Idaho Fall Reading Results: Third-Grade Proficiency Near 70%, Economically Disadvantaged Students at 51.8%
The Idaho State Department of Education released the fall 2026 Idaho Reading Indicator (IRI) results in Boise on November 2, showing continued improvement in early literacy for kindergarten through third-grade students, with overall proficiency gains in grades one through three.
This was the third administration of the updated IRI. The department contracted a year ago with assessment vendor Amira Learning for a more rigorous assessment providing more detailed scoring. The IRI measures early literacy skills including phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension, and is given each fall and spring.
Highlights of the fall 2026 assessment include a nearly 70% proficiency rate among third graders, indicating students retained early literacy skills from the prior year. Proficiency among economically disadvantaged students climbed from 47.8% in 2025 to 51.8% in 2026, and English learners rose from 30.1% to 33.8%.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield said the fall-to-fall improvement was striking. Statewide and district-level results are available on the Idaho Report Card.
(Source: Idaho State Department of Education)
Source: Idaho State Department of Education
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Photo: 图：爱达荷州议会大厦参议院会议厅（博伊西）。Frank Schulenburg 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Senate chamber of the Idaho State Capitol in Boise. By Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
