State schools fall short on national tests
By Maria Garriga, New Haven Register, February 27,2007

NEW HAVEN — A high school reform group released a study claiming the majority of students in Connecticut and across the country fail to meet national proficiency standards, even when they meet the standards of their own state.
The Alliance for Excellent Education in Washington, D.C., an advocacy group, issued report cards on the quality of education in each of the states Monday.

In Connecticut, 75 percent of eighth-graders tested at or above proficiency levels in reading on the 2005 Connecticut Mastery Test compared with only 34 percent of the state’s eighth-graders on a national test administered by the National Assessment for Educational Progress in 2005. In math, 76 percent of eighth-graders scored at or above proficiency levels on the state test while only 35 percent reached proficiency on the national test.

The NAEP administers the only nationwide test to measure student achievement.

"In terms of the NAEP scores vs. Connecticut scores, one of the challenges with NCLB is that every state can set their own standard for what ‘proficient’ means. Proficient is supposed to mean grade-level skills, which it does on the NAEP, but (Connecticut’s) ‘goal’ standard is much closer to NAEP’s ‘proficient,’" said Marc Porter Magee, research director for ConnCAN, a New Haven-based school reform advocacy group.

NCLB stands for the 2002 federal No Child Left Behind law, which instituted accountability requirements for public schools based on state standards.

Tom Murphy, spokesman for the state Department of Education, said though most Connecticut students did not meet NAEP proficiency standards, they did better than students in most other states. "Connecticut standards are some of the highest in America," Murphy said. He also said the NAEP standards need to be seen in context: The NAEP sets its standards to compete with other nations’ educational standards. Many of those nations set the highest standards in order to filter students out of the college-bound track, while the United States’ educational model tries to prepare all students to attend college.

"America is one of the few nations that makes its mission to help every student graduate high school and go on to college. Other nations make their focus sorting: They can focus their most highly motivated, highly talented students into math, science and engineering. Students who don’t do as well in early tests may be directed to the workforce either after high school or before high school. There is always a second chance in America," Murphy said.

But Alliance officials say this still poses problems given the international economy.

"American students are no longer competing against each other, they are competing against students in Japan, India, China," said Cindy Sadler, vice president at the Alliance.