Indiana third grade literacy rates up, how your tax dollars could continue to help

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana educators are celebrating the significant improvements third graders have made when it comes to literacy rates.

mikeThe Indiana Department of Education called it an “unprecedented” increase, with just over 87% of the state’s third graders showing “proficient” reading skills on the 2024-25 IREAD assessment.

That now matches how third grade students were performing before the pandemic in the 2018-19 school year.

After those reading scores started dropping after the pandemic, Circle City Readers began to help students increase their reading skills. The one-on-one tutoring program has worked for two years now, with kids kindergarten through third grade. It’s in 10 Indianapolis schools, providing services for more than 500 students.

This year, 76% of its students pass