Board of trustees discusses issues in prep education around state

RICHMOND, Ind. -- Getting more high school students enrolled at IU was the topic of discussion at Friday's board of trustees meeting on the IU-East campus.\nThe College Preparatory Initiative, an IU program funded by a grant from the Lilly Endowment, works to increase enrollment capabilities for children of low-income families by showing middle school students and their parents that going to college is not an unrealistic goal. \nCPI Co-Director Jack Schmit and IU Vice President for Student Development and Diversity Charlie Nelms spoke about the program Friday. \n"These initiatives are designed to increase aspiration and participation," Nelms said. \nHe said the IU-Purdue University Indianapolis campus has been successful in this effort to reach out to students who may not otherwise consider college as an option. \nAlso, Indiana Commission for Higher Education Commissioner Stan Jones presented his report on policy and planning development of Indiana's higher education system. \nThe "P-16 Plan," a state educational reform plan which seeks to look at education in terms of preschool through undergraduate college, is receiving an "amazing" amount of support, Jones said.\nJones said the state is in need of an educational reform plan such as this.\n"Education in Indiana is a cacophony," he said. "We need to bring everything together as a chorus." \nA major concern addressed was how to make sure students graduating high school would be academically ready for college.\nTrustee Stephen Ferguson said high schools should get feedback from the university their student attends. This way schools can gauge how well they are preparing their students for college, he said. \nJones discussed the importance of college-preparatory curriculum in high schools, citing that high school curriculum is a key predictor of how students will fare in college, much better than SAT scores.\nHe suggested more technical programs should be offered in high school, so that students can be ready for college or for a career. \n-- Contact staff writer James Klaunig Jr. at jklaunig@indiana.edu.