Student achievement standards higher in South Carolina than other states

According to a new national report, South Carolina student achievement standards are among the highest in the nation.

The report said many states declare students to have achieved grade-level mastery of reading and math when the children have not, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, a division of the U.S. Department of Education.

The agency compared state achievement standards to the standards behind the federally funded National Assessment of Educational Progress.

The report, which was released Thursday, said many states deemed children to be proficient or on grade level based on state standards when those students would rate “below basic,” meaning lacking even partial mastery, in reading and math under the NAEP standards.

State standards vary significantly from state to state, according to the report. But South Carolina standards measured among the highest.

In 15 states the standards a student had to meet to score proficient on state reading tests for eighth-graders were not as high as the standards to score basic on NAEP, according to the report. But South Carolina standards for eighth-grade reading were the highest in the nation.

The same was true for eighth-grade math standards in South Carolina, according to the report.

The report also said that more states lowered standards than raised them from 2005 to 2007.

“This new report really dramatizes how the federal reporting system can produce misleading information on school performance across the nation,” said Jim Rex, South Carolina Superintendent of Education. “Beyond the public perception problems this creates for schools in states that have set high standards, there’s a larger issue of credibility. How much faith can you have in a system where parents think they have a child who’s proficient in reading, and they move to another state and all of a sudden that child is assigned to remedial classes because he’s so far behind?”

The Obama administration said the report bolsters its effort to persuade all states to adopt the same set of tougher standards for what students should know.

“States are setting the bar too low,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “We’re lying to our children when we tell them they’re proficient, but they’re not achieving at a level that will prepare them for success once they graduate.”

The federal government can’t impose a set of standards, because the public education system is largely left to states.

Duncan said the federal education department is offering millions of dollars worth of grants to encourage states to accept a set of standards being developed by the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers. The grant awards will be made with federal stimulus money.

While the standards are not yet final, every state but Texas and Alaska already has committed to work toward adopting them.

In September, South Carolina became the 48th state to sign on to the national effort.

Called the Common Core State Standards Initiative, the goal is to create a common core of state standards that can be adopted voluntarily and that are in line with the standards of top-performing countries around the world.

“This isn’t a top-down federal mandate,” Rex said. “It’s a collective effort of the states, which can adapt the common core standards to their individual situations and timelines.”