An Indianapolis nonprofit is betting that a school reform plan with roots in Africa can help turn around a troubled Indianapolis public school.
Mahmoud Sayani, one of three winners of a second round of $100,000 fellowships financed by the Mind Trust and designed to incubate ideas for Indianapolis Public Schools, hopes to build on lessons he learned running a network of private schools in Kenya called Aga Khan Education Services.
The other winners were Kevin Kubacki and Shenae Staples of Enlace Academy, a charter school that shares space in an IPS building, and Sheila Dollaske, principal of IPS’s Key Learning Community, a K-12 school known for an emphasis on project based learning.
The fellows get the money, support from The Mind Trust and time off to develop their ideas for how to improve schools. They will eventually pitch their plans to the Indianapolis Public School Board, which can choose to try them out at some of their lowest-scoring schools. School 103 was recently picked for an overhaul by one of last year’s winners, a team of Marlon Llewellyn and Earl Phalen of the Phalen Leadership Academy charter school network.
Ismailimail 