INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -
Democrat state schools Superintendent Glenda Ritz has been at the middle of
Indiana’s education policy fights over the past four years, frequently at
odds with Republicans who control the rest of state government and have
extended school overhaul measures and pushed to limit her authority.
Her challenger in
the November election, Republican Jennifer McCormick, is critical of Ritz’s
management of the state Department of Education. McCormick, who has been the
superintendent of the Yorktown Community Schools near Muncie since 2010,
argues that she would be better able to work with the General Assembly and
school leaders.
The race has
garnered little attention during the year’s campaign season, but the winner
will have a role in major education matters: the replacement of the
much-maligned ISTEP statewide standardized test, the push to expand
state-funded preschool programs and possible changes to the A-F school
ratings system.
Ritz - the only
Democrat among Indiana’s elected state officeholders - was a little-known
suburban Indianapolis school librarian before upsetting Republican
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett in 2012. Her win was
driven by teachers’ anger over education changes, such as the state’s
private school voucher program pushed by Bennett under then-Gov. Mitch
Daniels.
Much of the support
for Ritz’s campaign has come from the state’s largest teachers unions.
McCormick, who has also been an elementary school principal, an English
teacher and in special education, has received large campaign contributions
from several groups and individuals who supported Bennett’s 2012 campaign.
A major issue the
schools superintendent will face is negotiating with lawmakers next year on
a new standardized exam. A state committee has made little progress toward
recommending a replacement for the ISTEP test, which is taken by more than
400,000 students. Parents and teachers blasted the exam last year after
testing time jumped by several hours. The test had been redesigned to meet
new state standards after Republican legislators and GOP Gov. Mike Pence
withdrew Indiana from the national Common Core math and English standards in
2014.
Ritz has long
called for scrapping the single pass/fail ISTEP test, but her ideas didn’t
gain traction with the Republican-dominated Legislature until after the 2015
uproar. Now, she wants shorter tests that are given three times a year; the
exam is now given during a spring testing period.
“When standards
were changed by the state of Indiana, I implemented those,” Ritz said. “So
we’ve had very short turnaround times for a lot of change.”
McCormick also
wants the test to take less time and proposes that state testing be limited
to 1 percent of total instructional time during a school year.
McCormick said
Indiana’s Department of Education contributed to the ISTEP troubles by often
failing to provide clear directions to schools on administering the test and
not adequately overseeing the company hired to produce and grade the exam.
“There’s just been
a lot of frustration,” she said. “The last three years have been very
difficult with assessments.”
Ritz has clashed
frequently with Pence and his appointees who control the State Board of
Education. Republican legislators pushed through measures that shifted some
authority from her office to the education board and, starting in January,
will end a decades-old law that makes the state superintendent the board’s
automatic chairperson.
“I think the public
is pretty well-aware of Pence’s attacks on me,” Ritz said recently. “The
people wanted someone that was going to actually work with schools for
improvement on behalf of students. I feel strongly that was what I was hired
to do.”
McCormick said too
much political squabbling involving Ritz has hampered progress on many
issues. McCormick said she would repair relationships with legislative
leaders.
“For us to be a
state where it’s known across the nation that there’s a relational problem
is unacceptable,” McCormick said. “We have to have people who will work
together.”