[Note: This post has been republished from August 2023]

Earlier this month the Indiana Department of Education released the 2023 Spring ILEARN test results. The Indy-Star described state wide results as “relatively unchanged.”

Quoting specifically that, “Students’ combined proficiency rate for ELA and math was virtually unchanged, from 30.2% last year to 30.6% now.” This came as a shock for most who were hoping for a stronger recovery from COVID testing declines.

Local Vigo County School Board member Ken Warner expressed frustration on his Facebook page when the Tribune-Star published an article pointing out that local results were below state averages.

“The VCSC improves and did well…but how did the lib-trib frame it? They made it negative,” said Warner. Test results, however, showed the VCSC did not improve.

Of all students tested in 2023, 23.3% passed both the Math and English Language Arts portions of the ILEARN, while in 2022, 23.4% of all students tested passed both portions.

Warner and other school administrators also claimed that the VCSC did well compared to other urban school districts, but test results showed that city schools tested far below county schools.

The top three schools for third grade Math and ELA proficiency were Dixie Bee 54.3%, Lost Creek 49.6%, and Riley 45%. The lowest three in the same category were Farrington Grove 3.3%, Blanche Fuqua 6.9%, and Ben Franklin 12.1%.

The disparity between urban and rural schools in Vigo County has existed for years, and the boundaries of lower performing schools have been shown to relate directly to historic redlining practices.

When reading test results were sorted by ethnic groups with more than 20 students tested it showed the percentages reaching proficiency were White 33.7%, Multi-Racial 24.3%, Hispanic 23.7%, and Black 14.3%.

When the same results were sorted by gender 34% of females were proficient in English Language Arts (Reading) compared to 29.7% of males.