ATLANTA — A new report by the Southern Regional Education Board shows that state academic standards for the early and middle grades need to be raised in many states across the South and beyond. The report is being released this week in advance of an expected report by the National Center for Education Statistics on the effectiveness of state academic standards nationwide.
The SREB report compares the percentages of students performing at the Basic and Proficient achievement levels on the National Assessment of Educational Progress with the percentages meeting state standards on state tests. For the report, low standards are indicated when more students meet state standards (by more than 5 percentage points) in reading, mathematics and science on state tests than meet the NAEP Basic level on the national tests.
By that measure, SREB’s 16 member states are making progress in getting their standards right in some grades and subjects, particularly fourth-grade reading. But state standards for eighth-grade mathematics, for example, appear to be low in seven SREB states: Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
Nearly all SREB states have academic standards that are not rigorous enough in one or more subjects, the report shows. For example, Florida appears to have high standards in fourth- and eighth-grade mathematics but not in fourth-grade reading. South Carolina is the only SREB state that appears to have set standards high in reading, mathematics and science in the elementary and middle grades.
SREB states were among the first in the nation to set comprehensive state standards for K-12 schools, but “getting those standards right and keeping them right may be the most important task facing public education today,” asserts the report, Getting State Standards Right in the Early and Middle Grades.
“High standards are critical to helping all public school graduates develop the knowledge and skills they need to become productive members of the work force and to prepare for college,” said Dave Spence, the president of SREB.
The new report is one of a series of publications on SREB’s Challenge to Lead Goals for Education, which call for achievement by all groups of students in the early and middle grades to exceed national averages and for performance gaps to be closed. The goals challenge states to increase the percentages of students meeting state academic standards and the NAEP Basic level annually until they reach 100 percent and for all states to raise the percentages of students meeting the NAEP Proficient level to above national averages.
The report and others in the series are available at www.sreb.org, and SREB staff members are available to discuss improving state standards and other details. Contact SREB Communications.
SREB, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization based in Atlanta, Georgia, advises state education leaders on ways to improve education. SREB was created in 1948 by Southern governors and legislatures to help leaders in education and government work cooperatively to advance education and improve the social and economic life of the region. SREB has 16 member states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Each is represented by its governor and four gubernatorial appointees.
