Indiana spends about $7 billion a year on K-12 schools and claims to be a pioneer in education reform. Yet thousands of its high school students are graduating without the basic math, reading and writing skills needed to succeed in college.
That’s what a series of reports from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education have shown since the state started tracking data on the college-readiness of its students six years ago.
In 2011 – the most recent year available – 41 percent of Indiana high school seniors who graduated from public schools with the state’s required “college preparatory” diploma, known as Core 40, had to take at least one remedial course after enrolling at one of Indiana’s state-supported colleges. Most learned they needed the remediation only after failing the placement exams used to assess the abilities of incoming freshmen.
The numbers are now driving a renewed effort among state officials to close what they see as a major disconnect between the skills and knowledge students gain in high school and those colleges and universities expect.
“We must do better,” said Indiana’s commissioner for higher education, Teresa Lubbers. “When we hand students a high school diploma, they and their families assume it indicates they're ready for postsecondary coursework. Too often, they’re not.”
‘Enemy of completion’
College preparedness is a national problem. More than 1.7 million college freshmen across the U.S. take remedial courses each year. The annual cost of remediation to states, schools and students is close to $7 billion, according to a 2012 report by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Much of that money seems wasted: Fewer than 50 percent of students enrolled in remedial courses complete them. Those who do find their path to graduation delayed or derailed. Two-thirds of students in four-year colleges needing remediation fail to earn their degrees within six years. Fewer than 8 percent of students in two-year colleges earn their degrees within four years.
As Lubbers describes it: Time is the enemy of completion.
“If it takes too long, it’s much less likely students will graduate, and much more likely that they’ll leave without a degree but owing thousands of dollars in student loan debt hanging over their head,” she said.
The burden is felt not just by students but the state. Over the last decade, Indiana’s college attainment rate has dropped to 41st in the nation. During the same time, Indiana has fallen into the bottom third among states for percentage of residents living in poverty and to 40th in the nation for per capita personal income.
“Our educational attainment levels are dangerously low,” said Ball State University economist Michael Hicks, who released a study in August that found the average Hoosier’s paycheck was stuck in the 1990s. “It’s insufficient to the task of turning the state around.”
From a taxpayer’s standpoint, remediation is like paying for the same education twice. At Ivy Tech Community College, about two-thirds of incoming freshmen have to take remedial coursework. It’s closer to one-third for students attending the state’s four-year public universities.
“The data from our perspective is fairly clear: Earning a Core 40 diploma is not an indicator of college readiness,” said Ivy Tech President Tom Snyder.
But thousands of Indiana students come to college believing otherwise.
Class ill-prepared
Gov. Mike Pence made college readiness one of his top priorities when taking office last January, along with re-aligning the state’s vocational and technical education system to make students better ready for employment when they leave high school.
“The need to remediate our high school graduates is a failure for our students,” he’s said.
His plan, suggested by the Education and Workforce Development Commission in 2012, would have kids taking those classes during their senior year in high school.
The overall goal would be to nearly double the number of Hoosiers with college degrees by 2025.
The Indiana College Readiness Report, released in April, suggests Pence’s call for stiffer high school standards could increase college graduations.
Howard County high schools graduated 917 students in 2011, and 631 of them enrolled in college that fall, according to the April report. Those who earned an honors diploma – 223 of whom enrolled in a public college -- averaged a 3.1 grade point average their freshman year. Those who graduated with a Core 40 diploma averaged a 2.1 GPA.
Worse yet, 42 percent of Howard County’s Core 40 graduates enrolled at a state-sponsored college were required to take remedial classes at college. At the end of their freshman year, the Core 40 graduates averaged just 16.29 college credits – about half the number needed to be considered a college sophomore.
By 2018, 55 percent of Indiana jobs will require some postsecondary education, according to a recent report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.
With Pence’s leadership, the state must act to meet that demand. And it must start by raising high school graduation standards.
The next generation is counting on it.