Historical public education information in Indiana, 2011-2015

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Education policy in the U.S.

Public education in the U.S.

School choice in the U.S.

Charter schools in the U.S.

Higher education in the U.S.

Glossary of education terms

Education statistics

This page contains archived information on Indiana's public education system, primarily from 2011-2012, but also from other years due to the availability of data at the time it was written. For more recent information, view Indiana's public education page.

The Indiana public school system (prekindergarten through grade 12) operates within districts governed by locally elected school boards and superintendents. In 2012 Indiana had 1,040,765 students enrolled in a total of 1,933 schools in 394 school districts. There were 62,339 teachers in the public schools, or roughly one teacher for every 17 students, compared to the national average of 1:16. There was roughly one administrator for every 333 students, compared to the national average of one administrator for every 295 students. On average Indiana spent $9,370 per pupil in 2011, which ranked it 32nd highest in the nation. The state's graduation rate was 86 percent in 2012.

State agencies

See also: Indiana Department of Education

The Indiana Department of Education is led by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, who is elected to four-year terms in partisan elections. The Superintendent of Public Instruction as of 2015 was Glenda Ritz.

The Indiana State Board of Education is tasked with establishing the state's education policy. The board is composed of 11 members. The Superintendent of Public Instruction serves as the board's chair. The remaining 10 members are appointed by the governor (one from each of the state's congressional districts and one at-large member).

Regional comparison

See also: General comparison table for education statistics in the 50 states and Education spending per pupil in all 50 states

The following chart shows how Indiana compared to three neighboring states during the 2011-2012 school year with respect to number of students, schools, the number of teachers per pupil, and the number of administrators per pupil. Further comparisons between these states with respect to performance and financial information are given in other sections of this page.

Regional comparison, 2011-2012
State	Schools	Districts	Students	Teachers	Teacher/pupil ratio	Administrator/pupil ratio	Per pupil spending
Indiana	1,933	394	1,040,765	62,339	17	333	$9,370
Illinois	4,336	1,075	2,083,097	131,777	16	283	$10,774
Michigan	3,550	869	1,573,537	86,997	18	336	$10,823
Ohio	3,714	1,079	1,740,030	107,972	16	329	$11,223
United States	98,328	17,992	49,521,669	3,103,263	16	295.2	$10,994
Sources: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "State Nonfiscal Public Elementary/Secondary Education Survey", 2011-12 v.1a. National Center for Education Statistics, Table 2. Number of operating public schools and districts, state enrollment, teacher and pupil/teacher ratio by state: School year 2011–12 U.S. Census Bureau, "Public Education Finances: 2011,Governments Division Reports," issued May 2013

Demographics

See also: Demographic information for all students in all 50 states

The following table displays the ethnic distribution of students in Indiana as reported in the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data for 2011-2012.

Demographic information for Indiana's K-12 public school system
Ethnicity	Students	State percentage	United States percentage**
American Indian	1,923	0.29%	1.10%
Asian	24,546	1.72%	4.68%
African American	72,122	12.20%	15.68%
Hawaiian Nat./Pacific Isl.	373	0.05%	0.42%
Hispanic	108,165	8.96%	24.37%
White	337,489	72.46%	51.21%
Two or more	9,819	4.31%	2.54%
**Note: This is the percentage of all students in the United States that are reported to be of this ethnicity.

Enrollments by region type

See also: Student distribution by region type in the U.S.

During the 2011-2012 school year a plurality of students in Indiana attended rural schools. Approximately 51 percent of the state's students attended city or suburban schools. Roughly 49 percent attended rural or town schools.

Student distribution by region type, 2011-2012 (as percents)
State	City schools	Suburban schools	Town schools	Rural schools
Indiana	27.9%	23.2%	14.7%	34.1%
Illinois	34.1%	43.3%	10.3%	15.1%
Michigan	23.8%	40.2%	11.4%	24.6%
Ohio	19.7%	39.6%	13.5%	27.3%
U.S. average	28.9%	34%	11.6%	25.4%
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD)

Academic performance

Education terms
For more information on education policy terms, see this article.
School board elections portal Glossary of education terms School choice on the ballot Education on the ballot

NAEP scores

See also: NAEP scores by state

The National Center for Education Statistics provides state-by-state data on student achievement levels in mathematics and reading in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Compared to three neighboring states (Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio), Indiana boasted the largest share of fourth and eighth grade students scoring at or above proficient in mathematics during the 2012-2013 school year.

Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013
	Math - Grade 4	Math - Grade 8	Reading - Grade 4	Reading - Grade 8
Indiana	52%	38%	38%	35%
Illinois	39%	36%	34%	36%
Michigan	37%	30%	31%	33%
Ohio	48%	40%	37%	39%
U.S. average	41%	34%	34%	34%
Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express, "State Tables," accessed May 13, 2014

Graduation, ACT and SAT scores

See also: Graduation rates by groups in state

See also: ACT and SAT scores in the U.S.

The following table shows the graduation rates and average composite ACT and SAT scores for Indiana and surrounding states in 2012 and 2013.

Comparison table for graduation rates and test scores*
State	Graduation rate, 2012		Average ACT composite, 2012		Average SAT composite, 2013
	Percent	Quintile ranking**	Score	Participation rate	Score	Participation rate
Indiana	86%	First	22.3	32%	1,470	70%
Illinois	82%	Third	20.9	100%	1,807	5%
Michigan	76%	Fourth	20.1	100%	1,782	4%
Ohio	81%	Third	21.8	71%	1,635	17%
U.S. average	80%		21.1		1,498
*Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Rate (except for Idaho, Kentucky, Oklahoma, which did not report “Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate,” but instead used their own method of calculation). **Graduation rates for states in the first quintile ranked in the top 20 percent nationally. Similarly, graduation rates for states in the fifth quintile ranked in the bottom 20 percent nationally. Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express

Dropout rate

See also: Public high school dropout rates by state for a full comparison of dropout rates by group in all states

The high school event dropout rate indicates the proportion of students who were enrolled at some time during the school year and were expected to be enrolled in grades 9–12 in the following school year but were not enrolled by October 1 of the following school year. Students who have graduated, transferred to another school, died, moved to another country, or who are out of school due to illness are not considered dropouts. The average public high school event dropout rate for the United States remained constant at 3.3 percent for both school year 2010–2011 and school year 2011–2012. The event dropout rate for Indiana was lower than the national average at 1.8 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 2.1 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.

Educational choice options

See also: School choice in Indiana

As of June 2015, school choice options in Indiana included: charter schools, a school voucher program, tax credits, and intra-district and inter-district enrollment policies. In addition, about 10.22 percent of school age children in the state attend private schools, and 3.02 percent were homeschooled as of 2014.

Education funding and expenditures

See also: Indiana state budget and finances

Breakdown of expenditures by function in fiscal year 2012
Source: National Association of State Budget Officers

According to the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO), Indiana spent approximately 32.9 percent of its fiscal year 2012 budget on elementary and secondary education. As a share of the budget, this was up 9.4 percentage points, or 40 percent, from fiscal year 2008, when the state spent 23.5 percent of its budget on elementary and secondary education.

Comparison of financial figures for school systems
State	Percent of budget (2012)	Per pupil spending (2011)	Revenue sources (2011)
			Percent federal funds	Percent state funds	Percent local funds
Indiana	32.9%	$9,370	8.8%	62.12%	29.08%
Illinois	15.8%	$10,774	10.09%	32.42%	57.49%
Michigan	27.2%	$10,823	13.75%	55.03%	31.22%
Ohio	20.6%	$11,223	11.65%	44.31%	44.04%
Sources: NASBO, "State Expenditure Report," Table 8: Elementary and Secondary Education Expenditures As a Percent of Total Expenditures U.S. Census Bureau, "Public Education Finances: 2011,Governments Division Reports," issued May 2013

Revenue breakdowns

See also: Public school system revenues in the U.S.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, public school system revenues in Indiana totaled approximately $12 billion in fiscal year 2011. The table below presents further detail, including revenue sources, for Indiana and surrounding states.

Revenues by source, fiscal year 2011 (amounts in thousands)
	Federal revenue	State revenue	Local revenue	Total revenue
Indiana	$1,059,777	$7,483,801	$3,503,856	$12,047,434
Illinois	$2,895,524	$9,304,948	$16,499,969	$28,700,441
Michigan	$2,677,078	$10,710,646	$6,075,517	$19,463,241
Ohio	$2,762,051	$10,510,451	$10,446,108	$23,718,610
U.S. total	$74,943,767	$267,762,416	$264,550,594	$607,256,777
Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Expenditure breakdowns

See also: Public school system expenditures in the United States

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, public school system expenditures in Indiana totaled approximately $11.1 billion in fiscal year 2011. The table below presents further detail, including expenditure types, for Indiana and surrounding states.

Expenditures by type, fiscal year 2011 (amounts in thousands)
	General expenditures**	Capital outlay	Other***	Total expenditures
Indiana	$9,769,064	$881,151	$423,657	$11,073,872
Illinois	$24,525,567	$1,884,976	$1,138,206	$27,548,749
Michigan	$16,728,164	$1,334,386	$1,269,168	$19,331,718
Ohio	$19,673,291	$2,516,739	$1,068,376	$23,258,406
U.S. total	$520,577,893	$52,984,139	$29,581,293	$603,143,325
**Funds spent operating local public schools and local education agencies, including such expenses as salaries for school personnel, student transportation, school books and materials, and energy costs, but excluding capital outlay, interest on school debt, payments to private schools, and payments to public charter schools. ***Includes payments to state and local governments, payments to private schools, interest on school system indebtedness, and nonelementary-secondary expenditures, such as adult education and community services expenditures. Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Personnel salaries

See also: Public school teacher salaries in the United States

Note: Salaries given are averages for the state. Salaries may vary between a state's urban, suburban, and rural districts and should be adjusted for cost of living. For example, a MacIver Institute study of average teacher salaries in 60 metropolitan areas found that salaries in New York City were the third-highest in absolute figures but 59th-highest when adjusted for the cost of living.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average national salary for classroom teachers in public elementary and secondary schools declined by 1.3 percent from the 1999-2000 school year to the 2012-2013 school year. During the same period in Indiana, the average salary decreased by 10 percent.

Estimated average salaries for teachers (in constant dollars**)
	1999-2000	2009-2010	2011-2012	2012-2013	Percent difference
Indiana	$57,192	$53,357	$51,357	$51,456	-10%
Illinois	$63,527	$66,264	$58,595	$59,113	-6.9%
Michigan	$67,023	$61,867	$62,585	$61,560	-8.2%
Ohio	$56,626	$59,732	$57,659	$58,092	2.6%
U.S. average	$57,133	$58,925	$56,340	$56,383	-1.3%
**"Constant dollars based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), prepared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, adjusted to a school-year basis. The CPI does not account for differences in inflation rates from state to state."

Organizations

Unions

In 2012 the Fordham Institute and Education Reform Now assessed the power and influence of state teacher unions in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Their rankings were based on 37 different variables in five broad areas, including: resources and membership, involvement in politics, scope of bargaining, state policies and perceived influence. Indiana ranked 31st overall, or "average," which was in the third of five tiers.

The main unions related to the Indiana school system are the Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA), an affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA), and the Indiana Federation of Teachers, an affiliate of American Federation of Teachers. ISTA is the largest education association in the state. For the 2003 tax period ISTA had: $19.2 million in total revenue, $19.0 million in total expenses and $20.8 million in total assets. For the same period, the Indiana Federation of Teachers had: $524,032 in total revenue, $579,406 in total expenses and $232,097 in total assets.

List of local Indiana school unions:

• Indiana State Teachers Association
• Indiana Federation of Teachers
• AFT Local 519 (Anderson, Indiana)
• AFT Hammond Teachers Local 394
• Columbus Educators Association
• Warrick County Teachers Association
• Indianapolis Education Association

Government sector lobbying

See also: Indiana government sector lobbying

The main education government sector lobbying organization is the Indiana School Boards Association.

Studies and reports

State Budget Solutions education study

See also: State spending on education v. academic performance (2012)

State Budget Solutions examined national trends in education from 2009 to 2011, including state-by-state analysis of education spending, graduation rates and average ACT scores. The study showed that the states that spent the most did not have the highest average ACT test scores, nor did they have the highest average graduation rates. A summary of the study is available here. The full report can be accessed here.

See also

• Public education in Indiana
• Indiana
• Education Policy in the U.S.