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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowCongratulations to students and the teachers, administrators and state officials who lead them on a fifth consecutive year of increased literacy rates in Indiana.
The Indiana Department of Education released test results this week that showed 89% of Hoosier third graders had demonstrated proficiency in foundational reading skills.
The IREAD assessments also showed that more than 500 schools had proficiency rates of at least 95%.
Maybe most important, the state’s IREAD scores have increased 7.5 percentage points since 2021. And its literacy rates have now surpassed their levels before the pandemic, after which rates dropped in Indiana and across the country.
Here are some key points shared by the Department of Education:
• Literacy rates increased for nearly every student population from 2025 to 2026.
• Black and Hispanic students saw significant year-over-year gains. And since 2021, Black students have seen their scores increase 18 percentage points and Hispanic students 11.2 percentage points.
• Literacy rates for students in special education and those receiving free and reduced lunch have increased in each of the last five years.
• Students for whom English is not their first language saw gains for the second consecutive year after remaining flat for the prior three.
Students take the IREAD assessment in second and third grade. Those who demonstrate proficiency do not have to keep taking the assessment. Students who do not pass receive additional support and are given four more opportunities to pass before leaving third grade.
State law requires those who do not pass to repeat third grade.
Over the past few years, the state has increased its intervention with schools and students that are struggling. Among those efforts is a program called the Indiana Literacy Cadre, which is a partnership between the state, the University of Indianapolis’ Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning and Marian University’s Center for Vibrant Schools.
According to the Department of Education, about 770 schools have participated in the Literacy Cadre, which gives early elementary teachers additional training and support in how to teach reading. And officials said schools that participated in the program during the most recent school year had a 2.3 percentage-point increase in students passing IREAD. That was nearly four times higher than schools that did not participate.
The Indiana Literacy Cadre is part of a partnership with the Lilly Endowment that will put $240 million into early literacy development.
We applaud the achievements of the schools and students who did the hard work to boost these important passing rates. And we’re excited that the state has found programs (and that the Lilly Endowment is supporting those programs) that are making an impact.
The state needs to keep pushing forward as officials learn what works best. Now is not the time to pull back in any way from the intense focus on reading and on programs that are effective.
So often in the education realm, lawmakers and other public officials change directions before a policy or program can fully take effect. So far, that hasn’t happened here — and we applaud Education Secretary Katie Jenner for providing continuity and focus. Let’s keep up the good work.•
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What a great accomplishment. Indiana’s new initiative of investing in the individual students and not the giant education bureaucracy’s is paying off big time. Everyone but the teacher’s union will celebrate this!