Public schools currently face a $16 million deficit but lawmakers expect it to grow earlier next year when more data on students is available. Another shortfall for the 2018-19 school year could also happen, they say.
Three randomly assigned groups of low-income, at-risk students received either emergency financial assistance and mentorship support from a social worker, only the money or were in a control group which got neither.
Students in the full support group were about 15 percent more likely to graduate in the three year period of the study and 25 percent more likely to still be actively working toward their degree. They also found that receiving only emergency financial assistance didn’t make a substantial difference in student’s graduation rates.
Researchers at the University of Notre Dame are working on a program with community college students found those who receive mentorship support had a greater chance of completing an associates degree than those who didn’t. For the ‘Stay the Course’ program Notre Dame partnered with Catholic Charities of Fort Worth, Texas to pair students with social workers to address the underlying causes of drop-outs.
The Ivy Tech Keith Busse Steel Dynamics Tech Center in Fort Wayne. (Photo courtesy of Ivy Tech Community College)
Ivy Tech Community College’s new strategic plan calls for more than doubling the number of degrees earned by students in the next five years.
Ivy Tech President Sue Ellspermann wants to boost certifications, certificates and degrees awarded statewide from about 21,000 to 50,000 annually by 2023.
The plan being pursued now includes building a new intermediate school to house fifth and sixth grades, as well as adding additional classrooms to Goshen High School and renovating parts of the existing middle school.
It includes taking fifth graders out of existing middle schools and building a new intermediate school to house fifth and sixth grades, as well as adding additional classrooms to Goshen High School and renovating parts of the existing middle school.
The Goshen School Board voted today to propose a referendum aiming to address overcrowding issues in the district. They board will also propose an operational referendum with a primary focus on teacher salaries. Both referendums will be on the May 8th primary ballots for residents of the school district.
President Pro Tempore David Long (R-Fort Wayne) details the Senate Republicans\’ goals for the 2018 session. (Lauren Chapman/IPB News)
Senate Republican leaders outlined their 2018 priorities Monday. Those priorities include Sunday alcohol sales, the roll-out of mandated prescription monitoring to prevent opioid abuse, workforce development, and the regulation of property seizure.
Also included in those priorities is a bill to cover a school funding gap, by allowing the State Budget Agency to transfer reserve money.
The Indiana Statehouse. (Peter Balonon-Rosen/IPB News)
Lawmakers will consider legislation this session, that would create a type of early warning system to to help identify schools facing significant financial problems.
The state took over Gary and Muncie Community Schools last year after their finances reached crisis levels. Now, Sen. Eddie Melton (D-Gary) has filed legislation to prevent more major state takeovers by catching financial problems early. He says it’s a way the state could step in to help before it’s too late.
The Chinworth center will be the new home for The College of Business, a growing area of enrollment for the university. The ground level will house experiential learning offices and a one-stop student services area.
The center will also include a commuter lounge, coffee bar and offices for study abroad, honors, student activities and other programs.
Manchester University announced the details of what will become a $9.5 million dollar project on its main campus. The project will include a $8.5 million dollar building called the Lockie and Augustus Chinworth Center, named after the lead donor’s parents.
Sen. Mark Stoops (D-Bloomington) says Senate Bill 319 would help with a priority of the Republican supermajority: to better prepare students for jobs.
“This is a way to increase a number of people with degrees in our state. They are paying tuition, they are just not paying out of state tuition rates,” he says of the families of undocumented students. “They are enrolling in state colleges and universities ‒ and that is something I would think we would want to encourage.”
Two bills filed in the Indiana General Assembly would give different ways for immigrants who graduate from an Indiana high school to be eligible for in-state tuition. Since 2011 Indiana makes immigrant students who cannot prove state residency pay the more expensive out-of-state tuition rate. It is one of three states with this requirement.
Ball State President Geoffrey Mearns is paging through a first edition of Blackstone’s Magna Carta from 1759. He isn’t wearing white gloves.
“I’ve had the opportunity to go behind the scenes, so to speak, at the Library of Congress. They put those documents on the table, and they were handled by professionals with white gloves, and we were allowed to look at them. So this is a pretty special opportunity to actually be able to pick up a book.”
The book is part of a collection from Texas’s Remnant Trust that is meant to be a hands-on learning experience. People like Mearns are encouraged to touch and read the books.
A traveling collection of rare books from a trust in Texas is wintering at Ball State University in Muncie this year. Some of the editions are hundreds of years old, but aren’t being housed in a library vault.
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