Comparing each state's stringency of its criteria for proficiency

The state mapping studies performed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) offer several important contributions to national education analyses.

First, the mapping analyses allow each state to compare the stringency of its criteria for proficiency with that of other states. Second, they inform a state whether the rigor of its standards, as represented by the NAEP scale equivalent of the state’s standard, changed over time. Significant differences in NAEP scale equivalents might reflect changes in state assessments and standards or changes in policies or practices that occurred between the years. Finally, when key aspects of a state’s assessment or standards remain the same, these mapping analyses allow NAEP to corroborate state-reported changes in student achievement.

NCES has released five mapping reports using state data for reading and mathematics at grades 4 and 8 from 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2013. The current report summarizes the results of applying a methodology for mapping state proficiency standards onto the NAEP scales by using state public school data for the 2012–13 school year and the 2013 NAEP assessments in reading and mathematics for grades 4 and 8. The report also includes analyses of the results using the 2011 NAEP and state assessment data and revised estimates for 2009​. The key finding is that the variation among state achievement standards continues to be wide. 

More Key Findings 

The following are the key findings regarding state proficiency standards as they are measured on the NAEP scale.

​Grade 4

• In reading, the difference in NAEP equivalent scores between the states with the highest and lowest proficiency standards is about 76 points on the NAEP 0-500 scale. This difference is about twice the size of the standard deviation on the NAEP national grade 4 reading assessment (37 points) and more than twice the 30-point difference between Basic and Proficient performance levels for NAEP grade 4 reading.
• In mathematics, the range of NAEP equivalent scores from the state with the lowest to the state with the highest proficiency standards is 49 points on the NAEP 0-500 scale, about one and a half times the size of the standard deviation of the NAEP mathematics scores for public school students (30 points) and about one and a half times the 35-point difference between Basic and Proficient performance on NAEP set for grade 4.

Grade 8

• In reading, the difference in NAEP equivalent scores between the states with the highest and lowest proficiency standards is 83 points on the NAEP 0-500 scale. The difference is about twice the size of the standard deviation on the NAEP national grade 8 reading assessments (34 points) and about twice the 38-point difference between Basic and Proficient performance on NAEP set for grade 8.
• In mathematics, the 60-point distance separating the highest and lowest proficiency standards is about one and a half times the size of the standard deviation of the NAEP mathematics scores for public school students (36 points) and one and a half times the 37-point distance between NAEP Basic and Proficient performance set for grade 8 mathematics.

Although the wide variation in standards persists, the  number of states with grade 4 reading standards at or above the NAEP Basic level increased from 15 in 2009 and 20 in 2011 to 25 in 2013. Although in 2009 and 2011 no state standard was in the NAEP Proficient range, in 2013 two states had grade 4 reading standards in that range. In mathematics, the  number of states with grade 4 standards at or above the NAEP Basic level also increased, from 44 in 2009 to 46 in 2011 and 47 in 2013, with five states having standards in the Proficient range in 2013 compared with one state each in 2009 and 2011.

At grade 8, the number of states with reading standards at or above the NAEP Basic level increased from 35 in 2009 and 36 in 2011 to 41 in 2013 (with one state standard in the Proficient range in 2013 compared with none in the previous years). In mathematics, 41 out of 49 states included in the study had standards above the NAEP Basic level, and increase from 39 both in 2009 and 2011; three of these state standards were also above the Proficient level, compared with one state standard in 2009 and two in 2011.

New York, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Texas had the highest Grade 4 proficiency standards:

Estimated NAEP scale equivalent scores for state grade 4 proficiency standards, by subject and state: 2013

New York, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Minnesota had the highest Grade 8 reading proficiency standards. New York, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Texas had the highest Grade 8 math proficiency standards:

Estimated NAEP scale equivalent scores for state grade 8 proficiency standards, by subject and state: 2013