Cut Scores, Benchmarks and Benchmark Structures

Several of the STAR Reading reports use cut scores, benchmarks and benchmark structures to identify students who are having difficulty.

• A cut score is a converted Percentile Rank (PR) score.
• Cut scores that are chosen as targets for students to meet or surpass are benchmarks.
  
  
  • School benchmarks are targets that apply to every student in a school (each year has its own benchmarks).
  • School network benchmarks are targets that apply to every student in a school network.
  Each type of benchmark can have different values; for example, school benchmarks may be set higher than school network benchmarks. One of these benchmarks can be chosen as a default benchmark (to be used in situations where a benchmark is required but one has not been chosen).
• The number of categories, the category names and the minimum proficiency level chosen create a benchmark structure. There are four default categories, but the number of categories in the structure can be changed from two to five.
  
  

  	Category	Description	Default Cut Score
  	At/Above Benchmark (green)	Students meeting or exceeding the benchmark score	At/Above 40 PR
  	On Watch (blue)	Students slightly below the benchmark score	Automatically calculated as the range between "At/Above Benchmark" and "Intervention"
  	Intervention (yellow)	Students below the benchmark score	Below 15 PR
  	Urgent Intervention (red)	Students far below the benchmark score	Below 6 PR

Click one of the following links for instructions on how to change the number of categories in the structure and the cut scores and benchmarks that define them.