On the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress (ISASP), Grade 9 ELA is reported on a scale from 410 to 750 (2021 to 2025), and each score falls into one of 3 performance levels. Reaching Proficient, at 505 or above, is the state's proficiency line.
| Level | Score range | What it means | Statewide 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Not Yet Proficient | 410–504 | Below the state standard | 26% |
| Proficient | 505–617 | Meeting the state standard (the proficiency line) | 64% |
| Advanced | 618–750 | The highest level, above the state standard | 10% |
Statewide in 2025, about 74% of the students counted for Grade 9 ELA reached Proficient or Advanced. The bar above shows the share at each level (left = lowest).
These numbers are the public school students in grade 9, 10 or 11 who took the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress (or the Dynamic Learning Maps alternate test) at their school. Iowa leaves out English learners in their first or second year in U.S. schools, and groups of fewer than 10 students. Iowa publishes how many students in each group were proficient; how they split between Proficient and Advanced is estimated from each group's average score.
More on who is counted, and how: see how we count.
A score's meaning depends on where it lands in the ranges above, and on how it compares to other students who took the same test. Our free tool turns a Grade 9 ELA score into an estimated percentile versus the school, district, county and the whole state, so you can see where a score stands, not just its level.
Look up a Grade 9 ELA percentile →