3,000 Children Repeating Third Grade Under New Indiana Literacy Requirement
3,000 Children Repeating Third Grade Under New Indiana Literacy Requirement
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About 3,000 Indiana students are repeating third grade this school year for not meeting the state’s reading proficiency standards.
Data released Wednesday by the Indiana Department of Education showed 3.6% of the 84,000 children who took the statewide IREAD exam were retained in third grade under the first enforcement of a requirement approved by the Legislature in 2024.
Those 3,040 retained students are than seven times the 412 children held back in third grade two years ago.
Education Secretary Katie Jenner credited improved performance by students in the IREAD exam given last school year with the retention figure being lower than anticipated when the literacy requirement was being debated.
“The numbers that were being thrown out is that it would be 7,000 to 10,000 that this law would trigger retention,” Jenner told State Board of Education members. “But, in fact, a huge shout out to our teachers and our people, we have thousands of kids who are now readers.”
Education officials announced in August that 87.3% of third graders — about 73,500 out of than 84,000 students statewide — demonstrated proficient reading skills in 2024-25. They hailed the nearly five percentage point improvement from the previous school year as the largest year-to-year jump since the state began IREAD testing in 2013.
That left about 10,600 children who didn’t meet the standard, with almost 7,000 being given “good cause exemptions” to avoid retention. Nearly 75% of those given exemptions were special education students and about 24% are English learners with less than two years of specific literacy services.
Anna Shults, the Department of Education’s chief academic officer, said the new retention requirement was having its intended effect.
“We are now ensuring that students that are promoted on to grade four are doing so with an ability to read and show mastery of key foundational reading skills,” Shults told the State Board of Education.
The Department of Education will have an online dashboard providing breakdowns of the Indiana Reading Evaluation and Determination assessment, or IREAD, by school district and individual schools, including charter schools and nonpublic schools.
Officials noted about 670 children who didn’t meet the literacy standards were not enrolled in Indiana schools this year, saying they likely moved out of state or were being homeschooled.
Jenner said a determination would need to be made about those students if they returned to Indiana schools.
“That’s a question that we’ll need to sort through, because some may move back into Indiana, or if they left for homeschool may come back in,” Jenner said. “Because we’re looking at every unique student, I think we’ll try to figure out exactly where they are.”
According to 2023 data, 13,840 third-graders did not pass I-READ-3. Of those, 5,503 received an exemption and 8,337 did not. Of those without an exemption, 95% moved onto 4th grade while only 412 were retained.
Indiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions:(email protected).
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!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n; n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0);s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,’https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’); fbq(‘init’, ‘626037510879173’); // 626037510879173 fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);{“@context”:”http://schema.org”,”@type”:”NewsArticle”,”dateCreated”:”2025-11-29T16:18:45+04:00″,”datePublished”:”2025-11-29T16:18:45+04:00″,”dateModified”:”2025-11-29T16:18:45+04:00″,”headline”:”3,000 Children Repeating Third Grade Under New Indiana Literacy Requirement”,”name”:”3,000 Children Repeating Third Grade Under New Indiana Literacy Requirement”,”keywords”:[],”url”:”https://uaetodaynews.com/3000-children-repeating-third-grade-under-new-indiana-literacy-requirement-the-74/”,”description”:”Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter About 3,000 Indiana students are repeating third grade this school year for not meeting the stateu2019s reading profic”,”copyrightYear”:”2025″,”articleSection”:”Education”,”articleBody”:”nnn n Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newslettern n n n About 3,000 Indiana students are repeating third grade this school year for not meeting the stateu2019s reading proficiency standards.nnData released Wednesday by the Indiana Department of Education showed 3.6% of the 84,000 children who took the statewide IREAD exam were retained in third grade under the first enforcement of a requirement approved by the Legislature in 2024.nnThose 3,040 retained students are more than seven times the 412 children held back in third grade two years ago.nnEducation Secretary Katie Jenner credited improved performance by students in the IREAD exam given last school year with the retention figure being lower than anticipated when the literacy requirement was being debated.nnu201cThe numbers that were being thrown out is that it would be 7,000 to 10,000 that this law would trigger retention,u201d Jenner told State Board of Education members. u201cBut, in fact, a huge shout out to our teachers and our people, we have thousands of kids who are now readers.u201dnnEducation officials announced in August that 87.3% of third graders u2014 about 73,500 out of more than 84,000 students statewide u2014 demonstrated proficient reading skills in 2024-25. They hailed the nearly five percentage point improvement from the previous school year as the largest year-to-year jump since the state began IREAD testing in 2013.nnThat left about 10,600 children who didnu2019t meet the standard, with almost 7,000 being given u201cgood cause exemptionsu201d to avoid retention. Nearly 75% of those given exemptions were special education students and about 24% are English learners with less than two years of specific literacy services.nnAnna Shults, the Department of Educationu2019s chief academic officer, said the new retention requirement was having its intended effect.nnu201cWe are now ensuring that students that are promoted on to grade four are doing so with an ability to read and show mastery of key foundational reading skills,u201d Shults told the State Board of Education.nnThe Department of Education will have an online dashboard providing breakdowns of the Indiana Reading Evaluation and Determination assessment, or IREAD, by school district and individual schools, including charter schools and nonpublic schools.nnOfficials noted about 670 children who didnu2019t meet the literacy standards were not enrolled in Indiana schools this year, saying they likely moved out of state or were being homeschooled.nnJenner said a determination would need to be made about those students if they returned to Indiana schools.nnu201cThatu2019s a question that weu2019ll need to sort through, because some may move back into Indiana, or if they left for homeschool may come back in,u201d Jenner said. u201cBecause weu2019re looking at every unique student, I think weu2019ll try to figure out exactly where they are.u201dnnAccording to 2023 data, 13,840 third-graders did not pass I-READ-3. Of those, 5,503 received an exemption and 8,337 did not. Of those without an exemption, 95% moved onto 4th grade while only 412 were retained.nnIndiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: (emailu00a0protected).nn n n n Did you use this article in your work?
nWeu2019d love to hear how The 74u2019s reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers. Tell us hown n nnn !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?n n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;n t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0);s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,n document,’script’,’https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);n fbq(‘init’, ‘626037510879173’); // 626037510879173n fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);n nnnnnDisclaimer: This news article has been republished exactly as it appeared on its original source, without any modification. nWe do not take any responsibility for its content, which remains solely the responsibility of the original publisher.nnnnnnAuthor: Tom DaviesnPublished on: 2025-11-29 15:30:00nSource: www.the74million.orgn”,”publisher”:{“@id”:”#Publisher”,”@type”:”Organization”,”name”:”uaetodaynews”,”logo”:{“@type”:”ImageObject”,”url”:”https://uaetodaynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/images-e1759081190269.png”},”sameAs”:[“https://www.facebook.com/uaetodaynewscom”,”https://www.pinterest.com/uaetodaynews/”,”https://www.instagram.com/uaetoday_news_com/”]},”sourceOrganization”:{“@id”:”#Publisher”},”copyrightHolder”:{“@id”:”#Publisher”},”mainEntityOfPage”:{“@type”:”WebPage”,”@id”:”https://uaetodaynews.com/3000-children-repeating-third-grade-under-new-indiana-literacy-requirement-the-74/”,”breadcrumb”:{“@id”:”#Breadcrumb”}},”author”:{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”uaetodaynews”,”url”:”https://uaetodaynews.com/author/arabsongmedia-net/”},”image”:{“@type”:”ImageObject”,”url”:”https://i0.wp.com/uaetodaynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/third-grade-repeat-indiana-825×495.jpg?fit=825%2C495&ssl=1″,”width”:1200,”height”:495}}
Disclaimer: This news article has been republished exactly as it appeared on its original source, without any modification.
We do not take any responsibility for its content, which remains solely the responsibility of the original publisher.
Author: uaetodaynews
Published on: 2025-11-29 12:18:00
Source: uaetodaynews.com
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