New CBER Research Offers a Clearer Way to Compare Indiana School Outcomes

Topics: Faculty, Miller College of Business, Research

March 25, 2026

New research from Ball State University's Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) provides a new, easy-to-use way to compare how Indiana public school corporations are performing-one that helps place test results in context and makes comparisons across very different communities more meaningful.

CBER's study uses a "value-added" method that looks at student outcomes and then estimates how much of the difference in school performance is associated with factors that school corporations cannot easily control-such as student poverty and other demographic characteristics-versus how much is associated with corporation-level practices and decisions. The research is intended to complement publicly available education data by offering an additional lens for understanding results.

"Indiana has strong, transparent data on student outcomes," said Dr. Michael Hicks, director of CBER and the George & Frances Ball Distinguished Professor of Economics in Ball State's Miller College of Business. "This approach helps communities compare results more fairly and identify school corporations that are getting strong outcomes given their circumstances, so others can learn from what's working."

The analysis draws on Indiana Department of Education data from the 2021-22 through 2024-25 academic years and examines multiple outcome measures, including iLearn results and SAT college-ready benchmarks. Across these measures, the study finds that student poverty is a major factor associated with overall performance-while also finding meaningful differences in outcomes beyond what would be predicted by poverty and demographics alone.

"Value-added measures are most useful when they're treated as a tool for learning and improvement," said Dr. Dagney Faulk, CBER director of research. "They can help communities identify peer districts facing similar circumstances, and then use that comparison to ask better questions about strategies, support, and progress over time."

To read the full study and explore the results, visit the CBER website.

Since its inception in 1970, Ball State's Center for Business and Economic Research has been a trusted source for high-quality, nonpartisan, data-focused research, analysis, and visualization. For more information, visit the CBER website, call 765-285-5926, or email [email protected].