Mapping State Proficiency Standards Onto the NAEP Scales

States are required to set standards and report on the progress of their students meeting those standards under the 2001 and 2015 reauthorizations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Since each state sets its own set of standards, state standards cannot be directly compared. However, all states participate in NAEP, which can provide a common scale on which the various state standards can be compared.

AIR has supported the National Center for Education Statistics in reporting these comparisons through the publication series, Mapping State Proficiency Standards Onto the NAEP Scales and authors the most recent edition focusing on the 2016-17 school year results. Findings include that states are setting higher expectations for their students in 2017 and there is less variation among the states than 10 years ago.

The full report and technical documentation can be found here: https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/studies/statemapping/.