Report Pans How States Set the Bar

The random and sometimes erratic nature of state proficiency standards makes for an assessment system that is “slipshod,” obscure, and potentially unreliable, contends an outspoken think tank’s analysis of the testing benchmarks set by 26 states.

The range of expectations—3rd grade reading proficiency can mean performing at the 6th percentile on one state’s test, but at the 62nd on another’s—spells “big trouble” for standards-based improvement efforts and the No Child Left Behind Act, concludes the report, “The Proficiency Illusion,” released last week.

“A lot of states don’t expect very much of their kids, and [standards] are enormously discrepant from state to state, subject to subject, and from grade to grade,” said Chester E. Finn Jr., the president of the Washington-based Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, which commissioned the report. “That all adds up to say the centerpiece of standards-based reform may not be up...