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Understanding Assessment Results
Achievement and Growth
There are two primary ways of understanding how your child is performing on state assessments; they are Achievement/Proficiency and Growth. As parents and teachers, we have a number of measures we rely on across the year to understand your children’s academic progress. State score reports and Student Growth Plot reports should be viewed in conjunction with other information about how your child is progressing in school, such as their grades, completion of class assignments, and their collaborative and social skills. All these indicators of student performance together form a more complete picture of a student’s success in school.
OSPI provides Student Score Reports and Student Growth Plot Reports. Student Growth Plot Reports graphically display academic growth and includes predictive growth data for next year.
View sample Score Reports in English and Spanish.
Superintendent Kalahar's message announcing OSPI's release of spring 2024 students' individual score reports.
View sample Understanding Student Growth Plot Reports, in English and Spanish that includes a helpful tutorial. Bethel School District has widely shared videos in English and Spanish that help viewers understand how the reports display student growth.
Additional information and resources are available on OSPI's webpages for Scores and Reports and Student Growth Percentile.
This section was last updated on November 1, 2024.
OSPI annually measures student achievement with the state assessments. The assessments measure students' understanding of the Washington state learning standards. The Washington State Report Card is OSPI's report of assessment proficiency scores and other strands of data, and is updated across the year. Viewers may track school or district performance across multiple student measures, such as attendance, assessment proficiency, student growth, graduation rates among other measures. Link to State Superintendent Chris Reykdal's bulletin here.
Do state and federal laws required districts to administer state assessments each year?
Yes, state testing is required by Washington state law (RCW 28A. 230.095) and federal law (Elementary and Secondary Education Act). Statewide testing is important because it helps ensure all public-school students receive a quality education, no matter where they go to school, because they are measured by the same standards.
Are all students expected to test?
Yes, every student enrolled in grades 3-8 and 10 is expected to take the ELA and math tests. Science is tested in grades 5, 8, 11, only.
Public school students who are participating in Running Start or attend a school less than a full-day are expected to test. Students enrolled in Valley Academy and Valley Online Academy are required to test because these entities are public schools.
Home-based and private school students are not required to take state assessments. Home-based and private school students who receive public school services part-time are not included in the data analysis, even if they take a state assessment. An example of services is speech or occupational therapy.
What is the calculation behind the published Proficiency Met rate as seen on the OSPI Report Card?
The state's calculation for the Proficiency Met rate is the number of students achieving proficiency (Achievement Level 3 or 4) divided by the number of all the students expected to test. Every student enrolled in a public school is expected to test. The state's business rules for proficiency frames the data seen on the OSPI Report Card.
What happens when a student does not test, how does that influence the Met Standard rate on the OSPI Report Card?
The 'no score' results of students who did not test are included in the Met Standard rate calculation and their score data are reflected in district, school, grade level, and demographic rates. Parents who wish to refuse state testing may contact their child's principal for further information and support.
Are High School students required to test?
On May 9, 2023, OSPI Assessment Operations Office shared the following state assessment policy to school districts to better support parents and students, and this includes students participating in Running Start.
Assessments required for state and federal accountability:
- Grade 10: Smarter Balanced ELA and math
- Grade 11: Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science
Students in grade 10 are required to participate in the Smarter Balanced English language arts (ELA) and math tests for federal and state accountability and the Washington State Assessment of Science (WCAS) is required for students in grade 11.
The high school ELA and math assessment may be used to meet a student's graduation pathway requirement.
Students in high school are only required to take the assessments in the federal accountability grades: grade 10 for ELA and math, and grade 11 for science.
If a district wants to use the WCAS for credit recovery for science, students can take the science test again in grade 12.
Students in high school are not required to take any of the assessments outside of the accountability grade levels, even if they missed testing in the accountability grade, or if they did not pass the assessments.
Students may take the assessments again if they choose to, to try to get a higher score, or if they are using the assessments as their graduation pathway and did not previously meet the graduation cut score.
Achievement levels on the state assessment represent a range of performance. Three of the four achievement levels indicate grade-level knowledge and skills, with increasing accuracy and complexity. While Level 1 indicates achievement that is not on grade level, Level 2 indicates foundational grade-level knowledge and skills, and Levels 3 and 4 indicate a student is on track for college-level learning without needing remedial classes. Here's the one-pager, Smarter Balanced Assessments: What do the Scores Mean?
To look at how a student is growing in assessment subjects, we look at their Student Growth Percentile (SGP). SGPs are meaningful because they tell a deeper story of a student’s progress over time – not simply where they are now.
A Student Growth Percentile describes a student's growth compared to other students with similar prior test scores (their academic peers). Although the calculations for SGPs are complex, percentiles are a familiar method of measuring students in comparison to their peers.
Student Growth Percentile is a method of determining educational status based upon relative improvement. This data encourages students when a student had not met OSPI proficiency standards but were making progress in doing so. In essence this is an evaluation of relative “effort” rather than actual objective academic achievement. For instance, this means that despite scoring below grade level standard, a student's SGP can show tremendous progress and their achievement can be recognized.
SGPs can provide valuable evidence to help understand if students are making an adequate amount of academic growth from one year to the next. They are an additional tool that can help parents engage with teachers and administrators in constructive conversations about their child’s learning. Questions that a parent might want to ask are:
- What steps can we take since my child’s growth in reading was low and they need to catch up?
- Is my child on track to reach proficiency in math?
- Did my child make good progress last year, or are they losing ground?
Learn about OSPI business rules for calculating SGPs here.
This page was reviewed on September 10, 2024. Please contact Karen Allen with comments.
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