School rankings

The Center for Public Education has released The Proficiency Debate: A Guide to NAEP Achievement Levels. The report examines why national rankings of school district proficiency often differ, sometimes markedly, from the way a state ranks the same schools.


School Rankings Controversial

The National Assessment of Educational Proficiency (NAEP) is often referred to as the "nation's report card." Schools that rank lower on the NAEP than on their state's report card can find themselves struggling to explain the difference to parents. The Center says it helps to know that states and NAEP don't measure the same things. Also, the NAEP standard is higher than that used by most states.

The report explains how the NAEP scores are developed and what it means if they differ substantially from other rankings.