By HOLLY GASKILL
Scores released from 2024 ILEARN scores show Wells County schools follow statewide trends in math and English literacy.
The Indiana Department of Education released results in July, showing 30.8% of third through eighth grade students were proficient or better in both the English and math sections of the standardized test. A higher portion of students showed proficiency in just one subject, with 41% proficient or better in English and 40.7% proficient in math.
Local results followed a similar pattern, with approximately 33.5% of Wells County students in third through eighth grade passing in both English and math. Comparatively, 34.2% of Adams County students passed both portions, 27% of students in Huntington County, 28.8% in Blackford County, 26.5% in Allen County, and 24.4% in Grant County.
In Wells County, Norwell Community Schools had the highest for both subjects at 38.1%. Southern Wells Community Schools followed with 32.2% and Bluffton-Harrison Metropolitan Schools had 27.8% passing both portions.
Each district also performed higher in either subject individually for third through eighth grade students.
At Norwell, 47.5% passed the English portion of the ILEARN test while 51.9% passed the math portion. Of the students who did not pass, 26.2% were considered “approaching proficiency” and 26.3% were not proficient in English, and 24.1% were approaching proficiency and 24% were not proficient in math.
SWCS had 43% of students pass the English portion, with 25.3% approaching proficiency and 31.7% not proficient. Additionally, 43.7% of SWCS students passed the math portion; 24.6% were approaching proficiency and 31.7% were not proficient.
BHMSD had 38.1% pass English, with 25.2% approaching proficiency and 36.7% not proficient. For math, 39.4% of students passed, with 26% approaching proficiency and 34.6% not proficient.
The Indiana legislature is hoping to target literacy rates at large with requirements to adopt a curriculum aligned with the “Science of Learning”. Wells County districts have also created positions for literacy coaches, hoping to assist teachers and target literacy needs in students in kindergarten through second grade. The “coaching” positions are partially funded through the districts and partially through the Indiana Literacy Cadre program.
Also released were scores from ILEARN’s fifth grade social studies portion and the required SAT for high school juniors.
Statewide, 38.1% of fifth grade students were considered at or above proficiency in the social studies portion of ILEARN. Wells County districts fell into similar ranks — 42% of NWCS students passed, 38.6% of SWCS students, and 35.5% of BHMSD students.
Norwell also had the highest rate of juniors reaching the benchmark for reading and math on the SAT, 32.6%. BHMSD had 30% of juniors reach this benchmark and SWCS had 24.2%. The state average was 24%.
holly@news-banner.com
