Standardized Testing Assignment
Indiana – ILEARN
Indiana’s Learning Evaluation and Assessment Readiness Network (ILEARN) is the
summative accountability assessment for Indiana students in grades three through eight
and high school biology. ILEARN measures student achievement and growth according
to Indiana Academic Standards for English/Language Arts for grades three through
eight, Mathematics for grades three through eight, Science for grades four and six, and
Social Studies for grade five.
Students are required to participate in the ILEARN Biology End-of-Course Assessment
(ECA) upon completion of the high school biology course to fulfill a federal participation
requirement. The ILEARN U.S. Government ECA is available per state legislation as an
optional assessment for students upon completion of the high school U.S. Government
course. A student may only have one test attempt for any given ILEARN assessment.
There are no retest opportunities available for ILEARN assessments.
ILEARN 2024, Indiana Department of Education
https://www.in.gov/doe/students/assessment/ilearn/
When is the ILEARN assessment held?
There are two ILEARN Biology ECA testing windows, one ILEARN 3-8 testing window, and
one ILEARN U.S. Government testing window during the school year. The ILEARN
Biology ECA is held in the fall, winter, and spring for students on a trimester schedule,
ILEARN 3-8 is held each spring, and the ILEARN U.S. Government ECA is offered as an
optional online assessment in the spring.
ILEARN 2024, Indiana Department of Education
https://www.in.gov/doe/students/assessment/ilearn/
Opting Out
Indiana has no formal process for opting out of the ILEARN assessment. According to the Marion
County school website:
Indiana law neither provides for an “opt-out” procedure nor recognizes “opting out” of
statewide assessments. Although it is not against the law to refuse to allow a child to participate
in assessments, every student attending a public or accredited nonpublic school in Indiana must
take the Indiana-wide assessments.
Furthermore, it is a violation of Indiana’s compulsory school attendance laws for a parent to
refuse to send his or her child to school for the purpose of avoiding tests, including assessments.
(IC 20-33-2).
Such refusal to allow children to take Indiana’s assessments may also have far-reaching
ramifications, including impacting schools’ A-F accountability grades and teacher compensation.
Assessment Opt Out, Marion County Schools
https://www.marion.k12.in.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?
uREC_ID=3889755&type=d&pREC_ID=2479551#:~:text=Indiana%20law%20neither%20provides
%20for,take%20the%20Indiana%2Dwide%20assessments.
As best I could find, although there is no official opt-out policy or procedure currently in place, students
cannot be penalized for not coming to school during ILEARN testing. Whether or not this “opt them out”
of testing remains to be seen. Certain accommodations were made during COVID-19 remote learning for
students whose parents did not want them coming to school for standardized testing.
Public education run from the state level must find reliable ways to test students in order to be held
accountable; without regular testing, how can the tax-payers assess the effectiveness of the education
they are funding? If the testing itself is not reliable, an accurate measure of the education students are
receiving is impossible. I can understand how this is frustrating for educators. Personally, I would rather
see energy and effort being put into the test itself be reformed rather than an opt-out movement. If all
the efforts of public educators and unions are put into discrediting the assessment without offering an
alternative, it gives the impression that there is a desire to opt-out of accountability.
