A group of Northwest Indiana school superintendents shared their concerns with state senators this summer. Last month, seven superintendents met with Senators Dan Dernulc (R-Highland), Rick Niemeyer (R-Lowell) and Jeff Raatz (R-Richmond), who chairs the Senate Education and Career Development Committee.
Lake Central Superintendent Dr. Larry Veracco says the meeting felt productive. "We had people who weren't pressed for time," Veracco told the Lake Central School Board on Monday. "They actually gave us two hours of uninterrupted time, which we certainly appreciate."
He said superintendents want lawmakers to add some flexibility to a third-grade reading retention law set to take effect next year. "We did have one child this year who was one point short after the summer administration of the [IREAD] test," Veracco said. "He was successful in his coursework during the school year. To us, it would be a shame to retain that child."
He said the superintendents agree with the senators that something has to be done to shore up reading skills, but they aren't sure that repeating the entire third grade based on a single test is the answer. "We don't make decisions on people in almost any walk of life on a one-day piece of data from one examination," Veracco added. "So we want to use multiple measures. There was some agreement with that, to an extent."
Veracco noted that another state requires monthly monitoring starting in kindergarten, so teachers have more time and data to address any reading issues.
He said he also called for more funding for support services — specifically, state funding for speech language pathologists isn't enough to cover the cost of paying them. "So we are supporting our speech program through our tuition support, and that includes not only the students who are getting speech services in our schools but also those in the parochial who we support," Veraccho explained.
Superintendents also shared concerns about the proposed high school redesign. Recently, many of the state's universities have also been weighing in, saying the proposed graduation requirements wouldn't meet their admission standards and could be confusing for students.
