What is a good Star Math score for 4th, 5th, and 6th grade? The 2024 benchmark chart

By 15Q20M Editorial · Last updated September 25, 2026

Star Math's default benchmark, the proficiency line Renaissance uses, is the 40th percentile. On Renaissance's 2024 norms, that is a scaled score of 996 for a 5th grader at the start of the year and 1030 at the end. The national middle, the 50th percentile, is 1013 to 1050. Below the 25th percentile falls into Renaissance's intervention categories.

Star Math scores by grade level: the 2024 benchmark chart

Find your child's grade and the time of year, then see where the scaled score falls. These are cut scores from Renaissance's Star Math Unified Benchmarks and Cut Scores document, based on 2024 norms. Each number is the lowest scaled score that reaches that percentile, and the first three columns are the lines between Renaissance's default categories. For example, a 4th grader who scores 950 in the fall is between 928 and 957, which is On Watch. The document sets them at the first, fifth, and ninth months of a 10-month school year, so treat the chart as a reference. Renaissance's own note: "For the most precise benchmarks based on the exact day(s) your students were tested, rely on the Star® reports."

Read across a row and you will see the same pattern Renaissance describes: "cut scores for a given percentile rank can be expected to increase over the course of the school year." A 5th grader's 1000 clears the benchmark at the start of the year but sits below it by the middle, because the reference group keeps learning. Star Math scaled scores run from 600 to 1400 on one scale across grades, which is useful for tracking growth over time. To tell whether a score is at the benchmark, though, you need the grade and the time of year.

What is a good Star Math score for grades 4 to 6?

Renaissance's default categories group scores by percentile. Your child's report may use them, or a benchmark your school or district set:

• At or above the 40th percentile: Benchmark.
• 25th to 39th percentile: On Watch.
• 10th to 24th percentile: Intervention.
• Below the 10th percentile: Urgent Intervention.

Renaissance explains the choice of the 40th percentile this way: it "is widely used as a critical point for proficiency." Schools can change it. Renaissance notes that Star users "are free to substitute different percentile benchmarks," and its family guide says each state or district "has established unique benchmarks that students must reach to be considered proficient." Keep two lines apart when you read a result. The benchmark is the on-track line, and a child at the 42nd percentile has cleared it. The national middle is the 50th percentile. So a score at the benchmark means your child is in the Benchmark category under Renaissance's defaults. A score above the 50th means your child is scoring higher than most students in the same grade.

What does a Star Math grade equivalent mean?

Some reports show a grade equivalent, such as 7.6 for a 5th grader. Renaissance's score guide explains what it does and does not mean: a 5th grader with a GE of 7.6 "performed as well as a typical seventh-grader who is 60% through the school year," and Renaissance adds that this "doesn't necessarily mean that the student is capable of doing seventh-grade math" and indicates skills well above average for 5th grade. To prevent that misreading, Star caps the display: grade equivalents more than three grades above the child's actual grade are shown with a ">" sign.

How accurate is one Star Math score?

Renaissance calls the scores "a snapshot of achievement at a specific point in time" and adds that "many factors can affect a student's test scores." The report's percentile rank range shows how much a result can move: in Renaissance's example, a student with a range of 32 to 59 "is likely to score within that range if the Star Math test is taken again within a short time (i.e., four to six weeks)." If the score surprises you, compare it with classwork and earlier Star results, and ask the teacher how the test went, including how long your child spent on it and whether it matches what they see in class.

What is a Student Growth Percentile on Star Math?

Growth is reported separately. A Student Growth Percentile, from 1 to 99, compares your child's growth between test windows with students nationwide in the same grade who had a similar achievement history. Renaissance's example: "an SGP of 70 means that the student's growth from one test window to another exceeds the growth of 70% of students nationwide in the same grade with a similar achievement history." Read it next to the benchmark category: the category says where your child is now, and the growth percentile says how fast they are moving compared with those peers.

What should I do after a low Star Math score?

Look at the domain scores on the report. Each runs from 0 to 100 and estimates how much of that domain's grade-level material your child has mastered, shown as Beginning (0 to 59), Developing (60 to 79), or Secure (80 to 100). Renaissance adds an important note for fall reports: "Students are not expected to have mastery of grade-level skills at the beginning of the year." A lower domain score early in the year can be less concerning, because the class has not covered all the grade-level material yet. A domain that is still Beginning in the spring points to a topic worth working on, and it tells you where to start.

A six-problem home check for how far behind your child is, and how long catching up usually takes

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Want a quick check at home? Try our free placement test for grades 4 to 6

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