Indiana’s education system received mixed results in this year’s Indiana Vision 2025 report from the Chamber of Commerce. The biennial report card tracks the state’s national ranking in fields like talent development, business climate, and infrastructure.
The scores came out earlier this month, ranking Indiana fourth-graders fourth in math and ninth in reading nationwide. Chamber President and CEO Kevin Brinegar said K through 12 education is a metric in which the state performs well.
“Our scores are improving, and our rankings are improving so there’s some good results and things to celebrate from our K-12 education system,” Brinegar said.
However, the report shows that the state’s students lose part of their competitive edge by the time they reach eighth grade. Brinegar said that some of these metrics are even lower among high school students.
“Part of the, I think, the drop off in high school relates to something we’re going to be talking about later this summer which is very small school districts who don’t have the ability to offer STEM courses or higher-reaching honors-type courses,” Brinegar said.
Brinegar said that he hopes expanding pre-k and offering more high-school courses will help prepare students for college and careers.