Copyright Chicago Tribune
Indiana education leaders said last week 3,040 students are repeating third grade because they didn’t pass the state’s reading proficiency exam called IREAD. The data, released at last week’s State Board of Education meeting in Indianapolis, showed 3.6% didn’t pass the exam after three attempts or received a good cause exemption. They will receive additional reading support during the year. Officials said about 84,000 students took the exam and about 8% received a “good cause exemption” allowing them to move on to fourth grade. Special education students made up about 75% of the exemptions and new English learners, with less than two years in school, accounted for about 24%, officials said. It marked the first year the state began enforcing a 2024 state law requiring students to repeat third grade if they fail the IREAD, after three tries. The exam measures critical reading skills, including phonics, vocabulary and comprehension. In 2023, lawmakers became alarmed when state education officials said only one in five students could read by the end of third grade. Third-grade literacy rates had dropped for a decade prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The fallout became steeper after the 2020-21 school year. Besides passing the retention law, legislators passed a bill calling for pre-K to grade 6 and special education teachers to receive training in the science of reading to renew their state license and they made the science of reading curriculum required in all schools. In addition, all second graders take the IREAD now, so they’re more accustomed what to expect. Third graders who didn’t pass have access to summer programs like the nonprofit Mind Trust’s Summer Reading Labs program. This year’s scores reflected a 5% increase over last year, a level that Anna Shults, chief academic officer at the state Department of Education called “more than just a big deal.” She said 6,000 more students passed the IREAD than in the previous year and about 450 schools posted scores at 95% passing or above. In the Gary Community School Corp., third graders raised their pass rate from 49.2% in 2024 to 55.3% passing this year. The mark still left the urban district with Northwest Indiana’s lowest pass rate. Data showed 111 third graders were retained in Gary. School City of East Chicago students posted the second-lowest pass rate at 62.5% and 47 are repeating third grade, according to data on the state’s website. In reference to the 3,040 students held back, Shults said: “Every one of those 3,000 is a kid, a human being, with a teacher who is awake at night because of the struggles that students may feel. It’s our responsibility to ensure that a teacher is armed with what they need.” Under the state’s new point-based A-F accountability system, expected to be approved by the State Board of Education next month, Shults said students can earn points for literacy proficiency. Some state leaders expected the number of students retained to be higher, said Secretary of Education Katie Jenner. “During legislative session, a lot of the numbers ranged between 7,000 and 10,000,” said Jenner during the meeting. “Huge shout out to our teachers and our people — we have thousands of kids who are now readers.” Individual school data can be found at the Indiana Department of Education’s website, eddata.doe.in.gov/PublicHome. Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
