Our impact

Since 2006, The Mind Trust has been on a journey to transform Indianapolis’ education landscape into a place ripe with opportunities for every student.

Our work has impacted thousands of Indianapolis students and made Indianapolis one of the best-positioned cities in the country to achieve lasting, systemic change that creates better opportunities for all K-12 students.

Results

See some of the ways The Mind Trust is helping to create an educational infrastructure that’s improving opportunities for every child in Indianapolis.

Indianapolis schools

The Mind Trust has supported the launch of more than 50 schools since 2012, including 26 Innovation Network Schools and 19 independent charter schools that currently serve over 12,000 students and will serve more than 15,000 students at scale.

The growth of autonomous schools has brought more students back into the public education system, reversing a decades-long enrollment decline. A 2022 study by Stanford University showed that students attending innovation and charter schools show significant learning gains compared to their peers in traditional schools. .

During the COVID-19 pandemic, The Mind Trust expanded its support for students attending Indianapolis schools by investing more than $276,000 to ensure families had access to e-learning support and supervision at no cost to them.

Indianapolis teachers

The Mind Trust believes supporting teachers is essential for providing world-class public education options so that children, no matter their background or circumstances, can excel.

That’s why we have provided teachers at over 100 schools with professional development and expert coaching, often significantly offsetting the cost for this support.

The Mind Trust also has helped with the placement of more than 1,750 teachers in district classrooms through our investment in and partnerships with:

Teach For America
TNTP’s Indianapolis Teaching Fellows
Relay Graduate School of Education’s Teaching Residency

Indianapolis families

More students are currently attending public schools—which include traditional schools, IPS Innovation Network Schools, and charter schools—within district boundaries than at any time since 1993. During the 2022-2023 school year, 40% of Indianapolis Public School students attended an Innovation Network School.

Meet the changemakers

Get to know the talented education innovators who are doing the work to create schools and ventures that improve students’ lives.

Kimberly Neal School Leader

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Francisco Valdiosera School Leader

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Closing proficiency gaps

In a 2022 study, researchers from Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes found that:

Students in Indianapolis charter schools made learning gains equivalent to 64 days of additional learning in reading and 116 days of additional learning in math
Students in Innovation Network Schools made learning gains equivalent to 38 days of additional learning in reading and 47 days of additional learning in math
Black students in charter schools made learning gains equivalent to 86 days of additional learning in reading and 144 days of additional learning in math
Latino students in charter schools made learning gains equivalent to 73 days of additional learning in reading and 109 days of additional learning in math

While unacceptable proficiency gaps continue to exist for Black and Latino students relative to their white peers, we continue to see that students of color who attend autonomous schools are much more likely to demonstrate proficiency and grow their learning at an accelerated pace.

See how great school leaders in Indianapolis—empowered with autonomy and accountability—are making a difference, especially with students of color.

View all reports

Indianapolis nonprofits

The Mind Trust has built an ecosystem of 15 education nonprofit organizations that support schools and families. We have supported the launch of these nonprofits through recruitment of nationally-recognized organizations and our Education Entrepreneur Fellowship.

News

2022 Annual Report CEO Message

Two Local Educators Selected for First Indianapolis Cohort of the Greenhouse E3 Fellowship

Q&A with Christel House Watanabe High School Senior Jaquelin Escobedo