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Indiana students’ English language arts scores have remained essentially unchanged for five straight years despite major state investments in literacy, although math scores grew over the same time period, new test results show.
The 2025 ILEARN results released Wednesday show that overall, 40.6% of students scored proficient or better on the English language arts portion of the state test, which is administered in grades 3-8.
That’s a decline of around half a percentage point from last year, and about the same percentage of students who reached proficiency as in previous years going back to 2021.
Since the 2022-23 school year, Indiana has overhauled its reading instruction in early grades to better align with the science of reading. This has included $111 million earmarked for placing literacy coaches in schools and evaluating teacher training programs, as well as a new law to hold back third graders who don’t pass the state reading test, the IREAD.
IREAD scores are expected in August.
In this year’s ILEARN results, the share of third grade students proficient in English language arts improved 1.6 percentage points over last year. But their proficiency rate has risen by only 1.7 percentage points since 2021, due to a decline in performance in 2023 and 2024.
In fourth grade, around 41.4% of students were proficient in English language arts in 2025, a .4 percentage point drop since last year, but a 1.8 percentage point improvement over 2021.
Meanwhile, Indiana students’ math proficiency has increased since 2021, when around 36.9% of all students were proficient in math. In 2025, 42.1% of students tested proficient, an increase of around 1.2 percentage points over 2024.
Notably, math performance in third grade has steadily declined since 2023.
Under a new law passed in 2025, math instruction will see changes similar to the science of reading shift, beginning with a math skills screener for younger students in 2026-27.
Overall, 31.2% of all Indiana students scored proficient in both English language arts and math in 2025. Indiana students recently posted improved scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the nation’s report card, in both reading and math.
‘An urgent need to support middle school students’
The bifurcation in math and English language arts performance is most prominent in grades 6-8, where some of the greatest declines in English language arts proficiency and greatest increases in math proficiency occurred this year.
In seventh grade, for example, math proficiency improved 2 percentage points over last year, and 5.4 percentage points since 2021. But in English language arts, proficiency has fallen 3.9 percentage points since last year and 3.2 percentage points since 2021.
State education officials have been highlighting the need for intervention in these grades since 2022.
This year, they’ve linked the state reading overhaul to the difference in scores, with a board presentation pointing out that older students would not have benefitted from the changes in reading instruction that began in 2022-23.
“While we are positively moving and improving in math, there is an urgent need to support middle school students in English/language arts,” said Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner in a news release about the scores.
“These are our students who intermittently came to school during the pandemic,” said board member Pat Mapes of older students. “They’re going to constantly be catching up.”
Scores among different student racial, ethnic, and social groups have remained relatively flat, with some notable exceptions.
For example, Black students’ proficiency in both English language arts and math has grown each year since 2021, with around 21.8% of Black students now proficient in English and 19% proficient in math — an increase of around 4.4 and 7.4 percentage points, respectively. Black students and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students were the only student groups to improve in English language arts proficiency since last year.
Math proficiency among English learner students has improved by 4.2 points since 2021, but English proficiency has fallen from a peak of 13.9% in 2022 to 12.7% — around the same rate as in 2021.
Proficiency rates for students who are eligible for free and reduced-price meals have increased from 22% in 2021 to 28.6% this year.
See how students at your school did on the ILEARN test using the table below:
The 2024-2025 school year was the first year that schools could choose to administer the ILEARN at several checkpoints throughout the year, with the goal of giving educators more data on student performance. Around 75% of schools participated in this pilot.
Beginning next year, all students and schools will participate in the checkpoint model. Department of Education officials said that beginning next year, the state will roll out portals for parents to view the results.
SAT reading scores improve, math scores flat
The state also released SAT scores Wednesday in a presentation to the State Board of Education.
Though not required for graduation, the SAT currently serves as the state’s federally mandated high school assessment, and students can use them to meet one of the state’s graduation pathways.
Around 54.8% of 11th grade test-takers met the college-ready benchmark for reading and writing in 2025, an increase of around 2.7 percentage points over 2024. Math proficiency remained flat, with around 25.4% of students meeting the benchmark.
This story has been updated to clarify that the ILEARN scores released Wednesday are for English language arts and math.
Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.
