FROM INDIANA PUBLIC BROADCASTING

Today  third graders and most second graders will start taking the Indiana reading test — I-READ. 

I-READ is meant to gauge whether third graders have mastered reading skills. Do they know vowel sounds? Can they identify relationships among words — like synonyms and antonyms?

Or how about — reading a nonfiction story and pointing out a problem in the structure. That’s all on the test.

There’s a lot riding on this year’s IREAD. Scores are stagnant and near the lowest in a decade — last year nearly 82 percent of kids passed.

Governor Eric Holcomb wants 95 percent to pass in the next few years. So lawmakers just sent him legislation to sign that would ramp up supports for struggling readers — and hold back some who don’t pass IREAD.

That move would start next year.
 

For now, the window for the IREAD is through March 15th