The Region 8 Comprehensive Center collaborated with the Indiana Department of Education to evaluate the obstacles many districts face in the teacher hiring process. The brief further discusses the importance of hiring timelines, benefits and barriers of early hiring, and recommendations and strategies for revising hiring timelines.

Most teachers have limited flexibility in terms of their schedules, their opportunities for professional learning and collaboration, and how they use their time. However, recent data suggests that rethinking teacher time could be important to improving teacher recruitment and retention. How can districts and schools provide teachers more…

The key measure of college success is the completion of a degree or certificate. This report measures the proportion of learners who complete their degree or certificate by campus. Nearly all of the new jobs being created in today's economy will require a credential beyond a high school diploma. That's why Indiana set a bold goal for at least 60…

States are grappling with policy strategies to determine attendance in the era of COVID-19 school closures and remote learning. Allowing districts and schools to develop an attendance policy using a combination of options to determine attendance can offer maximum flexibility. These options include, but are not limited to: (1) time on task (task…

Guided pathways are emerging as a strategy to help students complete a credential in a timely manner by encouraging or requiring them to select a program, and develop a degree plan or map, on a specified timeline. At a minimum, institutions may ask students to identify a meta-major, which is a broad area of academic programs with related courses…

Indiana's higher education landscape has undergone many changes throughout the years. As it continued to evolve to meet the needs of students and the economy, it became apparent the work of the Indiana Commission for Higher Education (Commission, CHE) must adapt as well. Shortly after Chris R. Lowery stepped into the role of Commissioner in 2022,…

The Indiana Commission for Higher Education's College Readiness Reports are designed to provide information on students entering college. The reports encompass the first year of college for students who graduated from high school during the previous academic year, and the College Readiness dashboard provides a closer look at longer-term outcomes…

It is well-documented that students of color, and other historically underserved students, have had less access to an equitable and supportive learning environment, perpetuating school failure and, too often, a school-to-prison pipeline that is difficult to escape. This report shows how a number of states are taking advantage of opportunities in…

Due to extensive research, we now know that in spite of extraordinary success in expanding access to American higher education over the last 60 years, far too little has been done to ensure that students complete college, even when they take 50 percent more time to complete the degree than full-time attendance should require. Obstacles to success…

It is too early to predict the long-term impact of Indiana's recent financial aid reforms. However, given the remarkable progress achieved after only one year, an encouraging picture is emerging that foreshadows significant future improvement as further awareness and intervention efforts take hold. Indiana is a national leader in providing…

Employers point to a large and growing "skills gap," saying thousands of jobs are already going unfilled because applicants lack the skills and knowledge they need. Forecasters say that, by the end of this decade, two-thirds of all jobs will require some form of high-quality postsecondary credential such as a degree or certificate. The…

Indiana University (IU) is a leading research university located in Bloomington, Indiana. Considered one of the top 100 universities in the world, IU has over 110 academic programs ranked in the top 20 nationwide in such diverse areas as medicine, law, business, education, the arts and sciences. But one program that is little known is the Indiana…

A recent Web search returned more than 1.1 billion hits for the phrase "time management," a concept that school leaders hear in seminars, read about in books, and are trained in during professional development. But, like principals, students too need the advantage of a little more time. One high school in Indiana is giving students the…

Most chief development officers (CDOs) genuinely like--and fully respect--their institution's leadership. Considered by many the most important professional relationship at an educational institution, a strong CEO-CDO connection takes insight, planning, and persistence on the part of the development officer. Theirs is a delicate relationship…

This article illustrates the efforts of educators in North Carolina to advocate for the social studies in an age of high-stakes assessment and tight budgets. Although this story begins with one state, the marginalization of social studies in elementary schools is a nationwide problem. The federal No Child Left Behind law (NCLB) is due for…