When I read what my friend Purdue President Mitch Daniels is doing at the high ed level, I get fired up to do similar things at the K12 level. For years, we (the country) have been complacent and willing to accept students spending 13 years in school (K-12) and ending up with a high school […]
Category: Blog
Friends, Which school has the best College and Career Readiness rating in Gary, Indiana? Yep. GEO’s 21C! Check these stats (the higher the number, the better). 21C—80.5 Roosevelt—65.2 Thea Bowman—57 Gary Westside—39.5 Steel City—31.7 Gary Lighthouse—29.5 Wow! And just to put a bigger smile on your face, Carmel, one of the richest districts in the […]
Great to see 65% of @21stCharterGary Class of 2015 students persist to a second year in college compared to 23% of similar IN students statewide. We still have lots of work to do but we are on the right path.

Gary’s 21st Century Charter High School Students On Track to Earn 20 College Credits Each by May 2019
Nov 29, 2018
Dear Friends: Today, I’m giving thanks for what our families in Gary, Indiana are proving can be done when you put your mind (literally, your mind) to it. I just received a report from our wonderful high school counselor and we counted up the number of college credits each senior is on track to earn […]
Dear Friends: As we take a moment to pause for Thanksgiving, I thought I would share a few inspiring reflections from the past few months at GEO Academy schools. The ladies above are high school cheerleaders at 21st Century Charter School in Gary, Indiana. All of them are also currently taking college level courses at […]
On Friday, October 19th, 2018, seven members of the Gary Middle College East/West chapter of Sister 2 Sister traveled to Indianapolis for the annual Student African American Sisterhood (SAAS)/ Sister 2 Sister (S2S) National Conference. The conference was held at the Sheraton Hotel at Keystone at the Crossing. For many of the current members, this […]
Friends, when we started talking about high school students in Gary, Indiana graduating with college credits and even Associate Degrees back in 2009, everyone thought we were crazy. But then we had our first student earn his Associate degree while in our high school in 2012. He inspired many others to follow in his foot […]

“I Can Get By With A Little Help From My Friends!” New Schools Baton Rouge Provides Key Friendship
Oct 01, 2018
Dear Friends: The lyrics from the Beatles song ring true when I think of the folks at New Schools Baton Rouge. This incubator of quality schools and creator of quality educational ecosystems is doing a terrific job supporting and recruiting high quality schools to Baton Rouge. This became abundantly clear this past week during our […]
Dear Friends: Indiana released preliminary report cards for the state’s schools today and while I can’t give you our actual grade–until next month when the State Board of Education votes to approve it–I can tell you our grade is better than last year. And yes, we are excited. For now, I can tell you this. […]
Dear Friends: Last week, I was able to visit our schools in Gary, Indiana. While there, our high school cheerleaders were practicing and the coach called me over to meet some of the young ladies. The coach wanted to inform me that several of our cheerleaders have already earned 30 college credits. Each of the […]