Student scores on the IREAD exam increased slightly in 2024

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Student proficiency on the state’s elementary reading test rose slightly in 2024, the final year before schools must retain third-graders under Indiana’s revised retention law if they don’t pass the test or meet some exemptions.

This year, 82.5% of third graders passed the IREAD-3 exam, compared to just under 82% of third graders in 2023. It’s the largest single-year increase since IREAD began in 2013, according to the Indiana Department of Education.

The department said the results show that Indiana’s push for literacy instruction backed by the science of reading — a broad body of research on how children learn to read that emphasizes explicit phonics instruction — is paying off. But this year’s results still don’t match the pre-pandemic proficiency rate: In 2019, 87.3% of third-graders passed the test.

“The pandemic only helped highlight the critical need for literacy support,” Lynn Schemel, the department’s chief academic officer, said Wednesday at the State Board of Education meeting. “Since the pandemic, our scores have continued to rise.”

Under the science of reading mandate, school districts and charter schools have adopted new curricula. Schools also had the option to join the Indiana Literacy Cadre to receive professional development aligned with the new state standards. And Indiana teacher candidate preparation programs have begun to emphasize science of reading concepts.

This year, IREAD scores at schools that opted to join the literacy cluster rose 2.5 percentage points on average, compared with an increase of 0.2 percentage points on average at schools that did not join the cluster, according to the department.

“What we’re seeing here is extraordinary,” said Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner. “It’s incredibly exciting because (the literacy group) has made a much bigger difference.”

Gov. Eric Holcomb signed into law last year a law requiring schools to use science-based reading instruction. In 2022, Holcomb set a goal of having 95% of third-graders reach proficiency on the state’s elementary reading exam by 2027.

Next year, if third-graders fail and do not qualify for a “good cause exemption,” such as having a disability or being an English learner, they will not be promoted to the next grade under the retention law enacted this year.

Before the law, state data showed that thousands of third-graders who were poor readers and did not meet exemption criteria were “socially promoted” to fourth grade. Last year, nearly three-quarters of students who failed the IREAD-3 exam came from low-income households.

In 2022, the state allowed schools to administer the test to second graders to identify students who need additional literacy instruction. The department said early intervention for second graders who are not reading proficiently in 2023 has been instrumental in the gains seen this year.

“We have a great opportunity to overcome this situation and get a higher percentage of at-risk students to pass the exam,” Jenner said.

Black students’ IREAD scores show notable increase

Although student progress on the IREAD has been slow at best in recent years, some groups are making notable gains compared to overall state performance.

This year, 68.6% of Black students passed the IREAD exam, an increase of 3.2 percentage points from last year and 6.6 percentage points from 2021. Students with disabilities and those receiving free or reduced-price meals also improved, with gains of 2.2 percentage points and 1.8 percentage points, respectively.

White and Asian students scored proficiency rates of 88.3% and 86.3%, both marginal increases from last year’s exam.

However, not all student groups increased their scores compared to last year. Scores for Hispanic students and English learners decreased by 0.3 and 0.4 percentage points, respectively. In 2024, 68.6% of Hispanic students passed the exam, while 63.6% of English learners passed.

“It’s an issue that we’ve mentioned on multiple occasions, but we need to continue to focus on our English learners and our Hispanic students,” Jenner said. “So that the board knows, we at the Department of Education are going to dig deeper into that as well.”

Haley Miller is a summer journalism intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Haley at [email protected].