Education Commons^™

Are All State Exams Equal?, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

Recently, policymakers at the Arkansas Department of Education were pleased to release the results of the 2008 Arkansas Benchmark exams, which indicate more Arkansas students are becoming proficient each year. This is also good news for proponents of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), federal legislation aimed at increasing student achievement through the encouragement of standards-based reform. However, Arkansas, like the other 49 states, sets its own standards for proficient performance. Thus, state by state comparisons of “proficiency” may not be meaningful. With 50 states administering 50 tests to determine whether students are meeting 50 sets of curricular standards, many worry …