Like their peers nationwide, students at Crawford County Middle School in southern Indiana struggled academically in the pandemic鈥檚 wake. Principal Tarra Carothers knew her students needed help to get back on track.

So two years ago, she decided to double instructional time for math and English. Students now spend two periods per day in these critical subjects. Carothers believes the change has been a success, and a key trend backs her up: Crawford鈥檚 ILEARN scores in English language arts increased by over 8 percentage points from 2024 to 2025.

But overall, Indiana middle schools are heading in the opposite direction when it comes to English. In fact, despite gains in math, middle schoolers are struggling more than students in other grade levels in English, state test scores show. Since 2021, ILEARN English proficiency rates in seventh and eighth grades have fallen, with the dip particularly pronounced for seventh graders. And while their scores are up slightly compared with four years ago, sixth graders鈥� performance fell over the past year.

Indiana has made significant and much-publicized investments in early literacy, relying heavily on the science of reading, as many states have in the last few years. But that instructional transformation has come too late for current middle schoolers. Meanwhile, ILEARN English scores for third and fourth graders , although this improvement has been uneven.

The Board of Education expressed specific concerns about middle schoolers鈥� performance at a . 鈥淲e鈥檝e gotta pick it up and make sure all of our middle school kids are reading, provide those additional supports,鈥� said Secretary of Education Katie Jenner.

Some middle school leaders say strategies they鈥檝e used can turn things around. In addition to increasing instructional time for key subjects, they point to participation in a pilot that allows students to take ILEARN at several points over the school year, instead of just once in the spring. Educators say relying on these checkpoints can provide data-driven reflection and remediation for students that shows up in better test scores.

Middle school an 鈥榦ptimum time鈥� for students鈥� recovery

Katie Powell, director for middle level programs at the Association for Middle Level Education, said she often asks teachers if middle schoolers seem different since the pandemic and 鈥渉eads nod,鈥� she said. These post-pandemic middle schoolers are harder to motivate and engage, self-report more stress, and are less likely to take risks academically, Powell said.

When the pandemic hit, 鈥渢hey were young, at the age of school where they鈥檙e developing basic reading fluency and math fact fluency,鈥� she said. Current eighth graders, for example, were in second grade when the pandemic shut down schools and many learned online for much of their third grade year. Third grade is when students are supposed to stop learning to read and start 鈥渞eading to learn,鈥� Powell said.

Powell noted that middle schoolers are in the stage of rapid development with the most changes for the brain and body outside of infancy.

鈥淭his is actually an optimum time to step in and step up for them,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t is not too late. But it鈥檚 critical that we pay attention to them now.鈥�

Crawford County Middle School has nine periods every day, and students spend two periods each in both math and English. While many schools have some version of block scheduling, many have a model in which students only go to each class every other day. But at Crawford, students attend every class every day. Their version of block scheduling results in double the amount of instructional time in math and English.

To make this switch, sacrifices had to be made. Periods were shortened, resulting in less time for other subjects. Carothers worried that student scores in subjects like science and social studies would decrease. But the opposite occurred, she said. Sixth grade science scores increased, for example, even though students were spending less time in the science classroom, according to Carothers.

鈥淚f they have better math skills and better reading skills, then they鈥檙e gonna perform better in social studies and science,鈥� she said.

Meanwhile, at Cannelton Jr. Sr. High School, on the state line with Kentucky, the first three periods of the day are 90 minutes, rather than the typical 45. Every student has English or math during these first three periods, allowing for double the normal class time.

Cannelton鈥檚 sixth through eighth grade English language arts ILEARN scores increased by nearly nine percentage points last year.

Schools use more data to track student performance

Cannelton Principal Brian Garrett believes his school鈥檚 reliance on data, and its new approach to getting it, is also part of their secret.

Students take benchmark assessments early, in the first two or three weeks of school, so that teachers can track their progress and find gaps in knowledge.

This year, the state is adopting that strategy for schools statewide. Rather than taking ILEARN once near the end of the year, students will take versions of the test three separate times, with a shortened final assessment in the spring. The state ran a pilot for ILEARN checkpoints last school year, with over 70% of Indiana schools taking part.

The Indiana Department of Education hopes checkpoints will make the data from the test more actionable and help families and teachers ensure a student is on track throughout the year.

Kim Davis, principal of Indian Creek Middle School in rural Trafalgar, said she believes ILEARN checkpoints, paired with reflection and targeted remediation efforts by teachers, 鈥渉elped us inform instruction throughout the year instead of waiting until the end of the year to see did they actually master it according to the state test.鈥�

The checkpoints identified what standards students were struggling with, allowing Indian Creek teachers to tailor their instruction. Students also benefitted from an added familiarity with the test; they could see how questions would be presented when it was time for the final assessment in the spring.

鈥淚t felt very pressure-free, but very informative for the teachers,鈥� Davis said.

The type of data gathered matters too. In the past, Washington Township middle schools used an assessment called NWEA, taken multiple times throughout the year, to measure student learning, said Eastwood Middle School Principal James Tutin. While NWEA was a good metric for measuring growth, it didn鈥檛 align with Indiana state standards, so the scores didn鈥檛 necessarily match how a student would ultimately score on a test like ILEARN.

Last year, the district adopted ILEARN checkpoints instead, and used a service called Otis to collect weekly data.

It took approximately six minutes for students to answer a few questions during a class period with information that educators could then put into Otis. That data allowed teachers to target instruction during gaps between ILEARN checkpoints.

鈥淣ot only were they getting the practice through the checkpoints, but they were getting really targeted feedback at the daily and weekly level, to make sure that we鈥檙e not waiting until the checkpoint to know how our students are likely going to do,鈥� Tutin said.

Both Davis and Tutin stressed that simply having students take the checkpoint ILEARN tests was not enough; it had to be paired with reflection and collaboration between teachers, pushing each other to ask the tough questions and evaluate their own teaching.

鈥淲e still have a fire in us to grow further, we鈥檙e not content with where we are,鈥� Davis said. 鈥淏ut we鈥檙e headed in the right direction and that鈥檚 very exciting.鈥�

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at .听

Superintendents of Louisiana public school districts would be evaluated based on their students鈥� math and English test scores based on proposed legislation a committee advanced Wednesday.

Rep. John Wyble, R-Franklinton, authored that would require all superintendent contracts to include performance evaluations based on the English and math scores for K-3 students, along with other student growth factors.

Superintendents are evaluated by their own school boards. Wyble鈥檚 bill would affect new contracts and those renewed after Aug. 1.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really important that we continue to focus that investment but also bring in some accountability with it so that we know that our local school districts are moving in that positive direction,鈥� Wyble said.

The investment Wyble referenced is a policy change made last year. Former Rep. Richard Nelson, R-Mandeville, who now leads the state revenue department, gained approval for a measure to hold back students in the third grade if they did not reach the age-appropriate reading level. It goes into effect for the 2024-25 school year.

Additional advances in English education practices have made Louisiana one of three states to reach pre-pandemic levels in reading assessments.

The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) will be part of the superintendent assessment process. According to Wyble, board members will help create the standards and formula for incorporating math and English scores into the superintendent鈥檚 annual review.

His bill calls for math and English scores to account for at least one-third of the evaluation. Currently, superintendents are only mandated to reach performance targets if their school district receives a C, D or F grade.

Rep. Josh Carlson, R-Lafayette, supports the bill.

鈥淵es, school districts can put in their own requirements for the superintendents, but we haven鈥檛, not widespread,鈥� Carlson said. 鈥淎nd up until recently, we were one of the last states in the nation for education.鈥�

The state also needs to start putting the same emphasis on math and numeracy that it has on literacy in recent years, Carlson added.

The Louisiana Association of Superintendents opposes Wyble鈥檚 bill because its members want to make the math and English performance evaluations optional for school districts.

The Maryland State Department of Education released detailed results Tuesday on how some students in the state鈥檚 24 public school systems fared on the latest standardized tests.

Broader results from each school system were from the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP) tests students took during the 2002-23 school year.

The latest data are from tests taken by students in grades 3 through 8 in English language arts and math.

Additional tests in English were administered for 10th graders; science tests were given to students in fifth and eighth grade; and students were tested who were enrolled in Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and geometry.

The data also broke down school system performance based on race, English language learners and students with disabilities.

Each school鈥檚 data and other information can be viewed on the state鈥檚 annual .

MCAP results are among the factors that determine the state鈥檚聽report card and school star rating system. Schools get stars based on what percentage of total points they earned in measurement areas such as growth in achievement, high school graduation rates, student access to a well-rounded curriculum, progress in achieving English language proficiency, the prevalence of chronic absenteeism, and student and teacher perceptions of the school environment.

New reports were聽, the first time the state dispensed the annual report card since 2019 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While discussing an update on a college and career readiness standard in the state鈥檚 Blueprint for Maryland鈥檚 Future education reform plan, State Superintendent of Schools Mohammed Choudhury had a message Tuesday for parents and guardians with children at a school where MCAP test results are low.

鈥淵our child is not a failure because they didn鈥檛 do well on the MCAP,鈥� he said. 鈥淵our child knows a lot of things because [he or she] got that 鈥楤,鈥� that 鈥楢鈥� in their class. They know a lot of things and we鈥檙e going to acknowledge that and鈥e鈥檙e not going to use one approach to deem what they know.鈥�

Here鈥檚 a summary of the proficiency level on how some schools fared on English, math and science:

English language arts

Twenty-two schools with students in grades 3, 4 and 5 recorded at least 90% proficient on the MCAP.

Bonnockburn Elementary in Montgomery County (94.7% in grade 3) had the highest proficiency level among all schools in English, according to the state data.

Glenarden Woods Elementary in Prince George鈥檚 County reached the highest proficiency level among fourth grade students at 94.2%. Another school in the county, Heather Hills Elementary, recorded the highest percentage of fifth grade students at 93.3%.

Schools that exceeded 90% proficiency in grades 6, 7, 8 and 10 are:

• South Dorchester School in Dorchester County (91.7% grade 6 and 92% grade 7)
• Thomas W. Pyle Middle School in Montgomery County (90.8% grade 8)
• Barbara Ingram School for the Arts in Washington County (92.6% grade 10)

Montgomery and Baltimore counties both had seven schools record at least 90% proficiency in English.

The state also reported schools that showed the lowest proficient level in these grades.

Several of those schools are in Baltimore City, including New Song Academy (5.9% grade 3), Bay-Brook Elementary/Middle School (5.1% grade 6) and National Academy Foundation (5.3% grade 10).

A few schools in the Baltimore area recorded some of the lowest percentages in middle and high school, including sixth grade students at Bay-Brook Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore City (5.1%), seventh graders at Crossroads Center in Baltimore County (5.9%) and 10th graders at National Academy Foundation in the city.

Math

Glenarden Woods, a Talented and Gifted school (TAG), also had third grade students achieve a 90.1% proficiency level in math, one of the highest percentages in the state for that grade.

The other three schools with third graders to reach at least 90% proficiency were two schools in Montgomery County 鈥斅燱oodfield and Wayside elementary schools 鈥斅燼nd West Towson Elementary in Baltimore County.

Some schools reached 90% proficiency in Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and geometry.

Students who took Algebra 2 at Robert Frost Middle School in Montgomery County recorded the highest percentage in math at 94.7%, according to the MCAP results.

Students at Lime Kiln Middle School in Howard County also scored above 90% proficiency in that subject.

Three Howard County middle schools also achieved at least 90% in geometry 鈥� Clarksville (93.3%), Burleigh Manor (93%) and Mount View (91.3%).

Students at Greenbelt Middle School in Prince George鈥檚 also exceeded above 90% proficiency in geometry.

On the opposite end, several schools recorded slightly above 5% proficiency in math at various grade levels.

The state reported several of those schools are located in the majority-Black jurisdictions of Baltimore City and Prince George鈥檚 County. These include Highlandtown Elementary/Middle in Baltimore (grade 3), Gwynns Falls Elementary in Baltimore (grade 4), John Hanson Montessori in Prince George鈥檚 (grade 4) and Chillum Elementary in Prince George鈥檚 (grade 5).

Three Montgomery County middle schools recorded some of the lowest proficiency levels at 5.1%, including Forest Oak (sixth grade), Briggs Chaney (seventh grade) and Julius West (eighth grade).

Science

Test scores showed seven elementary schools in four counties with fifth graders recording at least 80% proficiency in science. Those schools were West Towson (89.7%) and Rodgers Forge (80.5%) in Baltimore County, Bells Mill (87.4%) and Cold Spring (82.8%) in Montgomery, Glenarden Woods (85%) and Heather Hills (84.4%) in Prince George鈥檚 and Benfield (86.6%) in Anne Arundel.

Eighth grade students at Monocacy Valley Montessori in Frederick County was the only middle school in the state to achieve at least 80% proficiency in science.

Two other middle schools 鈥斅燙larksville in Howard and Thomas W. Pyle in Montgomery 鈥� had eighth graders that exceeded 70% proficiency.

MCAP results also show which elementary schools recorded the lowest percentage of students in grades 5 and 8 who were proficient in science.

A few of the schools with fifth graders that achieved 6% proficiency or lower were Moravia Park in Baltimore City, Oakleigh in Baltimore County and Carmody Hills in Prince George鈥檚.

Eighth grade students were just slightly above 5% proficient in science at some schools, including Thurgood Marshall Middle School in Prince George鈥檚 and Maree Garnett Farring Elementary/Middle School and KIPP Harmony Academy in Baltimore.

Statewide test results in science showed a slight increase by fifth grade students overall at 35% proficient, compared to nearly 31% last year.

But there was a decrease among eighth grade students statewide, who scored 26% proficient, versus 35% last year.

Student performance by race last year broke down this way:

• Asian students: 59% of fifth graders were proficient this year compared to 56% last year; eighth graders were 56% proficient this year and 69% last year.
• White students: eighth graders were proficient at a 53% rate this year and at 46% last year; eighth graders were at nearly 42% proficient this year and 52% last year.
• Black students: eighth graders were at 20% this year and 17% last year; eighth graders were at 13% this year and 20% last year.
• Latino students: fifth graders were at 20% this year and 17% last year; eighth graders were at 13% this year and 20% last year.

Carroll County fifth graders recorded the highest proficiency percentage statewide this year at 54%, compared to 45% last year. Howard County eighth graders achieved the highest percentage at 42%, but that represents a 12-point decrease from last year.

Baltimore City recorded the lowest proficiency percentage in fifth and eighth grade students this year at nearly 12% and 9%, respectively. The percentage in fifth grade increased by nearly 3 points from last year, but decreased by that same figure in eighth grade.

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