Indiana middle school students are stumbling to make progress in reading and writing – a sign that they missed additional literacy support and interventions in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year only about 38% of seventh-grade students passed the state’s English language arts exam, according to new ILEARN scores released by the state Wednesday. That’s a drop of nearly 4 points from last year.
“ELA is stagnant,” said the state’s Secretary of Education Katie Jenner. “Where we're seeing the major lag in data are our late middle schoolers, seventh and eighth grade.”
There needs to be a focus on improving adolescent reading, Jenner said.
ILEARN is the statewide growth assessment that measures English language arts, science, social studies and mathematics skills for students in grades three through eight.
Overall, 40.6% of students were proficient in ELA, a decrease of less than half a percentage point compared to last year.
The state’s largest increase in ELA scores came for third graders while seventh graders fell the hardest.
Early elementary reading skills have been the target of more than $170 million in state and philanthropic funds since 2022. Most educators are required to be trained and teach using new science-based literacy methods to address the problem.
This year, 40.3% percent of third graders passed ILEARN’s ELA assessment. That is an increase of 1.7 percentage points from last year.
Students did not take the assessment in 2020. Most Indiana students returned to the classroom by the end of that year, but they have struggled to recuperate academic standing. The ILEARN resumed in 2021 and became a new base year for comparisons.
Scores for third, fourth and fifth graders all improved this year, compared to 2021, with fourth grade rising 1.8 percentage points and fifth grade increasing 1.3 points. Still, only around 41% of those students are proficient.
Board member Pat Mapes said that age group has to overcome bigger barriers.
“These are our students who intermittently came to school during the pandemic … this is kind of just what we're going to see for a while, until we can get their skills developed,” said Mapes. who is superintendent of Hamilton Southeastern Schools. “We’re building skills as we’ve made the emphasis in literacy, but we can’t forget those kids who didn't have that emphasis in their education.”
For math, the pass rate ticked up 1 point to a state average of 42%. State education officials celebrated growth in math skills across most groups and grade levels.
"Math – we’re seeing our kids move,” Jenner said.
A new Indiana law will deliver swift interventions to K-8 students who are struggling with foundational math skills. Students will be screened and then delivered targeted support.
The state’s average ILEARN scores have remained below 50% proficiency since 2018 when the test was first administered to students. Only about 33 percent of all students passed both ELA and math portions of the exam this year.
The achievement gap
Black students had slight gains in both ELA and math but still hold the lowest performing position compared to Asian, White and all other student groups. Since 2021, Black students have seen a 4.4 percentage point increase in ELA and a 7.4 percentage point increase in math.
State education officials expressed relief last year to see improvements in reading and English proficiency for English Language Learners. Those students previously were targeted for additional support.
Yet, this year those students lost some traction in English and language arts.
Students learning English dropped ELA scores by 1.1 percentage point. At the same time, their math scores rose 0.6 percentage points. Federal funding for ELL targeted support is currently on hold by the Trump administration. It’s not clear if that money will flow to schools ahead of the school year.
The number of ELL students is increasing across the state. Roughly 6 percent of Indiana’s student population are English Learners.
High school SAT test
State leaders also shared how high school students performed on the SAT, which fulfills a required college entrance exam set by lawmakers. The assessment includes math, reading and writing sections.
Nearly 55% percent of high school students met the SAT’s reading and writing benchmarks, which is a bump from last year. About a quarter of students are college-ready in mathematics, about the same as last year.
A new testing pilot
Testing for the 2024-25 school year looked a little bit different for some students who piloted the state’s new benchmark process.
ILEARN assessments were delivered throughout the year via checkpoints.
Ahead of the pilot last year, state officials said they hoped to see growth in student achievement through consistent benchmarks from more frequent testing rather than just a one-time assessment.
The benchmarks will “provide a beginning, middle and end-of-year look at student performance,” Jenner said in a Wednesday statement. “This will be key to knowing early and often if a student has mastered certain knowledge or skills, or if they may still be struggling, ensuring the student has increased, personalized support.”
More than 75% of Indiana schools opted to participate in the pilot of these assessments during the 2024-25 school year for grades three through eight. About 60,000 students participated in the pilot, out of the 80,000 students eligible for the assessments.
The new system will launch for all schools the 2025-26 school year.
Rachel Fradette is the WFYI Statehouse education reporter. Contact Rachel at rfradette@wfyi.org.
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