(BEDFORD) – Fewer than half of Indiana students met expected achievement levels on the state’s new standardized test including students in Lawrence County.
The latest test scores represent a 13 percentage-point drop since last year — and the lowest statewide passing rate in recent history at 37.1%.
Statewide ILEARN exam results released Wednesday show that 47.9% of students in grades 3-8 met proficiency levels for language arts and 47.8% for math. Those are both down more than 10 percentage points from last year’s passing rates for the previous ISTEP exam.
In North Lawrence Community Schools, 29.6% of students passed both math and English. The overall passing rate on the 2018 ISTEP for NLCS was 43%.
The NLCS ILEARN passing rate for English was 41.2% and for math, it was 38.5%.
In Mitchell Community School Corporation, 34.6% of students passed both math and English. Scores dropped 8.8% compared to the 2018 ISTEP scores.
Mitchell’s ILEARN passing rate for English was 46.7% and for math. It was 44.5%.
Even before the ILEARN results were released to the public, Gov. Eric Holcomb called for a one-year delay in using those scores toward teacher evaluations or the A-F ratings for schools.
State schools Superintendent Jennifer McCormick says ILEARN uses tougher standards of whether students are making sufficient progress.
2019 ILEARN scores
North Lawrence Community Schools
- 2019 ELA & Math 29.6%
- 2018 ELA & Math 43.0%
- 2019 ELA 41.2%
- 2019 Math 38.5%
Mitchell Community Schools
- 2019 ELA & Math 34.6%
- 2018 ELA & Math 43.4%
- 2019 ELA 46.7%
- 2019 Math 44.5%
Source: Indiana Department of Education
