Faculty and staff at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus (IUPUC) collaborated with colleagues at Ivy Tech Community College Columbus/Southeast, Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation, Decatur County Community Schools, and Jac-Cen-Del Community School Corporation as part of the Southeast Indiana Postsecondary Regional Partnership to develop college readiness tools aimed to:

• ensure greater clarity regarding expectations for college readiness and completion, and   
• promote active collaboration and greater alignment between the K-12 and higher education sectors.

The partnership developed a comprehensive brochure, “Are Indiana High School Graduates Ready for College?” The brochure was created to help students, parents, educators, counselors, advisors, and community stakeholders better understand college readiness and how intentional, thoughtful planning helps high school students prepare to be successful in college so they go onto graduate, begin their careers, and contribute to our local economies.                                              

High school curriculum and standards were analyzed by English/language arts and math teams, including postsecondary and regional K-12 faculty members, to increase alignment with college course objectives.

Detailed academic rubrics for English, Finite Math, College Algebra, and Calculus were created to identify specific knowledge and skills necessary for success in college credit-bearing courses without the need for remediation. An additional predictive evidence rubric describes characteristics and practices of successful high school and college students.

“We hope these locally-developed tools will provide useful information to students and parents/guardians as they consider important decisions about high school diploma types and course selection,” said Marsha VanNahmen, Assistant Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at IUPUC. “Our goal is for counselors, advisors, and educators to utilize and share these deliverables to advance conversations about authentic college readiness. Community stakeholders may find retention and completion data in the brochure of interest as it also impacts preparation for success in the workplace.”

Going forward, the college readiness initiative will inform the Gateway Community of Practice project, which is funded by the EcO Attainment Network and the Lumina Foundation. The Gateway Community involves IUPUC and Ivy Tech Community College Columbus/Southeast campuses and aims to improve postsecondary student retention and graduation rates by implementing student success strategies in high-enrollment, first-year gateway courses.  

The Gateway Community of Practice will further develop Supplemental Instruction (SI) practices which has proven to be a successful strategy for gateway course retention. This strategy places trained Student Leaders in informal study sessions to supplement the professor-led coursework and instruction. The combined strategies of the instructor-driven and student-delivered approaches will improve retention and increase completion at both IUPUC and ITCC.

The college readiness work originally began with a grant in 2012 funded by the Lumina Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The grant was coordinated and facilitated by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education (ICHE) in collaboration with the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) and managed by the Center for Excellence in Leadership of Learning (CELL) at the University of Indianapolis. Lumina Foundation continued to fund the initiative from 2014 to 2016.

All college readiness deliverables are accessible in digital format on the IUPUC Center for Teaching and Learning website www.iupuc.edu/ctl/collegereadiness.

Printed copies of college readiness materials are available by contacting Marsha VanNahmen at mvannahm@iupuc.edu or 812.375.7576.