Good morning, CharterFolk.
Today we are eager to share with you a Contributor Column from Scott Bess, whose latest project is to found and lead the new Indiana Charter Innovation Center.
We provide a bio for Scott below.
Scott Bess is an education entrepreneur who has founded two innovative school models and recently launched the Indiana Charter Innovation Center in order to serve and grow the charter school sector in Indiana. Scott also serves as a consultant and advisor to multiple education organizations across the country. Prior to this, he led the creation of Purdue Polytechnic High Schools, designed to increase the pipeline of underrepresented minority students to Purdue University. Scott and his team redesigned the high school model, creating space for students to have voice and choice in their work while also bringing rigor and equity into the student experience.
The schools launched with one location in Indianapolis in 2017 followed by a second location in Indianapolis in 2019 and a third in South Bend in 2020. Prior to Scott’s departure, PPHS opened a micro-school to allow even more flexibility for students. With just the first three graduating classes, PPHS more than quadrupled the number of underrepresented minority students matriculating to Purdue University from Indianapolis.
Prior to coming to Purdue, Scott was President of Goodwill Education Initiatives (GEI), a subsidiary of Goodwill Industries of Central and Southern Indiana. While at GEI, Scott led the development of the Excel Center, a high school designed for adults who had previously dropped out of high school. Under Scott’s leadership, GEI grew from a single, small high school to a network of schools serving over 7,000 students across Indiana and the United States. Graduates of the Excel Centers have been able to reduce their dependence on public assistance, increase their employment opportunities and have increased their yearly earnings by over $10,000 just two years after graduating.
Before assuming this role in 2004, he was CIO for Goodwill Industries of Central Indiana and served in similar technology roles in the private sector. Scott began his career as a teacher and coach and also served four terms as a member of his local school board. Scott received a bachelor’s degree in math education from Purdue and a master’s degree in teaching from Marian University, where he was a part of the Turnaround School Leadership program. Scott is on the board of Indiana Youth Institute, the board of the Washington DC Excel Center, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers board and was recently reappointed to the Indiana State Board of Education. He is also a graduate of the Pahara-Aspen fellowship program. Scott lives in Danville, Indiana with his wife Robin and enjoys hanging out with his four grown children and five grandchildren.
Introducing Indiana Charter Innovation Center
Indiana is nearing a quarter century of charter schools in the state, with the first schools opening in 2001. From the inception, most notably starting with the leadership of the Indianapolis Mayor’s office, authorizer practices have consistently been held up as national models. Additionally, the accountability for charter schools has also been lauded for being tough but fair. Support within the Indiana General Assembly has been strong, and having an organization like The Mind Trust in Indianapolis to incubate new school leaders and provide support to those leaders has been key to the growth in the capital city.
Over the years, the charter school sector in Indiana grew from a handful of schools to over 120, serving roughly 50,000 students. Study after study (CREDO, Notre Dame, among others) have found that charter schools consistently obtain stronger student outcomes than the incumbent traditional districts. All of this is good news, and on the surface, points to a strong, vibrant charter school sector. However, some problems exist. The number of charter schools and the number of charter school students has been mainly stagnant over the past five years. Cities like Indianapolis that had most of the growth over the first 20 years saw some saturation in the center of the city, and fierce resistance from district school corporations surrounding the center of the city. And, charter schools faced increased competition from a near-universal private school voucher program.
One element missing to help address these issues is a strong standalone charter school association. When the first iterations of Indiana’s charter association collapsed over a decade ago, a school choice organization, the Institute for Quality Education, stepped up to support charter schools in addition to its primary focus of a broad spectrum of school options including vouchers, private school scholarship credits, and more recently education scholarship accounts.
What that meant was that there was not an organization focusing solely on the Indiana’s charter schools, their leaders, and their students. While IQE made substantial gains in funding on behalf of charter schools that were greatly appreciated by the field, there was a desire from school leaders to have an organization tailored for their specific needs. After a long career creating and running charter school networks, I was excited to take a leap and create the Indiana Charter Innovation Center in July of this year as a 501(c)3 to provide support for all charter schools in the state. With a sister 501(c)4 organization, the Indiana Charter School Alliance, Indiana’s charter schools now have a full-fledged charter association gearing up to support their needs and to advocate for policy changes to provide funding equity and regulatory relief.
Both the Center and the Alliance are already engaged in legislative discussions and bringing charter school leaders together to talk about specific policy changes that would benefit them and the students they serve. The organizations have some specific goals for the next 5-7 seven years. These include:
- Growing the number of charter schools by 25% over that time period, reaching 150 or more schools
- Growing the number of students served by charter schools by 40% to serve 70,000 or more
- Obtaining equitable funding for charter school, addressing a funding gap that averages over $3,000 per student due to district schools having access to local property tax dollars that are not available to charter schools
- Assisting charter school leaders prepare for an expansion of Education Scholarship Account eligibility by understanding how to participate in the program to drive additional revenue
- Driving innovation by helping charter school launch micro schools that will allow expansion into areas of the state that could not support a full-sized school
Most of all, we want to create a vibrant charter school ecosystem that brings leaders of schools across the state together to learn from each other and outside experts; advocate on issues that matter by organizing parents and students; and fellowship together to create relationships that encourage collaboration and support. The next five years will be exciting as we all work together to leverage the elements that make Indiana a special place to start and grow schools to serve our students.