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With increasing national and international competition, the economic well-being of Indiana’s citizens and the quality of life of the state’s communities are tied directly to the strength of public education. Ensuring that Indiana’s citizens receive a high-quality education is an economic imperative and a moral obligation.

To thrive as a state and as individuals, all Hoosiers will need to achieve a depth and breadth of education never seen in the state’s history.

To meet this objective, the Indiana Commission for Higher Education adopted Reaching Higher: Strategic Initiatives for Higher Education in Indiana with specific recommendations in six key focus areas.

Moving from access to success
College Completion Action Paper

• Clearly and consistently establish completing college as the primary objective for all Indiana’s colleges and universities, with a focus on low-income students.
• Restructure higher education state appropriations and financial incentives to focus on degree and course completion rather than enrollment growth.
• Substantially eliminate all remedial courses at Indiana’s public four-year colleges and universities.
• Develop stronger relationships between colleges and universities and high schools, including aligning instruction, providing high school feedback reports, and expanding high-quality dual-credit and Advanced Placement (AP) opportunities.
• As part of their strategic plans, require colleges and universities to develop plans for improving college completion and provide progress reports.

Making college affordable
Affordability Action Paper

• Raise awareness among students and parents of the value of early planning and the availability of student financial aid, including establishing a “College Day” to provide college and financial aid information for every student as well as hands-on assistance for seniors in completing financial aid forms and college applications.

• Expand the Twenty-first Century Scholars enrollment program, targeting students who currently qualify but are not participating and raising eligibility limits so middle-income students can apply.

• Simplify Indiana’s state financial aid program, including ensuring that the March 10 deadline for financial aid is not a barrier.

• Provide the first two years of college free to middle- and low-income families.

• Encourage Indiana’s colleges and universities to design need-based financial aid programs that “wrap around” and leverage the Twenty-first Century Scholars program.

• Expand Indiana’s Part-Time Grant Program and focus eligibility on working adult students.

Preparing K–12 teachers, school leaders and students for college success
College Preparation Action Paper

• Call for revised standards for new teachers to provide clear and measurable expectations for entry-level teachers and ensure new teacher candidates have strong subject matter content knowledge and pass a test on reading instruction.

• Transform education schools into professional schools that focus on classroom practice. (Adopt medical school model).

• Collect and publicize data on the quality and effectiveness of Indiana’s teacher education programs.

• Promote teaching as a valued profession and accelerate recruitment into the fields of math, science, world languages
  and special education.

• Ensure that high school students have the academic preparation they need for college by encouraging them to work toward an advanced high school diploma, requiring them to take a rigorous math class their senior year and making world language a Core 40 diploma requirement.

• Gradually raise the curriculum admission requirement to Core 40 with Academic Honors at Ball State University, Indiana University Bloomington and Purdue University West Lafayette.

• Define a common college readiness assessment and a system of tools for K–12 students to help them know if they are on track for college.

• Partner with K–12 on strategies such as bridge programs; academic support; acceleration opportunities for Twenty-first
  Century Scholars; and expanded pre-AP, AP and dual-credit opportunities to improve college readiness of low-income and minority students.

Focusing the role of community colleges
Community College Action Paper

• Continue to define, brand and publicize what a comprehensive community college can provide to Indiana’s citizens, communities and economy.

• Establish a clearly defined floor for remedial instruction offered at local community colleges and restructure remedial offerings to successfully address students’ needs as quickly as possible.

• Develop, refine and bring to scale innovative instructional models designed to sharply increase the number of recent high school graduates and working adults who attend community college and earn an associate’s degree.

• Make transfer among colleges easier by agreeing on a common, core associate’s degree curriculum in specific fields.

• Coordinate and provide financial incentives for the expansion and delivery of workforce training to meet the needs of business and industry.

Strengthening Indiana’s major research universities
Major Research Universities Action Paper

• In the Indiana University and Purdue University strategic plans, identify what it means to be among the best major research universities in the country and the world, including identifying peer institutions and external rankings to assess progress.

• Identify specific metrics, including  research activity and economic development, and monitor progress.

• Develop strategies for improvement, including creating an Innovation Agenda, identifying additional funding sources, improving the academic preparedness of students, and attracting and retaining top research faculty.

Embracing accountability for results
Accountability Action Paper

• Report annually on a set of state-level dashboard indicators that are aligned to the Reaching Higher goals; show trends; and allow for state, national and international comparisons.
• Support efforts by Indiana’s colleges and universities to participate in the national Voluntary System of Accountability.
• Develop biennial reports from each college and university on progress toward institutional goals and efforts to increase institutional quality.
• Continue the research support adjustment incentive and additional performance funding incentives in the state higher education funding formula.

About Reaching Higher:

In June 2008,  Indiana Commission for Higher Education adopted a set of strategic initiatives that follow the 2007 adoption of its Reaching Higher: Strategic Directions for Higher Education in Indiana document, a set of aspirational goals for Indiana higher education.  The Reaching Higher initiatives make a series of recommendations and set accountabilities designed to advance a system of higher education in Indiana that places it among the best in the country by 2012 with regard to accessibility, affordability, degree completion and research, assuring the states’ citizens of opportunity and better quality of life.

To assist with this implementation phase, Chair Chris Murphy appointed a strategic directions committee to guide the work.  The Committee has drafted working papers with specific Reaching Higher recommendations in each of the six areas. Additionally, over the past year, the Committee has worked with the presidents of the state’s colleges and universities and invited input, comments, and suggestions in a variety of settings and across a broad array of stakeholders.

Supporting Documents: