INDIANAPOLIS — One of the next steps in education reform in Indiana may make it tougher to get a high school diploma.

On Tuesday, the Indiana Education Roundtable voted to recommend the State Board of Education adopt new assessment standards aimed at countering the growing number of students coming out of school ill-prepared for the college or career training they need to land a good job.

The new standards, still in the making, would involve routine assessments of middle and high school students to gauge whether they’re on track to graduate with the skills and knowledge they need for the next step in life.

Students who fall short of meeting the standards could be redirected into remediation programs or face rejection by state colleges or universities until they do meet the new standards. Students who do meet the standards could be encouraged to accelerate their education, with incentives to graduate early or pursue advanced course work in science, technology, engineering and math.

The roundtable — an advisory board made up of education and business leaders appointed by the governor — voted to support assessment standards after hearing experts talk about the declining economic value of a high school diploma and the increasing demands for what it takes to get a good-paying job.

“The skill requirements ... are changing rapidly,” said Brian Bosworth, a workforce development consultant who heads Future Works.

That point was underscored by Anthony Carnevale, director of the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University. Carnevale said in the 1970s, when Indiana was at its peak in manufacturing jobs, about 70 percent of good-paying jobs in the state were held by people with only a high school diploma.

That number has plummeted, yet the state lags behind the nation and neighboring states in residents with college degrees and other post-secondary education, Carnevale said.  

The details on how college- and career-readiness assessment standards would work are still in development. Getting the State Board of Education to adopt such standards is among the next steps that have to be undertaken.

The concept of testing students beyond the ISTEP standardized tests that cover only a few subjects, to see if they’ll be ready for college or other post-secondary training reflects a national trend. Under President Obama, the U.S. Department of Education is pushing for shift away from test proficiency and more toward getting students ready for college and other career training by the time they graduate from high school.

In Indiana, it’s also being spurred by cost concerns. Dan Clark, executive director of the Indiana Education Roundtable, said the number of students coming out of Indiana high schools who aren’t ready for the next step is growing.

More than 30 percent of Indiana students enrolling in four-year colleges require at least one remedial class just to get them ready to take a freshman-level math or English course. More than two-thirds of Indiana’s community college students require remediation. Those remediation courses don’t give credits, and generally don’t qualify for tuition assistance. That mean students – or their parents – often have to eat the costs.

Clark said they also contribute to the state’s poor college completion rates, since students who have to take remediation classes in college have a higher likelihood of dropping out of college, leaving them with no degree but a significant amount of debt.

The goal of the new assessment standards, Clark said, is “for every student to be able leave high school to move into post-secondary education without a need for remediation.”

Maureen Hayden is Statehouse bureau chief for CNHI Indiana newspapers. She can be reached at maureen.hayden@indianamediagroup.com.