Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. Last week, the Indiana Chamber of Commerce released a report commissioned from Ball State University’s Center for Business and Economic Research, which found that students in small school districts have lower academic achievement results than students in larger districts. The study’s authors point to resource constraints at small districts – defined as districts with enrollment of less than 2,000 students – that limit their ability to offer a broader array of rigorous course offerings, like AP Calculus and AP Chemistry. 19 percent of Indiana’s public school students are enrolled in districts with enrollment below the 2,000-student threshold, […]

There’s a growing body of evidence that Hoosier students are falling behind in competing in the 21st century knowledge economy. The most recent scores on ISTEP+ tests show the number of schools rated “F” on Indiana’s A- through-F grading system doubled. This comes under more rigorous standardized tests, which nearly two thirds of Indiana 10th graders failed to pass in math, and more than four in ten failed to pass in English Language Arts or science. An international benchmarking exam reflects similarly dismal outcomes nationwide. The Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA, which is administered to more than a half-million 15-year-olds in developed and developing countries around the globe, […]