Republicans have their first candidate for state school superintendent in next year's election.
Dawn Wooten is an adjunct English instructor at IPFW, Indiana Tech and the University of Saint Francis. She accuses Democratic incumbent Glenda Ritz and the Department of Education of failing to reach out to local schools to address concerns about testing, discipline and academic standards.
“The Department of Education has not done a good job of really visiting the schools, finding out what specific problems teachers and administrators are having as far as behavioral issues with students and how they feel about the ISTEP,” Wooten says.
Wooten has been a vocal critic of Common Core, and says she found the department lacking in initiative during a stint on a college and career readiness panel last year.
Wooten has never worked in the public schools, but says as a homeschool teacher, she had to follow the same standards. And she says she sees too many students enter her college classrooms with no concept of the basics of English composition, a failing she says is an indictment of Indiana schools.
State Board of Education member Cari Whicker, a middle-school English teacher in Huntington, is reportedly considering a campaign as well.
