Most State Standards Set At Or Below NAEP Basic, New Study Finds

“The study shows that whether a child is considered 'proficient' largely depends on where he or she lives,” said Jack Buckley, Commissioner of NCES.  The report, Mapping State Proficiency Standards Onto the NAEP Scales: Variation and Change in State Standards for Reading and Mathematics, 2005–2009, used the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) as a common yardstick against which to measure the proficiency standards of individual states.

Commissioner Buckley was joined for the release by Joanne Weiss, Chief of Staff to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan; Mitchell Chester, Massachusetts Education Commissioner; and Peggy Carr, Associate Commissioner for Assessment at NCES. Panelists hailed NAEP’s role as the “truth-teller” for measuring the rigor of state proficiency standards. NAEP has three achievement levels: Basic, Proficient and Advanced. The study looked at where states consider students to be proficient, and found that most state proficiency standards were within the NAEP Basic achievement level range, except in 4th-grade reading, where most were below NAEP’s Basic level. Overall, only one state – Massachusetts – set its proficiency standards in the NAEP Proficient range, and only in 4th- and 8th-grade mathematics.

“Low expectations are the norm in way too many states in this country,” Ms. Weiss said.

Hager Sharp’s media outreach generated coverage in the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, New York Times, Bloomberg News, Education Week, and elsewhere. The report’s findings are “certain to reinvigorate calls to overhaul No Child Left Behind,” noted Stephanie Banchero of the Wall Street Journal. Critics of the law allege that “states [have] watered down their exams to meet the law's requirement that 100% of students taking state math and reading exams are passing by 2014.” In a statement released to the press, Secretary Duncan acknowledged that “there is still much room for improvement in providing American students with a rigorous academic education that prepares them for success in the knowledge economy,” and pledged that the Department will encourage states to raise standards as part of its plan to offer flexibility on No Child Left Behind’s accountability requirements.

Hager Sharp’s education team is proud support NCES and NAEP – The Nation’s Report Card – in informing educators, policymakers, parents and the public about the state of American education.