Standardized test scores continue to be used as an important indicator of academic progress despite increasing efforts among educators to emphasize indicators related to social and emotional learning. In third grade, the primary indicator related to academic progress is language arts proficiency. Third-grade language arts proficiency recognizes the important relationship between early literacy proficiency and later learning.

This indicator establishes the student language arts proficiency rate among third grade students experiencing intergenerational poverty on Utah's SAGE test for school years 2014 to 2018 and on Utah's RISE test for school year 2019 and later. The target rate represents the proficiency rate among all Utah students. 

In 2014, Utah changed its standardized testing tool from the Criterion Referenced Test (CRT) to the Student Assessment of Growth and Excellence (SAGE) test. CRT and SAGE test results are not comparable. As a result, proficiency data is only available for the schools years in which the SAGE was administered. 

RISE, also an adaptive test, replaced SAGE for grades three through eight in SY 2019. RISE is multistage adaptive rather than item adaptive like the SAGE. RISE uses the same Utah item bank questions developed by Utah teachers for SAGE, and USBE worked to maintain Math and ELA scale scores and performance level descriptors across SAGE and RISE, thus the SAGE and RISE tests results are comparable.