Standards and Achievement

The current issue of Time magazine provides a nice overview of national standards, including a brief history and the efforts being undertaken by the current administration to develop them (see: How to Raise the Standard in America's Schools).

No Child Left Behind requires students to be tested annually in reading and math, but leaves the task of creating assessments up to the states. This results in different measures of student success by state, and some critics will argue that states make their tests easier so it appears their students are doing well.

The following map paints a picture how how rigorous the states' tests are compared to national tests. Rigor is a measure of the difference between the number of students performing at or above proficiency on state and national assessments. A positive score indicates that the state has a more difficult test than the national test. A negative score indicates that the state's test is easier than the national test.














Ohio's score is -46 and Kentucky's score is -13. You can also explore the map on your own.