Hoosier students saw only slight increases in their English language arts scores and their math scores stayed virtually the same compared to last year’s ILEARN standardized testing scores.
Overall statewide results released Wednesday showed that 41% of Hoosier students were proficient in ELA standards and 40.7% proficient in math standards while 30.8% are proficient in combined scores.
The Indiana Department of Education released this year’s scores on Wednesday. The ILEARN serves as the state’s accountability test and assesses students in grades 3-8 in English language arts and math. It also tests grades fourth and sixth in science and tests fifth-grade students in social studies.
Students take the tests in person on computers. The ILEARN assessments adapt to the student as the test progresses.
State leaders consider the 2021 ILEARN scores the baseline scores even though ILEARN has been administered since the 2018-2019 school year. But due to the learning disruptions that happened during the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that no tests were administered in 2020, the state prefers to compare scores to 2021 results.
The state’s overall math scores have seen the largest increase since 2021, increasing 3.8 percentage points but math scores are stagnant year over year from last year.
The state’s overall ELA scores have shown less growth, increasing only 0.5 percentage points since 2021.
Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner noted these successes at the Indiana State Board of Education meeting Wednesday but added that more work needs to be done to improve academic performance throughout the state.
“While many grades have seen increases in both ELA and math proficiency over the past three years, we must continue to keep our foot on the gas pedal to ensure all students have a solid academic foundation in order to maximize their future opportunities,” Jenner said in a statement.
Although Indiana’s Black student population continues to see the lowest scores out of all the state’s racial subgroups, Black students had the highest percentage point increase in ELA from last year with a 1.2 percentage point increase.
Still, board member Scott Bess said, that improvement is happening too slowly.
“If we keep on that trajectory, I am going to be in a home before we get any kind of acceptable results,” Bess said during the meeting.
Results for students on free and reduced lunch have increased steadily year over year since 2021 but still fall far below their peers not on free and reduced lunch who saw 52.6% proficiency in ELA scores while students on free and reduced lunch only saw 28% ELA proficiency scores.
Indianapolis suburb districts continue to be top performers
Brownsburg Schools and Carmel Clay Schools continue to be the top two performing districts in the state for combined ILEARN scores. Brownsburg’s combined scores dropped 0.8 percentage points from last year while Carmel schools' scores increased by 1.6 percentage points.
Four of the nine suburban Indianapolis counties fell in the top 15 school districts for both English and math proficiency: Brownsburg Community School Corporation, Carmel-Clay Schools, Zionsville Community Schools and Westfield-Washington Schools.
Combined proficiency scores for ELA and math of top-performing districts statewide:
- Brownsburg Community Schools: 62.6%
- Carmel Clay Schools: 61.3%
- West Lafayette Com. Schools: 56.8%
- *Diocese of Evansville: 56.1%
- Zionsville Community Schools: 56%
- School Town of Munster: 55.9%
- Union Township School Corp.: 55.2%
- North West Hendricks Schools: 54.9%
- Duneland School Corp.: 54.4%
- North Spencer County School Corp.: 53.3%
- Westfield-Washington Schools: 53.4%
*not a public school school district.
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ILEARN checkpoint testing coming soon
This upcoming school year more than 70% of Indiana schools will offer a new modified ILEARN exam that will involve three shorter checkpoint tests throughout the year, as well as a final cumulative test at the end of the school year.
This change has been in the works for the past two years to focus the state’s standardized test more on monitoring student proficiency throughout the year, Jenner explained. All schools will be expected to participate in the checkpoint testing starting in the 2025-26 school year.
Contact IndyStar reporter Caroline Beck at 317-618-5807 or CBeck@gannett.com . Follow her on Twitter (X): @CarolineB_Indy .
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: 2024 ILEARN statewide results show slight ELA growth but math scores unchanged
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