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A version of this essay appeared on the FutureEd blog.

One of the most striking features of the troubling results from the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress is the much lower percentage of students scoring proficient on NAEP than on many states’ own 2024 standardized exams.

By now, you’ve likely seen the results: modest improvements in math, but not enough to get students back to pre-pandemic performance levels; fourth graders fell further behind in reading; a record 34% of eighth graders scored “below basic” in reading. 

In addition to the national summaries, NAEP reported student achievement in each state, where proficiency rates ranged from a high of 51% in fourth-grade math in Massachusetts to a low of 14% in eighth-grade math in New Mexico.

States, of course, are required by federal law to administer their own annual standardized tests in math and reading. FutureEd compared students’ performance on NAEP and on their states’ tests and found that, for the most part, students met proficiency standards at significantly higher rates on their states’ exams, especially in reading.

The gaps were at least 15 percentage points in three-quarters of the states. In some, they were even greater. Seventy-two percent of Virginia’s eighth graders were proficient in reading, more than double the percentage on NAEP. Iowa reported more than three-fourths of its eighth graders proficient in reading in 2024, compared with less than a third of the state’s students on NAEP. We also found that the gaps increased in many states between 2022 and 2024, including in 26 states in fourth-grade reading and 22 states in eighth-grade reading.  

Why is there so much misalignment between NAEP and state results?

Perhaps more than any other factor, it’s lower state standards.

To achieve proficiency on the national assessment, students must show “solid academic performance and competency over challenging subject matter.” That’s where Rhode Island, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia set their proficiency bar. But most states’ fall short of that benchmark, landing within the range of NAEP’s lower “basic” standard, which requires students to demonstrate only “partial mastery of fundamental knowledge and skills.” In Virginia — which has introduced new academic standards — and Iowa, the bar for reading falls below even that.

What’s more, in Florida and other states, students can be performing “on grade level” without meeting the state’s “proficient” standard in the subject they’re studying. And some states have gone further, lowering the passing grades on some or all of their standardized tests in recent years.

The Oklahoma State Department of Education reported significant gains in 2024, including a 24-point jump in the percentage of students achieving proficiency in fourth-grade reading since 2022 and across-the-board improvements over pre-pandemic levels. But the gains coincided with a lowering of the state’s proficiency standards, which officials didn’t publicize when they released the improved test scores. State records obtained by an Oklahoma news organization revealed that the 2024 scores would have been the same as or slightly lower than 2023 results if the standards had remained the same. On NAEP, Oklahoma’s proficiency rates declined in reading and improved slightly in math between 2022 and 2024, but they remained below pre-pandemic levels.

Similarly, New York reported across-the-board improvements in student achievement in 2024 after lowering its proficiency threshold in 2023. But these gains were not mirrored on all of the state’s 2024 NAEP results. Wisconsin also registered higher proficiency rates on its 2024 assessments after lowering its passing scores, only to have most of its NAEP scores decline in 2024. This points to the value of an independent national measure of student achievement, like NAEP.

One of the more troubling findings from the 2024 state assessment cycle is the wide gap in proficiency rates between fourth and eighth grades, with eighth graders, on average, performing much worse than their younger counterparts. The gaps are far more pronounced in math than in reading. In New Jersey, for example, 45% of fourth graders were proficient, compared with only 19% of eighth graders. Similarly, in Washington, D.C., 29% of fourth graders and just 12% of eighth graders achieved proficiency.

With many schools struggling to return to performance levels that were declining even before COVID’s disruptions, 

With many schools struggling to return to performance levels that were declining even before COVID’s disruptions, having an accurate measure of achievement is critical. Aligning more state proficiency standards with NAEP’s would increase transparency and make it easier for everyone — students, parents, teachers, administrators and elected officials — to be clear on where every state needs to focus to improve educational outcomes for all students. 

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