Good morning, CharterFolk.
Today we are delighted to share a Contributor Column from Brandon Brown, CEO of The Mind Trust in Indianapolis.
We provide a bio for Brandon below:
Since 2018, Brandon Brown has served as CEO of The Mind Trust, leading the organization’s groundbreaking work to provide every Indianapolis student with the opportunity to attend an excellent school.
He formerly served as The Mind Trust’s Senior Vice President for Education Innovation, primarily focusing on The Mind Trust’s Innovation School Fellowship, a unique partnership with Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) to incubate excellent Innovation Network Schools that serve all students well.
Before joining The Mind Trust, Brandon served as the city of Indianapolis’ charter schools director under former Mayor Greg Ballard. As charter schools director from 2012 to 2015, Brandon oversaw 35 charter schools and four turnaround schools serving nearly 15,000 students. Also under his watch, the Mayor’s Office opened 15 new charter schools and gained oversight of four turnaround schools. He also served in several leadership roles with Teach For America, including managing director of community partnerships in the Indianapolis office.
Brandon was previously a Teach For America corps member and taught English at Carnahan High School in St. Louis. Brandon was selected by Indianapolis Business Journal for its “40 Under 40” class in 2019. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis and master’s degree in secondary education from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
He currently serves on the Marian University Center for Vibrant Schools Board of Visitors, is a board member for both the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee and Indiana Charter Innovation Center, and is also a member of the Indiana Girl Advisory Council. He has been an advisory board member for Teach Plus-Indianapolis; statewide council member for the Indiana Center for Family, School, and Community Partnerships; and member of the Central Indiana Education Alliance; and on the community advisory committee for the Indianapolis eLearning Fund.
Brandon’s is another piece in a flurry of posts we’re offering here at CharterFolk about what the country has to learn from the unique experience in Indianapolis. A special thanks to Brandon for adding his voice to the chorus.
Let’s get to it.
The Indianapolis Story: A “Flyover” City Models How to Transform an Education System
There is a common, somewhat self-conscious, refrain people from Indianapolis say when we frame the challenge to make our city attractive to visitors and residents: “no mountains, no oceans.” Indy has no major natural wonder to rely on. So what do we have?
In my view, we have talented people who aren’t afraid to work hard to turn an innovative idea into a reality, and make sure the product is world-class.
For example, in the 1970s city leaders devised “the sports strategy,” an initiative to remake our downtown and economy by investing in amateur and professional sports. Since then we’ve hosted the Pan American Games, more final fours than any other city, and a Super Bowl that received rave reviews. We’re also home to the NCAA and national governing bodies of several Olympic sports.
Need to host a NCAA March Madness tournament during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic with 68 teams playing 67 games in one city? We’ve got it covered.
How about hosting the 2024 swimming Olympic trials by building a pool inside the Colts NFL stadium and setting the all-time swim meet attendance record? Done – with more rave reviews from athletes and spectators.
For decades, civic leaders have been ambitious about turning “India-No-Place” into a city worth betting on for big ideas that pay off. Education and the growth of our charter sector has been no different.
It all started in 2001 when Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson, a Democrat, teamed up with State Senator Teresa Lubbers, a Republican known as Indiana’s Mother of Charter Schools, to help her pass the state’s first charter law after several failed attempts during the 90s. At Mayor Peterson’s urging, the legislature gave the Indianapolis mayor’s office the authority to become an authorizer.
Peterson ran with this newfound power and tasked David Harris with establishing the nation’s first charter authorizing initiative within a mayor’s office. David and Mayor Peterson spent the next several years approving a growing number of high-quality charter schools. It eventually became clear, though, that there needed to be a more robust strategy to create the conditions for all students in Indianapolis to have access to a great school.
That led to David writing a concept paper that outlined his vision for what he called the Indianapolis Center for Education Entrepreneurship, a new nonprofit that would support education entrepreneurs to start initiatives and schools that would revolutionize the city’s education landscape. That vision became reality in 2006 when The Mind Trust (a better name than ICEE) launched with David as the CEO and Mayor Peterson as the founding board chair.
I now have the privilege of working alongside a talented team to carry that vision forward.
Our organization has always believed great schools share three key characteristics:
- A talented leader who can execute on their vision for academic excellence,
- Autonomy for leaders to make decisions as close to students as possible, and
- Accountability to ensure all schools continue to serve their students and families well.
Our North Star at The Mind Trust is to increase access to schools with the three key ingredients for more students. Over time, we’ve worked to coalesce a diverse group of leaders around this vision. We’ve supported the launch of dozens of new schools and nonprofits, pursued transformative charter/district partnerships that resulted in the nationally unique strategy to grow nonprofit-run schools within the district via the innovation network school law …
… organized families to exercise their power to disrupt the education system, and worked with state elected officials to ensure Indiana’s charter law is the best in the country.
Since 2006, The Mind Trust has developed various nonprofit and school launch initiatives that have received over 4,000 applications from entrepreneurs across 48 states and 36 countries. Through these incubators, we’ve successfully supported the launch of 15 education nonprofit organizations and more than 50 charter and contractually autonomous, nonprofit-governed innovation network schools in Indianapolis.
Today 59% of public school students who attend school within the boundaries of our state’s largest district attend a charter or innovation school. Families have responded to the growing number of school options by learning about their choices and finding a school that best fits their needs, leading to steady charter school enrollment growth each year.
In a 2023 report on charter and innovation network school parents, they shared that learning environment, safety, school performance, and curriculum were the top factors in their school choice. In the same report, 82% rated high expectations as one of their chosen school’s strengths and 85% said their school’s diversity was a strength. Indianapolis charter families continue to advocate for the growth of high-quality options.
We’ve had a few iterations of our school incubation fellowships over the years, but the model remains the same: provide experienced school leaders with the time and resources they need to develop a high-quality charter school.
For example, our school launch fellowships are a full-time job. Fellows receive a salary and health benefits during a one or two-year development process. They also receive support from our team to navigate the considerable work it takes to launch a new school: facility planning, board development, budgeting, charter authorization, and more.
The work pays off when their doors open and Indianapolis students and families gain greater access to an education that best meets their needs. We’re proud to have helped national networks like KIPP Schools …
… and Phalen Leadership Academies grow in our city.
And, we’re equally proud to have helped launch and grow local operators like Paramount Schools of Excellence,
Purdue Polytechnic High Schools,
BELIEVE Circle City High School,
… and many more.
In addition to the incredible people who lead Indianapolis charter and innovation schools, the investments we’ve made to support leaders who’ve launched nonprofits that support our ecosystem are equally as critical. One such example is our city’s unified enrollment nonprofit, Enroll Indy.
Indianapolis is also focused on the continued work of recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Mind Trust launched and continues to manage Indy Summer Learning Labs …
… a five-week free or low-cost summer academic and enrichment program that just completed its fourth year this summer. The program was successful enough to be replicated in other Indiana communities in partnership with the Indiana Department of Education and replicated in a growing number of cities nationally.
While growth and new ideas are exciting, effectiveness is even more important. We believe that charter and innovation schools are where all students, but especially students of color and those from low-income households, have the best opportunity to succeed. Year after year, data has shown this to be true.
Rigorous research from Stanford, Indiana University, Notre Dame, and the University of Arkansas shows that charter students in Indianapolis make significantly more progress than their traditional public-school peers.
That trend has continued since the start of the pandemic. Since 2021, Indianapolis charter schools have made larger proficiency improvements on the ILEARN, our state assessment for grades 3-8, across all student groups, surpassing averages for Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS), Marion County township districts, and the state as a whole. This holds true for math, English Language Arts (ELA), and combined proficiency rates.
Black students attending independent charter schools are three times more likely to be proficient than Black students in district-run IPS schools. Latino independent charter school students are two times more likely to be proficient than Latino students in district-run IPS schools.
High school students in innovation charter schools continue to surpass statewide college-readiness rates on the SAT, which is now Indiana’s high school assessment, both overall and for Black, Latino, and low-income students. Within IPS boundaries, innovation charter schools continue to lead in college-readiness rates. Students attending innovation charter schools are five times more likely to be college-ready on both sections of the SAT than their peers in district-run IPS schools. These trends are similar for low-income, Latino, and Black students.
The Indianapolis story proves that flyover cities can punch above their weight and serve as a model for how to transform an education system. It takes good people who share a big vision and work tirelessly over time to accomplish it. In Indy, we’re blessed to work alongside a number of leaders and organizations who are all rowing in the same direction and share a vision for what’s possible for students in our city.
I’m grateful to Jed Wallace and CharterFolk for spotlighting Indianapolis and for using their platform to highlight the unsung heroes across the country who make big ideas a reality every day for kids.