Anderson Community Schools had the eighth-worst English language proficiency ILEARN 2024 test scores among 296 public schools systems in the state — and at least one school board member wants to see immediate action.
“How do we do it differently?” ACS board member JoAnna Collette asked at the board’s recent monthly meeting.
“How do we reinvent it? How do we do it better? How do we just not do it the same way it has always been done and try a few new things? This is critical now.”
ILEARN, an assessment taken annually by students in grades 3-8, aims to show student growth in English/language arts, math, science and social studies.
ACS students’ ILEARN scores for 2024 are at least 3% below those of school districts in similar cities such as Muncie, Richmond and Marion. The three communities have similar populations and similar percentages of students who qualify for free and reduced price school lunches.
ACS and schools statewide saw English language arts scores rise by 0.3% in 2024 compared to 2023. ACS math scores showed a 1.3% decrease. Math scores statewide had a 0.2% decrease.
ACS Superintendent Joe Cronk said the scores show work needs to be done to improve in the next year, and it is the schools’ job to figure out what they should do to make improvement.
Kathy McCord, director of curriculum, instruction and elementary education for ACS, mentioned students are facing barriers that could prevent them from performing well at school. Those barriers, she said, could include poor attendance, poverty, lack of transportation, limited parent involvement with the school, and teachers who have less than three years of experience in the classroom.
“You have to identify what the barriers are, then you have to figure out what you can control in that group of things,” McCord said. “We have to find ways to overcome those barriers and be able to provide them with the education and opportunity to learn.”
McCord said the well-being of each student needs to be addressed in order for them to succeed in school.
“We have to look at our unique group of students and their needs before we can do any instruction,” McCord said. “Until those things are taken care of, the student’s not going to learn.”
To combat those barriers, ACS is working toward having a principal, assistant principal and a dean in every elementary building to observe the students in the classroom. ACS has also partnered with the University of Indianapolis to begin a program called the Center for Educational Literacy Leadership, or CELL. The program is designed to help teachers in grades 4-8 work on literacy skills so they can better teach the students.
Teachers in every grade will meet weekly to review English language arts data from students and collaborate on lesson plans.
Collette said that, while steps being taken to improve test scores are a good start, a 30-day plan should be put in place to raise scores more rapidly. She suggested putting more people in administration that can help with improving the scores and collecting data immediately.
Cronk said faculty members are responsible to teach the students to the best of their abilities.
“What we can control is those six and a half hours we have those kids safe in our custody,” Cronk said.
This article appeared in The Herald Bulletin.