The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) regularly publishes reports using results from NAEP testing to compare the proficiency standards that states set for their students. Since standards vary across states, the results of state assessments can’t be used to directly compare students’ progress from place to place. But by placing a state standard or cut score onto the NAEP scale, which is a common metric, a NAEP-equivalent score of that standard can be generated and compared across states. NCES’s latest Mapping State Proficiency Standards report, the ninth in the series, puts this method to work on student achievement results from state and NAEP assessments administered in 2022. Because states are required to participate in NAEP reading and math in grades 4 and 8, the assessment also serves as an external audit of state expectations—one that sits beyond any individual state’s control.
The latest iteration maps state expectations in fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math onto NAEP’s 0–500 scale, showing whether they line up with NAEP Basic or NAEP Proficient levels. There is some fluctuation between findings of the previous report in 2019 and these 2022 data, but not a great deal. More on that in a moment.
Let’s look at the most recent levels first. Only three states were equivalent to NAEP Proficient in both subjects and both grades in 2022—Illinois, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. In grade 4 reading, 48 states had standards at or above NAEP Basic. Of those, six states had standards at the NAEP Proficient level—Alaska, District of Columbia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, and Rhode Island. Two states—Iowa and Virginia—had standards below NAEP Basic. (Make no mistake that the Old Dominion’s unacceptable standing on this metric is motivating serious work from those of us on the state board!)
In grade 8 reading, 48 states had standards at or above NAEP Basic and six of them were at NAEP Proficient—Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Wisconsin—while two states—Iowa and Virginia—had standards below NAEP Basic.
In grade 4 math, 50 states had standards at or above NAEP Basic level. Thirteen had standards at NAEP Proficient—Alaska, Colorado, District of Columbia, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.
For grade 8 math, all states had standards at or above NAEP Basic. Ten of them reached the NAEP Proficient level—Alaska, Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. The authors also looked at the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium states as a whole and found they mapped to NAEP Basic at each grade and subject.
Now for those short-term changes. Since 2019, for reading in both grades, movement was mostly upward (e.g., D.C. and Oklahoma went from Basic to Proficient), but a few states slipped from Basic to below Basic, including Virginia (sigh).
Grade 4 math saw modest upward movement, including Maryland and Colorado, which went up from Basic to Proficient. There was more churn observed in grade 8 math as, for example, Indiana and Oklahoma rose from Basic to Proficient, while Massachusetts and Arizona fell from Proficient to Basic.
What to make of all this? The National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees NAEP administration, sets a high bar for NAEP Proficient at each grade and subject tested. States, of course, are not compelled to set their own standards that high—and, as you can see, most don’t. Reasonable people can debate, and many have, whether NAEP Proficiency is best understood as a college-ready benchmark and, similarly, whether NAEP Basic is the more appropriate target for all students. But the useful takeaway from this crosswalk is not that every state should immediately try to leap to NAEP Proficient (phased approach, anyone?). It is that states can easily compare where their standards sit on a common scale and see how much room there is to keep raising expectations. Here’s hoping the tenth edition shows more states doing just that!
SOURCE: Darrick Shen-Wei Yee and Brian Cramer, “Mapping State Proficiency Standards Onto the NAEP Scales Results From the 2022 NAEP Reading and Mathematics Assessments,” Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics.
