Tom Russo | Daily Reporter
IREAD results for 2023 were released for school districts across the state of Indiana, revealing several trends for Hancock County schools, which saw overall decreases in success year-over-year, but beat out statewide marks by a wide margin.
Data was broken up across several demographics, with comparisons shown over the last 12 years. The average promotion percentage, or percentage of students who were promoted to the fourth grade without passing the IREAD test, for the state was 16.93%.
Across the county, overall numbers varied, but several trends emerged. All four corporations beat out the state average by a significant margin. Female students, while performing better than male students overall, saw increases in promotion percentage in three out of four school corporations. Students in the county’s special education programs also saw a decrease in three of the four corporations.
Breakdowns by school corporation are as follows:
GREENFIELD-CENTRAL
Greenfield-Central schools saw results slip after a dramatic improvement in 2022, as 8.79% of third graders failed to pass the IREAD. In 2022, the number was nearly cut in half, falling from 13.04% to 7.19%, but the 2021 number was astronomically higher than any prior year. Overall, this mark was well behind the district’s 10-year average of 6.05%. Female students saw a significant uptick in students not passing from 4.2% to 7.59% while male students remained stable. Students in the corporation’s special education program also saw an increase in students failing to pass, jumping from 30.23% to 37.29%
NEW PALESTINE
New Palestine schools, which are still listed in the data under the corporation’s former name of Southern Hancock, saw stability in promotion percentage with a slight increase from 6.96% to 7.02%. Similarly to Greenfield, the corporation saw a significant jump in 2021 up to 10.61% before falling back to earth in 2022, but with the exception of that outlier, this continued the trend of slow upticks in promotion percentage over the past decade. Both male and female students from the district mirrored the overall results, with slight upticks that barely moved the needle. Students requiring free and reduced lunches, though, saw a significant increase in promotion percentages, jumping from 12.5% to 16.28% in 2023. Students in the corporation’s special education program also saw a significant increase from 26.83% to 36.96%.
MT. VERNON
Mt. Vernon schools improved on last year, with 6.5% of third graders failing to pass their 2023 tests, the corporation’s first improvement in that mark since 2016, setting Mt. Vernon as the only school in the county to improve year-over-year as well as giving the corporation the lowest overall promotion percentage in the county. Female students in the district saw a slight increase in students failing to pass the iRead from 2022, while male students saw an 8.5% improvement. Students in the corporation’s special education program dropped for the sixth consecutive year.
EASTERN HANCOCK
Eastern Hancock schools saw an increase in promotion percentage for the fifth consecutive year, with the corporation’s mark of 9.88% being its highest on record. The crosstabs, though, showed a bucking of trends from the rest of the county, as female students saw improvement in Eastern Hancock, improving from 9.09% to 8.57%, while male students saw an increase in promotion percentages from 9.38% to 10.37%. This trend matched state trends, though, which saw a similar balanced increase across the sexes. The corporation also saw a significant improvement for students in its special education program, as promotion percentage dropped from 21.74% to 12.5%.
All data can be viewed at DOE: Data Center & Reports (in.gov).
