Published: December 18, 2008 11:23 pm         

Four Wabash Valley schools are ‘Best Buys’

North, South among those honored by CoC

TERRE HAUTE — Four area high schools have been named to the 2008 Indiana Chamber of Commerce Best Buys list, which means they offer the highest levels of academic achievement for the lowest amount of tax dollars.

They are Terre Haute North Vigo High School; Terre Haute South Vigo High School; Clay City Jr.-Sr. High School; and North Central High School in Farmersburg.

The four also were given the “honor roll” distinction for excelling academically despite having at-risk student demographics above the statewide median. Only 23 out of 349 high schools examined achieved honor roll distinction.

The annual Indiana’s Best Buys report, now in its 10th edition, was released Tuesday by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

“Those schools are doing a good job with taxpayer dollars,” said Derek Redelman, the Chamber’s vice president for education and work force development policy.

By making the honor roll, “Not only are they getting a good return on dollars, but they are doing it with a little more challenging student population,” Redelman said.

Dan Tanoos, Vigo County School Corp. superintendent, said the school district works hard “to spend our money wisely on our students and our schools.”

The fact that North and South made the “best buy” and honor roll lists shows a team effort on the part of the school communities, he said.

It’s a credit to school staff, strong parental support, student effort and business partnerships, he said.

The study examined 349 Indiana public high schools and charter schools. Using ISTEP pass rates, ISTEP “pass plus” rates, graduation rates, SAT participation rates and average composite scores, and Advanced Placement (AP) passing scores, the Indiana Chamber developed a total school performance index for each school.

This index, called the school’s quality index, was then compared to each school’s total revenues per pupil to determine “best buy” schools.

From that list, “honor roll” schools were selected based on each school’s at-risk student/poverty rate, as measured by participation in the federal free/reduced lunch program.

For 2008, 132 public high schools were designated as a “best buy” for giving taxpayers the most value for their money. Two methods determined this honor. A school was named a best buy if it had a quality index above the state median and revenues below the statewide median of $9,313 per student. The second method was by having a quality index ranking that was 20 percent higher than the school’s revenues.

“All of these Best Buys schools are wisely using taxpayer dollars to educate and prepare Indiana’s future workforce,” said Indiana Chamber President Kevin Brinegar.

All data used in the Best Buys report was collected from Indiana Department of Education databases.

This latest edition of Indiana’s Best Buys includes a broad range of school performance data and an emphasis on high school graduation rates for the calculation of each school’s quality index. The AP measures and ISTEP pass plus rates are an attempt to give schools additional recognition for their attention to higher performing students.



Sue Loughlin can be reached at (812) 231-4235 or sue.loughlin@tribstar.com.