Perry Township school finalist for 'World's Best School' prize

A Perry Township school made the top 10 shortlist for a global school competition for its community collaboration work with helping its Burmese refugee students.

The William Henry Burkhart Elementary School was announced on Thursday to be in the running for possibly winning a $50,000 prize from T4 Education, a UK-based organization that focuses on improving education worldwide through its digital platform.

Burkhart Elementary is only one of four other U.S. schools being considered for one of T4’s five “World’s Best School Prizes.”

The school is being considered for the “Community Collaboration” prize for its work in supporting its Burmese student population with its partnership with local community groups to provide wrap-around services for students and their families.

The Perry Township school district serves a little over 16,400 students and around 4,462 are Burmese students. Of those Burmese students, 2,378 are English language learners, which is a drastic increase from just 25 years ago when the entire district only had 18 English language learners.

More Perry School News: Perry Township high schools to start using weapons detector

The Burmese community in Indiana, which includes foreign-born and U.S.-born, is one of the largest in the country, according to the Burmese American Community Institute. About 35,000 Burmese people call the Hoosier state home, with 24,000 of those living in Indianapolis as of 2020.

In Burkhart Elementary alone, close to half of its student population is Burmese and 160 of those Burmese students are also English language learners.

Burkhart school’s principal, Darlene Hardesty, started out as a teacher at the school in 2005, around the same time the district saw the rapid increase of Burmese refugees and English language learners.

“We really had to dig deep to figure out how are we going to help these kids,” Hardesty told IndyStar ahead of Thursday’s event. “How are we going to differentiate instruction so that we can teach children who are on grade level, but also children who are struggling because they haven't been exposed to the English language.”

Hardesty said that meant more collaboration was used throughout the grade levels at the school, as well as partnerships with community groups like local churches who helped provide wrap-around services to the Burmese families.

The local community groups help provide everything from winter clothes and jackets to basic kitchen supplies to also providing weekend food bags to help feeds kids when they are out of school.

More School News: Here's who uses Indiana's private school voucher program

The school and district also started using SIOP, or Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol, which is a research-based instructional model that centers on addressing the academic needs of English language learners by incorporating those students in the classroom instead of pulling them out separately from native-English speakers.

Burkhart also partnered with the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) to help provide instructional support for teachers and institute best practices that now all schools in Perry Township use as well.

Even despite having this rapid growth of English language learners in the district, Perry Township schools are the third most proficient school district in Marion County, according to 2022 ILEARN test scores.

Perry Township’s director of elementary education, Star Hardimon, said she believes that is due in part to the welcoming environment schools like Burkhart have been able to provide its students.

“Relationship is honestly the first thing, that’s all that matters when it first starts,” Hardimon said. “We can throw all the academics at students, but the relationships and how an environment feels is so critical.”

IUPUI to be no more: IUPUI approved to be dissolved, two separate education entities created

Sun Par, a graduate of Perry Township schools, said she felt that warm embrace when first starting school at Burkhart in the fourth grade after coming to Indianapolis after leaving her home in Burma.

Par shared her story of being a student struggling to learn English but has now graduated from IUPUI with a degree in Elementary Education and has plans to come back to Perry Township to work as a teacher.

“I am proud to say that I am the American dream and I wouldn’t be able to say this if it weren’t for Henry Burkhart Elementary school and of course all of my amazing and gifted teachers,” Par said.

The top three finalists for each of the five World’s Best School prizes will be announced in September followed by the winners being announced in October.

Contact the reporter at 317-618-5807 or CBeck@gannett.com.

This story is made possible by Report for America and Glick Philanthropies. As part of its work in Marion County, Glick Philanthropies partners with organizations focused on closing access and achievement gaps in education.

Report for America is a program of The GroundTruth Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening local newsrooms. Report for America provides funding for up to half of the reporter’s salary during their time with us, and IndyStar is fundraising the remainder.

To learn more about how you can support IndyStar’s partnership with Report for America and to make a donation, visit indystar.com/RFA.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: This Perry Township school is a finalist for a global school prize