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New standardized test results released Wednesday show reading levels of Indiana’s younger students have improved just slightly but still remain below results from before the pandemic.
Nearly one in five students “have not mastered foundational reading skills by the end of third grade,” according to data from IREAD, an Indiana Department of Education reading assessment given to third graders.
Results from 2021-2022 tests show about an 82% pass rate, with significant disparities among students of color. White students achieved above-average pass rates at about 87%, while around 64% of Black students had proficient reading skills.
This year’s results also remain almost six percentage points under pre-pandemic rates from the 2018-2019 school year, the most recently available data set since the coronavirus pandemic started in 2020.
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It’s another indication that students in Indiana have not quite cleared the hurdles of pandemic learning losses, as those across all grade levels in the U.S. struggle to succeed after navigating transitions to online learning and adapting to current teacher shortages.
Indiana test results from this year trail pre-pandemic results by 6%.
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The percentage of Indiana students with adequate reading skills remained largely the same overall compared with last year, though all groups except white students saw minor percentage-point increases in last year’s pass rates.
Students in the state displayed small improvements in their English and math proficiency scores in July as well. Those standardized test results for third through eighth grade also indicated a tentative bright spot following pandemic-disrupted learning.
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“We know that students first learn to read, and then they read to learn,” Indiana secretary of education Katie Jenner said in a news release. “It’s so important that educators, families and communities continue to come together to lead innovative, intentional efforts to make sure all students are able to read.”
