Indiana’s literacy rates exceeded pre-pandemic levels for the first time this year as the share of third grade students reaching proficiency on the state reading exam inched up to 88.7%.
The fifth consecutive annual increase in IREAD proficiency rates comes after years of state support and reforms, including an increased number of chances to take the test, mandated literacy training for certain elementary educators, and an infusion of state and philanthropic funds for tutoring and early literacy instruction.
While the latest reading scores released Tuesday are an increase from the 2019 pass rate of 87.3%, the overall proficiency rate is still well short of the goal officials have for 2027, when they hope to have 95% of all Indiana students pass the exam. It falls just below the state’s highest pass rate of 91.4% in 2012-13, the first year of the test.
Unlike in previous years, officials released the IREAD results alongside statewide ILEARN and SAT results for 2026 at the State Board of Education meeting.
Scores improved since last year across nearly all racial and ethnic groups, as well as for students eligible for free or reduced-price meals, for students with disabilities, and for English language learners. The overall pass rate — representing nearly 72,000 of over 81,100 third graders tested — includes students who passed the test in second grade during the 2024-25 school year, and includes students at both public and private schools.
Proficiency rates for Black students increased from 76.1% in 2025 to over 80% in 2026, an 18-percentage-point increase from their pandemic-era low of 62% in 2021.
That figure is well above the 2019 proficiency rate of 74.2%, and within one percentage point of the highest rate for Black students in Indiana’s history, Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner said.
Hispanic students’ proficiency rate jumped nearly eight percentage points to 76.1%, but the figure is still just below the pre-pandemic rate of 78.1% in 2019.
And 84.1% of students receiving free or reduced-price meals reached proficiency this year, compared with 82.6% in 2025.
Proficiency rates for second graders also increased from 48% in 2025, the first year all second graders were required to take the test, to 62% this year. Those students’ scores will be counted toward next year’s IREAD results.
It’s unclear how many third grade students will be retained in the 2026-27 school year. Last year, 3,040 students repeated third grade after failing the exam, out of 84,000 students tested. The department has not released the demographic data of the 3,040 students retained last year.
IREAD increases follow historic investments, new mandates
Students now have up to five chances to pass the test throughout second and third grade, including summer school retest opportunities.
State officials once again reported that schools in the Indiana Literacy Cadre — an initiative that provides instructional coaches to schools to improve reading instruction — posted greater proficiency gains than schools that didn’t participate. The cadre began as an opt-in initiative, but state law requires lower-performing schools — this year, those with a pass rate below 75% for three consecutive years — to participate.
Indiana’s IREAD improvements come after a flurry of policy changes sparked by a nationwide shift on how reading is taught, as well as concern over the pandemic’s effects on literacy.
Many changes started in 2022, when the state announced over $100 million for phonics-based reading instruction, funded largely by the Lilly Endowment. That year, the department launched the Indiana Literacy Cadre, which has since grown from 41 to 770 schools.
The department that year also launched Indiana Learns, a grant program that allowed qualifying families to purchase English and math tutoring from approved providers.
In 2023, the state required school districts to adopt curriculum aligned with the science of reading. And in 2025, the department partnered with the Mind Trust nonprofit to replicate its Indy Summer Learning Labs — which provide summer academic enrichment — at schools across the state for free or at a low cost.
In 2022, second grade students were also allowed for the first time to take the IREAD if schools opted to administer it. By the 2024-25 school year, all second graders were required to take the test.
Second grade students who pass the test are counted in the following year’s IREAD scores and are not required to take the test in third grade.
A state law passed in 2024 also mandates that elementary and special education teachers who teach a content area involving literacy must earn a literacy endorsement, which requires them to undergo training and pass a Praxis content exam.
At Parkside Elementary in Columbus, Principal Chris Smith attributed the jump to a 96.1% pass rate to the staff’s focus on research-based instruction.
He described a student who, as a second grader last year, posted the lowest possible score on the exam. But with consistent data collection and “a lot of direct, explicit, and systematic instruction,” Smith said, the student passed this year.
“Now she loves to read graphic novels for fun, and feels capable as a student in all subject areas,” Smith said. “This is what she said yesterday: ‘It just feels good to be able to read.’”
This article was written by Chalkbeat Indiana reporter Amelia Pak-Harvey.
