How the grade 4
state test is scored

Levels, not percentages

Results are a performance level from 1 to 4 plus a scale score. Parents comparing a grade 4 scale score against last year's grade 3 one are comparing nothing: the scales are separate and level 3 is the only fixed point. Level 3 is the state's definition of proficient, there is no percentage anywhere on the report, and a scale score cannot be compared across grades.

Where the credits come from

The grade 4 test is worth 94 credits across 79 questions. 64 of those questions are multiple choice and worth one credit each. The other 15 are written, and worth more.

Which means 30 of the 94 credits — that is 32% of the whole test — come from questions where a child has to write something down. On a practice test that only offers multiple choice, 32% of the score is not being practiced at all.

What grade 4 results are for

A grade 4 result does not decide anything. What it tells you is whether the shift from picking answers to explaining them has landed, a year before the mathematics leans on it harder.

How a written answer is marked

Written answers are marked against the state's rubric. In grade 4 mathematics that rubric credits the method as well as the number, so a child who reaches the right answer and shows nothing loses credit, and one who shows sound working and slips at the last step keeps most of it.

Our grade 4 practice tests apply the same rubrics and show what the marker wanted, which is the only way to find out whether a child's working is being read the way they think it is.