International Benchmarking: State and National Education Performance Standards

There is considerable variance in state performance standards, exposing a large gap in expectations between the states with the highest standards and the states with the lowest standards. Although this gap in expectations is large, many policymakers may not be aware of just how large it is. In general, the difference between the standards in the states with the highest standards and the states with the lowest standards is about 2 standard deviations. In many testing programs, a gap this large represents three to four grade levels.

This “expectations gap” is so large that it is more than twice the size of the national black–white achievement gap. Closing the achievement gap is important, but so is closing the larger expectation gap.

Reducing the expectation gap will require consistently high expectations from all states.

The report also found that success under No Child Left Behind is largely related to using low performance standards. The states reporting the highest numbers of proficient students have the lowest performance standards. More than two-thirds of the variation in state success reported by No Child Left Behind is related to how high or low the states set their performance standards.

These results help explain why the United States does poorly in international comparisons. Many states think they have high standards and are doing well, and feel no urgency to improve because almost all their students are proficient.

To read the full report, please visit:
http://www.air.org/sites/default/files/downloads/report/AIR_International%20Benchmarking-State%20and%20National%20Ed%20Performance%20Standards_Sept2014.pdf