INDIANA — The State of Indiana and Lilly Endowment Inc. recently announced the state’s largest-ever financial investment in literacy, expanding Indiana’s commitment to support literacy development for Hoosier students. This combined investment from the state and Lilly Endowment of up to $111 million will support early literacy development using proven teaching strategies aligned with the Science of Reading.
The state will:
• Support the deployment of instructional coaches to schools throughout Indiana
• Offer stipends to teachers who participate in professional development focused on the Science of Reading
• Provide targeted support for students who need the most help in improving their reading skills
• Create a literacy center focused on Science of Reading strategies
Lilly Endowment has approved a grant of up to $60 million for this effort. These efforts will support the state’s goal of having 95 percent of Indiana’s students pass IREAD-3 by 2027.
The most recent scores from the state’s summative assessment for grades three through eight (ILEARN) and NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) – tools which measure deeper reading proficiency – indicate that even more Indiana students will need additional support in order to read and comprehend increasingly complex materials, conduct research and write effectively in the years to come.
In 2022, only 40.7 percent of Indiana third graders and 41.1 percent of Indiana fourth graders passed the English/Language Arts portion of ILEARN. Learning gaps in reading proficiency persist as demonstrated by 2019 NAEP results: only 17 percent of Black students, 24 percent of Hispanic students and 24 percent of students from low-income households scored proficient or better.