Students who come from lower-income families are struggling in English and math at a much greater rate than their peers.
From 2019 to 2021, proficiency as measured by the ILEARN exam decreased across the board. Scores for the exam, which tests a student’s proficiency in both subjects, decreased by at least 8% at all local school districts, as students bore the brunt of a pandemic-altered school year, with a mix of in-person and online learning.
The stark contrast of student performance as it correlates to income and test scores is apparent in both years. In both 2019 and 2021, Johnson County students whose parents make more than the cutoff income for free or reduced-price meals performed at least 10% better than their counterparts. At some local districts, the difference was much greater, according to data from the Indiana Department of Education.
Center Grove schools had the most significant contrast between income and performance among the county’s six districts. In 2019, 61% of students whose families paid for their meals were proficient in both the English and math sections of the ILEARN exam, compared to 34% proficiency among students whose families receive free or reduced-price meals. This year, the difference was even more blatant, with 52% of paid-meal students proficient in both subjects, compared to just 21% of students who receive free or reduced-price meals, according to the data.
To address the achievement gap, Center Grove administrators and educators will look at identifying and supporting students who need extra support early on, something the district has already begun, said Shannon Carroll-Frye, Center Grove’s test coordinator and director of secondary teaching and learning.
This summer, the district hosted summer school programs for kindergarten through seventh-grade students who might not necessarily need to make up credits, but who may need a head start to the school year so they don’t fall behind later on, she said.
“There are economic disadvantages to look at. We look at English learners, we look at minority groups, and so we just look for trends or specific things,” Carroll-Frye said.
“We think some of the students may have had the least amount of consistent, quality internet, or maybe no internet access when at home on their own. For three months, no one got to come to school. What was that experience like for them? We know we lose in the summer with learning loss. Summer was really five months for them instead of two for most students.”
Carroll-Frye was referring to the final three months of school during the 2019-20 school year, when school was exclusively online due to the pandemic.
At Greenwood schools this year, 43% of students who pay for their meals succeeded on the ILEARN exam, almost twice the rate of students who received free or reduced-price meals, at 23%, according to the data.
There is no simple answer for why there is such a large gap in student achievement, said Lisa Harkness, the district’s director of curriculum, instruction and assessment.
“It’s really hard to tell what could contribute to some of the gaps between free and reduced and paid lunch,” Harkness said. “Sometimes it is accessibility. Sometimes maybe they’ve had to move several times and had gaps in learning. I think going to one-to-one was huge for us — making sure every student had a computer. If we have a family that doesn’t have internet connection or access points, we’ve tried to work with those families in getting those set up so they can do learning outside the school.”
The gap isn’t just seen in Johnson County. Hoosiers who receive free or reduced-price meals across the state had almost triple the proficiency rate on the ILEARN exam than their lower-income peers this year, earning proficiency on both the English and math sections 41% of the time, compared to 15% of students who received free or reduced-price meals, according to the data.
At Indian Creek schools, where 40% of students who pay for their meals attained proficiency, compared to 17% of students who received free or reduced-price meals, educators are using the Reflex program to help students get a grasp on difficult math topics, said Andrea Perry, principal at Indian Creek Intermediate School.
Intervention is key in addressing student needs early on in their education, said Andy Cline, superintendent.
“With areas pertaining to income and poverty levels, there are risk factors,” Cline said. “We have to keep a very close eye on how to improve (proficiency). Providing more intensive and focused intervention strategies will help.”
For students to succeed, parents also have to be involved in their education, said Ronald Ross, superintendent of Edinburgh schools.
At Edinburgh, 26% of students who pay for their meals were proficient in both English and math on the ILEARN exam, compared to 14% of their lower-income peers, according to the data.
“(Edinburgh schools) will be educating our families about community resources that can provide much-needed support and about the importance of the tests,” Ross said. “We plan to ramp up our initiatives to engage families and have them be more involved with their students’ education and school. Tutoring and remedial efforts are targeted to the students with the greatest academic needs, which includes our students who are economically disadvantaged.”
