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States Found to Vary Widely on Education
Academic standards vary so drastically from state to state that a fourth grader judged proficient in reading in Mississippi or Tennessee would fall far short of that mark in Massachusetts and South Carolina, the United States Department of Education said yesterday in a report that, for the first time, measured the extent of the differences.
The wide variation raises questions about whether the federal No Child Left Behind law, President Bush’s signature education initiative, which is up for renewal this year, has allowed a patchwork of educational inequities around the country, with no common yardstick to determine whether schoolchildren are learning enough.
The law requires that all students be brought to proficiency by 2014 in reading and math and creates sanctions for failure. But in a bow to states’ rights it lets each state set its own standards and choose its own tests.
The report provides ammunition for critics who say that one national standard is needed. “Parents and communities in too many states are being told not to worry, all is well, when their students are far behind,” said Michael J. Petrilli, a vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation who served in the Education Department during Mr. Bush’s first term.
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said in a statement, “This report offers sobering news that serious work remains to ensure that our schools are teaching students to the highest possible standards.” Still, in a conference call with reporters, she said it was up to the states, not the federal government, to raise standards.
The report for the first time creates a common yardstick to measure the results on state tests against the National Assessment of Educational Progress, considered the gold standard of testing.
The report examines the minimum score a student would have to get on each state’s reading and math tests to be deemed proficient — or at grade level — and then determines what the equivalent score for that level of competency would be on the national test. Results on the national test are not used to judge schools under No Child Left Behind.
The national test divides students’ scores into three achievement levels, basic, proficient and advanced. Grover J. Whitehurst, director of the Institute of Education Sciences at the Education Department, said the achievement level that many states called proficient was closer to what the national test rated as just basic. And the report shows that not a single state sets its reading proficiency levels as high as the national test.
Although results were not available for all states, the Education Department report based on tests given in the 2004-5 school year illustrated starkly the variations in standards.
For example, an eighth grader in Missouri would need the equivalent of a 311 on the national math test to be judged proficient. That is actually more rigorous than the national test. In Tennessee, however, a student can meet the state’s proficiency standard with a 230, a score well below even the basic level on the national exam.
And while a Massachusetts fourth grader would need the equivalent of a 234, or just below the proficiency mark on the national test, to be judged as proficient by the state, a Mississippi fourth grader can meet the state’s standard with a state score that corresponds to a 161 on the national test.
Such score differences represent a gap of several grade levels. New York ranked 9th in grade 4 reading, in terms of the rigor of its standards. Its proficiency standards corresponded to 207 on the national test. It ranked third in grade 8 reading. But it was toward the bottom, 29th among 33 states in grade 4 math. And it was 13th in grade 8 math.
New York has since approved new math standards. “The results in reading are positive for New York relative to other states, but math is mixed,” State Education Commissioner Richard Mills said. “The comparison reminds us of the need over time to keep raising standards and providing extra help to students.”
The report found that eighth graders in North Carolina had to show the least skill to be considered proficient readers while those in Wyoming had to show the most skill. Tennessee set the lowest bar on grade 4 math while Massachusetts set the highest one.
The differences between state proficiency standards were sometimes more than double the national gap between minority and white students’ reading levels, which averages about 30 points on the national test, Mr. Whitehurst said.
Many education experts criticize No Child Left Behind, saying it gives states an incentive to set low standards to avoid sanctions on schools that do not increase the percentage of students demonstrating proficiency each year. Those experts argue that uniform national standards are needed.
But Congress is unlikely to go that far. Ms. Spellings said, “It’s way too early to conclude we need to adopt national standards” and added that it is also too early to conclude that state standards are too low.
On Tuesday, a survey of state scores in reading and math, released by the Center on Education Policy, an independent Washington group, found that since the passage of No Child Left Behind in 2002, student achievement had increased and the racial achievement gap narrowed in many states.
Ms. Spellings said the results showed the law has “struck a chord of success.” Her department’s report, though, raises doubts about just how much progress has been made.
Mr. Petrilli said, “Even if students are making progress on state tests, if tests are incredibly easy, that doesn’t mean much.”
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