Glenda Ritz, left, state superintendent of public instruction for Indiana, visited briefly with fifth-grade teacher Mitch Willaman in a hallway during her visit to North Webster Elementary School Thursday afternoon.

Glenda Ritz said she has a “laser like” focus on getting things into classrooms teachers really need. During her visit to North Webster Elementary School Thursday afternoon, the state superintendent of public instruction had an opportunity to explain just how she intends to keep that focus.

Ritz travels around the state at least two to three times each week visiting schools, community leaders, businesses, industries, service clubs and more. Earlier Thursday, she visited a few schools in Warsaw.

After arriving at the school Ritz toured part of the building and visited a few classrooms along the way. She also stopped briefly in hallways to chat with students and teachers.

She then attended the “pow-wow” session where the entire student body gathers in the gym. Ritz sat on the gym floor among the students and observed as the fourth and fifth grade student ambassadors were introduced and also watched a video presentation, “Learn Like a Champion,” presented by the fifth grade teaching team and dealing with the importance of friendships.

Ritz addressed the student body briefly and promoted the Hoosier Family of Readers initiative of the Indiana Department of Education. After the pow-wow, she visited the kindergarten playground outside the building.

Later she spoke to staff members in the media center and answered a few questions. When asked how teachers can best support her, she encouraged teachers to let their views be known to legislators. She said teachers need to stay involved and talk among their neighbors and friends.

She noted she was not in favor of changes made a few years ago in the way teachers are evaluated and stressed evaluations need to be about more than just tied to student test scores. “It needs to be about skills assessment too,” she said.

“I am not a politician, though I have dealt with politics about my whole life,” Ritz emphasized. “I am focused on what it is we need to get in the classroom for teachers.”

As she has in the past, Ritz let her feelings be known about “high stakes testing.” She prefers more emphasis be placed on a growth assessment model instead of a pass or fail test. She noted the federal government requires pass or fail testing and it costs Indiana millions of dollars each year to administer tests such as ISTEP+. “You (teachers) already know who is going to pass the test before they take it,” she said.

The A-F accountability grading system for public schools administrators have often been critical of will look different this year, she said, and will be based on a 100 point scale. “You need to see the growth too,” she added.

In response to a question about early childhood learning initiatives at the state level, Ritz said she has placed a focus on building an infrastructure for early childhood learning. “We have an attendance age of 7 in the state,” she said. “We have kids who have not been to kindergarten or any early childhood learning. There is also no mandatory or fully funded kindergarten. And there is no infrastructure for pre-K at all or no standards for preschools.”

Ritz said Indiana has a 22 percent poverty rate and it creates numerous obstacles to learning.

She also spoke against Gov. Mike Pence’s Center for Education and Career Innovation initiative, saying Indiana only needs one education agency, the Indiana Department of Education.

After about a 90-minute stay at North Webster Elementary, Ritz left to return to Indianapolis. It was her second visit to the Wawasee Community School Corp., having visited Wawasee High School during the 2012-13 academic year.