Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. While Indiana has many proud accomplishments, the health of our state’s population is not one. According to United Health Foundation’s America’s Health Rankings, Indiana is in the bottom-third of states for overall health – at 39th. And a recent Gallup study on well-being ranks our state at 47th. What are the primary drivers of our poor health rankings? First and foremost: tobacco use, as evidenced by our state’s 20.6% smoking rate. Second is addiction to prescription pain killers and heroin use – collectively referred to as “opioid use disorder.” These challenges might seem daunting, but we know […]

Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Education released the latest scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), commonly referred to as “The Nation’s Report Card.” Indiana’s scores are disappointing and mirror the state’s recently released ILEARN results. In 2019, only 37 percent of Indiana 8th graders demonstrated proficiency in reading and math on NAEP. In 4th grade, 37 percent of students achieved proficiency in reading, while 47 percent were proficient in math. Average scores in reading declined and average scores in math held relatively steady since the test was last administered in 2017. While average scores in […]