Common Core

The National Center for Education Statistics’ big report on state proficiency standards was released this morning. (Also see Fordham’s previous work on the subject.)

From the report:

“In grade 4 reading, 31 states set grade 4 standards for proficiency (as measured on the NAEP scale) that were lower than the cut point for Basic performance on NAEP (208). In grade 8 reading, 15 states set standards that were lower than the Basic performance on NAEP (243).”

Math proficiency standards were not much better:

“In grade 4 mathematics, seven states set standards for proficiency (as measured on the NAEP scale) that were lower than the Basic performance on NAEP (214). In grade 8 mathematics, eight states set standards that were lower than the Basic performance on NAEP (262).”

The report also finds:

“Most of the variation (approximately 70 percent) from state to state in the percentage of students scoring proficient or above on state tests can be explained by the variation in the level of difficulty of state standards for proficient performance. States with higher standards (as measured on the NAEP scale) had fewer students scoring proficient on state tests.”

The report (PDF) can be read here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 10:30 am and is filed under Assessment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.