News From Terre Haute, Indiana

Local & Bistate

Discussion

Welcome to our online comments feature. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including unpopular ones. We ask only that you keep the conversation civil and clean. We reserve the right to remove comments that are obscene, racist or abusive and statements that are false or unverifiable as well as posts that are attacking other users. Repeat offenders will be blocked. You may flag objectionable comments for review by a moderator.
comments powered by Disqus
December 17, 2012

Puttin’ on the Ritz

New state schools chief finds allies in GOP legislators

Maureen Hayden CNHI

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana’s new schools superintendent, Glenda Ritz, is making some allies in the Statehouse: Republican legislators who pushed the education-reform laws that triggered a wave of voter discontent that carried the Democrat Ritz into her new job.

Those alliances could lead to some changes in how some of the laws, aimed at boosting teacher accountability and increasing student achievement, are being implemented.

A hint of what those changes may be came last week, at a legislative preview conference where Ritz shared a microphone — and some common ground — with a would-be adversary, Republican state Senate Education Committee chairman Dennis Kruse.

Both said the new A-to-F grading system for schools has been a failure. Both are critical of a high-stakes teacher-evaluation tool that ties teacher pay to student test scores. And both want the state to commit to fully funding full-day kindergarten before its starts doling out dollars for pre-kindergarten programs.

And both, despite their significant differences on some major issues — including the private-school vouchers and the expansion of charter schools that Kruse favors — have pledged to work together to get some things done.

“I’ve never, ever asked, in any position that I’ve served in leadership in, anybody’s political party and I don’t intend to pay that attention to that now,” said Ritz, the only Democrat elected to statewide office in November.  

“I’m going to talk to whomever I need to talk to, to be sure I have what I need to get things done,” she added.

Ritz, 60, is a longtime classroom teacher who likes to say she’s “an educator, not a politician.”

It’s true she’d never run for office before this year, when she switched political parties to take on the current superintendent of public instruction, Republican Tony Bennett.

(Bennett, who lost the November race, was appointed head of the Florida schools system last week.)

But Ritz is practicing some good politics in forging relationships with some key Republicans; it’s their party that holds super-majority control of both the state House and Senate.

“She understands that if she takes an adversarial approach, she’ll get nothing,” said Kruse.

Republican state Sen. Luke Kenley, an education-reform advocate and head of the Senate appropriations committee, said his initial skepticism of Ritz changed after spending a couple of hours with her, talking details of education policy.

“She clearly knows what the issues are,” Kenley said. “I suggested there would be a number of things she would probably be in favor of, that we could advance.”

Among them: re-examining how teachers are being evaluated because of a law that ties teacher pay and tenure to student achievement. “We’re both very concerned that we find the right kind of model that helps build good teachers,” Kenley said.

Ritz won her election by getting 1.3 million votes, winning more votes than Republican Gov.-elect Mike Pence did.  

While some Democrats and teacher-union leaders claimed her victory was a wholesale rejection by voters of the sweeping changes made in K-12 schools in recent years, she doesn’t see it that way.

“There are many things that are already in law that I don’t have a problem with.” said Ritz. “It’s the implementation of the laws that perhaps has had the negative effects on classrooms and schools and the school systems in our state.”

Kruse, Kenley and other GOP legislators have already promised they’ll take a look at how to reshape the new A-to-F grading system for schools, which caused significant consternation when they were released in October.

The system, based on a complicated formula that uses test scores and a “growth model” that compares academic peers, came out of a new law that was intended to give parents a clear look at how their child’s school was performing.

But how those grades were configured instead was confusing, Kruse said. “The formula was so complex that even Ph.D.s in education can’t understand it.”

Officially, Ritz doesn’t take office until January. But she’s already working overtime with a transition team to craft potential legislation, hire top staff, and, she said, dispel some the misconceptions that legislators may have of her.

“I think there is a perception, perhaps, of me being opposed to everything that was passed and that’s just not true. I mean, it’s just not true,” said Ritz.

“It’s the implementation of those laws that has been my focus,” she said. “I want to see a different pathway to implementing those laws.”



Maureen Hayden covers the Statehouse for CNHI newspapers, which is the Tribune-Star’s parent company. She can be reached at maureen.hayden@indianamediagroup.com.

 

Text Only | Photo Reprints
Local & Bistate
Latest News
Community Calendar
Loading…
Events by eviesays.com
TribStar.com Poll
AP Video
Tiger on Sergio: 'It's Time to Move On' RAW: NSA Director Says 50 Plots Foiled Rain Damages Brazil Soccer Stadium Ex-NFL Star Chad Johnson Out of Jail Hoffa Mystery Still Fascinates After 4 Decades Raw: NASCAR Driver Jason Leffler Dies in Wreck Robot Action Connected to Human Thought 3 Charged in Ohio With Enslaving Mom, Daughter Raw: Huge Fire Near Yosemite National Park Falling Cable Hurts 10 NASCAR Fans NYC 911 Call Lasts for 8 Hours Raw: 1 Dead in Shooting at Mo. Apartment Complex Raw: Marines Land Osprey on Japanese Ship Raw: Volcano Erupts Near Mexico City California Cops Cruise on Stand-up Paddle Patrol Raw: First Lady, Daughters Enjoy Irish Sights Raw: Obama Arrives in Berlin Obama: NSA Secret Data Gathering 'Transparent' Boeing, Airbus Battle for Sales Supremacy Pa. Girl Who Took on Donor Rules Gets Lungs
NDN Video
Spurs' Popovich has no problem with Spurs' intensity Inside Kim Kardashian's Premature Labor Three Charged for Enslaving Mother and Daughter Raw: Huge Fire Near Yosemite National Park RAW: NSA Director Says 50 Plots Foiled Paige Butcher Scorches on Hawaii Beach Video: worst way to load cargo onto a plane Never-before-seen footage of '08 Times Square bomber Obama: NSA Secret Data Gathering 'Transparent' WATCH IT: Lil Wayne tramples American flag Mariah Carey Looks Beautiful in a Tiny Cut-Out Swimsuit Out of Control Boat Throws Passengers Overboard See Lindsay Lohan in Rehab Sofia Vergara Posts Perky Backside Pic in Thong Gaga Ditches Her Crazy Couture Caught on Tape: Teacher Accused of Beating Autistic Child "Stay Classy" Campaign Aims to Curb Binge Drinking Sesame Street Tackling Tough Topic Parents in Jail Miss Utah Fumbles Interview Question Deranged man claims Newark-bound flight was poisoned
Parade
Magazine
Click HERE to read all your Parade favorites including Hollywood Wire, Celebrity interviews and photo galleries, Food recipes and cooking tips, Games and lots more.
  • -

     

    March 12, 2010

activity
Real Estate News