Maybe everyone else is right...and NAEP is wrong...

NAEP doesn't match the results of US tests, state tests, or international tests. Do you think perhaps it is NAEP that is out of step?

From Education Week on the Web:

Outside of a handful of Asian nations, the typical 8th grader in many foreign countries would not meet “proficient” levels on U.S. tests of mathematics and science, according to a reanalysis of international achievement data being published today. Then again, the study also shows, neither do most American students.

Scheduled to be posted today on the Web site of the American Institutes for Research, a Washington-based research organization, the new analysis comes from AIR’s chief scientist, Gary W. Phillips. Mr. Phillips’ idea was to statistically “link” scores from two well-known testing programs: the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, or TIMSS, which is given every few years to students in more than three dozen countries, and the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a congressionally mandated program known as the “nation’s report card.”

....

By Mr. Phillips’ estimate, of the 8th graders from 46 nations who took TIMSS mathematics tests in 2003, only students from Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan, would reach the proficient level, on average, if they were to take the 8th grade NAEP test in that subject. On the NAEP science tests, the analysis shows, only two of the TIMSS countries—Singapore and Taiwan—would have students who score, on average, at that level.

Click to read the entire article (go ahead, it's good for you).