Report: Wide Disparity In State Science Standards

Education Week (12/8, Robelen) reports that according to a report from business coalition Change the Equation and the American Institutes of Research, "a student in New Hampshire or Rhode Island is likely to have a much tougher time achieving academic 'proficiency' in science than another in Virginia or Tennessee" because "states around the nation set the bar for science proficiency at widely varying levels. ... Billed as the first-ever national analysis of how states define proficiency on science assessments, the report finds that states have established 'radically different targets' for what their 8th graders should know and be able to do in science." The article notes that many states' "proficient" scores are equivalent to NAEP's "basic" designation.