Are students making grade?
Arizona Republic
Jun. 8, 2007

Not all states test the same

Pat Kossan

Parents in Arizona and across the country can't assume their kids are working at grade level just because they pass their state's reading and math tests, such as the AIMS, a federal study released Thursday concluded.

Eighth-grade skills tested in Arizona are easier than what is expected in New Mexico but tougher than in Colorado. The report showed AIMS eighth-grade tests are the same or tougher than tests in about half of the 35 states examined.

Federal officials want states to ease the wide differences in expectations.
They are worried Arizona students moving to states with easier tests would likely be ahead of their peers, but students who passed AIMS would still struggle in states with more rigorous tests, such as Oregon or Pennsylvania.

The study measured state tests against the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a reading and math exam administered every few years to fourth- and eighth-graders across the country. Nearly all state tests were far easier to pass. The entire study is at http://nces.ed.gov/.