ROI funds and assists school districts through a 10-month design thinking process to better align PK-12 curricular and programmatic offerings with the education and workforce needs of their communities. The goal of this initiative is to enable school districts to engage business leaders, community stakeholders, parents, and students in meaningful dialogue about what success means within their community and to develop a plan to obtain that success. The result is a collaborative approach and a comprehensive planning process designed to support students in achieving their academic and career goals through alignment with workforce opportunities in the Indiana Uplands.

School districts within the 11-county region of the Indiana Uplands are eligible to apply. If selected, districts receive funding and coaching through a 10-month development process and may be eligible to pursue implementation funding through ROI at the end of the development grant period.

Why Ready Schools?

An important component of Ready Schools is its emphasis on the workforce needs of the region’s leading industry sectors, helping schools and students develop pathways into high-opportunity jobs in the Indiana Uplands. ROI’s Occupational Needs Assessments, which analyze workforce trends and in-demand jobs, regularly identify three highly specialized industry sectors as drivers of the region’s economy: advanced manufacturing, life sciences, and national security and defense. All three sectors are seeing recent pronounced growth in physical presence, creating an even greater need to develop a pipeline of talent to support regional employers.

Indiana Uplands Industry Sector Employment & Workforce Demand
Source: ROI Occupational Needs Assessment 2026

  • Advanced Manufacturing: With more than 14,000 jobs, the Uplands region is a leader in advanced manufacturing, with outsized concentrations in furniture, food, and automotive/heavy equipment manufacturing. Across advanced manufacturing occupations, there is a projected need to fill 1,449 new roles annually over the next decade, with an additional need to reskill or upskill 603 professionals annually. In-demand roles include machine operators, assemblers, fabricators, engineers, machinists, welders, technologists, automation, and robotics specialists.
  • Life Sciences: With 8,900 jobs and a focus in both medical device and pharmaceutical production, the Indiana Uplands life sciences sector is concentrated in manufacturing and production. Across life science occupations, there is a projected need to fill 968 new roles annually over the next decade, with an additional need to reskill or upskill 379 professionals annually. In-demand roles include industrial engineers, bio- and biomedical engineers, chemical engineers, scientists, fabricators, packaging and filling machine operators, and chemical equipment operators.
  • National Security and Defense: Anchored by Naval Weapons Station Crane (NWS Crane), the world’s third-largest naval installation, and a robust network of defense contractors, this sector includes 8,300 federal and private jobs. Across civilian defense support occupations, there is a projected need to fill 216 new roles annually over the next decade, with an additional need to reskill or upskill 100 professionals annually. In-demand roles include civil, mechanical, chemical, electronic, and electrical engineers; logisticians; IT, computer, and software developers; surveyors; technical writers; and project managers.

Core Principles of Ready Schools:

  • Every student is engaged in a relevant path to success.
  • Students graduate high school ready for post-secondary and career success.
  • Meaningful and ongoing collaboration occurs among schools, industry, and community.
  • Teaching and learning are grounded in relevancy.
  • PK-12 schools are aligned around a common vision of student success.
  • Schools embrace the significant role they play in achieving regional prosperity.

Timeframe:

Selected school districts have 10 months to proceed through the first four phases of the Ready Schools Design Process to be ready to apply for implementation funding.

Process:

The Ready Schools process, developed by ROI and modeled on best practices for systems building and problem solving, includes:

Discovery Phase (3 months): The Discovery Phase engages design teams in a process of collaboration and data gathering. Through purposeful interviews with key constituencies, community members, and industry partners, the team begins to discover deeper community needs, develops a solid foundation for guiding questions, and listens to what others hope for their community schools.

Synthesis Phase (2 months): The Synthesis Phase builds on Discovery through learning and exploration. Here, the design team assembles the information gathered from stakeholders and begins to make sense of the needs and hopes of employers, educators, parents, and students. Context is developed by visiting model programs, researching strategies, and exploring relevant ideas to gain key insights and determine guiding questions.

Ideation Phase (2 months): The Ideation Phase involves having key stakeholders and the design team generate possible solutions and consider how the ideas fit together as a K-12 aligned system. The goal of Ideation is to create a pool of promising solutions to meet the needs of the students, community, and schools.

Refinement Phase (3 months): The Refinement Phase brings out the best solutions from Ideation and establishes a plan of action. With feedback and guidance from the advisory team and original stakeholders, the design team determines what will be done and develops a comprehensive strategic plan for how they will do it by building timelines, assessing needed resources, and determining roles and responsibilities of stakeholders. The goal of Refinement is to select a course of action and apply for funding for implementation.

Implementation (multiple years): With funding from ROI and potentially other sources, districts begin implementing the proposed strategies. Implementation is supported through technical assistance and guidance by ROI staff.

Funding:

Selected school districts are granted funding for the 10-month development process, including:

  • Funding for a full-time District Readiness Coordinator position (expected to be equivalent to 1.0 FTE).
  • Funding for travel expenses, exploration, materials, substitutes or stipends for team release time, and consultants.

Districts are eligible to apply for implementation funding following the development process. Implementation funding supports strategic plans that clearly address the six core principles and fit within ROI’s funding parameters.

For more information on Ready Schools, please contact Emily Menkedick, Director of Innovative Learning, at emily@regionalopportunityinc.org.