Prince William County Public Schools
HMH Reading Growth Measure
As part of Prince William County Public Schools’ (PWCS) plan to improve early literacy (reading and writing) for all students, providing access to assessment information on your student’s reading progress is vital.
The HMH Reading Growth Measure is used by PWCS to assess and monitor student progress. This assessment has been approved by the Virginia Department of Education to replace the Reading Virginia Growth Assessment (VGA) for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years.
About the HMH Growth Measure
The HMH Reading Growth Measure is a research-based, computer-adaptive test that assesses each student's language and reading comprehension. It provides insights into a student's performance through various measures. Students in grades 2-8 take this assessment three times during the school year at the beginning, middle, and end.
Parents and guardians will receive a report on their student’s progress from their school shortly after each assessment. Questions about your student’s progress should be directed to their teacher.
What’s in the HMH Growth Measure Report?
Your student’s HMH Growth Measure report provides five key data points.
Scaled Score
The HMH Scaled Score is the primary score showing how your student performed on the Growth Measure, reflecting the items the student answered correctly and the item difficulty.
Scaled scores range from G01 to G99, where G represents the grade level of the assessment administered. For example, a grade 4 assessment has a Scaled Score range from 401 to 499.
Performance Level-Categories for the Scaled Scores
Scaled Scores are categorized and color-coded to reflect up to five Performance Levels.
Performance Level Categories
The Performance Level Categories on your student’s HMH Growth Report vary by grade level.
Kindergarten Categories
- Above Level: 81-99
- On Level: 61-80
- Approaching: 1-60
Grade 1 Categories
- Above Level: 81-99
- On Level: 61-80
- Approaching: 46-60
- Below Level: 1-45
Grades 2-12 Categories
- Above Level: 81-99
- On Level: 61-80
- Approaching: 46-60
- Below Level: 21-45
- Far Below: 1-20
Grade Level Equivalent/Grade Level Equivalency
Grade Level Equivalent/Grade Level Equivalency provides a quick glance of grade-level readiness.
Grade Level Equivalency Categories
Grade Level Equivalency is determined by a student’s HMH Scaled Score and is categorized into five levels.
- Above Grade Level
- On Grade Level
- 1 Grade Level Below
- 2 Grade Levels Below
- >2 Grade Levels Below
Lexile Interval
The Lexile® Framework for Reading is a tool for matching student performance to appropriate texts based on their HMH Growth Measure Reading score.
Learn more about understanding your student’s Lexile level.
Student Proficiency Indicator
In addition to the scores above, the Student Proficiency Indicator is an additional measure that is provided once a student has taken the HMH Growth Measure assessment more than once in a school year. The Student Proficiency Indicator categorizes the gains a student has achieved within a school year to describe how well they’re meeting grade-level proficiency expectations. The Student Proficiency Indicator provides insight into whether the student is growing according to yearly goals, without having to compare a student to their peers.
Student Proficiency Indicator Categories
There are three categories for the Student Proficiency Indicator that describe if students have met proficiency expectations during the school year: Did Not Meet, Met, and Exceeded. The Student Proficiency Indicator reflects student performance compared to proficiency expectations throughout the school year, so you can track change as the year progresses. Measurements include the beginning of the year to the middle of the year, the middle of the year to the end of the year, and the beginning of the year to the end of the year.