The Ready Schools Initiative is a design-thinking framework to support school districts in aligning their PK-12 curricular and programmatic offerings to the educational and workforce needs of the Indiana Uplands.
Within our region, this workforce need is most pressing in our three key industry sectors: advanced manufacturing, life sciences, and national security and defense. The goal of this initiative is to enable schools 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 of this process will be a systemic PK-12 approach designed to support students in achieving their academic and career goals that are aligned with the workforce opportunities in the Indiana Uplands.
For more information, view the Ready Schools Program Overview.
| Ready Schools Cohort | County | School District | Status 2019-2020 School Year |
| I | Brown | Brown County School District | Implementation Year 2 |
| I | Dubois | Greater Jasper Community Schools | Implementation Year 2 |
| I | Dubois | Northeast Dubois Community Schools | Implementation Year 2 |
| I | Dubois | Southeast Dubois Community Schools | Implementation Year 2 |
| I | Dubois | Southwest Dubois Community Schools | Implementation Year 2 |
| I | Martin | Loogootee Community Schools | Implementation Year 2 |
| II | Greene | Bloomfield School District | Implementation Year 1 |
| II | Monroe | Monroe County Community School Corporation | Implementation Year 1 |
| II | Owen | Spencer-Owen Community Schools | Implementation Year 1 |
| II | Lawrence | Mitchell Community Schools | Implementation Year 1 |
| II | Martin | Shoals Community Schools | Implementation Year 1 |
| II | Orange | Orleans Community Schools | Implementation Year 1 |
| III | Greene | Linton Stockton School Corporation | Planning Year |
| III | Greene | White River Valley School Corporation | Planning Year |
| III | Monroe | Richland-Bean Blossom Community School Corporation | Planning Year |
Recent News on the Ready Schools Initiative:
- (8/26/19) Richland-Bean Blossom selected for third cohort of ROI Ready Schools initiative
- (8/19/19) Bloomfield school district awarded $405,000 ROI Ready Schools implementation grant
- (8/13/19) ROI awards a $590,576 Ready Schools implementation grant to Mitchell, Orleans, and Shoals schools
- (8/13/19) Two Greene County school districts selected for third cohort of ROI Ready School initiative
- (8/2/19) Spencer-Owen Community Schools awarded $500,000 ROI Ready Schools implementation grant
- (4/26/19) Video: Student-Run Businesses in the Indiana Uplands
- (1/23/19) High Schools Launch Manufacturing Businesses (via Inside Indiana Business)
- (8/16/18) Brown County Schools awarded ROI Ready Schools implementation grant
- (7/20/18) ROI awards Ready Schools grants to eleven school districts
- (1/24/18) Ready Schools explore applied manufacturing and engineering centers at VU & USI
- (11/20/17) Ready Schools visit student-run machine shop
- (7/21/17) Six Southwest Central Indiana school districts and communities selected for first cohort of ROI Ready Schools Initiative
