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Reading your child's score report

What is a good i-Ready score? Placement ranges and national averages by grade, 2026-27

Where on grade level starts on i-Ready for every grade from 3rd to 8th, what the national average child scores in the fall, winter and spring, and why most children start the year One Grade Level Below.

Where on grade level starts, by grade

These are the first scores of Early On Grade Level and of Mid Grade Level in the 2026-2027 placement tables. The same ranges apply in the fall, winter and spring.

National average i-Ready scores by grade

The 50th percentile score in Curriculum Associates' national norms: half of children in that grade and testing window score above it, half below. Where the table shows a range, every score in it sits at the 50th percentile.

Each grade has its own page with the full placement table, the national score ranges and what a given score means at each point of the year.

• i-Ready scores for 3rd grade
• i-Ready scores for 4th grade
• i-Ready scores for 5th grade
• i-Ready scores for 6th grade
• i-Ready scores for 7th grade
• i-Ready scores for 8th grade

Why most children start the year below grade level

The placement ranges do not move during the year, but children gain points as they are taught. When we compared the national norms with the placement tables, the median child in every grade from 3rd to 8th places One Grade Level Below in the fall, in both math and reading. In 6th, 7th and 8th grade the median child still places there in spring. Curriculum Associates describes a child at One Grade Level Below at the start of the year as "performing consistently with students who have just begun their academic year".

Three ways to read "good"

• Against the grade. The placement. Mid or Above Grade Level is where Curriculum Associates puts grade-level proficiency, and Early On Grade Level means a child has "partially met grade-level expectations".
• Against other children. The percentile. It compares your child with children in the same grade who tested at the same time of year, so the same score gives a different percentile in the fall and in the spring.
• Against the state test. Not directly. Curriculum Associates says i-Ready proficiency "does not necessarily have the same meaning" as proficiency on a state end-of-year test, and the decision on what counts as proficient is left to districts.

What to do with the result

• Read the placement first and the scale score second. The placement is set against your child's enrolled grade; the number alone means little.
• Look at the domain placements, such as Number and Operations or Vocabulary. They have their own tables, and a domain that sits lower than the overall placement is the most useful line on the report.
• Ask the teacher what the school does with a placement like your child's, and whether the school uses i-Ready's own lessons. Those come through the school, not directly to families.
• If you want an independent second read, with each skill named and practice built from your child's own answers, Point of Progress is an at-home adaptive test for grades 3 to 10. It is not i-Ready and is not affiliated with Curriculum Associates.

Questions parents ask

Is i-Ready Inform the same as i-Ready Diagnostic?

Yes. From the 2026-2027 school year the test is called i-Ready Inform. It uses the same scale, from 100 to 800, and the same placement scores, so reports from earlier years compare directly.

My child placed in a lower grade. Is that a failing mark?

No. A placement such as "Grade 2" on a 3rd grader's report is the level where instruction should start. It is not a pass or fail mark and not a school grade.

Does the same score mean the same thing in every grade?

No. The scale runs across grades, so the ranges overlap. A math score of 500 is Late Grade Level for a 3rd grader and One Grade Level Below for a 7th grader.

Sources and dates

Curriculum Associates, i-Ready Inform Grades K-12 Scale Score Placement Tables, 2026-2027 School Year (July 2026). Overall placement tables for Mathematics and Reading. The overall tables for grades 3 to 8 are unchanged from the 2023-2024 edition.

Curriculum Associates, i-Ready Inform National Norms Tables for Reading and Mathematics, Grades K-8, 2026-2027 (June 2026). Norms built on 2022-2023 data, in use since 2024-2025.

Curriculum Associates, Diagnostic Technical Tables, 2024-2025: percentile rank for every scale score, used for the percentile at each cut score.

Curriculum Associates, Understanding Grade-Level Placements on i-Ready Inform (2026), and i-Ready Assessment Understanding Score Types Brief (2026).

Where this page says where the typical child places, that is our comparison of the two official tables, not a statement by Curriculum Associates.

i-Ready is a registered trademark of Curriculum Associates. This page is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Curriculum Associates. Last reviewed October 2026.