HANCOCK COUNTY — While most young readers are progressing at the normal rate, many are still struggling. That was shown in the recently released Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) IRead-3 results.
Statewide, results show more than 65,000 Indiana’s third grade students (81.9%) demonstrated proficient reading skills on the assessment — a minimal improvement of 0.3 percentage points over results from the 2021-22 school year. That percentage is a distant figure from what the state wants for each school, a 95 % proficiency rate. To date, 242 Indiana elementary schools have achieved the 95% goal, an increase of 32 elementary schools over 2022.
That’s a good sign considering Indiana’s third grade literacy rates have been dropping for a decade, officials from IDOE say, even prior to the academic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, results remain 9.5 percentage points below the state’s highest-ever proficiency rate (91.4%) during the 2012-13 school year.
Locally, the news is good and shows Hancock County school third graders are well above the state average, with each school district having a combined 90% or higher average. One school, Eden Elementary School, passed nearly all students, 36 of 37, for a 97.3% passing rate.
According to IDOE results, Southern Hancock third graders led the way locally with 271 of 291 students passing for a 93.1% rate; Mt Vernon Community School Corp showed some 350 of 378 students passed for a 92.6% rate; Greenfield-Central Community Schools noted 282 of 311 students passed for a 90.7% rate while Eastern Hancock Community School Corp passed 75 of 83 students for a 90.4% rate.
Southern Hancock Superintendent Lisa Lantrip said district officials are very pleased with this year’s IRead 3 performance and, in reality, their IDOE rate is slightly higher than the mark released.
“After the summer testing window, Southern Hancock Schools have a passing rate of 93.6%,” she said. “We are very proud of this accomplishment. These are our best scores since 2018.”
Lantrip said the high mark is a testament to the hard work of students, staff and families throughout the year. Lantrip note it’s been a community effort for sure, and the pursuit of achieving even better results will continue.
“We have multiple interventions that support our instructional model at all of our elementary schools,” Lantrip said. “We also believe that our HOSTS program, which is made up of community volunteers, has played a large part as well.”
Mt. Vernon Superintendent Jack Parker said his district is proud of the great work their primary students are doing in achieving a high passing percentage on the IRead-3 assessment.
“Last school year was the first where we began testing all of our second graders on the third-grade assessment,” Parker said. “These results are largely due to the amazing Mt. Vernon faculty who work hard to help all students learn.”
While he noted they are proud, district officials are not satisfied and are working hard in a collaborative team effort as they focus on student learning.
“Additionally, we have developed student support teams who regularly review data and provide interventions as needed,” Parker said. “We are committed to helping students succeed and have one to two reading specialists in each of our elementary schools that support teachers by focusing on providing targeted instruction directly to students.”
Greenfield-Central Superintendent Harold Olin said the last four years have brought many challenges for students as a result of the pandemic. For example, he noted that the students, third graders in the spring of 2023, had their kindergarten year cut short by nine weeks.
They then spent first grade in schools where everyone wore masks, and many students were required to be quarantined for multiple weeks as a result of having COVID or being identified in contract tracing.
“I do not share this as an excuse,” Olin said. “I merely mention the extra obstacles these particular students faced.”
Olin was not surprised to see the state passing rate as low as it is (just under 82%) which is why he is proud of what G-C third graders have accomplished.
“It is the result of a lot of hard work on the part of students, teachers and parents,” Olin said. “All Hancock County third-grade cohorts weathered this storm fairly well when you compare our collective scores to those of most other school corporations in central Indiana.”
However, Olin stated he is certainly not content with their passing rate and noted there is much to celebrate in their district and throughout the county. He shared that the G-C district has six reading interventionist spread among their elementary schools to support students who have been identified with reading deficiencies.
“It certainly has a large expense to it on the personnel side, yet, we believe this is essential,” Olin said. “We have prioritized reading instruction in the elementary setting.”
Eastern Hancock Superintendent George Philhower said he’s proud of his district’s score but, like other district leaders, wants an even higher percentage of students to pass the yearly bench mark test. Philhower said having a smaller school has allowed educators to focus in on students who need the help and give them the proper attention.
“Right now I’d say there are about eight kids we’re focused on and working with,” Philhower said. “We’ve got some excellent programs in place to help.”
