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Indiana students fared slightly better on “the nation’s report card” in 2024 compared to 2022 as the state continues to slowly recover from the effects of the pandemic.

But across the state and nation, scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress — or NAEP — remain below 2019 levels, raising alarm bells about students’ reading and math skills after the pandemic. Nationally, there is also a growing gap between the highest- and lowest-performing students on NAEP.

Scores released Wednesday show Indiana students’ performance in both math and reading ticked up by between 1 and 3 percentage points in 2024.

In reading, around 34% of fourth graders and 33% of eighth graders were proficient or better in reading in 2024, up from 33% and 31%, respectively, in 2022.

In math, around 43% of fourth graders and 31% of eighth graders scored proficient or better in 2024, compared with 40% and 30%, respectively, in 2022.

Indiana’s performance across both subjects is in line with most other states, which saw no statistically significant score improvements compared to 2022. Nationally, reading scores have continued to drop in a trend that began before the pandemic in 2019. In math, some states made notable improvements, but Indiana was not among them.

Still, Indiana’s average scores remain above national averages. And while national averages have declined in reading, Indiana students’ scores rose this year.

Another difference between Indiana and national averages concerns the highest- and lowest-performing students. Indiana fourth graders in the bottom quartile of scores improved their performance over 2022. But nationally, fourth graders in the bottom quartile of reading scores declined the most from 2022.

However, the gap in eighth grade reading scores between Indiana’s lowest- and highest-performing students grew from 2022 to 2024.

Across demographic groups, one of the state’s most significant jumps in scores was for Black fourth grade students, whose reading scores rose from 194 in 2022 to 201 in 2024 — one point higher than their 2019 scores. Hispanic fourth grade students have also matched 2019 scores in reading for the demographic.

No other student group in Indiana matched its 2019 performance in either subject in 2024.

Nationwide, it was rare for any state to exceed its 2019 NAEP scores in either subject — just Alabama scored higher in fourth grade math, and only Louisiana scored higher in fourth grade reading.

“NAEP has reported declines in reading achievement consistently since 2019, and the continued declines since the pandemic suggest we’re facing complex challenges that cannot be fully explained by the impact of COVID-19,” said National Center for Education Statistics Associate Commissioner Daniel McGrath in a press release.

NAEP scores, learning affected by student absenteeism

NAEP scores don’t indicate the efficacy of any single policy or practice. But their release is likely to trigger debates about how states have responded to the academic effects of the pandemic.

Since 2022, Indiana has passed several laws aimed at aligning the state’s early literacy instruction with a set of practices known as the science of reading.

Schools and teacher training programs are now required to use material based on the science of reading. And beginning this year, students who don’t pass the the third grade reading test — the IREAD-3 — will be be required to repeat third grade, with only a few exceptions.

Now Indiana lawmakers may turn their attention to math. A bill under consideration in the 2025 legislative session would change teacher preparation programs in regards to math instruction, as well as require math proficiency screeners and interventions for younger students.

The state has also invested state and federal funds in tutoring and summer school programs, and will likely seek help from lawmakers writing the state budget to keep those initiatives funded after the expiration of federal aid.

Other initiatives from lawmakers include addressing student absenteeism, which has declined nationally since 2022 but remains higher than in 2019. In a media call Tuesday, Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics Peggy Carr pointed to absenteeism as a factor in students’ scores.

“If students aren’t in school, they can’t learn,” Carr said.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

INDIANAPOLIS — After seeing published comments from Paul George lamenting the fact he hasn’t been extensively honored for his contributions to the Indiana Pacers when he’s returned to Gainbridge Fieldhouse with other teams, the Pacers’ front office intends to reach out to George and will look to honor his accomplishments in future returns, a league source told IndyStar.

George most recently returned to Indianapolis with the 76ers on Jan. 18 but did not play in the game due to injury and his presence wasn’t acknowledged either via the public address system or the video boards at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Ky Carlin, a reporter for Sixers Wire on the USA Today Network, asked George about that and the nine-time All-Star and six-time All-NBA pick acknowledged it is a bit of a sore spot for him even though he’s on this third team since he was traded to the Thunder in July of 2017. Carlin also noted George is not featured in the pre-game historical video that includes clips of the Pacers through the decades, but no active players are featured in that video.

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“We were joking with the guys, and they were like, you know, ‘Do you still get a tribute video when you go to Indiana?’” George told Carlin. “I was like ‘I’ve never gotten a tribute video since I’ve been going back to Indiana,’ and that was eight years ago. It does, you know, it sucks. I think the way things played out still holds a grudge to them and they don’t realize the great runs we had in the time I was there.”

George was taken by the Pacers out of Fresno State with the No. 10 pick in the 2010 draft and he played his first seven seasons with the franchise, earning four All-Star selections and three third-team All-NBA nods in that span. He’s one of just six Pacers players ever to be named to an All-NBA team and one of just three to be named three times — the others being Jermaine O’Neal and Reggie Miller.

George helped lead the Pacers to the playoffs in six of his seven seasons including back-to-back trips to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2013 and 2014 where they lost in seven and six games respectively to LeBron James’ Miami Heat. The Pacers had missed the playoffs in each of the four seasons before his arrival.

“I came into that situation where Indiana was struggling,” George told Carlin. “They just got over the ‘Malice at the Palace’. … There were some dark clouds covering that Pacers team, and, you know, they weren’t, you know, a force in the East. Obviously, they had good talent with Danny Granger there, but I thought I was a part of that resurgence.”

George, however, requested a trade in June of 2017 when he was heading into the final year of a four-year contract, saying he would not sign an extension and would leave in free agency the following summer if he was not traded. Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard at the time called the request “a gut punch.”

When the league calendar flipped over, Pritchard and the Pacers traded George to the Thunder for center Domantas Sabonis and Victor Oladipo. That deal has worked out well for the Pacers as Sabonis and Oladipo both earned All-Star nods with the Pacers. They eventually traded Sabonis to the Kings in the deal that brought All-Star Tyrese Haliburton to the Pacers and they sent Oladipo to the Rockets in a four-team deal that brought them Caris LeVert, who they eventually traded to the Cavaliers for the draft picks they used to take guards Andrew Nembhard and Ben Sheppard.

Remember the Caris LeVert trade? Did it help them win the Paul George trade?

Since the deal, George played two seasons for the Thunder and five seasons for the Clippers before joining the 76ers this summer. He’s earned five more All-Star trips, three more All-NBA nods and made more than $300 million on his past two contracts before signing a four-year deal worth approximately $211 million with the 76ers this offseason.

George was acknowledged when he returned to Gainbridge Fieldhouse with the Thunder for the first time, but it was brief. Not every player who returns to his old team is greeted by bells and whistles, but some particularly accomplished players are often greeted with extensive tributes. The Raptors showed an extensive tribute video on their videoboards when Pascal Siakam returned to Toronto for the first time after he was acquired by the Pacers last January.

George might see something closer to that the next time he returns to Gainbridge Fieldhouse, but the 76ers do not return to Indianapolis this season.

The Indiana Senate passed a bill Monday that aims to keep government entities like the Indiana Department of Child Services and school districts from interfering in parents’ rights, despite concerns that it could end up hurting the privacy rights of LGBTQ youth.

Approved by a 44-5 vote, Senate Bill 143 would forbid government entities from denying parents access to certain information about their children, and from “advising, directing or coercing” a child to withhold that information from parents.

Bill author Sen. Liz Brown, R-Fort Wayne, said the bill “gives parents the rights in Indiana which most of us thought we already had.”

“We’re just making sure that government does not constrain or in any way restrict a parent’s right to direct the upbringing, religious instruction, or health of their child,” Brown said. “You need a compelling governmental interest to interfere with that relationship.”

The bill makes an exception for protecting the health and safety of a child, and for active criminal law enforcement investigations involving a parent.

It also wouldn’t allow parents to decide that their children could access procedures that are banned in Indiana, such as abortion, gender-affirming care or female genital mutilation.

“A parent can’t say they now have that right,” Brown said. “We’re not going to allow a parent to supersede us on mutilating their child or (abortion).”

The bill now moves on to the House for consideration and it still has a lengthy process to becoming law. A similar legislative effort to enshrine parental rights died in the past, though this year’s bill has support from both Republicans and Democrats.

However, there is also some bipartisan opposition, with three Republicans and two Democrats voting against it in the Senate on Monday.

Sen. Aaron Freeman, R-Indianapolis, said he worried about the bill’s unintended consequences, though he “strongly agrees” with its goals. Just five years ago, he said, the state decided at the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic that it had a compelling interest to close businesses and restrict travel. He doesn’t want the government to create more hurdles for parents in the future.

“It was a compelling government interest back then,” Freeman said. “I don’t want to make it easier for government to say, well, because it’s a compelling government interest, you have to get your children vaccinated. I don’t want to make it easier for the government to act against parents.”

Youth privacy rights vs. ‘the long arm of the state’

Some advocates have raised concerns about how the bill would impact transgender children and their families.

Christopher Daley, executive director of the Indiana ACLU, said the legislation “encroaches on the privacy rights of minors throughout the state.” The organization opposed a similar bill in the past, stating then that the legislation “could have been used to force a teacher to ‘out’ an LGBTQ student to their parents.”

But Brown, the bill’s author, said that wasn’t a concern.

“I do not believe that minors have any significant privacy rights,” Brown said, “particularly that are being invaded by this bill.”

Sen. Mike Gaskill, R-Pendleton, also was motivated by the issue of transgender youth, but supported the bill. The legislation “really hits home” where here’s from, he said.

His constituents lost custody of their child because of a disagreement over the child’s transgender identity, Gaskill said, in a case that made national news as the parents sought a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court. But the high court ultimately declined to hear the case.

“They lost it to the long arm of the state,” Gaskill said. “This is long overdue.”

‘Parents need these kinds of protections’

Still, much of the testimony surrounding the bill related to alleged failures by DCS.

Indiana parents Grant and Myranda Phillips, for example, testified that they temporarily lost custody of their two children for nearly a year, and were kept from their children’s medical records, after they said DCS incorrectly alleged abuse of a two-month-old infant.

It turned out instead that the child was suffering with an undiagnosed connective tissue disorder and DCS eventually dismissed the case, the family said. They have since filed a lawsuit.

“We’ve been healing as a family since getting our children home, and we’re trying to use this horrible situation to bring attention to the things that are going on here in Indiana,” Grant Phillips said. “The parents going ahead of us into these situations needs these kinds of protections that we did not have.”

Though he had concerns about the bill, Freeman said its passage was a signal to DCS that the legislature wants the agency to “stay in their lane.”

A DCS spokesperson said “the Braun administration values parents’ rights and their access to information about their children.”

“DCS has had productive conversations with the bill’s author to develop language that complies with disclosure laws and court orders related to the department’s ability to release such information,” spokesperson Brian Heinemann told IndyStar.

“While we cannot comment specifically on open cases involving children or their information due to confidentiality laws,” Heinemann said, “we take all allegations of non-compliance seriously and review those for corrective action when substantiated.”

Contact senior government accountability reporter Hayleigh Colombo at hcolombo@indystar.com.