Retention As a State Policy Mandate: IRead In Indiana

Abstract

The interpretation of Indiana Public Law 109 and subsequent policy adopted by the Indiana Department of Education resulted in the Indiana State Board of Education mandating circumstances implemented during the 2011-2012 school year regarding grade level retention of Grade 3 students. IREAD-3, a standardized, gateway assessment, was administered to all Grade 3 students to determine eligibility to be promoted to Grade 4. Three quantitative studies analyzed the results from the initial year of assessment data for 1,712 students from one school district in Indiana to determine if there were factors that are predictive of performance on IREAD-3 and to better understand if there were effects on Grade 3 ISTEP+ performance based on the implementation of IREAD-3. Variables including chronological age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), gender, type of school the student attended (Title I versus non-Title I), and attendance were analyzed to determine if they were predictive of performance on IREAD-3. A logistic regression model identified three variables (low-SES, non-White, and poor attendance) that significantly increased the odds of not passing IREAD-3. The second study examined kindergarten, first grade, and second grade performance on DIBELS and TRC to determine if these assessments predicted passing IREAD-3. Based on the logistic regression model, below grade performance on both DIBELS and TRC (independently) significantly increased the odds of not passing IREAD-3. The statistically significant odds of not passing IREAD-3 were noted as early as the beginning of the kindergarten year but were noted to be more significant in later years, the middle and end of Grade 1 and beginning and middle of Grade 2. The final study examined whether there was a difference in ISTEP+ performance for Grade 3 students who also took the IREAD-3 assessment as compared to performance of Grade 3 students during the previous three years of ISTEP+ administration when those students did not take IREAD-3—2009, 2010, 2011. The results suggested that although there was a statistically significant difference in scores over the four years, the effect size was insignificant. Practically, the difference appears to represent an upward trend of scores and the statistically significant differences were not necessarily associated with implementation of IREAD-3 in 2012.