Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard accepted a decision Thursday to close Flanner House Elementary, a charter school sponsored by his office. The school’s board of directors voted to close the school after allegations of cheating on ISTEP tests.
The Mayor’s Office of Education Innovation began investigating Flanner House after the school showed “extraordinarily high gains” on ISTEP tests in 2013 and 2014. The Indiana Department of Education conducted a follow-up investigation finding, among other red flags, an unusually high number of changes from right to wrong answers as well as adult handwriting on tests.
The DOE has since invalidated Flanner House’s ISTEP results, as well as stripped the school of its “A” grade and four-star school award, received for high passing rates. The City and State are also referring information from their investigation to the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office, to determine whether criminal charges may be warranted.
The school will close September 11 and Marc Lotter, a spokesperson for Mayor Ballard, says his office will hold information sessions and an enrollment fair to help families find a new school for their kids.
“It's Mayor Ballard's focus that all of the attention now shift to these children, 176 students, and do everything that we can to make sure that they get into an educational opportunity that best suits their needs,” says Lotter.
Lotter says the mayor’s office will also look in the coming months to see if other charter school operators might be interested in filling the vacancy left in the neighborhood.