However, Gary Phillips, a vice president and institute fellow at the American Institutes for Research (and former acting commissioner of NCES), explained Wednesday in a media call about the release that the standards still varied greatly— by up to three or four grade levels. “The rigor of the grade 4 [proficiency] standards in the highest achieving states may be comparable to the rigor of the 8th grade standards in the lowest achieving states,” he said.
Wow, this shows how important consistent high standards (and great teachers) are, just imagine a parent’s shock if they moved from a low standard to a high standard state- a child that was ranked proficient would now be ranked as 4 grades below proficient.