our investment, we prioritized being prepared for a smooth transition." Thanks to the implementation of digital testing in the state a few years ago, the school already had a device for each student. Each school also established a comprehensive call center to address parents’ concerns, including technical support, translation services, academic needs, and non-academic needs such as childcare.
The schools follow a schedule from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., which is nearly the same as before. The day begins with two hours of synchronous instruction, during which parents and students can engage through chat. Pearson online products continue to be utilized for math and reading, allowing teachers to monitor students’ progress throughout the day. Reddicks acknowledges that remote learning is more challenging for K-2 students. Currently, the school is providing physical packets of materials that students can pick up and return later in the week.
Reddicks acknowledged that it would not be feasible to provide eight hours of instruction per day. However, he emphasized the importance of gradually increasing parental involvement and support. He compared their role to that of parent coaches, helping to address specific challenges and find solutions that work. Reddicks strongly criticized those who use legal obstacles as an excuse to neglect the education of students. He believed that this approach was ethically unacceptable and urged for action, stating that doing nothing would be far worse than implementing virtual education. He emphasized that they cannot be responsible for holding students back from progressing in life.
Indianapolis Classical Schools operates two high schools, Herron and Riverside, which offer a classical liberal arts education to a diverse student body of 1,298 students. As "innovation schools," which are a form of in-district charter schools, both institutions quickly transitioned to e-learning on Monday. In 2018, Herron was ranked as the second best public high school in Indiana by U.S. News and World Report. The student body at Herron consists of approximately equal proportions of students of color and white students.
Students access Haiku, a digital learning platform, and engage in online office hours with their teachers through video calls. Parents and students receive automated text messages on a daily basis to track completion of assignments. I spoke with Ashantea Gilliard, a 12th-grade student who will attend the University of Evansville next year, about her initial experience with remote learning. She admitted that it has been emotionally challenging and that she has struggled to find motivation. However, she emphasized her determination to graduate. Due to a class trip to Taipei last November, she has fallen behind in her Latin and English work. She expressed feelings of isolation and missing the vibrant personalities of her classmates. Some students have created group chats to collaborate on assignments. Despite a recent COVID-19 diagnosis of an athletic coach, the school community continues to persevere.
As the pandemic progresses, the existing disparities in educational quality across schools in the United States may become even more pronounced. Schools like Purdue, Paramount, and Indianapolis Classical, which are dedicated to achieving results and driven by a can-do attitude, will actively strive to maintain their students’ education. These schools benefit from a clear vision, established rituals and traditions, well-developed systems and structures, and the enthusiastic support of staff and parents. In contrast, schools lacking these resources may hesitate and struggle to provide a coherent online education, hindered by legal and compliance concerns. The outcome in such cases remains uncertain.
Steven Wilson, a senior fellow at the Center on Reinventing Public Education and the founder of Ascend Learning, a network of tuition-free, liberal arts charter schools in New York City, expresses these views.