All Indiana teachers are now eligible for COVID vaccines under a new federal directive. Vaccines earmarked for educators are separate from the overall allocation the state receives, said Indiana State Department of Health Chief Medical Officer Lindsay Weaver.
It’s unclear when Indiana teachers will be eligible for the vaccine, but they will likely have to wait several weeks until Hoosiers age 60 and older and people with medical conditions receive their shots.
The Teacher Pay Commission released its findings Monday in a 183-page report that includes 13 recommendations for school corporations and 24 steps state government can take to improve teacher pay.
The secondary group is expansive, including such people as firefighters, police, and retail workers, according to a preliminary state plan.
Overall, NWEA’s fall assessments showed elementary and middle school students have fallen measurably behind in math, while most appear to be progressing at a normal pace in reading since schools were forced to abruptly close in March and work online.
A coalition of parents is pushing back on Marion County’s recent public health order that will close schools to in-person instruction for about eight weeks, especially when bars and restaurants are allowed to remain open.
The Indiana State Teachers Association, which represents nearly 40,000 educators, say teachers deserve the right to bargain over working conditions, such as hours, prep time and class sizes.
In the learn-from-home world, educators are encountering friction when extending regular classroom discipline and decorum into young people’s previously private spaces.
Several states have seen surges in educators filing for retirement or taking leaves of absence. The departures are straining staff in places that were dealing with shortages of teachers and substitutes even before the pandemic.
The political arm of the Indiana State Teachers Association will not make an endorsement in the governor’s race. Instead, it will focus on supporting dozens of legislative races, particularly those in which teachers are running.
The lab was announced several months ago as a project by the Indianapolis eLearning Fund, which was formed to support teachers in Indianapolis as they transitioned to eLearning. The fund contributed $1.6 million to developing the lab, which is now up and running.
Organizers hope to address the barriers that discourage men of color from working as preschool teachers, including a lack of representation in preschool classrooms and the misconception that teaching preschool is like a babysitting job.
It’s up to each district to decide whether to pay hourly workers—including bus drivers, custodians, food service employees and paraprofessionals—who are typically paid only for days when students are present.
Indiana legislators have voted to end the mandatory use of student standardized test results in teacher evaluations, dropping a requirement long opposed by teachers.
Following a successful school-funding referendum in 2018, IPS has doled out millions of dollars in raises to most staff. That boost in pay has been a boon for district teachers, but it has left the city’s charter schools at a disadvantage.
The state Senate voted 42-7 Tuesday in favor of the bill that specifies a 40-hour training program for teachers volunteering to be armed, followed by 16 hours of additional training each year.
Users of the newly launched INview will have more immediate access to how much schools and districts are spending per student, as well as how that figure compares to the state average and other schools with similar demographics.
A Democratic proposal to immediately boost Indiana teacher pay by $100 million a year by stretching out payments to a teacher pension fund was rejected Thursday by a Republican-controlled committee.
According to Gov. Eric Holcomb’s prepared remarks, Fiat-Chrysler will invest $400 million in its Kokomo facility and hinted that an announcement will be made on Friday from Toyota in Princeton.
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb is expected to talk during his annual State of the State speech Tuesday about a possible additional boost in school funding—just not one that would happen this year.
