Ellen Quigley is the Vice President of Programs at the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation An Interview with Scott Bess, Head of School, Purdue Polytechnic High School Background In 2017, the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation awarded a $1.25 million three-year grant to support the launch and replication of Purdue Polytechnic High School Indianapolis (PPHS), a first-of-its-kind urban high school model aimed at developing a new generation of talent with science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills to meet the needs of an evolving workforce.  Combining personalized learning with project-based curriculum, Purdue University created this model to establish new pathways for Indianapolis’ low-income, under-represented minority students to continue their higher education at […]

Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. Last week, the Indiana Chamber of Commerce released a report commissioned from Ball State University’s Center for Business and Economic Research, which found that students in small school districts have lower academic achievement results than students in larger districts. The study’s authors point to resource constraints at small districts – defined as districts with enrollment of less than 2,000 students – that limit their ability to offer a broader array of rigorous course offerings, like AP Calculus and AP Chemistry. 19 percent of Indiana’s public school students are enrolled in districts with enrollment below the 2,000-student threshold, […]