Indiana Chamber of Commerce | Indiana’s Education Best Buys

Indiana’s Education Best Buys

Letter from the President
Kevin M. Brinegar

A good education provides a solid foundation for success in the workforce and life in general. In recent years, Indiana's K-12 education system has made significant strides, with reforms implemented to ensure higher standards and accountability (e.g., Core 40 curriculum and tighter drop-out restrictions). These reforms will shape the state's economic strength in the 21st Century. Our children must be able to perform in the high-skill, high-wage jobs of the future. They will also need to have more technical, reasoning, communication and interpersonal skills to succeed in a global marketplace. As parents, educators, and business and community leaders, we must rise to the occasion and ensure that our children are equipped for this high-tech future.

The ninth edition of Indiana's Best Buys report offers an opportunity to examine the progress of our state's high schools. The report is designed to accentuate the positive aspects of Indiana's high schools and to point out areas in which schools can improve. The report is not designed to criticize any school or school corporation. Its purpose is to recognize those public high schools that are providing exceptional educational value for the tax dollars they receive. Best Buy schools are those that offer all of us, as taxpayers and stakeholders in the public education system, the greatest return in terms of student achievement for our educational dollar.

The multifactor analysis used in Indiana's Best Buys represents one way to measure the quality of our public high schools. It is by no means the only way to measure return on investment or student performance. Indeed, this year's report reflects several changes that are intended to provide greater focus on high school outcomes and a clearer picture of school spending. Details of these changes are included in the report.

The staff of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce looks forward to working with you and others to help expand and replicate educational programs that are successful. We also look forward to helping strengthen those school programs that are not achieving at the highest levels possible. Hoosier taxpayers deserve the strongest possible return on their educational investment; and all Hoosier children deserve a future that can be afforded them only through a high-performing K-12 education system. As this report demonstrates, those two goals can be achieved simultaneously.

Sincerely,

Kevin M. Brinegar