About two-thirds of Indiana high school graduates in the class of 2010 headed to college, according to a new report by the Indiana Commission for Higher Learning.

The College Readiness Report includes data from all Indiana high schools and details the number of students pursuing higher learning as well as how the students do once they get to college.

“The state is really pushing to get students further down the path toward their college degree,” said Mike Renfrow, director of admissions at IUSB.

At Washington High School in South Bend, students find encouragement to attend college everywhere from the hallways to their classrooms.

“I’ve always thought that if you surround yourself with success, you can be successful,” said tenth grade English teacher Brian Ginzer.

But, teachers at Washington said it takes more than words of motivation to get kids to college.

“A lot of our kids come in and they want to go to college because that is what they have been preached,” English department chair Tim Pletcher said. “Some of them don’t have any idea what it means to be prepared to go to college.”

So, building strong student-teacher relationships is a focus at the school.

“Many come from backgrounds that if mom and dad haven't been to college -- they don’t know what the process is and so we have to stand in for them and advocate for them in that regard,” Pletcher said.

They want to make college an attainable option for all of their students.

“As teachers, we try to put it in their heads that yes, you can go to college,” Ginzer said. “All you have to do is aspire.”

The report also indicates that more than a quarter of the Hoosier class of 2010 needed to take remedial courses once they got to college.

For the full report, visit http://www.in.gov/che/2489.htm .