i-Ready Diagnostic scores by grade: the 2026-27 placement tables for math and reading from kindergarten to grade 8, what Early, Mid and Late On Grade Level mean, the national percentiles by season, what Level F and the other lesson levels are, and a printable score chart

The i-Ready Diagnostic (the 2026-27 placement tables call it i-Ready Inform; the test and the scale are the same) gives every child a scale score from 100 to 800 and a placement such as "Mid 4" or "Two Grade Levels Below". The placement is read off tables that Curriculum Associates publishes every year, and the tables are what parents are searching for when they type the test's name and "scores by grade". This page has the 2026-27 tables for math and reading from kindergarten to grade 8, exactly as published, the national percentiles for each season, and the plain meaning of each placement.

Download the i-Ready score chart (PDF) (the 2026-27 placement tables for math and reading, kindergarten to grade 8, the percentile scores by season and a planner; two pages, free).

What the placements mean

Curriculum Associates defines the placements this way (2026-27 placement tables, pages 6 and 7). A placement is read against the child's rostered grade.

The publisher adds two warnings worth keeping. Proficiency on i-Ready does not necessarily mean proficiency on the state's end-of-year test, which has its own cut scores (for Texas, the STAAR passing grades are on their own page). And the Late and Above placements are deliberately hard: at most 10 percent of students in a grade reach Late Grade Level on the spring mathematics diagnostic, and in many grades fewer than 5 percent.

i-Ready math scores by grade, 2026-27

The overall mathematics placement table for a child rostered in each grade. The scale score ranges are Curriculum Associates' 2026-27 figures (unchanged from 2024-25).

A kindergartner below 362 is placed Emerging K. For grades 1 to 8 the below-grade range is split further on the report into One Grade Level Below, Two Grade Levels Below and so on, using the earlier grades' own ranges, so the report says which earlier grade the child is working at.

i-Ready reading scores by grade, 2026-27

The ranges overlap between grades on purpose: a 3rd grader and a 4th grader can both score 590 in reading and both be On Grade Level, because grade 3's late band (561 to 602) and grade 4's early and mid bands (557 to 602) cover the same scores. Curriculum Associates' explanation is that the skills do not line up neatly by grade either; some grade 5 skills are easier than some grade 4 skills.

The national percentiles, by season

A placement says whether the child has met the grade's standard; a percentile says where the child stands among American children in the same grade and season. From Curriculum Associates' national norms (the 2023-24 tables, built on 2018-19 data and still the published set), the score at the 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentiles:

Reading

Mathematics

Two readings worth making. The median 3rd grader in spring scores 458 in math, which is Early On Grade Level (449 to 463) and not Mid: half of American 3rd graders finish the year short of the proficiency mark on this test, which is why a Mid placement is a real achievement and not a baseline. And the fall-to-spring gain at the median is about 30 to 60 points in the early grades and 10 to 20 points by grade 8, so a child who gains 25 points from fall to spring in grade 2 has grown less than the typical child.

Level F, Level AA and the other letters

The letters come from i-Ready's lesson library, not from the Diagnostic. Lessons are grouped by level: AA for kindergarten work, then A to H for grade 1 to grade 8 work, so Level F lessons are grade 6 material and Level H is the top. The Diagnostic assigns the lesson level from the child's scores in each domain, which is why a 4th grader can be doing Level D lessons in geometry and Level B lessons in number and operations at the same time, and why a child can be given lessons above their enrolled grade. The report a parent sees carries the scale score and the grade-level placement; "Level F" appears on the child's lesson screen.

How to read the report at home

1. Find the scale score and the grade first, then the row for that grade in the table above. The placement label is the publisher's reading of the same number; the table lets you see how far inside the band the child sits.
2. Compare scale scores across the year, not labels. The scale is the same from kindergarten to grade 12. A move from 470 in spring to 478 in fall is growth even though the label went from Late 5 to Early 6.
3. Read the domains. The overall score is the average of the domain placements, and the domains are where the teaching is: a child with Mid 5 overall can be Grade 3 in geometry and Grade 6 in number and operations. The domain that is two grades behind is the term's work.
4. Ask what the school does with it. Districts set their own proficiency and intervention rules on top of these tables; Curriculum Associates leaves "proficient" to the district.

The i-Ready is one of three diagnostics American schools give two or three times a year; the NWEA MAP and the Renaissance Star use different scales and are explained on their own pages.

Download the i-Ready score chart (PDF) (the placement tables for math and reading, the percentile scores by season and a planner; two pages, free).

Where to get help

A 1-on-1 online class with a tutor who holds a master's degree and teaches the US curriculum from Grade 1 number work to AP Calculus, chemistry and physics, at 7 am before school, after 4 pm and on weekend mornings, US time, for US$10 to $13 an hour: the report read together in the free 30-minute first class, the domain or the skill the score is really pointing at found, and the term spent on exactly that, with the method written out the way the school marks it. How online tutoring from India to the USA works, or the 1-on-1 online tutoring page.

Sources: Curriculum Associates, i-Ready Inform Grades K-12 Scale Score Placement Tables, 2026-2027 School Year (the placement definitions, the mathematics and reading overall tables, the common questions); Curriculum Associates, i-Ready Diagnostic National Norms Tables for Reading and Mathematics for Grades K-8, 2023-2024 (May 2023), Tables 1 to 6. Fetched 9 November 2026.

Questions parents ask

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