About

Writing in the Schools is a cooperative project involving the Butler University Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing  program and the Indianapolis Public Schools’ Shortridge Magnet High School for Law & Public Policy. This community outreach initiative seeks to help Shortridge students develop as writers and cultivate a passion for the written word.

There are several ways for Butler MFAs and undergraduates to get involved. Current students can enroll in EN 455–Writing in the Schools course, which will provide them with instruction in tutoring, discussion of contemporary issues in urban education, and the opportunity to log hours at Shortridge assisting with a variety of activities. Writing in the Schools is a three-credit course that fulfills the MFA program’s service requirement, as well as Butler’s Center for Citizenship and Community’s ICR credit. Current and former graduate and undergraduate students are encouraged to volunteer at Shortridge for a few hours or an entire semester. To learn more, click the How To Volunteer tab.

 

Shortridge Magnet High School At-A- Glance

The Basics

Student Profiles (2009-10)

  • Ethnicity: 67% Black, 16% Hispanic, 12% White, 4% Multicultural, 1% Asian
  • Free and Reduced Lunch: 82% Free, 12% Paid, 6% Reduced

2009 ISTEP Results – Percent Pass English/LA

  • 7th grade: 53% (67% state average)
  • 8th grade: 53% (65% state average)

Timeline

  • 1864: Shortridge (then called Indianapolis High School) opens at the corner of Vermont and New Jersey Streets.
  • 1898: The Daily Echo is established as the country’s first daily high school newspaper. It was published five days a week until 1970, when it became a weekly.
  • 1899: The school officially became known as Shortridge, after Abram Shortridge, the school’s original superintendent.
  • 1927: Crispus Attucks opened as an all-black high school. Shortridge became an all-black school.
  • 1928: School moved to 34th and Meridian Streets.
  • 1955: Radio station WIAN began a 15-year run broadcasting at Shortridge.
  • 1957: Shortridge was named one of the top 40 high schools in the country by Time magazine.
  • 1965: School board voted to make Shortridge a college preparatory school.
  • 1970: Shortridge made a comprehensive high school.
  • 1981: School was closed.
  • 1984: Shortridge was reopened as a middle school.
  • 2009: Shortridge became a law and public policy magnet for Grades 6-12.

Other Notables

  • There are 11 words inscribed above the front entrance: painting, sculpture, music, poetry, drama, education, culture, commerce, industry, philosophy, and ethics.
  • Shortridge is the state’s first free public high school and the oldest high school in the state.
  • The Daily Echo was the nation’s first high school daily newspaper.
  • Distinguished alumni: Kurt Vonnegut, Madelyn Pugh (writer for I Love Lucy), Senator Richard Lugar, Don Mellett (Pulitzer Prize winning journalist), Andy Jacobs (Indiana state legislator and congressman), Mary Ritter Beard (historian and activist), Booth Tarkington (attended but didn’t graduate, one of three novelists to win more than one Pulitzer Prize for fiction), Easley Blackwood (internationally acclaimed composer), Marguerite Young (published 1965 epic novel Miss Macintosh, My Darling), and Patricia Towers (former editor of Time, Vanity Fair, and O magazines).

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