At-risk schools meet with Edu. chief

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Indiana's top education official is meeting with the state's worst-performing school districts in an effort to turn them around before a 2011 deadline.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett is meeting with 10 districts running 23 schools that have been placed on academic probation each of the past four years because of failures to show improvement on the state's standardized ISTEP test.

Under state law, schools that remain on probation for six straight years are subject to state intervention. That can include assigning a management team to run all or part of a school.

Jeff Zaring of the Indiana Department of Education says the schools have until May 2011
to craft a plan to improve student performance.

Information from: South Bend Tribune, http://www.southbendtribune.com