College Ready

How we’re preparing students for college

Our college readiness initiatives support the work of IU’s Office of School Partnerships, specifically focusing on three areas:

building pipeline analysis model using school through workforce data to assess and improve efforts to improve college readiness [read more]
systematically tracking IU's community engagement with Indiana's K-12 schools [read more]
expanding the availability and use of IU’s Indiana Common Core dual-credit course offerings and certificate program [read more].

Our high school to college pipeline initiative

INsite is a consortium of school districts which partners with and is supported by Indiana University School of Education. IU is working with four partner school districts—School City of East Chicago, Elkhart Community Schools, Madison Consolidated Schools, and Monroe County Community School Corporation—to develop a pipeline analysis that tracks students from K–12 education, into postsecondary education, and into the Indiana workforce. After using the pipeline analysis to identify “leakages,” project participants will conduct additional research to better understand the situation and identify strategies to increase student persistence and attainment. IU will work with the districts to design, implement, and assess interventions. The lessons gained from the assessment will aid continuous improvement.

Tracking and amplifying our engagement with K-12 schools

Following from participation in Understanding Engagement in Times of Crisis, a national project coordinated by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) American Democracy Project (ADP), the campuses of Indiana University have been documenting their engagement with K–12 schools and districts using the IU Collaboratory. Systematically documenting how faculty, staff, and students are working to improve K–12 education will enable Indiana University to identify assets and opportunities as well as inform a holistic strategy for developing effective community partnerships and models that address community-identified needs. To increase usability, a dashboard was developed for each IU campus and K-12 school district to view these collaborations in real time. In 2021, Collaboratory documented 170 new collaborations with 276 new partners.

Learn more about IU Collaboratory

Leveraging existing projects to support college readiness

Charting the Future aims to bolster existing projects of the Office of School Partnership that support Indiana College Core's advising programs, access to teaching resources, and campus-community partnerships in K-12 education.

Identifying bottlenecks

Students can take Indiana College Core (ICC) courses while in high school. Data have shown high school students' participation in the program significantly decreased the cost of college education and increased their success at college. However, there are various challenges hindering students from earning it.

Charting the Future supports the expansion and consolidation of onsite advising by IU students and alumni to help high school students complete the Indiana College Core successfully. To increase the number of college-ready students in Indiana high schools, IU Bloomington and regional campuses hired Pathway Specialists to work in partner high schools in each region supporting Indiana College Core Certificate programs utilizing IU’s Advanced College Project dual-enrollment curriculum.