Fortville Elementary was recently recognized by the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) for their third-grade students achieving a 95% pass rate on the IREAD test. FES is one of 242 Indiana elementary schools and one out of only three Hancock County schools to receive this recognition. The IDOE recently held a celebration at the Indiana State House to recognize and congratulate the 242 schools for receiving the IREAD Literacy Honor.

IREAD TEST HISTORY: IREAD-3 is an assessment that has been given to all third graders since the spring of 2012. The test has been realigned since its inception and has changed from paper/pencil to online. Starting in the spring of 2022, the IDOE made it optional to give to 2nd graders which allowed students to take the test sooner. This helps schools like FES provide additional supports in third grade for those who did not pass IREAD in second grade. Additionally, students who do pass the test in second grade do not have to retake the test in 3rd grade. 

Dr. Scott Shipley, Director of Curriculum explained, “All of Hancock County is doing great work to prepare students for the IREAD3 assessment as Hancock County is the only county that surrounds Marion County where ALL school's IREAD3 pass rates are above 90%.  This is a huge celebration for our schools.” 

Shipley continued, “Each of the elementary schools and teachers within MVCSC identifies and provides extra time and scientifically researched instructional support for students who we identify as needing extra support. In 2023, we opted for all second-grade students to take the IREAD3 assessment and 54% of them passed. This allowed us to specifically target 150 students (46%) during their third-grade year to make sure their learning progress allowed them to be successful on the third-grade assessment. Those students are receiving additional time and support to learn the skills they need to be successful readers.”

MVCSC ensures that staff is well trained to readily prepare students for the IREAD. There is training offered for staff to ensure correct proctoring and test securing/integrity. This includes providing accommodations for those students with disabilities or those who are an English language learner.

Dr. Vince Edwards, FES Principal, explained, “Reading is such a complex skill and trying to meet all the needs of the individual students we serve can be a real challenge.  Taking on that challenge has to be done with a multi-faceted approach, and this particular measure of success should be attributed to the efforts of our entire kindergarten through third grade staff, as well as the support from families. We have done a lot of work in the past few years to align our curricular resources and instructional practices with the components of the science of reading, including making sure that all of our kindergarten through second-grade teachers are certified in Orton-Gillingham. Our dedicated and talented classroom teachers and interventionists work really well, collaboratively, to support one another so that all of our students will learn and grow.“

Edwards added, “We have developed a master schedule that, in addition to providing time for high-quality core instruction, also supports daily times for multi-tiered interventions to take place. We have developed systems to help us identify struggling readers as early as possible and to provide targeted and/or intensive remediation as needed.  If students are not responding to all of these layers of support, we consider the possibility of a disability that might be hindering their progress and we discuss with parents if the child should be evaluated for special education eligibility with an individual education plan.”

In tandem with the IDOE, the Mt. Vernon district additionally honors the Fortville Elementary staff for their success and hard work in helping prepare second and third-grade students for the IREAD test. Achieving 95% pass rate is an incredible achievement, and although it is known that Mt. Vernon staff won’t slow down their efforts until 100% pass rate is reached, taking a moment to recognize and celebrate this accomplishment is beyond warranted. Congratulations FES staff and students for your dedication and hard work on this incredible achievement!