Attainment standards in reading and math have been adjusted upwards in almost every state in the United States for the last ten (10) years. Expressly, each state has the mandate of setting individualistic standards on what proficiency should entail in every subject.
According to research by the National Center on Education Statistics, state assessment tests are instrumental in determining proficiency in different subjects.
As a result, its researchers created a structure of comparing every state’s proficiency bar.
Higher math and reading standards across states
The National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) or Nation’s Report Card is pivotal in testing eighth and fourth US graders’ comprehension of math and reading after every two years.
The research by the center illustrated that states had implemented the strategy of presenting higher standards in the two subjects’ proficiency in the last ten years. Moreover, it acknowledged the narrowing gap in US states with the highest and lowest proficiency bars.
According to Peggy Carr, the center’s associate assessment commissioner, states speculated to have lower proficiency standards were increasing students’ expectations in both subjects in the last ten years.
Carr also affirmed that a considerable decrease was witnessed in states setting proficiency under NAEP basic. For instance, in reading, many states involved in the research had placed proficiency standards at a higher level compared to the NAEP basic one.
States not receptive about the research
Carr asserted that when they started the research in the early 2000s, states were not very receptive because they felt that their distinctive conceptual proficiency frameworks could be revealed.
The research undertaken was instrumental in depicting considerable growth of math and reading at every grade. For instance, out of the forty-three (43) states that had information for comparison, forty (40) of them had reading proficiency standards at or above the NAEP basic one for grade four.
Notably, the NAEP proficiency standard is viewed as the mastery of challenging subject concepts.
Conversely, a study has revealed that there is a correlation between higher grades and growth mindset interventions.
