In top performing schools, more than 50 percent of the students score in the top two quartiles, and fewer in the bottom two. In low performing schools, the reverse is true. In the future, Pennsylvania tests aligned to the standards will not measure students against a norm. Philadelphia has developed its own set of academic standards in nine areas. But Philadelphia, too, is working on more customized tests to match its standards that will eventually replace the SAT-9.
States also use standardized tests in different ways to judge the performance of school districts.
Hornbeck said the Philadelphia standards are equivalent or harder than Pennsylvania's. Eventually, he said, he hopes the city's tests will be considered equivalent to the national test, which so far has only gotten six states and 14 cities to sign on. That raises another issue. In high-poverty schools, in which students and teachers must deal with many more problems beyond academics, students tend to get a less demanding curriculum that, in turn, makes it hard for them to do well on the tests. But skeptics fear that the standards movement and more sophisticated tests will result in even more failure for students from minority groups and poor districts.