How does CommonLit define Below & Approaching Grade Level, On Grade Level, and Above Grade Level?

This article is intended only for customers and partners using the Assessment Series.

Students who take an assessment in the CommonLit Assessment Series will be designated a performance category, based on their scaled score for the assessment, of Below or Approaching Grade Level, On Grade Level, or Above Grade Level. This refers to the grade level of the test that the student took.

What do the three performance categories mean? 

The three performance categories are: Below or Approaching Grade Level, On Grade Level, and Above Grade Level. To establish these categories, a panel of teachers for each grade discussed the literacy skills and abilities students would be expected to have at the end of the academic year based on the Common Core English Language Standards. Then, the panelists mapped these skills and abilities to ranges of scaled scores on CommonLit’s assessments. More information about this process can be found below in the “How did CommonLit come up with the definitions for the performance categories?” section. 

Given that student scores demonstrate their skills and abilities, students will fall into a performance category based on their score on each assessment. Students with very high scores will fall into the “Above Grade Level” category because their scores suggest that they have surpassed what they should be able to do at the end of the year for that particular grade level. Students who are marked as “On Grade Level” have demonstrated that they currently know what they should know at the end of the year. Students who are marked as “Below or Approaching Grade Level” may need additional support to develop the skills they should have by the end of the year.

It is therefore possible that a majority of students in a class might be below or approaching grade level at the beginning of the year on the Pre-Assessment, as they have a full year of instruction ahead of them to build up end-of-year skills. 

How did CommonLit come up with the definitions for the performance categories?

For grades 3-12, individual student performance standard settings were conducted during the summer of 2022. Panels of teachers with diverse expertise, experience, and demographics were recruited for each grade to participate in a Modified Angoff standard setting workshop series. During the standard setting process, the panelists determined what proficiencies and skills students would need to have to be considered Below or Approaching Grade Level, On Grade Level, and Above Grade Level; they then created student profiles for each level of performance. Panelists used these profiles to complete a rating exercise to map student performance expectations for each performance group to an operational assessment. The results of this exercise were then used to determine how scaled score performance on CommonLit assessments aligns with the student performance categories.