Too many Indiana students enter fourth grade without foundational reading skills
Contributed By:The 411 News
Study shows repeating 3rd grade provides immediate and long-lasting benefits
INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) presented statewide data showing that thousands of Indiana students are advancing to fourth grade each year without foundational reading skills. This data is the focus of a new data visualization tool, which was previewed to the State Board of Education (SBOE) on Tuesday, December 5 and will soon be available to the public.
“First students learn to read, and then they read to learn,” said Dr. Katie Jenner, Indiana Secretary of Education. “Today’s data show that one in five Indiana students have not mastered foundational reading skills by the end of third grade, and most of these same students are advancing to fourth grade unable to read. As a result, these students often struggle to master future learning and may not graduate. We must continue to work together – as educators, parents and families and policy makers – to utilize our data, align our resources and urgently identify additional solutions that ensure every Indiana child learns to read before leaving third grade.”
Some of the key takeaways from the data presented to SBOE include:
• Indiana’s literacy rates have been dropping for a decade, well before the COVID-19 pandemic.
• While third grade enrollment has declined since 2012, the number of students who do not pass has more than doubled.
• As reading scores have decreased, retention rates have also decreased, causing thousands of students to enter fourth grade unable to read.
• Data show that over 96 percent of students who did not pass IREAD-3 were advanced to fourth grade.
• Overall, students who do not pass IREAD-3 are at risk of not achieving proficiency on future assessments, including ILEARN, and are less likely to graduate.
A recent third-party study, 'Holding Back to Move Forward: The Effects of Retention in the Third Grade on Student Outcomes', 2022 also shows that in Indiana from 2011-2012 and 2016-2017, third-grade retention increased achievement in English/language arts (ELA) and math immediately and substantially, and the positive effects persist into middle school. Being retained did not have a negative effect on student attendance or disciplinary incidents in later grades.
Story Posted:12/12/2023
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