In the 2004 indicators report, the Quality of Life Council assigned Northwest Indiana's relative position regarding educational progress as a C-. Despite a number of positive initiatives since that report was issued, when the council publishes its 2008 version of the indicators, the grade is likely not to change.
In communities serving a higher percentage of at-risk students, the costs for operating the educational program are much higher than in suburban communities where there are fewer at-risk students. As the report pointed out, the poverty rate, the number of students participating in free or reduced-price school lunch programs, the number of single-parent households and the educational-attainment level of the parents are all contributing factors. Nevertheless, we want to and must monitor our performance.
One indicator is the average SAT score of high school seniors.
Lamentably, our entire state has lagged significantly behind other states. In 2007 Indiana ranked 38th with a combined score of 1487, against a national average of 1511. Moreover, the students in some of Northwest Indiana's school districts are among the poorest performers in the entire United States.
While there are numerous problems with state-by-state SAT score rankings, and most educators correctly argue there are better indicators of statewide educational performance, consistently ranking in the bottom one-third helps tell the story of Indiana's historic lack of commitment to K-12 quality.
Another indicator is educational attainment. Here, Indiana's relative position has been embarrassingly low and has not moved in 30 years. In the category of "persons over the age of 24 with a bachelor's degree or more" Indiana ranks 47th with 15.6 percent against a national average of 20.3 percent. Only Nevada, Arkansas and Mississippi are lower.
Indiana's lack of all-day kindergarten and slow progress toward a statewide community college system are significant contributing factors. So, too, is our historic dependence on heavy manufacturing, agriculture and petrochemicals.
These economics were originally not education dependent, but clearly that is changing.
Efforts to improve literacy as well as funding for kindergarten are important and necessary steps if we are to become a true learning community. Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr.'s College Bound scholarship program represents a bold initiative by one municipality, but it remains to be seen whether it can be replicated elsewhere. The rise of charter schools represents yet another important initiative.
These and other programs are all designated to confront our community's most serious educational problems. While we have been slow to acknowledge our shortcomings, the fact that we increasingly recognize our educational challenges and are trying to address them is important. In the long run, the future of our community depends on our success.
