ILEARN 4th grade ELA is Indiana's highest-since-pandemic ELA grade (41.4% At/Above Proficiency in 2025) — and the narrative-writing performance-task year, where your child is asked to write an extended story with vivid sensory detail, a developed character, and a real resolution.
Grade 4 ILEARN ELA is one of three tests your fourth-grader takes this spring (Math, ELA, Science — Indiana's unusual triple-test grade). The ELA test covers four reporting categories from Indiana Academic Standards: Reading - Literature (theme, compare/contrast point of view, story elements across texts — RL.4), Reading - Nonfiction (main idea with key supporting details, combining information from two texts on the same topic — RN.4), Reading - Vocabulary (context clues, synonyms/antonyms/homographs/idioms, prefixes and suffixes — RV.4), and Writing (one extended performance task — W.4). The 2025 IDOE-released Grade 4 student writing samples were narrative genre.
The 2025 results put Grade 4 ELA at 41.4% At-or-Above Proficiency — the highest Grade 4 ELA proficiency rate since the pandemic, modestly above the state ELA aggregate of 40.6%. But year-over-year the grade slipped -0.4 ppt, and it sits +1.8 ppt above the 2021 baseline. The framing here is fragile recovery: Indiana's best Grade 4 ELA result in years, but slipping in 2025 — parents should be alert before the trend breaks further.
What makes Grade 4 ELA structurally distinct from Grade 3 is the writing performance task. At Grade 3 the prompt was informative; at Grade 4 in 2025 it was narrative — students were asked to write an extended story (typically anchored to a passage prompt) with a developed character, vivid sensory detail, a clear sequence of events, and a real resolution. Scored 0-6 by two human raters: Purpose/Evidence/Elaboration 0-4 (averaged to integer) plus Conventions 0-2.
ILEARN reports 4 performance levels: Below Proficiency, Approaching Proficiency, At Proficiency, and Above Proficiency. IDOE counts students who score 'At' or 'Above' as on track for college and career readiness; the bottom two levels are 'not on track.' Per-grade scale-score cut points are published in the IDOE Cut Scores PDF (in.gov/doe/files/ILEARN-Cut-Scores-2.pdf) — they are not the same number across grades or subjects.
ILEARN Math and ELA are Computer-Adaptive Tests (CAT) delivered on the Cambium TDS platform at indiana.portal.cambiumast.com. Items adjust to student performance — harder if a child gets one right, easier if wrong. The test is untimed; districts typically schedule it across multiple shorter sessions within the April 13 – May 8, 2026 online window.
New for 2025-26, Indiana also runs three mandatory ILEARN Checkpoints (fall, winter, spring) in Math and ELA only. Each Checkpoint is 20-25 questions, CAT, untimed, and zero-stakes — Checkpoints do NOT count toward your child's proficiency level or the school's accountability score. They exist purely to inform instruction between now and the April-May summative.
Highest Grade 4 ELA proficiency since the pandemic, but -0.4 ppt year-over-year (signals fragility). +1.8 ppt vs. 2021 baseline. Statewide ELA aggregate across grades 3-8 was 40.6% in 2025.
Source: Indiana Capital Chronicle, July 16, 2025 — indianacapitalchronicle.com/2025/07/16/indiana-ilearn-scores-show-continued-growth-in-math-but-reading-levels-stay-flat/
Real ILEARN format. Aligned to Indiana Academic Standards (IAS) — English/Language Arts, Grade 4 (2020 revision). Detailed explanations on every answer.
In a story, a boy on a farm in southern Indiana finds an injured hawk. He nurses it back to health over weeks, then releases it. The hawk circles overhead once before flying away. What is the theme?
Grade 4 ILEARN ELA under Indiana Academic Standards reports four scored categories: Reading - Literature, Reading - Nonfiction, Reading - Vocabulary, and Writing (one extended performance task). The 2025 Grade 4 writing performance task was narrative genre — a meaningful shift from Grade 3's informative prompt. Per-category item ranges are published in the IDOE Grade 4 ELA Blueprint XLSX.
| Reporting Category | What's Tested |
|---|---|
| Reading - Literature (RL.4) | Fiction passages: stories, poems, drama excerpts, folktales. Determine theme; compare and contrast point of view (first-person vs. third-person, narrator vs. character); analyze story elements (character, setting, plot, conflict, resolution) across texts. Use specific details from the text to support inferences. |
| Reading - Nonfiction (RN.4) | Informational passages: articles, biographies, science and social-studies content. Determine main idea AND key supporting details; explain events, procedures, or ideas in a historical, scientific, or technical text; combine information from two texts on the same topic. Often paired with the writing performance task. |
| Reading - Vocabulary (RV.4) | Apply context clues; knowledge of synonyms, antonyms, homographs, and idioms; common Greek and Latin affixes and roots (un-, re-, pre-, -ful, -less, -tion); reference materials (dictionary, thesaurus, glossary). Figurative language begins at Grade 4 (similes, metaphors at an introductory level). |
| Writing (W.4) — Performance Task | One extended writing prompt per test. 2025 IDOE-released Grade 4 samples were narrative — student writes an extended story with introduction, developed character, vivid sensory detail, clear sequence of events, and resolution. Scored 0-6 by two human raters (Purpose/Evidence/Elaboration 0-4 plus Conventions 0-2). |
Daily independent reading, 20 minutes, mix of fiction and nonfiction. Most fourth-graders get more story practice at home than informational-text practice — and ILEARN weights RL.4 and RN.4 at roughly equal weight. Kids' magazines (National Geographic Kids, Scholastic News), biographies, and science explainers balance the diet.
Drill the narrative writing task with IDOE-released 2025 student samples. The Carrie Rosebrock blog archives the anchor papers. Read a 5-out-of-6 narrative next to a 2-out-of-6 narrative; have your child name three things the high-scoring one does that the low-scoring one doesn't. That single exercise teaches the rubric faster than any explanation.
Practice sensory description. The narrative rubric specifically rewards vivid sensory detail — what does the scene look like, sound like, feel like. A fourth-grader who writes 'It was scary' loses points; 'My breath caught when I heard the creak of the floorboards behind me' scores higher. Talk through descriptions on car rides — 'tell me about this parking lot using your five senses.'
Practice combining information from two texts. IAS RN.4 specifically expects fourth-graders to read two texts on the same topic and synthesize. Most informational reading at home is one source at a time — set up a routine where your child reads two short articles on the same topic and tells you what they have in common.
Run one Cambium TDS practice script before April. The performance task is typed into a digital response field, not handwritten — and a fourth-grader who writes essays at school but rarely types one will be noticeably slower on test day. Thirty minutes of practice on indiana.portal.cambiumast.com/ilearn.html closes that gap.
Literature comprehension (theme, point of view, story elements), informational text (main idea, combining information from two sources), vocabulary (context clues, synonyms/antonyms/homographs/idioms, Greek and Latin affixes), and one writing performance task. In 2025 the Grade 4 writing genre was narrative — an extended story with developed character, sensory detail, and resolution. Scored 0-6 by two human raters.
Yes — one writing performance task per test, and in 2025 the Grade 4 prompt was narrative genre. Students write an extended story (typically anchored to a passage), with introduction, developed character, vivid sensory detail, clear sequence of events, and a real resolution. The writing is scored 0-6 by two human raters: Purpose/Evidence/Elaboration is rated 0-4 (averaged to integer if raters disagree), Conventions 0-2.
IDOE released anchor student writing samples for all grades after the 2025 administration, including the Grade 4 narrative responses. The most accessible mirror is the Carrie Rosebrock 2025 ELA Performance Task archive — it shows anchor papers across the score spectrum (5-6, 3-4, 1-2 examples) for every genre and grade. Reading a high-scoring narrative next to a low-scoring one teaches your child what 'good' looks like faster than any rubric explanation.
Daily independent reading 20+ minutes, plus open-ended discussion — 'Why do you think the character did that?' 'What evidence in the text supports that?' Mix fiction (for RL.4) and informational text (for RN.4) roughly equally. For vocabulary, talk about word parts when they come up naturally ('un-' + 'happy', '-tion' on 'celebration'). For the narrative writing task, practice describing scenes with sensory detail — what does it look like, sound like, smell like — because the rubric rewards vivid description.
Yes. The official Cambium Indiana Assessment Portal at indiana.portal.cambiumast.com/ilearn.html publishes free ELA practice scripts that use the exact same engine and item types as the real test. Lumos Learning's free practice tests cover the same standards. The single best material for the writing performance task is the IDOE-released student writing samples (publicly archived) — those let your child see the actual scoring standard.
Indiana uses four performance levels: Below Proficiency, Approaching Proficiency, At Proficiency, Above Proficiency. 'At Proficiency' or higher counts as on track for college and career readiness. Per-grade scale-score cut points are in the IDOE Cut Scores PDF (in.gov/doe/files/ILEARN-Cut-Scores-2.pdf). The writing performance task itself is scored 0-6 (Purpose/Evidence/Elaboration 0-4 + Conventions 0-2), which feeds into the overall scale score.
Between April 13 and May 8, 2026 for the online administration. Paper administration (accommodation only) is open through May 15, 2026. Your fourth-grader will also take ILEARN Math and ILEARN Science in the same window — three different tests across multiple sittings.
Grade 4 ELA hit 41.4% in 2025 — the highest Grade 4 proficiency rate since the pandemic, but -0.4 ppt year-over-year. The 'fragile recovery' framing is accurate: the grade is +1.8 ppt above the 2021 baseline, but the YoY dip signals the gains are not locked in. Compare with Grade 3 ELA, which posted the largest ELA gain of any grade in 2025 (+1.7 ppt to 40.3%), and Grade 7 ELA, which fell almost 4 points — Indiana's middle-school ELA stall starts after Grade 5.
Same ILEARN test, different grades and subjects. Pick the page that matches your child's situation.
No credit card. Unlimited AI-generated practice aligned to Indiana Academic Standards (IAS) — English/Language Arts, Grade 4 (2020 revision).