In 2012, Pruitt was hired as the superintendent of the Gary Community School Corporation, after the school district sought to rectify years of financial imbalance. Given that the city of Gary, Indiana is known for having one of the country's highest rates of crime and debt since the 1990s, Pruitt spent her tenure primarily focused on disrupting the district's school to prison pipeline and renegotiating its contracts to lessen the financial debt. Under her leadership, the district's students achieved their highest literacy rates and lowest drop out rates in decades.
