students

Historical sites and other school field trip hotspots are offering more virtual resources for teachers to use during the pandemic, and organizers say virtual offerings developed this year are likely to stick around.

Ivy Tech is launching what may be the country’s first commercial driver’s license program, comprised of academic and practical coursework, where students can use federal student loans to pay for it.

The Indiana State Board of Education is seeking public comment on proposed changes to the way the state calculates school letter grades. 

Schools have reported more COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, at the same time Indiana is seeing a spike in cases statewide. 

On a recent morning at Indianapolis' Wayne Township at Chapelwood Elementary, insects chirped and rain fell lightly as the first buses arrived around 7:15 a.m. Staff lined up students on the sidewalk by grade as they came off each bus.

A few Indiana school districts returned to in-person learning Wednesday for the first time since the start of the pandemic and some teachers say, despite precautions, it may not be enough to keep them and their students safe from COVID-19.

The pandemic forced schools to find new ways to get free meals to students, many of whom depend on them for nutrition. Statewide, nearly half of all students qualify for free or reduced price meals.

Connie Kristelli has been a food service supervisor at Indianapolis Public Schools for more than 30 years. She is one of many staffers who helped Indianapolis Public Schools serve more 242,000 meals for anyone 18 years old or younger since school buildings closed.

Many closed schools are adapting lessons to continue online or with other take-home materials, but one expert says expecting all students to keep learning at the same pace from home can widen existing equity gaps in education.

With planned spring breaks and new COVID-19 related closures, Hoosier students will be out of class for six weeks or more. Many districts are using paper packets and e-learning days to help fill the time and continue student learning. 

Indiana’s state tests have changed half a dozen times for students in the past decade, and with so much on the line, teachers, schools – and families – are trying to keep up.

More districts are hiring law enforcement to increase security in schools and can use state funding to do so, but lawmakers are debating what sort of training officers need before working around students. 

Indiana requires school resource officers (SROs), to have 40 hours of specific training, but director of the Indiana School Resource Officers Association, Chase Lyday, says not every law enforcement officer in schools has had it. 

The number of homeless students enrolled in Hoosier schools nearly doubled between 2008 and 2018.

According to state data, Indiana had more than 16,300 homeless students enrolled in schools last year, compared to just over 8,900 in 2008. 

Fort Wayne Community Schools has the highest student enrollment in the state overall, and the second largest population of homeless students. 

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court heard arguments in multiple cases of employee LGBTQ discrimination, and advocates for the community in Indiana say the stakes for young people are as high as ever. 

Young people in Indiana and across the globe will rally for action against climate change on Friday. But how effective are things like marches and protests?

Research from Indiana University shows they may change people’s attitudes about the climate movement. 

IU environmental communications scientist Nathan Geiger was part of a team that surveyed people who watched the March for Science and the People’s Climate March.

He says before the marches, bystanders were skeptical that people could come together to work on big problems like climate change.

Educators are pressing for an overhaul of the state’s school accountability system after a reported drop in student achievement on the state’s new ILEARN exam – including the state’s top education official.

They’re worried about low ILEARN scores this year and how they could affect Indiana’s schools. Test scores play a key role in how schools and teachers are evaluated.

Fourth graders from the Concord school district launched a weather balloon Wednesday morning so teachers in other districts can recreate the same experiment in their classrooms. 

Students learned about the atmosphere, weather patterns, and math for three months in preparation for the launch.

For the first time, self-driving karts got a chance to race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as part of the lead up to the Indianapolis 500.

As IndyCar drivers prepare for the Indy 500, another race took to an infield track. The EV Grand Prix brings high school and college students from around the world to Indianapolis to race electric powered karts.

Student-led gun control organizations like We Live Indy and Students Demand Action gathered at the Statehouse Saturday.

Hundreds of school professionals met in Bloomington this week to focus on how they educate children – including their emotional and social needs – and organizers say the efforts could help Indiana make progress on key education issues.