Public schools rule on graduation rates

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From an Indiana Capital Chronicle article on the state’s 2025 high school graduation rates, released Monday by the Indiana Department of Education:

“Non-public schools outperformed their public counterparts by about 1 percentage point — 93% versus 92% — but the differences between traditional public and public charter schools were not reported. In the 2024 results, about 93% of students at traditional public schools graduated as opposed to just 59% of students at public charter schools (emphasis added).”

Why weren’t the differences between charter and traditional public schools reported? It’s probably because the charter school numbers, as historically compiled, are misleading. They include over two dozen adult high schools, designed for adults who have dropped out and want to complete credits at their own pace. Those schools, most of them Excel Centers operated by Goodwill Industries, have low graduation rates for obvious reasons.

If you did report the difference, here’s what the results would be for 2025:

  • Private schools, 93.1%
  • Traditional public schools, 93.9%
  • Charter schools, 64.1%

Note that public schools (not including charter schools) had a higher graduation rate than private schools in Indiana. Let’s say that again: Traditional public schools appear to do a better job of graduating their students than private schools.

What if we separate adult high schools when calculating a graduation rate for charter schools? That’s easy enough to do. Here are the results:

  • Adult high schools: 19%
  • Other charter schools: 79.1%

Put another way, if charter schools (not including adult high schools) were a separate school corporation, its graduation rate would outrank only 10 of Indiana’s 290 school districts: Gary, some small rural districts and some districts that primarily enroll online students.

Good news overall

As the Indiana Department of Education boasted in a news release, the statewide 2025 graduation rate set an all-time state record That’s good news no matter how you slice it. But the news is even better than that.

The statewide graduation rate for students in all schools was 91.8%, an increase of 1.6 percentage points over the class of 2024. But rates improved even more for several groups of students that have traditionally fallen behind.

  • Black students, 86.9%, up 3 percentage points.
  • Hispanic students, 89.8%, up 2 points.
  • English learners, 92.4%, up 2.9 points.
  • Students in special education, 88.1%, up 2.75 points.
  • Students who qualify for free or reduced meals, 93.3%, up 1.8 points.

Asian and white students still graduate at higher rates, but the gaps have narrowed.

What about IPS?

Indianapolis Public Schools always gets extra scrutiny from pundits and policymakers. The district supposedly spends too much money, it loses too many students to private and charter schools, its students don’t do well on state tests, etc., etc.

But look at its graduation rates. They have increased by nearly 20 percentage points since 2020. More than half that growth has been in the past two years.

Go back a little further and the IPS graduation rate was much worse. In 2008, it was 46%, according to news reports at the time. Federal date from 2004, cited by an advocacy group founded by former Secretary of State Colin Powell, indicated only one-third of IPS seniors graduated. Going from 33% to 93%, even over 20 years, seems remarkable.

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Source: Indiana Department of Education data center.

That improvement doesn’t seem to have won IPS much love from the Indiana General Assembly, however. Last year, the legislature voted to create an advisory board, dominated by charter school supporters, to recommend big changes for the district. The panel’s proposal, which would shift much authority for IPS schools from the elected school board to a new education authority appointed by the mayor, is scheduled to be discussed by a legislative committee next week.

Indianapolis education proposals would weaken voters’ power

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Indiana state senators delivered a lesson in democracy last week when they rejected Donald Trump’s demand that they redraw congressional districts to protect the GOP House majority. Twenty-one of the 40 Senate Republicans voted against the scheme. Many said they listened to their constituents. Others cited basic democratic principles.

“Living in a free, constitutional republic means we empower voters to make decisions, and we accept their will, no matter what,” said Sen. Spencer Deery, R-West Lafayette. “No one benefits when we shield those in power from the will of the voters.”

Then there’s the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance, created by the legislature to suggest changes to governance, transportation and facilities for Indianapolis schools. Just a day before the state Senate said no to Trump, the ILEA said yes to plans that would weaken the elected Indianapolis Public Schools board.

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Referendums show support for public schools

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Local property tax referendums were on the ballot in six Indiana school districts this month, and five were approved, a solid show of support for local education at a time when public schools are under attack and anti-tax sentiment is strong in the state.

That’s the good news. The bad news is about the referendum that failed: A conservative-libertarian group with extraordinarily deep pockets worked against it and took credit for its defeat. We may see more of the same in the future.

The districts that succeeded run the gamut from urban to suburban to rural. Some are large, by Indiana standards, some are mid-sized and one is tiny. Geographically, they span from Lake Michigan to the Ohio River.

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3,000-plus students were held back by reading law

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Over 3,000 Indiana children are repeating third grade this year because of a law that requires students to be retained if they don’t pass the IREAD-3 literacy exam. That’s unfortunate, but it’s not nearly as bad as we might have expected.

When legislators were debating the law, which passed in 2024, officials estimated it would result in 7,000 third-graders being held back. That would have been one in every 12.

But students did better than expected on the test: 87.3% passed, up from 82.5% the previous year. Gains were even more impressive for low-income, Black and Hispanic students, for English learners and for students in some high-poverty districts, including Indianapolis Public Schools.

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Absentee rates improving but varied

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The Indiana Department of Education released new chronic absenteeism data last week. The good news: The number of students who were chronically absent declined, and it declined the most for Black students and students from low-income families.

The not-so-good news: The absentee rate is still twice what it was before COVID.

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Celebrate reading results; don’t forget students who didn’t pass

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Indiana’s IREAD assessment scores are something to celebrate, no matter how you feel about standardized testing. The results, released last week, suggest a lot more young children are learning to read. That’s unquestionably good and important news.

The improvement in IREAD scores was remarkable. Statewide, 87.3% of third-graders showed proficient reading skills, an increase of nearly 5 percentage points from 2024. You rarely see that kind of change in test scores from year to year.

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School grades don’t measure what matters most

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What makes a good school? There’s no universally accepted answer, but we all have our ideas. Most of us, I suspect, would start with teachers: We want them to be highly trained, competent and committed. Most of all, we want them to care about students.

Good leadership is essential. Principals and other administrators need to effectively manage day-to-day school operations, and they need to lead and inspire school personnel. They need positive relationships with students, families and community.  All school staff – counselors and social workers, classroom aides, cafeteria workers, custodians, bus drivers, etc. – create the environment in which students thrive.

Facilities don’t have to be modern or fancy, but it matters if they are clean and well maintained. Schools should feel safe and orderly. Technology is valuable if it’s used effectively. Families and neighborhoods should be engaged and supportive.

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More from Indiana voucher report

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Indiana Republicans sold the public on private school vouchers in 2011 as a way to help poor children find better alternatives to underperforming public schools. Data from the state’s annual voucher report show how far it’s strayed from that purpose.

Family income. As I noted in a post last week, the average income of families that received vouchers in 2024-25 was over $102,000, well above the state’s median household income. About half the families made over $100,000. Fewer than a quarter made less than $50,000. That’s a huge change from the way the program started.

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Tuition rates. Many private schools appear to have taken advantage of voucher funding to raise their tuition and fees. According to the report, the average tuition charged by voucher-receiving schools increased by 35% in the past five years, from $6,197 to $8,369.

Family cost. Vouchers pay 90% of the state’s per-pupil funding for local public schools, which was about $6,500 last year. When private schools charge more, families are on the hook for the difference. For example, the schools that received the most in voucher funding, with over $6 million each, were Roncalli High School and Heritage Christian School, both in Indianapolis. Tuition is $15,700 for Roncalli (with a discount for Catholics who support their local parish) and almost $19,000 for Heritage high-school students. Even with vouchers, these would be a stretch for poor families without additional aid.

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Race and ethnicity. Advocates sold vouchers as a social justice initiative, and early examples were small, targeted programs in Cleveland, Milwaukee and Washington, D.C. schools serving many low-income and Black families. But in Indiana, Black students are now underrepresented in the voucher program and white students are slightly overrepresented. Voucher students are more likely than public students to be Hispanic.

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I posted two weeks ago about the highlights of the voucher program: its nearly half-billion-dollar price tag, its growth, its state support for religion and discrimination. You can also read about the report at WFYI News and Chalkbeat Indiana. As bad as it is (in my view), it will get worse in 2026-27, when all income limits are lifted for participating in the program.

Indiana voucher program cost: $497 million

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Indiana awarded nearly a half billion dollars in private school vouchers in the 2024-25 school year, according to a report posted this month by the Indiana Department of Education. That’s a 13.2% increase from what the state spent the previous year.

The $497 million program got larger, not just more expensive. Some 76,067 students received vouchers to pay private school tuition and fees last school year, up 8.5% from the year before. And 373 private schools participated in the program, up from 357.

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The program has grown exponentially since it launched in 2011, initially serving just 4,000 families. It’s likely to grow a lot more in 2026-27. State legislators this spring voted to remove income limits for families to participate, making the program “universal,” but delayed the expansion for a year.

In 2024-25, students could receive vouchers if their family income was no more than 400% of the limit to qualify for reduced-price school meals. That’s about $230,000 for a family of four, more than three times the Indiana median family income, so most families qualified. The 2026 expansion will help the state’s wealthiest families pay private school tuition.

The state Legislative Services Agency initially estimated making vouchers universal would cost the state about $90 million in its first year. It could be considerably more. According to the report, Indiana had 24,000 students who attended private schools but didn’t receive vouchers in 2024-25.

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Study: ‘large, negative effects’ for Indiana virtual charter schools

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Parents who are thinking about enrolling their child in a virtual high school may want to reconsider. A recent study finds that attending virtual charter high schools was associated with “large, negative impacts” on graduation rates and college enrollment.

The study, published in the journal Educational Researcher, examined data for students who attended virtual charter high schools in Indiana between 2010 and 2019. Authors are R. Joseph Waddington and Mark Berends at the University of Notre Dame, Joseph Ferrare at the University of Washington-Bothell and Ron Zimmer at the University of Kentucky. While the study looked at charter schools, its findings may apply to other large virtual high school programs.

The researchers compared graduation and college enrollment results for students who attended virtual charter high schools with matched groups of students who attended public high schools. Students were matched by demographic factors and previous test scores to account for possible differences between charter and public students.

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