INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The pandemic prompted the share of Indiana highschool graduates pursuing faculty or different post-secondary coaching to fall by six share factors, to 53%, in 2020, the state’s Fee for Increased Schooling stated.
That drop additionally marked an 18% decline from the place it stood in 2015, the fee stated in its Faculty Readiness Report launched Thursday.
“Indiana’s sharp one-year college-going decline is alarming, and we have now to deal with it as such. We all know particular person lives and the state’s economic system depend upon and thrive with an informed society,” stated Chris Lowery, who grew to become Indiana’s commissioner for larger training in April.
The report exhibits that the beforehand incremental decline within the share of scholars going straight from highschool to some type of faculty — from lower than one-year certificates by four-year levels — sped up in 2020, doubtless because of the influence of the pandemic. Over 5 years, the entire decline was 12 share factors.
The decline within the college-going fee for 2020 from the earlier college yr meant about 4,000 fewer highschool graduates went to varsity than the yr earlier than, the report stated. The drop was absorbed nearly completely by the state’s public schools as a result of almost the identical variety of Indiana highschool grads went to non-public or out-of-state colleges as within the earlier yr.
In 2015, 65% of Indiana highschool graduates went to varsity or into different post-secondary coaching.
Lowery stated the state “should look past the normal approaches to training for each youth and grownup learners.”
“This calls for extra intentional partnerships with our larger training establishments and employers, in addition to strengthened insurance policies and programming aligned to pupil success,” he stated.
The report really useful mechanically enrolling all eligible college students within the twenty first Century Students program. At the moment, fewer than half of eligible college students enroll in this system, regardless of its success at guaranteeing that college students have entry to and are ready for school.
The report additionally really useful growing funding for the Frank O’Bannon Grant, which yearly helps over 30,000 Hoosiers afford faculty. Funding for the grant was minimize considerably through the 2007-2009 Nice Recession. The report referred to as for returning grant ranges to the inflation-adjusted pre-Nice Recession ranges of 2008-09, which might quantity to a 35% enhance.