Score an Excellent Education in East Central Indiana

Justin Sicking

The school districts in East Central Indiana collectively provide a diverse and enriching array of educational opportunities for students, fostering both academic excellence and personal growth. Preparing students for college and careers, those opportunities include everything from preschool and career and technical education to extracurricular activities and experiential learning. Here’s a look at the options for getting a great education in East Central Indiana.

Interactive Education 

An excellent example of that experiential education in East Central Indiana is the Daleville Community Schools’ Outdoor Learning Lab, a 5-acre site that boasts a large greenhouse, an apple orchard, several gardens, multiple play areas and a large outdoor stage as well as several meeting and workspaces for students in all grades. 

Elementary school students spend time planting and harvesting fruits and vegetables and expanding that learning to writing projects, environmental initiatives, data calculations, historical timelines and reader’s theaters. Junior high and high school students use the space to explore a variety of math and science concepts, including calculating the circumference of trees for maple syrup tapping and searching for biotic and abiotic factors in an ecosystem. 

“Being good stewards of the planet and becoming responsible citizens are critical to what we do. Not all of our time on earth is spent working. We must be able to come up with ‘whole life’ activities that we can share with others,” says Greg Roach, superintendent of Daleville Community Schools. 

Forward Thinking 

Muncie Community Schools serves a diverse student population with a wide spectrum of backgrounds and needs, which teachers and administrators work to meet.

The City Connects program, for example, evaluates each student on their individual needs and provides resources to them and their families to help remove barriers to their success in the classroom. At the same time, the district offers accelerated programs, numerous camps, competitive clubs, fine arts, athletic opportunities and other special programs for every student. 

One such program is the Dual Language Immersion Program. Beginning in kindergarten, students spend 80% of the school day reading, writing and speaking in Spanish. 

“For those who stay in the program year after year, and most do, they are almost like native speakers by the time they reach high school. This sets them apart from many others and indicates an ability to understand different concepts and a willingness to go beyond what many students are asked to do,” says Lee Ann Kwiatkowski, CEO and director of public education for Muncie Community Schools.

“As the Latino population continues to grow in Indiana and the United States, people with the ability to communicate in Spanish are going to be in high demand in health care, education, social services and many other industries.” 

Prioritizing Preparation 

Randolph Eastern School Corporation has achieved notable recognition as one of only 33 national semifinalists for the prestigious Yass Prize for Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding and Permissionless Education, which celebrates excellence in education.

The district was recognized for programs, such as project-based learning, career and technical education and dual enrollment, that help prepare students in rural communities for in-demand careers. As a semifinalist, the district received $200,000 to continue its commitment to innovation, quality education and community engagement. 

Foundation for Success 

The Fayette County School Corporation plays a major role in the region’s workforce development efforts. The district is home to the Whitewater Career Center that offers more than a dozen training programs as well as an Early College Career Center, which provides dual credit opportunities through a partnership with Ivy Tech Community College and Vincennes University. 

Workforce development begins early with a free preschool program, Little Spartans Preschool, which provides Head Start, Title I and Developmental Preschool classes to families. 

“So many preschool-age children are not provided affordable educational opportunities prior to entering kindergarten in many communities,” says Scott Collins, superintendent of the Fayette County School Corporation. “Students enter our kindergarten classrooms – after leaving Little Spartans Preschool – understanding all of the facets of school, and they have learned key skills and knowledge that serve as the foundation for literacy and math skills.”