One of the goals of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law is to move every student to proficiency in mathematics and reading by 2014. To measure proficiency, each state set its own standards and its own assessments in mathematics and reading. This created 50 unique sets of documents that have no way of being compared. Now, however, the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) standards and assessments can be used as a yard stick to measure the equivalency of the fifty state standards. 

As required by NCLB, each state reports the percentage of their students that are proficient to the federal government. But stakeholders from parents to education officials also want to know how the states compare to each other.  That comparison has been difficult to do because there was no common yardstick to evaluate the different set of standards and assessments. Now NAEP standards and assessments can be used as a common yardstick to compare the standards of the different states. When the 4^th and 8^th grade students take the NAEP tests in mathematics and reading, all students, despite the state they are in, are taking the same test and being compared to the same standards.  

For example, both Arizona and Minnesota reported that their students were at a 66% proficient level in reading and mathematics. 66% of their students performed at the proficient level when compared to their state standards. Compared to the NAEP proficient level, however, only 24% of Arizona’s students were proficient and only 37% of Minnesota’s students were proficient.

Since 2003, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has been involved in research to develop the tools to compare state standards to NAEP standards. These tools are necessary if officials are to be able to compare the results of state standards to NAEP standards.

With the variance of state standards, a student that is proficient in one state may not be proficient in another state. NAEP’s goal is to provide the link that makes comparison of different standards possible and allowing stakeholders to determine the relative rigor of different states’ standards for reading and mathematics.

As the report, Mapping State Proficiency Standards Onto NAEP Scales: 2005-2007, indicates, “At a time when states are working to ensure that all their students reach proficient levels of achievement by 2014, as required by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 the analyses described in this report allow state policymakers to assess how high their state has set the bar for proficiency.”

 This report compares results using the 2005 to 2007 state assessments in mathematics and reading for grades 4 and 8 compared to the NAEP standards. The goal was to answer the following questions:

·         How do states’ 2007 standards for proficient performance compare with each other when mapped on the NAEP scale?

·         How do the 2007 NAEP scale equivalents for state standards compare with those estimated for 2005?

·         Using the 2005 NAEP scale equivalent for state standards to define a state’s proficient level of performance on NAEP, do NAEP and the state’s assessment agree on the change in the proportion of students meeting that state’s standard for proficiency from 2005 to 2007?

The following table compares the state standards for 4^th and 8^th grade proficiency in reading and mathematics to the Basic and Proficient levels set by NAEP. For fourth grade reading 32 states’ proficient level when compared to NAEP is below the NAEP Basic level; 16 states qualify for the Basic level and no state qualifies for the Proficient level. Fourth grade mathematics is almost the exact reverse of reading with 40 states whose proficiency level qualifies for the NAEP Basic level.

 

The report concluded that:

·         The range of state proficiency standards is wide.

·         Most states’ standards were at or below the NAEP Basic achievement level.

·         There is more commonality in the rigor of 4^th grade mathematics standards than any other grade subject combination, although the range is still wide.

·         Some states made significant changes in their state standards between 2005 and 2007.

Note

NAEP defines Proficient as competency over challenging subject matter, not grade-level performance.
Basic is defined as partial mastery of the skills necessary for Proficient performance.

Source: Mapping State Proficiency Standards Onto NAEP Scales: 2005-2007  National Center for Education Statistics