2026 State Test Score Results Data Series
The 2026 State Test Score Results Data Series is published by the Education Data Center and is designed to provide updates on 2026 state assessment data.
What to expect: Our goal is to provide high-level insights on ELA and math state summative assessment outcomes for students in grades 3-8. We will publish overviews as State Education Agencies (SEAs) publicly release assessment results and/or as we receive aggregate results via public records requests.
For additional information about each state assessment, please see the end of this post. All available 2026 assessment data used for this data series will be published by the EDC in December.
Questions, comments, or suggestions? Let us know at info@eddatacenter.org!
Trends Over Time
Last Thursday (Sept 10), the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) released 2026 Smarter Balanced assessment results for students in Grades 3-8. Washington has administered the same assessment since 2015, with a caveat for 2021 below, allowing for over a decade of comparable results. In 2021, the assessment administration was moved from the spring to the fall; students completed the assessment for the grade they were enrolled in the prior spring. Results on the state’s assessment are reported across four achievement levels, from Levels 1-4, with the top two levels considered proficient. Note that OSPI’s headline numbers include Grade 10 and count Levels 2-4, which OSPI describes as “foundational grade-level knowledge and above.” Our results present Levels 3-4 (which OSPI describes as “consistent grade-level knowledge and above”).
In 2026, proficiency rates ticked up slightly in math and down slightly in ELA for students in Grades 3-8; ELA rates are approximately the same as in 2022. Across all 12 combinations of subject and grade, the greatest change was only 1.2 percentage points (Gr 6 ELA dropped 1.2pp, down from 49.5% to 48.3%; Grade 8 math improved 1.2pp, from 37.6pp to 38.8pp).
ELA: Approximately 50.9% of students in grades 3-8 reached proficiency in 2026, down from 51.2% in 2025 and comparable to rates in 2021 and 2022 (50.7% and 50.9%, respectively). The ELA recovery post-pandemic has made little progress toward regaining the 8 percentage points lost after COVID. The only grade with gains in 2026 was Grade 7, and the change was small, rising 0.5 percentage points from 52.7% to 53.2%. Grade 6 was the only grade level to lose more than 1pp.
Math: In 2026, approximately 44.3% of students in grades 3-8 reached proficiency, up slightly from 44.0% in 2025 but reflecting the fifth year of gains since 2021. Grade 8 had the largest gains (+1.2pp); yet, Grade 8 also has the greatest share of students at Level 1, at 39%. As seen in some other states as well, there is a widening gender gap in math over the past decade in WA: despite a negligible difference in outcomes between boys and girls in 2015, girls’ scores fell farther in 2021 and have not had the same pace of recovery as boys, resulting in a 4.9pp gap in 2026.
Of 186 districts with reportable results in ELA across all 6 grade levels, only two districts showed gains in all grades: Federal Way and Central Valley. Both of these districts also had gains across 5 of 6 grades in math.
In a news report earlier this year from the Federal Way Mirror, Federal Way’s Superintendent Dani Pfeiffer noted a number of efforts underway to support students, including work to increase attendance, a K-12 cell phone policy, and kindergarten and third grade “assurance teams” to monitor student progress. At the beginning of the 2025-26 school year, the district also announced a new mandatory “Level Up Time” in middle schools to “increase math and reading targeted instruction and opportunities to engage in above-grade-level opportunities.”
School districts Mercer Island and Bainbridge Island lead the state in both ELA and math performance in 2026.
When looking at overall growth in percentage point gains compared to 2025 (in districts with at least 100 tested students), Waterville and Pe Ell saw noticeable gains in ELA (each +11.7pp), while Pe Ell (+14.1pp) and Naselle-Grays River Valley (+10.6pp) lead in math. Note that these are relatively small districts, testing 100-200 students.
Results by Achievement Level
A Closer Look at 2026
State Assessment Background
Assessment Name: Smarter Balanced Assessment, 2015-2026
Additional Information:
General SBA assessment resources can be found here: https://ospi.k12.wa.us/student-success/testing/state-testing/washington-state-smarter-balanced-assessment-consortium
Washington’s results are available from OSPI here: https://ospi.k12.wa.us/data-reporting/data-portal
Washington’s 2026 press release can be found here: https://ospi.k12.wa.us/about-ospi/news-center/news-releases/state-superintendent-chris-reykdal-unveils-new-student-achievement-data-and-budget-priorities
Data presented here are specific to this state’s assessment and are not comparable to assessments administered by other states. For questions, please reach out to info@eddatacenter.org.
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