EVANSVILLE— Something different this year for the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. was developing a marketing strategy to promote the school district. It was in response to Indiana's school voucher program, which allows parents to receive tax money to supplement the cost of sending their children to private schools. Ranked as the nation's fourth-largest school voucher program, it nearly doubled in size, according to the Indiana Department of Education, leading the EVSC and a growing number of Indiana public school districts to promote themselves through advertisements in newspapers, on bus stop benches and billboards and on the radio.
Just a few years ago, most public schools didn't have to think about marketing because students went to a school district associated with their neighborhood. However, the voucher program, passed by the Legislature in 2011, is the biggest test yet of an idea to offer families more choices and give public schools greater incentive to improve the quality of their offerings.
The program enables public school students meeting income qualifications to transfer to nonpublic schools at state expense. More than 9,000 Indiana students received vouchers this school year.
According to EVSC communications director Marsha Jackson, the advertising is designed to remind or inform the public what the local school district offers stu
dents and what they can expect when their child attends an EVSC school. The theme "Bringing Learning to Life" was developed by EVSC officials and Axiom, an Evansville marketing and advertising firm.
An average billboard costs around $1,000, but Jackson said prices for advertising vary greatly depending upon the medium.
When a family removes a child from a local school district, money that would have gone to that district follows the student to the private school. A public school district loses between $5,300 to $8,400 for each student who leaves. Jackson said about 120 EVSC students departed for private schools last year.
There are 270 schools across Indiana accepting voucher students this year, according to state department. Up to 15,000 students could apply for a voucher this year, and the limit on the number of vouchers available will be eliminated next year.
More than 40 states have adopted a new set of academic standards, Common Core State Standards, that serve as a universal set across the country to provide more focus on college and career readiness for students in PK-12. Velinda Stubbs, EVSC director of English, Language Arts and literacy, said the Common Core Standards mean each state doesn't abide by a separate set of standards anymore.
"I think Common Core sets our students up to be successful for college and career readiness, which is really our goal in PK-12 education," she said. "To make sure that our students, as they leave the door at the end of 12th grade and they move on into their future, whether it's a college path or a career path, that they have the skills to be successful."
Kindergartners and first graders in Indiana have already completed the transition to Common Core. The plan is to implement it for all Indiana students by 2014.
Testing under Common Core will eventually replace ISTEP and will be administered throughout the school year instead of only each spring when ISTEP is given. ISTEP still will be given to grades 3-8 in Indiana through 2014.
Common Core Standards were developed by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois are among states that adopted them, and all three states are part of another consortium that will construct assessments on the standards for grades K-12. Indiana is among the governing states in that effort.
Common Core and traditional state standards share similarities, but the main difference is how skills are applied.
"Indiana has really a strong set of standards," Stubbs said. "So there are some differences, but not as many as I think other states have experienced. Many of our Indiana standards are similar ... which is helpful as we transition."
There are different expectations, but Stubbs doesn't foresee students noticing any major changes because a student entering a new grade isn't necessarily aware of what the expectations were in the past because they haven't been in that grade level. However, obviously there will be a shift for teachers, and parents may notice a difference in expectations if they've had a child pass through the grade in the past.
"Teachers, obviously as they're planning lessons and instructing students, they're certainly going to notice a difference in some of the expectations and some of the ways that they assess students," Stubbs said. "Teachers work very diligently with their curriculum and their standards. They want to make sure that their students are successful."
Jackson said Common Core Standards are beneficial because as an administrator and teacher, you know what classes, requirements and preparation a student has taken that may come in from a different state.
The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) is developing "the next generation assessment system" for U.S. students in K-12 that Stubbs said will align with Common Core. This is being done with a $186 million U.S. Department of Education grant.
According to Stubbs, many EVSC grades are already seeing Common Core Standards, but it's simultaneously being implemented with Indiana academic standards because students and schools are still being assessed by ISTEP until full implementation of Common Core in 2014.