Indiana literacy rates improve for fifth straight year

Indiana’s early literacy rates improved for the fifth consecutive year, with nearly 89% of Hoosier third graders demonstrating proficiency in foundational reading skills on the state’s IREAD assessment.

The Indiana Department of Education released statewide IREAD, ILEARN and SAT results for the 2025-26 school year Tuesday at the State Board of Education’s August meeting.

The results show continued improvement in early literacy and a new baseline for the state’s redesigned ILEARN assessment.

Officials credit the success to science of reading instructional coaching targeted at low-performing schools and earlier assessments, which allows schools to identify struggling readers before they enter third grade.

Student literacy rates for every student population have now surpassed pre-pandemic levels, with the greatest year-over-year gains recorded for Black and Hispanic students.

More than 500 schools reached Indiana’s 95% reading proficiency goal in 2026 as well.

IREAD is administered in second and third grade, giving students five opportunities to demonstrate proficiency before leaving third grade.

The assessment measures foundational reading skills like phonics, vocabulary, fluency and basic comprehension.

Students who pass are not required to retest, while those who are rated at risk are offered targeted supports to get them on track. If they don’t pass, state law requires they remain in third grade. 

Results from the newly redesigned ILEARN assessment — a more rigorous, through-year assessment measuring academic mastery of math and English language arts — set a new overall baseline of 42% proficiency in ELA and 42.7% proficiency in math. 

The test is administered in grades 3 through 8, designed to align with the National Assessment of Educational Progress assessment to measure whether students are on track for college.

This is the first year the redesigned assessment was administered to students.

The Department of Education streamlined the assessment to align with core academic standards and transformed it into a through-year assessment, with three checkpoints and a shortened summative assessment administered each year, in accordance with state law.

This gives parents and educators regular feedback on student progress.

Other results released Tuesday show 52% of Hoosier juniors met college-ready benchmarks for reading and writing on the SAT, while 26% met mathematics benchmarks.

This story will be updated.