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State assessments, which are used to measure student achievement in reading, math, and science, are designed by each state to measure the content the state has determined appropriate for that grade and subject. As a result, both the content on the tests and achievement standards students must meet to be considered “proficient” vary widely across states, so proficiency rates should not be compared across states. Many states have also changed their standards and assessments at some point in the process of measuring their students, so it is often not possible to create a trend line that looks at changes in achievement across years, since a change could actually reflect a change in the assessment.

Through the 2009-10 school year, states were allowed to calculate student graduation rates differently, as long as the figure represents students who graduated in the standard number of years (i.e., four). Starting in the 2010-11, states converted to an adjusted cohort graduation rate, which may or may not be the same as the calculation they used in prior years. Due to the potential differences, caution should be used when comparing graduation rates across states.

For detailed information about state assessments and graduation rates, please see the state Accountability Workbooks, which can be found at: State Accountability Workbooks: http://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/stateplans03/index.html