Mapping 2005 State Proficiency Standards Onto the NAEP Scales

This report presents the results of applying a methodology for mapping state proficiency standards in reading and mathematics onto the appropriate NAEP scale, employing data from the 2004–05 academic year. The mapping exercise was carried out for both grades 4 and 8. For each of the four subject and grade combinations, the NAEP score equivalents to the states' proficiency standards vary widely, spanning a range of 60 to 80 NAEP score points. Although there is an essential ambiguity in any attempt to place state standards on a common scale, the ranking of the NAEP score equivalents to the states' proficiency standards offers an indicator of the relative stringency of those standards. The results show a strong negative correlation between the proportions of students meeting the states' proficiency standards and the NAEP score equivalents to those standards. There is, at best, a weak relationship between the NAEP score equivalents for the state proficiency standard and the states' average scores on NAEP. Finally, most of the NAEP score equivalents fall below the cut-point corresponding to the NAEP Proficient standard, and many fall below the cut-point corresponding to the NAEP Basic standard.

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