By CASEY SMITH 

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Fewer than one-third of elementary and middle school students in Indiana recorded passing scores on the latest round of state standardized tests.

That confirms education officials' concerns that the coronavirus pandemic has fueled substantial learning loss.

The Indiana Department of Education Results on Wednesday released results from the spring ILEARN exam.

Those results show that 40.5% of students are at or above proficiency standards in English, and 36.9% are at or above proficiency in mathematics.

Only 28.6% of students statewide in grades 3 through 8 are proficient in both English and math.

That's a drop from 37.1% the last time the test was administered in 2019.