Overview
- Data presented Tuesday to the Indiana State Board of Education show 88.7% of third graders passed the IREAD in 2025–26, the fifth straight year of gains and a 7.5 percentage-point rise since 2021.
- State leaders point to universal second-grade IREAD screening, expanded retest opportunities and embedded coaching from the Indiana Literacy Cadre as the main drivers of improvement.
- The data show gains across nearly every demographic group, with Black students reaching about 80.1% proficiency, notable year-over-year increases for Hispanic students and English learners, and growth for students receiving free or reduced-price meals and those in special education.
- For the second year all second graders took IREAD, with 69% recorded as passed or “On-Track,” and state data show more than 95% of students labeled On-Track in second grade passed in third grade, making the early metric highly predictive.
- Officials cautioned that 2026 ILEARN results use a restructured through-year model with new cut scores so they are not comparable to prior years, and the state still aims for 95% third-grade proficiency by 2027 while scaling targeted interventions and addressing student retention and school accountability changes.