By John Rohlf, The Message assistant editor
The Diocese of Evansville Catholic Schools achieved top-10 scores in four different metrics on the recently released 2025 ILEARN assessments.
The Indiana Department of Education presented results in July from the spring 2025 administration of the Indiana Learning Evaluation and Readiness Network (ILEARN), an assessment system that measures achievement and growth related to Indiana Academic standards for students in grades 3-8, high school biology and high school U.S. government.
“We’re very proud of how our students consistently perform on state summative assessments,” Diocese of Evansville Superintendent of Schools Michelle Priar said. “We’re so blessed with teachers who are dedicated, students who are motivated and families who value our partnership, which all contribute to this academic success.”
However, Priar stressed test results are just one benchmark in which they measure student growth and achievement. They also want to ensure that the students are growing in their faith, treating their classmates with dignity and respect and challenging themselves to be the best versions of themselves they can be, she said.
“We’re so proud of our students, and we congratulate them on representing the Diocese of Evansville so well on their ILEARN results,” Priar said. “But our mission as Catholic schools, which is to help students on their journey to grow closer to God and get them to heaven, will always remain front and center.”
Among all corporations, which includes school districts and dioceses, the Diocese of Evansville schools placed 10th or better in four of the five categories in the grades 3-8 assessment. They placed third in the state in both English Language Arts and science. They placed sixth in English Language Arts and math and 10th in social studies. They placed 12th in the state in math.
The science assessment was for students in fourth and sixth grades and the social studies assessment was given to students in fifth grade. The remaining assessments were given to students in grades 3-8.
As a state, 40.6 percent of spring 2025 testers were proficient in English Language Arts, 42.1 percent were proficient in math, 31.2% were proficient in English Language Arts and math, 42.8 percent were proficient in science and 38.5% were proficient in social studies.
The Diocese of Evansville eclipsed the benchmark for proficiency in all subjects by at least 20 percent. The diocesan schools were 65.8 percent proficient in English Language Arts, 66.4 percent proficient in math, 54.8% proficient in English Language Arts and math, 72 percent proficient in science and 66.4 percent proficient in social studies. The diocesan schools earned a 68.5% proficiency rate in the high school biology assessment.
The U.S. Government assessment was an optional assessment, according to the Indiana Department of Education website.