Indiana Achieves Unprecedented Growth in Third Grade Literacy Rates

See how area school corporations performed in the 2024-2025 IREAD.

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INDIANAPOLIS - Results from the 2024-2025 Indiana Reading Evaluation and Determination (IREAD) assessment show an unprecedented increase in third grade literacy rates.

With this nearly five percentage point jump, Indiana’s third grade literacy rates have now increased for four consecutive years, indicating that Indiana’s strategic, intentional investments in early literacy are working. 

Statewide, results reveal that 73,500 of Indiana’s third grade students – or 87.3 percent – demonstrated proficient reading skills on the IREAD assessment. This is an improvement of nearly five percentage points over results for the 2023-2024 school year, which is by far the largest single-year increase since the launch of IREAD in 2013. The previous record for the largest year-over-year increase was set in 2024, and was less than one percent. 

From 2013, when IREAD began, to 2021, Indiana’s literacy rates declined every year, except one (a 0.2 percentage point increase from 2014 to 2015). The pandemic exacerbated this literacy crisis, and in response, Indiana has made historic investments aimed at helping more students learn to read. With the nearly five percentage point jump in 2025, Indiana’s third grade literacy rates are now back to pre-pandemic levels. The state has also set a goal that by 2027, 95 percent of third grade students will be reading proficiently. 

“Indiana has made extraordinary progress from where we began just a few years ago, when nearly one in five Indiana third graders could not read, to today when literacy rates have increased by nearly five percentage points in just one year,” said Dr. Katie Jenner, Indiana Secretary of Education. “Thanks to the hard work and collaboration of our educators, parents and families, students, and local communities – we have turned the page, with literacy rates now soaring at a historic pace. This is a time for celebration, and it is also a time to double-down on our commitment to helping even more students learn to read. The data is clear – what we are doing is working – so let’s keep at it, ensuring a brighter future for Hoosier students.” 

See local school corporation results below.