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Section 5: Education
The fifth section of the questionnaire asks respondents their opinions about education in terms of its ability to serve the needs of the business community. This section is considerably shorter than it was in previous years because we omitted most of the general questions in 2009. Responses to the general education questions were extremely consistent over the first two years and we decided that we could track perceptions of general education adequately by including such questions on a biannual basis.
The only question in this section of the 2009 survey asks about the strength of educational programs that train people to work in specific industries, most of them associated with the state's economic development initiatives. Results for this question appear in Figure 10.
Ratings for six of the nine educational program areas are statistically equivalent to the ratings from 2008, indicating that perceptions of these programs remain stable. Once again, "agriculture" received the highest rating while "film" received the lowest. "Motor sports" and "life sciences" have essentially exchanged rankings due to a significant increase in the former and a significant decrease in the latter. The rating for "alternative energy sources" has also declined significantly.
Mean ratings for all other programs are above the scale midpoint of "4," indicating slightly positive perceptions of these programs.
Respondents from central Indiana rate several of the programs higher than do their non-central Indiana counterparts: "information technology," "advanced manufacturing," "motor sports," and "film." Older CEOs and those from larger organizations also tend to rate educational programs higher.
It is important to consider that large minorities of respondents indicate they are unsure about how to rate specific programs. A low of 14.7 percent indicate they are unsure about the rating for "information technology," while nearly half (46.7 percent) say they are unsure about how to rate the strength of educational programs in "film." In short, the results presented reflect the averages of those who expressed an opinion, not the ratings of the entire sample.
