States found to vary a lot on education standards

WASHINGTON -- A reading score that rates a fourth-grader "proficient" in Mississippi would be failing in Massachusetts, an example of state-to-state variations likely to fuel debate about a need for uniform national standards.

An Education Department report yesterday compared what it takes to be rated proficient on elementary- and middle-school state reading and math tests with what it means to hit that mark on national tests. The state tests are a key measure for enforcement of the federal No Child Left Behind law.

The study found that most of the scores that would label a student proficient on state tests don't yield that grade on the national tests.

There also are huge differences in where states set their benchmarks.

Massachusetts sets the proficiency score on its fourth-grade reading test just below the proficiency mark on the national test. But a fourth-grader in Mississippi can be rated proficient with a state test score that is more than 70 points lower. Proficiency is defined as working at the level expected for that grade.

The tests given by the states are used to judge schools under No Child Left Behind, the five-year-old education law that is up for renewal this year.

States pick their own tests and set their own achievement scores. When too few students in a school meet proficiency standards, that school typically faces consequences such as having to swap out principals or teachers. States that set high standards generally have fewer students labeled as proficient than states with low standards.

The national test, called the National Assessment of Educational Progress, is a rigorous exam given in a variety of subjects to students nationwide. It doesn't have consequences attached to it like those linked to the state tests. But it does offer a way to compare states with one another.

The discrepancy in state standards has been identified by previous private studies, but the new report is much more detailed and is considered important because it is being released by the Education Department's independent research arm rather than by advocacy groups.

Several groups have called for national standards to be written into the education law , but Congress is unlikely to go that far because states see education as a fundamentally local prerogative.