State Superintendent talks 2018 education priorities

NOW: State Superintendent talks 2018 education priorities
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“Basically the site that we’re using is scratch, you can go through emotions, looks and whatever you want to add,” said one student at Riverside Intermediate in Plymouth.

When you think of coding, you think of video games and special effects, but according to students at Riverside Intermediate, you can now think of them too.

“You know you have to come in Plymouth because it does take courage to say we’re going to do this and we’re going to do it at a younger level,” said McCormick.

And Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Jennifer McCormick says it’s a key representation of what she hopes to see across the state as a result of the Indiana Department of Public Education’s Strategic Policy Priorities which were released just last week for 2018.

“We have the STEM plan coming together, we have the governors work force coming together in the calendar year 2018, we have our legislative priority laid out,” said McCormick.

McCormick made the stop Monday afternoon in the Riverside classrooms to see some of those priorities come to light.

“We have a 7th grader from Lincoln and we have an 8th grader who has been with us.. this is her 3rd year,” said a teacher there.

Steps McCormick says are vital.

“Opportunities for students that you just heard about, they’re critical, not just to our individual state but to the individual student,” said McCormick.

In the new strategic policy priorities, there were three main factors McCormick says she and other state educators came up with.

“The govern and structure in Indiana is kind of different from what we’re finding in many states and so we laid it out to say these are our priorities, where they fall may differ,” said McCormick.

McCormick says most of it fell into the student arena which is where their commitment lies. The second priority, school improvement.

“We know that’s a huge area we need some attention on and for those who are identified as comprehensive or targeted, we need to have those resources flow in that direction to improve them,” said McCormick.

Third on that list was operational effectiveness which would provide essential support to individual districts across the state when reporting concerns and a plan to implement each one starting next year.

“If we don’t do that right and do that well it doesn’t matter what you do as a department so we have some areas we still need to grow and redefine so that we make things more efficient and make life easier in the schools. We’re hoping you’ll see some movement in the calendar year ’18 but we have some work to do,” said McCormick.

McCormick says she’s met with hundreds of Hoosiers over the last year to learn what needs must be met. For more details on these priorities click here.

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