The two also laid out some of the ways they’d hope to keep the district moving forward.
In his interview with the student panel, Dr. Torres emphasized engaging students with the importance of accessible, experiential learning in his time as a principal.
“One of the things that we used to do was what we used to call our Expedition Program. It was the idea that you’re going to do your academics get your focus on for a good six weeks and at the end of those six weeks we’re all going to do some sort of assessment over what we did for the last six weeks and present our learning to our colleagues, to our parents, to our peers etc.,” said Dr. Torres. “And then, on that Friday it was always what we called the expedition trip.”
Dr. Torres also spoke about the potential for more individualized learning.
“Another thing that we did while I was a principal in Cleveland was we started getting into more individualized learning plans where we were still on the standards everyone was still doing things at the same pace, but students were allowed to get more student choice and voice in what they were doing so that they had more autonomy basically even in the way they wanted to present,” said Dr. Torres.
When speaking with parents and caregivers, Torres addressed steps his school district in Seattle had taken to address economic and staffing disparities in schools.
“We had to make the difficult decision, because, just like any other school district, we’re resource strapped,” said Dr. Torres. “It’s not like we have money to just keep everything fully staffed at that at that level so we had to make that difficult decision of how are we going to use our existing staff and make sure that the staffing is going to be equitably allocated to where it needs to go because it needs to be ultimately there to service students.”
Speaking with parents, Dr. Torres detailed work he did as executive director of special education in his Seattle school district to address racist educational outcomes in the district. Because white kids were being placed in special education programs with more resources and comparable students who were kids of color were being put in special education programs with less resources, Dr. Torres formed a task force that met monthly to take action.
“[I’m] happy to report that those pathways [separating students by race] no longer exist going into next school year,” Dr. Torres said to the panel. “They were completely collapsed and they’re into one pathway…it’s called the extended resource pathway and we were also able to get it resourced at the higher resourcing level with more paraprofessionals too. So it was something that we were really proud of, it was something that took a lot of work, and I often say ‘but we’re not done…we also need to think about what we need to do next.”
“A plan to make sure that every student within Indianapolis Public Schools has access to a high quality curriculum no matter where they live, their socioeconomic status or their race…the biggest thing that we’ve done with that plan is making sure that we have high quality programs in every building,” said Dr. Morgan of the Rebuilding Stronger Plan. “We also make sure that all students within eighth grade will have access to algebra one, making sure that all students have access to foreign language and also music.”
In his Indianapolis school district, Dr. Morgan says they have implemented a new, standard curriculum to ensure students get the same educational standards regardless of their school, and worked to make sure schools get adequate funding.
“Our finance team has worked with our academics team to think about what is an equitable strategic supplement we give to our schools, but we’re also redoing our student-based allocation system for that reason, making sure that there’s a baseline of all programs that we offer…these are not choices that our school leaders should have to make,” said Dr. Morgan. “It’s a resource that should be protected and something that we at the central office invest in.”
Data-based solutions were another theme Dr. Morgan addressed frequently, both with students and parents and caregivers. He stressed the need for data to address community reform, police reform, policy advocacy, enrollment and academic performances across different subjects.
When asked by students what he would change as CEO and superintendent of CMSD, Dr. Morgan had two answers.
“I would want to create a sense of optimism and hope with the community and our students and our kids in what’s possible. And I would also want to ensure that we’re offering high quality programs in every one of our buildings. So whether that is the curriculum that we’re using, whether that is access to CTE programs and Pathways, these would be all things I would want to work on but those will be top priorities,” said Dr. Morgan.
Both candidates talked about gathering feedback from students and staff to inform decision making, and both spoke about the dangers students face in schools and the toll those dangers, and things like social media, take on their mental health.
Community members are invited to watch the interviews and submit feedback through CMSD’s website until Thursday at 5 pm. After the finalists complete interviews with teachers, licensed staff, principals, classified central office staff, community partners, union leaders and senior leaders in the district, the CMSD board will review the candidates with Mayor Justin Bibb and make their selection.
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This article appears in Apr 19 – May 3, 2023.