A Brief History of the Indianapolis Public School System (IPS)

Indianapolis, like many other major metropolitan areas around the nation, is struggling with an uncertain future with regards to its school system, Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS). The current landscape of ISTEP tests, school rehabilitation in the midst of dwindling funds, and continued concerns over student achievement and social issues can leave parents and students confused and dismayed about where our schools are headed. Perhaps a quick look back at the history of IPS can lend a bit of perspective.

Indiana became the 19^th State to join the Union in 1816, but the political and educational landscapes were very different from present-day Hoosierland. Indianapolis was merely a spot in the road in the largely untamed wilderness in the northern part of the State, while the capital city was located near the Ohio River in Corydon. During this period, between the inception of Statehood and Indianapolis' charter in 1847, the education system consisted mostly of one-room school houses in towns here and there, much as you might see in old episodes of "Little House on the Prairie".

However, as the Circle City began its rise to prominence, Indiana residents found themselves in the presence of one of the greatest educators in the State's history in the person of Caleb Mills. Mills became the first faculty member at Wabash College in 1833, having graduated from Dartmouth and Andover Seminary. As a devoted academic, Mills was thoroughly convinced of the vital role that a strong and organized public educational system could play in the advancement of human kind in general, and of Indiana's fortunes in particular. Armed with this strong conviction, Mills led the charge to establish Indiana's educational infrastructure and succeeded in convincing the voting populace to approve a property value levy to support the creation of a public school system in 1847. Although this measure was ruled unconstitutional by a district court, effectively closing the State's public schools for several years, the system that Mills helped put in place led more or less directly to the structure of today's IPS.

The school district expanded slowly along with the city during the last half of the 19^th and the early parts of the 20^th Centuries. When Indianapolis began to grow by relative leaps and bounds in the 1920s, IPS kept pace by opening several new high schools and feeder elementaries. Notable among the secondary schools was Crispus Attucks, the first all-black high school in the State. Attucks' initial enrollment of 1350 had the new school immediately bursting at the seams, as the anticipated population was a scant 1000.

As IPS continued to grow into the latter half of the 20^th Century, many of the social issues which affected the nation at-large came front and center to face the district's leaders. Chief among these, of course, was the issue of desegregation and the concomitant busing issue which evolved as officials sought to integrate schools in the 1960s and 1970s. Resistance from all corners and the general economic downturn of the seventies led to a dark period for IPS, featuring dropping student achievement and rising violence in the schools themselves.

Beginning in the early 1990s, IPS leadership seemed to make a concerted effort to address the problems wrought by the turmoil and neglect of the previous decades. Magnet and charter schools were put in place, and several underperforming administrators were relieved of their positions as IPS rededicated itself to a focus on basic literacy, math, and science.

Obviously, turmoil is nothing new to IPS, as the school system has seemingly struggled in some way or another almost since its conception in the mind of Caleb Mills. The thought of an uncertain future and continued struggles is not at all comforting, but knowing where we've been at least helps us to understand a bit more about where we stand now, and maybe where we're going.